Project Delivery

I have been a long time Vectorworks user on the Mac. For the most part, this has been fantastic. Recently two things have made reconsider this choice: 

1. Nemetschek's new upgrade program. We used to skip generations of VW so that we were not shelling out a lot of money each year for what are typically fairly modest changes in the software. Now they want to enroll you in a program that is expensive and charged per VW seat, to offer "free" upgrades each year. Semantics and basically it is a hook to make you buy the upgrade each year. Not something I really want to do financially, and it is disruptive to our long term projects because we have to update all our files into the new versions.

2. BIM. I am interested in moving our firm into software that is more compatible with the industries march toward BIM and have never found VW's BIM "abilities" all that compelling. Archicad is the long standing BIM application for the Mac. With their Start program the cost of Archicad is now comparable to VW.

I would love to hear any advice or anecdotes about how Archicad is to work with. Does it play nice with its PC counterparts that most contractors and consultants might be using? How was the learning curve? What are the benefits of this software that would make leaving a workflow we are very productive with worthwhile? And lastly, if most of your work is custom and non-repetitive (we don't re-use a lot of our details), does BIM make sense?

Thanks!

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Kenneth Parel-Sewell AIA
Principal
One World Architecture, LLC
Louisville KY
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I started on AutoCAD in 1994 and in 1997 I was introduced to ArchiCAD and have never used anything else since. ArchiCAD has been fundamentally the same BIM program since it's creation in 1989. Revit is the copy, like Windows was ripped off from MAC OS. I used to teach Architects how to use it and I was able to get people productive in no time. It's an international program, so it's more icon and visually based, not so much command oriented. I find it very user friendly and easy to figure out. Once you understand the slab tool, the roof tool, fill tool, mesh tool, etc. all work the same way. The consistency allows new users to start discovering on their own after minimal instruction. Now the program is very complex and on the front end of BIM technology, so it can seem very overwhelming at first. The BIM Server technology has brought Teamwork and Cloud technology together to allow better sharing between multiple users within one file. There is very little difference between MAC and PC use with the software and no problem with different platforms sharing project files. Now I've been using it for a while, but I can crank out 3d models of houses as fast as anyone can draw them in 2D and I have 3D images to show the client. The hardest part with BIM is letting go of the old FlatCAD mentality of thinking in sheets. This is a holistic process and you must have faith in the 3d modeling. My advice is to model everything you see clearly at 1/4"=1'-0" and anything seen in more than one drawing. It is much more efficient to make changes to a well built 3D model since the same 3D forms are seen in who knows how many views. Anything you draw in 2D has to be revised in each view. You erase a 3D window on the plan and that window, showing up in the building section you would have forgot about, automatically disappears everywhere from every view. It's now gone from the schedule too. Making changes later and later in the game can cause serious coordination problems with FlatCAD. Roof forms and stairs are very easy to fake in 2D and very embarrassing in the field when the jig is up. 3D modeling forces you to work out the roof, as it's painfully honest when not correct. I could go on and, but I'll just finish with saying it's a great program and don't be fooled, they are leading the BIM technology trends as they've been at it the longest. They're even making GDL programming of parametric objects simple and easy to create, so you don't have to be a GDL programmer to make a custom sink or window.

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Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
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