Certainly there are many really helpful plug-ins, and I think this is where the real progress has been made. The only architectural program I've used is 3DS Max. It's true I haven't explored much of it, but mostly because I haven't needed to. For me, the ability to be scaled down to just what the individual needs would be an improvement. Also, there doesn't seem to be a lot of competition with these programs like Maya and Max, not sure why.