DataCAD DBUG Meeting
Sept. 19, 2001
Sargert Design Associates
969 Main St. , Springfield, MA 01103; (413)732-3030
Host: David Sargert, ASID --- sdesigna@aol.com
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DataCAD DBUG Meeting Sept. 19, 2001 Sargert Design Associates 969 Main St. , Springfield, MA 01103; (413)732-3030 Host: David Sargert, ASID --- sdesigna@aol.com |
Meeting Notes
David Sargert welcomed us to Sargert Design Associates Inc., an interior design firm that does "Comprehensive Anticipatory Planning & Design". David has been using DataCAD since 3.6 (circa 1988) and has always pushed the envelope - doing 3D modeling with DataCAD and using LightScape long before most, testing out "beta" versions, and experimenting with various add-ons such as those by David Henderson (for shadowing, fancy text features, automatic schedules, and much more).
For the announcements, Wayne Schultz of DraftCAD, said that they were contributing $25 of every purchace of their various offerings (DraftCAD Interiors, DraftCAD Landscape, DraftCAD Architect) to the NYC disaster relief fund. On a similar note, Geoff Langdon asked the group for their opinions on an idea up for consideration - to provide a way for designers to help NYC and the spirits of the nation by changing the Design Challenge (formerly the "CAD Shootout") design project to the World Trade Center site. (See the new site www.architecturalcadd.com/cup.htm)
DraftCAD Interiors and SmartScratch
Wayne Schultz showed us SmartScratch2000, which is a project flow organization tool. It keeps a project diary, keeps track of notes, users, links to related sites including specific products, spreadsheets, and smart specs. It also automatically launches DataCAD to view drawings when needed. It is similar to an MS Access type database all set up.
DraftCAD Interiors is an "html product" i.e. web intranet, that links to layer standards, ADA guidelines, links to drawings, has lists of companies/products and more, all organized in the CSI format. Under development is DraftCAD Landscape, which includes all the CSI divisions relevant to landscape design.
ChiefArchitect 7
Gary Siegel of Computer Aided Products (CAP) sellers of DC Render (the DataCAD rendering tool from Germany) demonstrated the latest version of ChiefArchitect. The software has definitely matured into an extremely comprehensive 3D architectural parametric tool. Of particular note was the software's strength in kitchen design - automatically placing upper and lower detailed cabinets accurately while in a perspective view.
DataCAD 10
Rick Morse, from the DataCAD home office geve us a whirlwind preview of DataCAD 10 now due out by the end of October. (note you can download the demo version NOW from the www.datacad.com web site) DataCAD can now import bitmap images (photographs/scans/contours/logos) auto-scale them to your drawing (just pick two points) alowing you to do overlay tracing or even print out combined CAD vector / image raster drawings. He showed how it supports all Windows TrueType fonts - even turning them into 3D extrusions. Solid fills of color (for presentation drawings), OpenGL (for lightening fast video display of 3D - i.e. twirl your design fully rendered), VRML output (to create web virtual reality models), shadows cast while in the QuickShader, and a new o2c viewer are just a few of the new features. A new LayerManager allows you to, among other things, rearrange the order of Layers (which garnered an applause from the 20 or so people present). DataCAD 10 also now supports the EZ Meeting network collaboration software (which allows people in different cities to see and sketch in a DataCAD session even if they do not have DataCAD).
DataCAD Plus 10
Rick also very briefly showed DataCAD Plus 10 which is now still very much in development. Apparently DataCAD LLC has changed strategy, finding that it is easier to import Spirit features into DataCAD for Plus, rather than trying to bring DataCAD features into Spirit, so the end result is that they are now moving very quickly (DataCAD Plus 10 will be out shortly after DataCAD 10), and Plus will be a "true superset" of DataCAD i.e. no longer will DataCAD have features that DataCAD Plus does not. Thus, things like MultiScale Plotting, Xrefs, and so on, which were missing from Plus ver.9, will indeed be included in Plus ver. 10).
Rick offered no opinion on the naming the new DataCAD 10 as "DataCAD X" or why they switch, at this point to Roman numbering. Perhaps sometime later in this year MMI, they will let us know.
-- DBUG notes by Geoff Langdon
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