mzagorski Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 Hey all, Im looking to purchase some new software that will help me create some slick architectural presentation boards... Im looking at Adobe InDesign 2.0... Anyone here used this.. got any advice?.. I want something with a bit more accuracy that Photoshop... I've got Illustrator 10 but I dont like using it for large files. The boards I am working with are A1 in size and will have a mix of text, raster graphics and some vector graphics brought in from AutoCAD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 I used it back in school (took a graphic communication class). I'd say that ID is somewhat in between Illustratod and Page maker. It will work great for more than one page, but I'd think that it won't be as good for large papers format. Stick with Illustrator, or move to Freehand (same only better with multipages). I mainly used freehand for school presentation boards. BTW: freehand is what most printing houses use over here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 1, 2003 Author Share Posted April 1, 2003 Interesting.. any other viewpoints on my question? Im going to have to make a decision in the next day! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 How about a decent CAD software like Vectorworks ? Most architects i know use their CAD software or a plottersoftware for doing this. Otherwise Freehand will do the job too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allanB Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 you can try corel draw. i use in design here, but just to layout documents. when a need do make some drawings, i use corel. i like it a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 OK, I just downloaded InDesign tryout from Adobe.com... I'd prefer to stick with Adobe seen as they make some damn good software and I am familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator. Is there a way that I can create a document that has 6 pages that are A2 (2 pages in height, 3 pages wide) with page edges against each other... so the 6 pages can be used to create a single presentation with images overlapping between sheets? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Hmmm funny that this topic should pop up! I am looking at Indesign at the moment, we currently use Freehand but I think Indesign would be better at creating PDF's Not sure yet but I am going to try it today Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 Hi Craig, Well.. im getting on fine with InDesign so far! And I did a quick PDF test before you posted your message and I am very happy with the output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Yeah that's good mate, looks not to bad Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 My company bought an adobe design bundle when we upgraded my version of photoshop and illustrator and it happened to come with indesign. Nice program for doing multiple page documents with and when you want to link large images to files with vector graphics and text but not imbed them in the file. You can create large format layouts with it but be carefull how many large images you link in a single document as I have overrun my system when it came time to output by doing just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Just curious why noone uses their CADD software for that, since this is made for large format work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 COLOUR BABY... COLOUR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 besides color, cadd software is not the best tool for working with fonts, and depending on what software you are using the lineweights can also be difficult to work with. cadd software also does not do the best job handiling images. ...but if you are on a budget, it will get the job done. i have used microstation for layouts before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 I have no clue what ya talking about. There are no problems with color, line weights or large images or other nasty things. When i sent my clients the renderings they put the 50 MB or more files into their CADD software and print that out. So what ?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 I suppose you could use cad software to do page layout but I would much rather SEE linewieghts instead of a color that represents a linewieght for page graphics. And besides that, even though you can do it in cad, you would have to agree that setting up a master page, doing soft drop shadows on text, checking for printer friendly colors, and importing vector graphic formats like those from illustrator, freehand, and coreldraw would be a lot easier in a page layout program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Originally posted by Brian Cassil: I suppose you could use cad software to do page layout but I would much rather SEE linewieghts instead of a color that represents a linewieght for page graphics. And besides that, even though you can do it in cad, you would have to agree that setting up a master page, doing soft drop shadows on text, checking for printer friendly colors, and importing vector graphic formats like those from illustrator, freehand, and coreldraw would be a lot easier in a page layout program. How about buying a new CAD software ? Seriously, that sounds like you work with a ten year old CAD program. Of course i can see the lineweights on my screen, and of course i can use more than eight colors, and i see no reason importing things from Freehand since i can do it all in CAD. Much easier than trying to get CAD plans into a pagelayout program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 First of all I think most non-drafters would agree that a page layout program is much easier to use than a cad program. Much easier than trying to get CAD plans into a pagelayout program. I've never had any problem whatsoever doing just that. I'll give you that one on the linewieghts. I just checked with someone here at my office and he showed me how it's done, although we do not have our system (ACAD 2002/ADT 3) set up to do so. I admit I have not done much drafting in the last 6 years so could be a little out of touch on that. Now you say that you could just create all your own graphics in cadd. Well, I don't know about you but I do quite a bit of collaboration with other graphics proffesionals and the thought of re-creating all of thier content does not excite me. In fact, it really gets at what a page layout program is for in the first place: bringing resources together in one document. and of course i can use more than eight colors I'm guessing that is a reply to my comment on printer friendly colors. What I am talking about though is keeping colors inside the output color gamut. It sounds like we are coming from two different backgrounds here. One from that of drafting, the other from graphics. I respect your opinion on doing page layout in cad. It really just comes down to how people work and what they are comfortable with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 I am coming from an Architecture student background.. with a strong grounding in computer graphics. I absolutely loathe doing presentation through a CAD program.. sure, it has some benefits of accurate and fast layout... but I might prefer the likes of Photoshop etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Well as a Mac guy i'm obviously more from a graphics backround and had a hard time working with something like Microstation on the Mac for example. But if you have a chance to see a demo of Vectorworks take a look at it and you maybe get a clue about what i'm talking about. Most architects here use it for competitions or other presentations, no need for a pagelayout or a graphic program, and of course they use it for "normal" CADD work too;it is used in small as in large offices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plastic Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 i love indesign for small print stuff with many pages, but i don't see it as an option for large format layouting. indesign can only print to raster and postscript, not hpgl. i'd say 99% of the plotters you see in architectual offices only understand raster and hpgl. (postscript modules usually cost a few 1000 bucks extra) i tried a few times with the raster driver and never managed to get a large print, say 90 x 300cm, out of indesgn, with our plotters. apart from that, how do you want to get your dwg files into indesign, without messing everything up, and/or generating huge memory overhead? we use either autocad or plotmaker. (plotmaker comes with archicad) i always use plotmaker. it is very fast to work with, since it uses proxies for everything. a fast interface/workflow is crucial for a layout application, i'd say, because as everyone knows: real architects start doing the layout one hour before the deadline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 "real architects start doing the layout one hour before the deadline " Ahh.. that is why my last studio project sucked ass... My layout was non existant. Cut and Paste 15 mins before dealine (not kidding) Hence.. this time I want to hit the ground running! I have to present about 8 x A1 boards.(A1 = 840mm x 597mm for those non-metric readers) As for printing at my school, the anal retentive technician who prints out files for us (they dont trust students) will only accept a DWG (grudginly) or a JPG !! So.. just kinda trying to find out what other people would do in my situation... Maybe a traditional cut + paste manually is going to be the best bet... thats what the other classmates are doing - or throwing it together in HUGE photoshop files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kid Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 I always use Illustrator, usually for A1 sheets. I haven't had much problem with it, and the output to PDF files for the printer are always as expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted April 11, 2003 Author Share Posted April 11, 2003 Kid, any chance you can post some small-ish jpg's to show us what you have achieve with Adobe Illus. I never seen enough architectural presentation and its always nice to see what people are doing out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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