Email this page to a friend!
AEC Newsletter archive:
Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 25 (May 1, 2000)
AEC Tech May 1, 2000
ACDSee
Another great must-have freebie to add to your supplemental CADD software kit, regardless of what you use for your primary design software, (to add to DesignWorkshop Light, SoftCAD 3D Light, Cadopia IntelliCAD, and that scanner you bought just to get that great software that creates Acrobat PDF files) is ACDSee Classic. The people at ACD Systems just updated their latest for sale version adding some powerful Web enabled tools to their instant image viewer, slideshow presentation tool. Every principal that has to go out on client presentations should have this software on their laptop.
The Revit folks have delivered on their promise and you can now get their software from their web site or you can ask them to send you a CD. When you install it it will automatically run in a demo mode, forever, unless you are subscribed that particular month. Among others, I can see design-build firms, who only need CADD six months of the year, are going to love this new way of paying for design software.
The CADD software developer companies are not giving out much information right now, as they all want the big news flash during the big expositions this coming month, at A/E/C SYSTEMS, and, to a lesser extent, the AIA expo. Guaranteed, virtually all of them are working on some new angle relative to the world wide web. This could be the summer when certain abilities start to become commonplace practice in AEC, such as drag a drop symbols direct from manufacturers web sites into CADD, extranet interlinks with CADD, running CADD software from the web, and presentation viewer meeting tools that work with many formats across the web.
DataCAD Plus
The first thing you notice when installing DataCAD Plus is that it looks very elegant and professional, and that the sample images that flash by clearly indicate that this is a DESIGN tool for architects not just another CADD program. Experienced users of the old DataCAD, would be very relieved to see that toolbars pop up with a very close resemblance to the interface they already know, and, on some experimentation, just about everything works as it always has, so they can be up and running almost right away. There are some serious improvements, such as unlimited undo/redo, and even more macros that automatically draw things. However, the real magic happens when you turn on a button labeled ZAC for Zonebased Architectural Construction, when all of a sudden things that have been on our wish-lists for years really happen. Intelligent walls that automatically clean up even complex intersections, architectural elements that automatically get put on appropriately named layers, windows/doors/walls/roofs/niches and so on with dynamically changeable parameters, automatic floorslabs/roofs/room zones/floor stories/dimensions/wood framing, and instant coordinated sections and elevations, are all part of DataCAD Plus and include a number of dynamic 3D visualization tools so that you can move around your rendered model with glass and shading all while still developing it. All this lead Neil Blanchard, a long time DataCAD user to exclaim "wicked kewl, too, but wow; I'm not dreaming, am I".
It is interesting that the developers of DataCAD Plus, knowing that the majority of their vast user base really wants quick easy 2D production drawings, developed this new entirely different core which uses intelligent 3D objects, designed the program interface to be very familiar to those existing users and uses those new smarts mainly to produce a better DataCAD where things now happen automatically and 2D productivity things like sections, elevations, and stories are a snap. Combined with their upcoming multi-drawing environment, Xref (external reference files), and AutoCAD 2000 compatibility, many offices may get DataCAD Plus simply because it is an excellent software for generating 2D production oriented construction documents. A huge 2D production time saver is the ability to import scanned images to trace (for contours and existing buildings). Architects love the 3D stuff though, and so much of what you will hear about DataCAD Plus, such as rendered walk-throughs, virtual reality, sun and shadow studies, raytrace rendering with materials, automatic room space planning, parametric changability, built in terrain modeler, and so on will lead many to believe that DataCAD Plus is mainly for designers.
DataCAD Plus appeals to both the 2D production people and the 3D modelers by working initially in that mode called ZAC, which is really more of a design environment. Though what you see onscreen is extremely clear, in floorplans, elevations and 3D views, and looks finished enough, it is conceptually more like developing a diagram. At any point, to see, for instance, a finished plan properly drawn with wall poches, breaklines, dashed lines and so on, you select a "2D Generation" button, which automatically puts all the appropriate 2D lines on a new set of layers (or file) which can be finished in any version of DataCAD. Similarly, there is a button for "3D Generation" which will, instead, develop a sophisticated 3D model, using conventional DataCAD blocks, polygons, and slabs, which, again, can be modified in any version of DataCAD. The intelligent parametrically changeable database connected ZAC file though, of course is only in DataCAD Plus. Many other CADD programs that try to make easy architecturally smart objects, end up with limitations, where you simply cannot do or design something the programmers haven't thought of first. The developers of DataCAD know that easy flexibility to do anything is the prime concern of architects. With their unique approach to smart 3D parametrics in DataCAD Plus, they have realized that flexibility in an elegant way.
Links :
ACDSee = http://www.acdsystems.com
DesignWorkshop Light = http://www.artifice.com
SoftCAD 3D Light = http://www.softcad.com
Cadopia IntelliCAD = http://www.cadopia.com
Revit = http://www.revit.com
A/E/C SYSTEMS = http://www.aecsystems.com
DataCAD Plus = http://www.datacad.com
About Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Prof. Langdon is a registered architect and is the principal of Architectural CADD Consultants, a firm that specializes in helping architectural firms with computing and CADD. He has taught Design, Solar Energy, and Architectural CADD at a number of colleges in the Boston area. He is the author of Architectural CADD: A Resource Guide to Design and Production Software Appropriate for Architects, a guest speaker at many AIA events, and the founder and organizer of the Designers 3D CAD Shootout competition. contact him at aectechnews@architecturalcadd.com, or through his website: http://www.architecturalcadd.com
Home | Current Issue | Back Issues | News | Advertise | Code Archive | Contact | CADShop | Subscribe for Free |
© 1997-2000 Miller Freeman, Inc. All rights Reserved.