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VW to Archicad


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Hello All

 

I have ArchiCAD knocking on my door and I am looking to try to find some feedback from others who have looked into ArchiCAD - those that have changed and those that looked into it but didn't think it worthwhile. I have had a look at the ArchiCAD website but most of that is just glitter and sparkles edited to look good.

 

According to the sales guy, the main reasons that people switch from VW to AC is productivity improvements and workforce. The first point I guess is open to debate and dependent on use and experience, but the second is a valid point. In New Zealand AC claim to have 45% (give or take) market share, Autodesk about 43% and then VW must take up the remaining 12%, when doing a search on an online job site I got the following which backs up what he was saying, more in favour of Revit though;

 

94 in Revit                 54%

70 in Archicad          40%

9 in Vectorworks      06%

 

It also doesn't help VW cause that I think most Universities here teach people in AC or Revit. I'm not looking at changing my job position at the moment, but in the near future, I may be looking to expand my work contacts and looking for more firms to do work for. 

 

Any thoughts good or bad on the matter are appreciated.  Also interested in what the market share situation is like in Australia and Europe as the wife keeps on talking about us moving overseas.

 

Thanks.

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Hi Ian,

 

Having used both Revit, and Archicad in the past, I must say, compared to Vectorworks, Archicad is more similar.

 

Funny you say they're knocking on your door, as they had visited us also, a month or so ago. We've been 'looking over the fence' and keeping tabs on what they are doing. And they are very impressive. The boss here, was really impressed with the BIMx feature as that was crazy incredible. 

 

Things that stopped us from jumping ship were:

- Many years of Vectorworks use, familiarity with the Software.

- Invested a lot of time (more than we should) into setting up Templates, Office CAD Libraries (converting manufactures product detail DWGs to vwx),   Staff Training in VW, workflows

- Flexibilty of Vectorworks

-- (Not tied down with Stories/Pen Sets/etc with Archicad), vectorworks Class system is quite superior when set up properly.

-- Modelling

-Invested a lot of time in custom plugins and scripting. The introduction of Python, was a game changer for us. Allowed for a more rapid R&D process. Marionette is promising as well, but needs some work.

 

Things that had us peaked our interest:

- CADImage Addon - Automatic Cladding of Building Exteriors at the click of a button (Roofs/Walls/Decking)

- Revision/Markup workflow - Automatic bubble association with revision/issue sheets and titleblocks

- Window and Door Schedule - Automatic Window and Door schedule creation (Any object scheduling creation)

- BIMX (Vectorworks needs this)

- 3D Cutaway Detailing

- there were others, just cant remember right now.

 

Cheers,

Tui

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I know that one couldn't merge Photoshop with say, Excel to make one piece of software. If one wanted to do that It would take creating a whole new software package & over a couple of iterations make the two programmes look & feel like the third programme so users would make the transition to the new software.

Having said that,  since Nemetstchek acquired both companies, I've often wondered why ARCHICAD & Vectorworks haven't been slowly merged into one software package. I know, not an apples to apples contrast, but GM no longer sells Pontiacs to compete with Chevs or Oldsmobiles to compete with Buicks & Caddies. Having one larger competitor to Revit would make a lot of sense IMHO. 

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That is not the way Nemetschek AG sees itself or works. While it is focused on technical software, it considers itself a holding company. Very little direction to the held companies of how to work together or work against each other.

 

We are lucky that Cinema4D and Vectorworks have been able to work together to get us the much improved Renderworks we have now. That was driven up from below, not down from the top.

 

My view from the outside based on private discussions with those on the inside and published statements.

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I have students who use Archicad and those who use VW. A very broad answer is VW much better at 2D and Archicad much better at modelling. I was hoping VW would catch up with Sub-D but without texturing it unfortunately hasn't. If I were starting out again now I would go Archichad but bear in mind we are Interior Design and not Architecture so it may well be the other way around for the majority.

 

 

 

 

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Has anyone ever seriously looked at Allplan?  Same company - mostly a European BIM app but there are some features with that app that look very interesting.  I wish there was more support for it in the states.

 

My issue with VW is it doesn't feel immersive.  With all the need to setup Sheets to navigate your model it feels a bit too reliant on physical page space.  Dont get me wrong, i love VW for its 2D drawing ability but I do wish on the BIM side it felt like those other apps slightly more.

Edited by jcaia
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On 10/15/2017 at 7:13 PM, barkest said:

 bear in mind we are Interior Design and not Architecture so it may well be the other way around for the majority.

 

 

 

 

I would think that it is quite the opposite: ArchiCAD is an excellent program for European-style modern architecture, but that's it. I am a former ArchiCAD user and switched to then MiniCAD to be able to do other things as well. Now I'm struggling to do European-style modern architecture with a program focused in McMansions. 

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12 hours ago, barkest said:

 

I can only speak with the experience of the results the students have had here in the UK. 

I see. If I would have listened to students, I'd be using pencils,  Rotrings, Letratone & scalpels, Derwents and stencils (why, oh why, I did not listen to them; oh those innocent days!) or, with students later on, AutoCAD (well, lucky me, I did not.) 

 

Interior design is a very broad-ranged industry, the tasks of which I have gladly delegated to professionals, whenever possible, but in my previous life I had schools, offices, libraries and such needing schedules of loose furniture and custom cabinetry and such. With ArchiCAD of my time, loose furniture schedules were not possible as there were no equivalents to symbols, database and reports. Any repeating item had to be programmed with the built-in obscure programming language GDL but not even counts of items were not possible. Free-form modeling was totally absent. but one was able to do Cubistic models using "bricks" and such

 

ArchiCAD may well have been improved, but do check that the outputs you need can be achieved. 

 

Don't get me wrong: ArchiCAD is a remarkable program, spawning the entire BIM-concept and having a fascinating history including the Iron Curtain. I saw a pre-release demo of it in the backroom of a small Apple dealership and compared with AutoCAD and other clumsy drafting programs of the day (1986?), it was really something completely different. 

Edited by Urbanist
Typos fixed
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17 hours ago, Urbanist said:

Don't get me wrong: ArchiCAD is a remarkable program, spawning the entire BIM-concept and having a fascinating history

 

You may find this hard to believe, but actually the very first BIM software developed was "Chief Architect" in early 80's.  The company was actually Advanced Relational Technology, Inc and founded by a Stanford Physics Phd who thought drawing homes should be more simple.

Edited by jcaia
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4 hours ago, jcaia said:

 

You may find this hard to believe, but actually the very first BIM software developed was "Chief Architect" in early 80's.  The company was actually Advanced Relational Technology, Inc and founded by a Stanford Physics Phd who thought drawing homes should be more simple.

Never heard of that program and never had an interest in drawing homes. Incidentally the creator of ArchiCAD was also a Physicist, maybe there is no enough interesting work in that sector.

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