Topic: Need Architectural Program Advice

[rionada]

Hi All,

I am a long time residential architectural designer (I'm 45), but thus far have done all drafting the old fashioned way with paper and pencil. Its long past time that I joined the 21st century.

I have been told that Autocad Lt is a good program for my needs, but would like to get your opinions.What do you think is the best Architectural Drafting Program for a long time designer, but newbie to the Cad world.

Some more info: I live in New Mexico and design primarily passive and active solar homes. I do between 1 and 5 projects a year as I am also a stay at home father and am homeschooling my twin 7 year old boys.

I will probably be upgrading my computer equipment and would appreciate any advice you might have to offer in this area as well. What hardware would you use to run the cad program that you recommend.

My budget for the program and hardware is about $4000, but I'm not sure if that is realistic. Can you help?

Thanks

Thomas

[Dinosaur]

Welcome to TheSwamp Thomas.

There is a lot of Autodesk bias here, but in your situation I think your needs could be met with one of an increasingly robust alternatives based on Intellicad.  In addition to the core CAD engine, there are now some vertical applications including Architectural for less than $600 US with a full license.  These can open and save to the current format AutoCAD standard dwg files so you would not have to worry about translating file you give to or receive from others and most importantly, there are a multitude of compatible blocks and symbols available.

THIS LINK will take you to the project page of one well known such product.    As I stated, there are some other similar packages available.  Most will offer a full functioning trial version that you can test drive and if you were familiar with the Autodesk equivalent program you could scarcely tell the difference in the interface and most importantly the finished product.

[rionada]

Thanks DinØsaur,

I am guessing that I will need to take a class to learn autocad. Is the interface on any of the alternative programs similar enough to the Autodesk programs to learn it from an Autocad course. Or - better yet - is the program intuitive enough for someone with no autocad experience to self learn?

I don't really care which program I use - so long as it is well supported and the end product is professional. Are there chat rooms for the alternative products where I can get the help I'm sure that I will need?

Thanks Again

Thomas

[Dinosaur]

The commands are mostly the same between AutoCAD and Intellicad.  There may be some differences in the Architectural packages, but being a more "earthy" type of guy working in Civil, I have not used any of them.  I would suspect they all do the same things with some degree of difference in terminology and procedure.
Beyond the 3 wasted afternoons of reseller provided instruction when I broke into r10, I have been self instructed.  I chose a necessary task (creating a CAD drawing of our company title block and sheet border) and learned much of the basics from creating that.  A good reference book for either the current version of Intellicad or the previous year version of AutoCAD (it seems nearly all of the features run 1 or possibly 2 versions behind AutoCAD) would be a good supplement to the help files.
There are on-line resources for Intellicad and even here in TheSwamp, some members are leaning toward its use and discussing it.  There are even some advanced customizations being developed by members (something not fully available to AutoCAD LT users at this time) that show up from time to time.  Try a site search here for "progecad", "intellicad" and "briscad" for starters.

[rionada]

Thanks again DinØsaur,

I took your advice and did a search on Intellicad - Wow! - lots of information out there.

New question: It looked to me that the 2006 version of Progecad is free, but the later versions cost between $200 and $400. Is there any good reson to buy the later version or should I just download 2006?

Thomas

[Dinosaur]

The 2006 version would be great to learn with, especially if it has no expiration time limit.  Even with a time limit, it would give you time to evaluate it and see if this is the direction you want to take.  The only really compelling reason to go with the newer version would be dwg compatibility with the current 2007 format.  That may or may not be an issue for you depending on how much you expect to be sending or receiving files from others, but these problems can be overcome with saving procedures and conversion utilities.  Even between AutoCAD users it is common to save a drawing down through several versions when sending files for collaboration or submittals.  There may also be problems with availability of an architectural package for the older Progecad, but that should be easy to determine at their website.

[Josh Nieman]

it, it would give you time to evaluate it and see if this is the direction you want to take.  The only really compelling reason to go with the newer version would be dwg compatibility with the current 2007 format.  That may or may not be an issue for you depending on how much you expect to be sending or receiving files from others, but these problems can be overcome with saving procedures and conversion utilities.  Even between AutoCAD users it is common to save a drawing down through several versions when sending files for collaboration or submittals.

Just to expand on Dino's point there; there are free software tools out there from Autodesk that will open the latest DWG file type and allow you to save it down to whatever you need it to be.  That's if you will be dealing with other files.  I don't know if you will, from the sounds of your type of work, especially if you've been able to get by with doing it the old fashioned way for this long.

[Greg B]

Alternate CAD packages out there...

SoftPlan - Primarily residential aimed software.  3k or so for full version but they have an LT version.
Chief Architect - Competitor to SoftPlan in the residential market.
DataCAD - All around CAD package like AutoCAD.  Full version price is around $1200 and an LT version for around $400 I believe.

As for a system, you can probably put together what you need for around $1000.  Craig on the forums here typically puts all his business computer together and they run about that.

[Maverick®]

  If you are looking specifically @ residential Architecture I would throw in my opinion for Softplan.  (What I use)  Especially if you are just starting out in Cad.  Quite user friendly.  More expensive than DataCad but it really comes down to how you are going to use the software.  Con docs and elevations?  3d? Rendering?

[CottageCGirl]

Thomas...greetings from the lone (I think) interior designer in these parts....I work on large retail projects so our work is not terribly similar, but the one thing to be aware of is that you want something that is compatible w/ Autocad (if not Autocad itself (LT))...All the time we work with architects that are either on a incompatible program or one that is so old that our drawings seize it up.. you may not work with other people now, but if you are stepping into learning, you might as well make sure it is flexible.  The previous posts will put you on the right track....Everyone is friendly here, so don't be hesitant to ask any thing you need.

[Antisthenes]

not to be forgotten Rhinoceros i see it as way more intuitive then the rest as well as containing more powerful tools

it's what i use and i work for one of the biggest boys in the world

[Josh Nieman]

it's what i use and i work for one of the biggest boys in the world

Doing what, and if you can say, who?  (curious because I don't know much of how Rhino fits into the world as a NURBS modeler)

[Maverick®]

it's what i use and i work for one of the biggest boys in the world

Doing what, and if you can say, who? 

Ron Jeremy?

[Antisthenes]

well pretty much i use it in my workflow of the DD DR SD CD phase of architectural projects on green build custom residential and commercial facilities

3d solid NURBS modeling comes in very handy especially when it comes to structural done with FEA on a building system i have used for years and has just received its ICC-ES # :  ESR-1638 ,  watch the fire video    think upwards of 100R insulation and earthquake and hurricane resistance, fast, any shape you can imagine.

another area it excels at is that it is compatible with soo many render engines, the pretty pictures sell.  and not leaving the CAD environment to do this helps to have less steps in that process.

as far as other things i would use and no longer need to are Indesign and Illustrator, for page layout and vector design.

open a DWG and you will see all your page layouts will come across, your hatches, your line types your etc.

i could tell you who but then i would be outed and i kinda like the anonymity of the net

[Josh Nieman]

I understand the anonymity.  I know some people don't say who they work for just so they can dissociate their online behavior (good or bad) from their employer for liability reasons.

I've been following Rhino since about 2001 or so up until a few years ago, and remember the Flamingo rendering engine which was always near top of the game, and for what it couldn't do, obviously file compatibility is a little nicer in that field...

I was, and still am, quite hesitant and skeptical about Rhino's ability to create structural and architectural construction drawings from an intelligent model, though. 

Do you use block libraries (or a comparable method) or any kind of programmatic customization for the use of standard units (wood studs, AISC steel shapes, LVL beams, standard equipment etc..) 

Since you work for "a big boy" in the green residential/commercial facility field I assume you guys have streamlined yourselves pretty well.  I'm curious what Rhino can do in that area.

(note, mods, may want to move this if we get too far off topic)