Hello fellow architects and searchers for the best software for our residential projects.
Yes, it is quite a journey to find the best fit.
During the last 3 months, I have been researching/using SketchUp Pro 8 + Layout 3, Chief Architect Premier X4, and am just getting into Archicad 2012 Start.
SketchUp, I found is a nifty but primitive Google program that allows you to draw anything in 3D. Unfortunately, it tries to be everything to everybody and in so doing does Not have all the predefined menus and tools that we as architect would want to properly design and document our projects. Could the job be done in SketchUp + Layout? Yes. however, I am sure that there would be a huge problem with unintended "stickyness" between floor levels and much frustration at the lack of architectural parameters.
Chief Architect is worth a strong look. It was created specifically for architects, builders and designers to create "mainstream" houses. I have been focused on this for the last week and actually had a conversation with one of the main programmers/support staff last night. This program will take some heavy-duty tweaking with extruded polyline custom shapes for most of us to turn into a stronger custom architecture tool. otherwise you will be stuck with conventional picket railings and conventional fascias and the like, which are the program's default settings. If your practice is something that is not looking to do anything other than modest mainstream designs, then this software can work for you right out of the box. if your practice is geared to something different, then you are going to need some in-house 3D drawing capability to create custom shapes that you then manipulate in 3D and build in the software to create your unique designs. This program is more dialog box oriented (the programmer told me there are perhaps 10,000 dialog boxes) than drawing oriented in my opinion. In other words, you will probably spend more time with dialog box settings with this software that with actual drawing. However, once you do draw walls and roofs and foundations, amazing things will be working automatically in the background to create the 3D model. The 3D imagery is very effective, and they even have a ray tracing level of imagery that makes this software near photo-realistic. The big frustration you will experience with this package is with the custom touches we as architects like to make to conventional roof edges and other aspects that might be your trademark. And you will have to invest considerable effort to create these things in 3D to evolve the software to correctly present your unique style. I am intrigued with Chief Architect. I am also concerned that I could end up spending much of my time setting up dialog boxes rather than drawing. Hmmm. Still thinking about this one.
Archicad: I actually owned this software in about 1989. I liked it, but had no training, which resulted in me messing around with it for about 3 months, then abandoning it for AutoCad, largely because the commercial clients I dealt with back then insisted that I use AutoCad. So that was that. I have begun a new look at Graphisoft's ArchiCad 2012 Start, which might work for sole practitioners who do Not need to have several people working on one design simultaneously. Also if you do not need curtainwalls. Otherwise, the regional support person for Graphisoft in the SE USA has said that this slightly reduced functionality could work well for architects focused on residential and light commercial. The license cost is substantially less than the networked version: $1,995. This SE support/sales person also said that he has not heard of any yearly upgrade requirement and that he will support even older versions indefinitely. He mentioned several architects who use it. I called them and talked to their cad staff. They said that even though they had 3-year old versions of the software, that the support person was still being responsive to their questions. I am sure this must very from region to region and who the people are supporting you. I do not yet have a new working knowledge of this software. I have heard from others who do, that they like it. We will see.
I hope that this review might be of some assistance to others going through this type of research. I have not yet made my decision, except to rule Out Revit and AutoCad. I can't afford them, do not have the smarts or time for their steep learning curve, and do not want to experience the horror of yearly demands for upgrades/support demands that I have heard from other architects.
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Rand Soellner AIA
Architect/Owner/Principal
Rand Soellner Architect
Cashiers NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-21-2012 09:51
From: Peter Arsenault
Subject: Partner or Parasite: how do you feel about your software?
I have been using a program called SoftPlan for the past three years and find it very easy and powerful to use for residential and light commercial projects. It is actually designed specifically for 3-D residential construction and offers a variety of pre-established and customizable construction assemblies for walls, roofs, and doors. I looked at Chief Architect but thought it was too focused on interiors and furnishings. I have had many years of experience managing people and projects using AutoCad and everyone complained about the difficulties and limitations. Revit is a great improvement, but frankly, a little bit of overkill for a small practice doing residential work. I do like Softplan's ability to import and export .dwg and .dxf files so I have usually been able to coordinate with others using AutoCad relatively painlessly. And the Softplan 3-D modeling is built in which is pretty effective (assuming you have the right hardware and graphics card to run it) and is generated automatically within the program BIM style. The program isn't perfect, and I'm sure I haven't taken full advantage of learning all of the possibilities and options, but I have been extremely productive with it and generally very happy with the results.
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Peter Arsenault FAIA
Peter J. Arsenault, Architect
Manlius NY
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