The Designers 3D CAD Shootout 2000

LOS ANGELES - To the steel drum calypso beat of Caribbean music six Teams of architects set out to design a Resort Clubhouse in front of an audience of hundreds, at the Designers 3D CAD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems held at A/E/C SYSTEMS in Los Angeles, May 26th. The audience was there because they had the unique opportunity to see their colleagues design the 20,000 square foot building, and produce all the plans, sections, elevations, details, colorful perspectives, stunning renderings, and exciting walk through animations, all in only three hours. Despite producing all the conventional drawings in addition to the beautiful 3D views, none of the Teams did any "drafting" all day, as all of it was produced with the new generation of 3D architectural modeling design software, which is ripping the architectural profession apart as they contend with a paradigm shift to their way of doing their work, changing from drafting lines to being masters of virtual reality.

In addition to the fun of watching real design happen at an accelerated speed, the architects in the audience had a chance to compare the different options for architectural software side by side. While of course the skills and ideas of the designers on the three-architect Teams have an effect on the success of their design, which is part of the fun, there are a number of required elements and "vignettes" (mini-design problems) with required changes which allow judging the architectural software's abilities on a level playing field.

This year's competition, between Teams representing ArchiCAD, AllPlan, ArchiTECH.PC, VectorWorks, DataCAD, and ARRIS, was extremely competitive. Each Team had two architects each with a CADD system, and a third person whose job was to give the audience a running commentary. In the ten minute final presentations each Team gave after the charrette (architectural work marathon) the audience could see that every single Team ended up producing a very attractive building appropriate for the Orlando, Florida site, and that the Teams had fun adding everything from pool bridges and stone arches to gazebos and tiki torches in keeping with the Caribbean theme resort hotel.

The main building design, unknown to the competitors until the first "start your mouses" bell, included spa and health club facilities, a restaurant and kitchen, and several bars and lounges, all wrapped by an extensive freeform pool with a pool bridge the Teams were required to model in detail. The Jury of ten architectural CADD experts used a checklist to make sure every Team not only did all the required drawings but that their designs included all the required spaces. This year every single Team had all the required building spaces and all the building elements - though several Teams got caught up in the "tropical" theme and forgot about the required fireplaces. Outside the main building this year's contest required significant land form work, again which all the Teams did, and all but the DataCAD Team included the extensive pool with swim-up bar and pool bridge. (Don't worry, be happy.)

At the same time, the Teams were asked to demonstrate their solutions, and required changes, to six other vignette mini-design problems. This is where the competition really got "Hot-Hot-Hot". It was in these vignettes that the architectural artificial intelligence in ArchiCAD and ARRIS really helped those Teams pull ahead. The ArchiCAD Team demonstrated how their Teamwork software allowed architects to collaborate on the same building simultaneously in an automatically coordinated way. The ARRIS Team not only showed how their software allows people to collaborate on very large projects, but they stunned the audience with their ArrisView software which allows interactive redlining by many people across the world wide web in addition to dynamic rendered sectioning (which helps everyone involved understand a building design quickly).

In the awards ceremony the next day, it was announced that every single Team placed either first or second in at least one of the 19 categories, however, it was obvious that the really big winners for the event were the ARRIS Team and the ArchiCAD Team, each of whom took 9 "Best of ..." Architectural CADD Awards ("Archies"), with the DataCAD Team winning another category. Particularly interesting was the ArchiCAD Team winning the Anders Prize for best design, and the ARRIS Team for winning the best "Value" category. For the best overall Architectural CADD software, this year, rather than have a grading category, the grading numbers for all the other categories and the vignettes were added to a checklist (to make sure an overall winner didn't skip something and win merely by "glitz") and, while all the Teams did extremely well, the "photo-finish" between the top two was extremely close, with a difference of less than 100 points out of over 16,000 points. The ArchiCAD Team won best overall, and the Architectural CADD Cup, and becomes a new Trustee and current holder of the Architectural CADD Cup.

Also awarded were special certificates to five of the designers who have now done this grueling competition four years in a row - Charlie White, AIA, Robert Anderson, AIA, Ivan Bereznicki, AIA, Issam Chahine, and Rick Morse. Special thanks went to Greg Barriere, AIA, Production Assistant, and to Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA, the Producer of the event.

The sponsors of the event were A/E/C SYSTEMS, The Boston Society of Architects, Architectural CADD Consultants, Architecture Magazine, Cadence Magazine, Silicon Graphics, Hewlett Packard, AEC Info and the AEC store.com.

Already challenging for the 5th Design Shootout to be held on June 3, 2000 in Washington, DC at A/E/C SYSTEMS, are the ARRIS Team, and the VectorWorks Team, with others welcome to join the competition against the defending ArchiCAD Team.

All the complete results, and analysis with juror's comments are available online at the web site for the Designers 3D CAD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems. (There is also an explanation of "CAD" versus "CADD" and other informational bits, so you can see it is NOT a typo.) Also, all the drawings and perspectives the Teams produced will be online, so that you can view them, and then vote for your favorite yourself, all in our online forum.

 May 5, 1999

Preparations underway for the 4th Designers 3D CAD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems, to be held at A/E/C SYSTEMS in LosAnglees on May 26th.

Here is an example of what is involved with this competition.

Team Meeting is Wednesday May 5 at 4:30 pmat the AIA Convention in Dallas

Press Conference will be the day before the competition - tuesday May 25 th

Press Releases in reverse cronological order :

PRESS RELEASE : (4/3/99)

Worldwide Invitation to Architects

In just 7 weeks the most exciting and dramatic competition in the Architectural Profession begins, and it is open to any architect world wide who wishes to compete. Do you think it is possible, in your favorite CADD software combination, to design, model, and render, a complete building project to a schematic level in only 3 hours ? So far, in the last three competitions, 30 different teams of architects (each with two designers working on PCs and one coordinating) have proven that it is possible.

One of the purposes of this competition is to allow architects to see side by side how well one CADD software can facilitate design over another - not just judging the final product. This is why we have only one Team using each major design software, a time limit, and also why there is a whole audience gallery and running video commentary watching every mouse-stroke.

Has your favorite software put forward a Team as yet ? Do you think you could do it yourself and would like to volunteer to either start a Team or join an existing Team ?

The first step is to call your CADD software developer, and ask them if they have a Team, or if they need volunteers, and if not, why not, as any software not represented is assumed not appropriate for architectural design. Next, ask about potential Team members in the online forums - in fact, some CADD user groups are already having mini-competitions to see who should represent their software in the Designers 3D CAD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems on May 26, 1999 at A/E/C SYSTEMS in Los Angeles. Third, you can call or email the Design Shootout Coordinator at 978-927-6796, shootout@architecturalcadd.com who can refer you to others organizing a Team or help you start a new one.

This is a competition of Architects, not CADD companies, so it is open to every and any architect. Teams in the past have been sponsored by various user groups, third party companies, and themselves, in addition to Teams put forward by the CADD developers. The rules state that the first architect to register a Team becomes the Challenger of Record for that CADD software, so if you think you can be the one to do it. The time to come forward is now.

More information about the competition, what is required, samples of past results, and more is available on the Design Shootout web site

Want to prove to your office that they should be using your favorite CADD software ? Come to LA and show them, and show us all.

Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Coordinator for the Designers 3D CAD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems

PRESS RELEASE : (11/19/98)

ARRIS Wins 1998 Designers 3D CAD Shootout 

PRESS RELEASE : (11/20/97)

MiniCAD Wins 1997 Designers 3D CAD Shootout

The level of excitement in the World Trade Center Boston amphitheater was enormous at the second running of the virtual reality design competition referred to as the "Design Shootout", held on the first day of Build Boston. With parades of the Teams of architects, video features on the Team members and software, running commentary, and lots of cheering, the event had a feel of a sort of spectator Olympics for architecture. The Team members were definitely chomping at the bit, evidenced by the DataCAD Team who said "we can do shingles !" popping up rendered shingle libraries as it was announced that the shingle style project would be the Watch Hill, RI Chapel and Arts Center, and by the AllPlan Team, who, on hearing that the project site had a Web site were browsing the Web the night before looking for towns they knew Geoff Langdon, the organizer of the event, was known to frequent (they never found Watch Hill).

This year the BSA joined Architectural CADD Consultants to sponsor this unique competition. Architects, not the software companies, compete to design a building from scratch, and in three hours must produce all the plans, sections, elevations, details, a dozen renderings, animation walk throughs and more, with one Team of architects allowed for each major CADD software. Thus, for spectators, it becomes an excellent way to evaluate what is possible and how one designs with, say ArchiCAD as opposed to AllPlan.

The 1997 Designers 3D CAD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems had 12 Teams ( MiniCAD, AllPlan, BuildersCAD, Arc+, AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, DataCAD, Architrion, Microstation Triforma, ArchiTECH.PC, DenebaCAD, and last years winner ARRIS, ). Also, in addition to the audience voting on who they felt the winners were, this year we had a panel of 13 judges on a jury who scrutinized every move and asked very challenging questions at the final presentations. As was the case in 1996, every single Team did have a building at the end - with some of the chapels being very good aesthetically - and most Teams had most of the required drawings and animations and showed them at their very entertaining final presentations.

There were some 22 different categories for grading the Teams work, such as "Best Elevations", and "Most Accurate 3D Required Model", that help us all pick out software that, although perhaps not an overall winner, may be excellent for a design firm wanting to offer a particular service or wanting to design in a particular way. Interestingly, the Teams that really designed a building to fit the design requirements and the site context and the very sloped building site (MiniCAD, AllPlan), tended to do much better than the Teams who just tried to show off what their software could do (BuildersCAD, Arc+). Also, some Teams ended up getting rated poorly in categories their software is known to be excellent at - such as ArchiCAD on Sections, and DataCAD on VRML, or AutoCAD on plans, simply because their Team crashed or ran into some other glitch.

The MiniCAD Team did an excellent design that truly fits the requirements, and also showed off their schematic design parti they were able to develop early in the competition, and were a top runner choice by both the jury and the audience, thus winning the competition and the Architectural CADD Cup. The MiniCAD Team also won most of the other 22 categories of voting. Other strong contenders in the competition were the ArchiCAD Team, winning most of the juries categories, AllPlan, which was the juries top choice, and Microstation TriForma, the audiences top choice.

All twelve of the CADD programs represented showed off exceptional abilities, and it seems, particularly from the strong advocacy of the architects using each, that each has a niche type of design firm for which they are appropriate. To help you evaluate that for yourself, and to have fun running the animations and seeing the drawing and perspective results, visit the Web site online.

See the blow by blow description of how the MiniCAD Team won the 1997 Competition

PRESS RELEASE : (11/26/96)

ARRIS Wins 1996 Designers 3D CAD Shootout

 

Arris Wins the 1996 Architectural CADD Cup

PRESS RELEASE : (11/1/96)

For Computer Magazines : BCS, BCS Active Window, BCS CAD, Tess Times, 3D Artist, Upfront, WorldCAD, etc.

- Competition for Best VRML Modeler for Architects -

Designers 3D CAD Shoot-Out for Architectural CADD Systems November 25, 1996 - World Trade Center Boston Amphitheater - 12 to 5 pm

On Monday November 25th - At Noon on the Full Moon - a unique "shoot-out" competition will begin between ten Teams of architects each using one of the ten most powerful CADD software packages for architectural design. The teams will have 3 hours to do schematic design - producing coordinated plans/sections/elevations, 12 quick perspectives, 2 high quality renderings, a walk-through animation, and a VRML virtual reality model all ready for the World Wide Web. To add to the challenge, the design criteria will change every 30 minutes for the first half of the competition - allowing us to see how well the various CADD programs can handle parametric changes - and the designs have required architectural elements that will require sophisticated Boolean 3D solid modeling. A sophisticated computer projection system will switch between the various Teams to allow everyone to follow the action.

All the required drawings are to be produced as GIF files, animated GIF files, animated 3D metafiles, and VRML 3D modeling files for the shoot-out Web site. Both before and after the competition each Team will have a specific Web site featuring their firm, and their architectural VRML modeling software.

Attendee spectators will have a unique opportunity to see side by side comparisons of real architects working with CADD design software that they may be considering, see detailed commentaries of what is going on, and receive all kinds of advice on hardware, software, and networks appropriate for design, as well as for production drawings. They will also have the chance to vote on the winners in several categories - including the overall winner, whose Team and software will win the Architectural CADD Cup.

For more information on the Designers 3D CAD Shoot-Out for Architectural CADD Systems - featuring the new generation of architecturally intelligent 3D design software, check out the Design Shoot-Out Conference on BSA Online, or the World Wide Web    To receive a an advance registration form by mail (tickets $30 in advance, or $45 at the door, which includes the Wine and Cheese Reception), or get information about AIA CES credits, contact the Event Coordinator at Architectural CADD Consultants.

Each Team consists of three designers (at least one of whom must be a Registered Architect) working on two networked CADD stations. There can also be up to three Auxiliary Team members who will not be on-stage. Currently there are six established Teams (with Team Coordinators) : The AllPlan Team (Ivan Bereznicki), The ArchiCAD Team (Greg Conyngham), The DataCAD/PowerTools/Referee Team (Curtis Wayne), The MiniCAD Team (Robert Anderson), The TriForma Team (over Microstation, Robert Rowse, and The AutoArchitect Team (over AutoCAD, John Ruby). There are also four other Teams still being formed no official Team Coordinator : The ArchT Team (over AutoCAD), The ArgosBDS Team, the Architrion Team, and the ARRIS CAD Team. More challengers are still expected.

The design problem is meant to be challenging for the Teams to do in the allotted 3 hours, however the building complex to be designed (not revealed until the Shoot-Out) is definitely simple enough to be done - as least as schematic designs - in that time. The intent is not to trivialize architecture - it is recognized that a complete project with design services takes far longer - but to see what the new generation of architectural CADD design software can do, and to highlight this dynamic profession bringing it to the arena and the World Wide Web.

A number of organizations are co-sponsoring the event by helping to publicize it : Architectural CADD Consultants, CAD Direct, The BSA AutoCAD Group, The BSA ArchiCAD Group, The AllPlan Designers Forum, The Boston Computer Society CAD Group. Others are invited to join.

For AIA : BSA, BSA Online, AIA, AIA Online, Architecture, ArchRecord, etc.

PRESS RELEASE : (11/1/96)

- Architecture As A Spectator Sport ! -

Designers 3D CAD Shoot-Out for Architectural CADD Systems November 25, 1996 - World Trade Center Boston Amphitheater - 12 to 5 pm

On Monday November 25th - At Noon on the Full Moon - a unique "shoot-out" competition will begin between ten Teams of architects each using one of the ten most powerful CADD software packages for architectural design. The teams will have 3 hours to do schematic design - producing coordinated plans/sections/elevations, 12 quick perspectives, 2 high quality renderings, a walk-through animation, and a VRML virtual reality model all ready for the World Wide Web. To add to the challenge, the design criteria will change every 30 minutes for the first half of the competition - allowing us to see how well the various CADD programs can handle parametric changes - and the designs have required architectural elements that will require sophisticated Boolean 3D solid modeling. A sophisticated computer projection system will switch between the various Teams to allow everyone to follow the action.

Attendee spectators will have a unique opportunity to see side by side comparisons of real architects working with CADD design software that they may be considering, see detailed commentaries of what is going on, and receive all kinds of advice on hardware, software, and networks appropriate for design, as well as for production drawings. They will also have the chance to vote on the winners in several categories - including the overall winner, whose Team and software will win the Architectural CADD Cup.

For more information on the Designers 3D CAD Shoot-Out for Architectural CADD Systems - featuring the new generation of architecturally intelligent 3D design software, check out the Design Shoot-Out Conference on BSA Online, or the World Wide Web.   To receive a an advance registration form by mail (tickets $30 in advance, or $45 at the door, which includes the Wine and Cheese Reception), or get information about AIA CES credits, contact the Event Coordinator at Architectural CADD Consultants

Each Team consists of three designers (at least one of whom must be a Registered Architect) working on two networked CADD stations. There can also be up to three Auxiliary Team members who will not be on-stage. Currently there are six established Teams (with Team Coordinators) : The AllPlan Team (Ivan Bereznicki), The ArchiCAD Team (Greg Conyngham), The DataCAD/PowerTools/Referee Team (Curtis Wayne), The MiniCAD Team (Robert Anderson), The TriForma Team (over Microstation, Robert Rowse, and The AutoArchitect Team (over AutoCAD, John Ruby). There are also four other Teams still being formed no official Team Coordinator : The ArchT Team (over AutoCAD), The ArgosBDS Team, the Architrion Team, and the ARRIS CAD Team. More challengers are still expected.

The design problem is meant to be challenging for the Teams to do in the allotted 3 hours, however the building complex to be designed (not revealed until the Shoot-Out) is definitely simple enough to be done - as least as schematic designs - in that time. The intent is not to trivialize architecture - it is recognized that a complete project with design services takes far longer - but to see what the new generation of architectural CADD design software can do, and to highlight this dynamic profession bringing it to the arena and the World Wide Web.

A number of organizations are co-sponsoring the event by helping to publicize it : Architectural CADD Consultants, CAD Direct, The BSA AutoCAD Group, The BSA ArchiCAD Group, The AllPlan Designers Forum, The Boston Computer Society CAD Group. Others are invited to join.