"AutoCAD" VS "Architectural Desktop"...

[czoog]

the biggest issue i have with all these fluff architectural drafting/modelling sofware packages is that, unless you are happy with the final render output from them. whats the point?

because i can't produce a contruction document set from max

i'm also an architect, so no sense modeling twice.

[bojo5150]

I must say I mostly use ArchiCAD to model and use vray/max to render. Once you get ArchiCAD set up for your business(create library parts, etc...) you can whip out 3d models in no time plus you have your CD's complete too. I will say that if my firm gets in a time crunch we somethimes use autocad to simply crank out CD's very fast but there have always been problems in the field. At least modeling your building in 3D you can catch most of the problems that would have arose in production using a standard 2D CAD platform like autoCAD.

[bakbek]

I used ADT and also REVIT... on and off for 1 year, but now I use SketchUP for Design work, MAX/VRAY (or others) for render and illustrator or ACAD for
Presentation work... as a student you almost never show construction documents like real life work mandates.

I find that SketchUP has the shortest learning curve and gives you the full freedom with the design exploration process. You can then create all the plans elevations and section from that model (but no "live" updates!!! This is all up to you… BUT FOR A STUDENT I THINK THIS IS A GOOD THING)

Give it a try… I sure have fun working with it.

Regards

Bakbek

[Hussam_CG]

thank you all guys for these informative replies,...
I'm really glad to know that,
actually I got used on ACAD the most...and I've tried SketchUp before, it's pretty cool and easy,
Revit will be one of my near future plans for the new year
cheers

[tonytouch]

i work with autoCAD for almost 4 yrs now. i like the precise way to work with it . for some reasons i always tried "scripting" tasks . through that i learned LSP-programming for autoCAD (which is always very powerful to know) . man architects work with autoCAD .

with ADT you can create business-towers and family houses very fast - iguess , because i never really used it . ADT is like an additional Interface(GUI) to autoCAD , you can't do anything wrong using ADT , because autoCAD is inside ADT . so you can do anything that you can do with autoCAD in ADT as well.

for me (i started rendering in maya , because of crowd animation technics i wanted to use) autoCAD is tricky to export/import , but it works now - pretty good. as i wrote a prog which generates maya MEL-scripts from autoCAD drawings (autoCAD must be installed) . so now everything is perfect and i learned MEL-scripting by doin that .

i tend to always extrude polylines and slice and unify them to generate my autoCAD - models , result are very clean meshes .