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Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 29 (July 7, 2000)
AEC Tech News 7/7/2000
Where is the Cup ?
I have been inundated with hundreds of emails from designers asking who won the Designers 3D CAD Shootout, who obviously were too busy to notice that we changed the format, but still want to keep abreast of how the state of the art is moving along. The answer is that we did not choose one - as it is a subjective call whether design/build oriented software is better than, say, AE oriented software - but that you can choose the right one for your particular firm by looking at the drawings each Team could do (in the same amount of time, with the same information) which are posted now online at bricsnet.com (user and password of "shootout") along with comments from our jury panel. We did have a wide range of software solutions, from 2D drafting software combined with sister 3D modeling software (VersaCAD and 3D Joy), to aE software (MicroStation TriForma), to software that only does sophisticated 3D modeling (FormZ), in addition to several that have smart architectural parametric objects (ArchiCAD, VectorWorks Architect, ChiefArchitect, Arris).
Essentially, all of those just mentioned "win" the right to display the Architectural CADD Cup and logo. You may ask, though, where did the Cup actually go. Well, at the moment, it is currently in my living room, and after we inscribe it with the names of the participants this year it will be on display at the Boston Society of Architects, and at Build Boston where we will also present an analysis on this years Teams. The various Teams (and others) also do have the opportunity to show us, step by step, how good they are in the ongoing online CADD Web Challenge, where we can also establish who are the best expert CADD users.
Greatbuildings.com
Need a photograph of the single style Newport Casino ? Need the plans for the Robie house ? Need all the reference books on the Sukiya style of architecture ? Need a 3D CADD model of Fallingwater ? Want to know all of the projects Corbu did ? Need a context model for the Design Shootout ? Then turn to the best resource online for architects, researchers, and students at greatbuildings.com.
Created as a free resource for the architectural community by Artifice Inc., it does benefit them as well as it demonstrates that you can indeed model all those great buildings out there with their DesignWorkshop modeling software. We encourage architects everywhere to explore this great resource, and to contribute and get credit for any photographs or models you submit.
ChiefArchitect
A true surprise this year was the ease with which the ChiefArchitect designers rapidly developed the building design at the shootout. Over the years, despite the name, ChiefArchitect has become known as a favorite of builders and design/build firms, partly due to its automatic wood framing and cost analysis, but mainly due to the fact that it is incredibly easy to use. So easy, in fact, that a cut back version is sold in computer supermarkets as 3D HomeArchitect. Such ease of use, however, normally has drawbacks in flexibility, as a ton of assumptions must be behind creating a whole building in seconds.
There are several ways that ChiefArchitect has approached design flexibility while keeping that phenomenal ease of use - first they have a 2D CADD drafting component, so that if something cannot be explicitly modeled, a designer can always add it line by line to the extracted plans or elevations, secondly, they are continually adding new smart parametric objects to their library, and finally, they give the designers the ability to model new objects and add them themselves. The basic 3 story building layout and development was a snap for the Team (and we were pleased to know that they had also done 4 story buildings in the past), so the big challenges were going to be the detailed timber frame entrance, the deck dormers, the custom door, and the other required 3D elements. The strange thing was that, in showing off their ability to do different variations on our rustic theme, they forgot that they had a stone building shown on all the exterior views and an unmistakably log frame building as seen from the interior. The dormers they set as gables right down to the same roof plate line, putting the decks alongside the building instead of cut into the roof. The timber frame entrance detail they left out, but they put triangular and trapezoidal windows into the end walls to make the building feel like a timber frame structure. They used standard library pieces as approximations for the railings, stair, and fireplace, and used a 3D cone element for the fireplace chimney. They left out the custom door altogether.
Whether their adaptations were due to limitations of the software in those areas or the understandable lack of time in our blitzdesign will not be clear until they submit those missing elements in the CADD Web Challenge, which does not have a time limit. In the meantime, we will have to judge the software by what we can see - that it is great for quickly laying out reasonably conventional buildings, and will automatically produce coordinated plans/sections/elevations and perspectives. It does not seem to have super rendering or animation or site design tools, or a facileness to deal with unusual custom details, at least in 3D. What they can do, and they showed us several times during the charrette, so it must be easy, is to generate a wood framing model (and lumber cost cut-list) for the whole project.
Links :
Designers 3D CAD Shootout =http://www.architecturalcadd.com/shootout.htm
Drawings and Results = http://www.bricsnet.com
Web Challenge = http://www.architecturalcadd.com/cup/webchallenge.html
Boston Society of Architects = http://www.architects.org
Build Boston = http://www.buildboston.com
Greatbuildings.com = http://www.greatbuildings.com
Artifice Inc. = http://www.artifice.com
ChiefArchitect = http://www.chiefarch.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
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