AutoCad vs. Architectural Desktop

[sgill]

I'm trying decide which program to use AutoCad or Architectural Desktop. What are the differences between the two. Which one is better for modeling buildings. I also use Maya and intend on modeling in Cad and then exporting to Maya to texture, light, and model my renderings.

[Arnel]

ADT is actually all of autocad + 3d building components. If you want to do building modelling then go for ADT.

[Al_Zyma]

What he said !!

[sgill]

Thanks for the advice

[Greg Steckler]

If you're modeling buildings use ADT

[alex100103]

What is ADT, how does it compare to Archicad?

[Karlfucious]

I use Maya and to be honest you are probably better off just modeling your buildings in Maya. First of all ADT doesnt translate to maya verry well. You will spend just as much time cleaning up Flipped and bad normals of your model as you would just modeling it from scratch in Maya. Another problem I have had is that Roof slabs dont seem to want to work verry well at all So you still have to model those in Maya anyway. The only decent translation that I have found Is ADT to Vis Renderer, Vis Renderer to Max, And from Max to Maya as OBJ. Since my Max demo ran out that isnt really a viable option for me anymore though. Another problem is if you were going to buy either in the 07 version they did away with the 3ds export option which was probably the other best way to convert it over. Now the only option is using the dwg/dxf import into Maya which creates a seperate poly object for each face in the entire model which is a BIG PROBLEM.

 

ADT is great for creating working drawing sets but for creating 3d models you probably are better off just using Maya. You will have a lot cleaner topology, A lot less dense facecounts, and depending on your modeling skill in Maya a lot nicer looking models all together.