Moving from Autocad to Autocad Arch?

[Aaron2004]

Hey guys,

 

I work designing medium to complex custom homes. Right now I am doing everything in Autocad 2004 with no plugins. Just offsetting lines, using simple blocks for windows/doors, etc. This is working well....but I am researing to see if there are better ways of drawing residential floorplans.

 

I don't want to screw with drawing things in 3D. When I have a client with me, I don't want to screw with a roof in 3D. I have sketchup for that and I don't really care to much about material take-offs. Is it worth moving up to Autocad Arch, or will it not offer that much more than normal autocad for what I need it for.

 

Thanks for any input!

 

Aaron

[Bullet]

Aaron,

 

I've use to work with Autocad but moved to ACA (autocad architecture) a few years ago.

 

These are my reasons:

- models done in ACA are parametric so you don't really have to use booleans

or slices to make things longer or shorter. Walls for example can change all

their properties through the properties panel.

- materials can be assigned to all your geometry. I know that you won't use

the materials that come with the model but it's nice to be able to select

geometry by material instead of one object or small groups of objects at a

time especially when you know ahead of time what finishes should be

assigned to what.

- doors and windows create their own openings into wall just like the AEC wall

and window link in Max.

- last thing is the project navigator, this handles all your building levels and

what elevation everything should be located at when you drag dwgs in as

xref's. Works like a file explorer for that project.

 

You mentioned that you work on mostly medium to complex homes so this piece of software might be overkill for your needs. I work on mostly larger projects so it's nice to have the project navigator, that way i only have to draw one floor at a time and then compile them all into a view file and then just file link that view file.

 

BTW there is a slight learning curve when moving from ACad to ACA, ACA relies on "styles" in order to be fully effective and there are styles for everything!

 

Sorry if i was a little long winded. Hope this helps.

[Aaron2004]

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. When you do elevations, do you draw them in 2D, or do you utilize the 3D model? I've used software before that pulls the 3D information to make the elevation and it was a total pain and very ineficient. If you didn't need the 3D aspects of it, would you still use it?

[Bullet]

When you say elevations do you mean an head on orthographic elevation? If so, I really don't do those too often. If I was required to submit an elevation and it had to be colored I would just render it in max in the front view window. Also as a note, all the drawings that I get are the elevations and i have to model from that. If I didn't need the 3d aspect of ACA I probably wouldn't use it. Without the 3d portion of ACA it's the same as plain old AutoCad.

[tdemoss]

Hi Aaron,

 

I too work on custom homes here in Indiana. The primary software that i use is Vertex BD, wich is a very powerful 3D BIM software. Although, I do have a seat of ACA-2009. You stated that you do not really care about having a 3d Model, so probably wouldnt go through the headache of learning ACA. However, just in my experience with the custom builder I draw for, the 3d Model helps the Builder, and Homeowner tremendiously. The amount of field change orders has been reduced by about 30% just because the homeowner doesnt run into the "thats not what i thought it would look like". Just some food for thought. To go along with the Elevations, for me the 3D model is a huge time saver when it comes to Exterior Elevations, Interior Elevations, Sections etc.

[Aaron2004]

Tyler,

 

Thanks for your input! I'm very familiar with Vertex and feel like it unjustly gets overlooked when discussing BIM software. However, the reason that I don't want to go to that, or any other 3D CAD software for that matter is simply speed and the amount of time I have to work in.

 

If I have a limited timeline of a few hours, drawing the elevation in a 3D cad program makes my hair stand on end. What if the roof is swooped, what if I need to draw in a custom door, special trim details, etc? If I had a few days to work on this, it wouldn't matter and might be better in 3D CAD, I just don't have that luxery. And especially since our estimator is quick and accurate, BIM isn't that important (yet).

 

From what I see so far, I will just stick with what I have. If the main reason to switch to a newer CAD is for the end product represented accuratly in 3D with takeoffs, I personally don't have a need for that in my current job--especially with the speed of Sketchup.

 

Thanks for everyone's input, though!

 

Aaron