I don't know why firms continue to pay the extravagant costs to use a system that barely does what it is supposed to do and God forbid you upgrade and have to go back to a project file created three versions ago.
Don't get me wrong, I was an early part of Revit's creation. Prior to selling to AutoDesk, Revit constituted about 20 architects from around the country in basic group of beta testers that they christened "The Pioneer Program." We started with V2 and would meet via teleconference once or twice a month. We discussed what worked and what didn't and what could be done to improve the software. Has AutoDesk ever done that? We must have done a pretty good job because AutoDesk heard the footsteps and like many other programs, bought our Revit and the bastadizing began.
I was convinced that BIM was a good thing and could revolutionize our industry. I looked at Vectorworks and ArchiCad and decided to give ArchiCad a run.
I have been using ArchiCad since V8 and have seen many improvements. This company will listen to its users and there are improvements with each version release. V17 (its current iteration). has made it possible for intersections to be cleaned-up so that the CD's look like they did when we drew by hand and the way the systems are to be constructed
There is a learning curve, but this system is more intuitive to how architects think and work. They have an on-the-fly energy analysis add-on as well as M|E|P. No structural as of yet, but it is contained within the architectural package, but no structural design, analysis or calculation software. AND you make dwg files to send to consultants.
No system today in the BIM world does everything we need it to do. That being said, I would rather use software that is owned and created by architects. That is why I never used AutoCad rather opting for DataCad which did a better job than AutoCad could ever do and at about 20% of the price. I still creaet better looking drawings(read line weights and the like) with DataCad, but I am sure that soon my ArchiCad drawings will look just as good.
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Greg Burke, AIA
President
Gregory John Burke | ARCHITECT, PA
Vero Beach, Florida
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