So -- Steve, as our resident architect, can you tell me: Are projects in your office being generated in 3D? Are your engineering consultants (or in-house engineers) running duct and pipe in 3D, or still just drawing lines? Are bid sets still printed on paper, or do contractors now get a CD with the entire project integrated as a virtual building?


Nope. Everything is still mainly done in 2D. Autodesk has been pushing 3D design for a while, but it has never caught hold in my part of the world. We use Autodesk Architectural Desktop which has a lot of potential for being pure 3D, but it just isn't there yet as a software package. The industry is also not there yet. Now that's not to say the Autodesk product goes wholly unused. If that were the case we could save thousands of dollars by downgrading to AutoCAD LT. Arch Desktop does make life much easier when drawing walls, doors and windows, and they look fabulous in 2D Plan view, but are also created in 3D simultaneously if you were to change to a different viewpoint. Now unfortuantely I have been unsuccessful in getting everybody in the office to start using the walls and doors. Most people still draw everything with lines and arcs etc. Depending on the project that's not necessarily a bad thing. I spend 80% of my time working over existing drawings from clients and prior 2d line CAD drawings for remodels. For these applications drawing everything from lines is perfect approriate. When starting a new project from a clean slate using the Arch Desktop entities is much better. Its not overly complex to use and most people I have taught can get up to speed pretty quickly. The hardest part about the 3D stuff is convincing people it has value even though using it for everything does not. If used where appropriate it can be a huge timesaver. If not you will spend hours tinkering to make the damn thing look right, where you could just draw it in a fraction of the time. I especially like to use Arch Desktop entities for projects that will have walls doors and windows changing constantly, because moving them is a cinch and they do their own cleanup.

Apparantly there are places that actually use Arch Desktop (and its better dressed cousin Revit) to its full potential. I read about folks on the newsgroups doing stuff which is simply awesome. I'm not at that level and have to learn it on my own time if I ever hope to be. Even if I did, however, unless my coworkers are at the same level, they will have a hard time working with the drawing and will most likely end up breaking the model. As a result we tend to keep drawing in the same old ways, because its too hard to be productive otherwise.

Parametric is the buzzword in CAD nowadays. AutoCAD is not, nor will it ever be truly parametric. Revit is or at least that's what they say. The idea is that you create your whole building in a model. Then your sheets are created by looking at the model in different ways. It has appeal, because when something changes, you simply need to change the model instead of all the sheets. I don't think its very practical though. You end up with a lot more extra stuff in your drawings than you might care to have. It also forces you into drawing everything at once instead of in stages. When I start a floorplan I don't want to worry too much about the ceiling roof, wall types etc until I know that the floorplan is valid for the client. Once I have the OK, then we get into the nitty gritty of the rest, so you don't waste time drawing stuff that will change. Parametric modeling forces you to worry about those things from the beginning. That's its biggest fault in my opinion.

Now onto the XCAD. From what I can glean it is a parametric based cad program for mechanical engineer types. Much like Cadkey or inventor I think. I doubt it would be of any real use to me other than that I'm a tinkerer. Perhaps it would be something you could use, I don't know, but from our past conversations your experience is more in the construction industry rather than the machine industry. You can always give it a try and see what you get. In case Tech is right, you can give them a throw-away e-mail to avoid any future spamming.

I'm not sure what the building industry is like in you new locale. There is probably a market for some freelance work though. AutoCAD LT is only $1000. Also have you checked out ProgeCAD? It is supposed to be like AutoCAD. I downloaded it to tinker with a few months back and it does have a similar feel to AutoCAd. The free version is like LT and you can pay for a higher end version which gives you 3d functionality and libraries and stuff.