Software! Which is better for what?

The specific roles of the the draftsman and architect have changed over the years as have the media used to communicate their ideas. From primarily graphite on vellum to the host of software programs we use today, we have given a great deal of life to presentation drawings. When I talk about programs for architectural drawings and modeling, I don't mean those things you can find at Costco and Office Depot for kitchen remodeling that make lay people like Brad Pitt think that he is an architect. I mean detailed and professional programs architects use to communicate ideas and create the masterpieces of design construction we see today.

Though older architects don't have much good to say about computer generated drawings, citing how it has made us all lazy and imprecise, I think they have all helped us achieve more; not only in making pretty drawings but also in understanding what we are putting up and how each component will fit in with each other. It is also easier for architects to coordinate with consultants by just xreffing files. God knows what they did back in the day of just hand drawings.

Still, with different software to chose from, which is better overall? I learned to use a couple of programs well and still don't think there is any one generally better than the other. Instead, I have developed certain preferences that have allowed me to use almost every program I know for some specific aspect of any project I'm working on.

Autocad is till the preferred program because everyone has got it and that makes it easier to speedily share information with all consultants especially engineers so I tend to use cad for all details; floor plans, sections, call outs, etc.

Archicad is one program that I have come to love because it saves me so much time. As you complete the floor plans, it generates elevations and the 3d model for you. For sections, all you have to do is select the cut line on the floor plan and it will develop the section. So as long as your floor plans are accurate, that's the only drawing you really have to do yourself. Unfortunately, very few professionals in the United States use archicad. It is bigger in Europe especially in the U.K so you really can't send a consultant an archicad file and expect that they will be able to open or know how to use it. So I tend to just use archicad for interior perspectives. It does the best interior renderings I seen from most software!

Google sketch up is one that seems to be very commonly used and I use it solely to generate forms and building massing. You can't particularly use it for any details and it renders horribly if you don't have any of the new plug-ins for sketch up like podium and turbosketch. These help make the renderings more realistic and take away that cartoony look sketch up images tend to have. They also allow you to add crisp artificial lighting to your model. Still, images always print a little too dark so I would suggest touching them up in photoshop first.

Autodesk Revit has been catching on in the design industry lately and seems to be only a few years away from replacing autocad. For users of cad, this program might be quite complicated as there are a lot of tools to master. Though it also works like archicad in generating elevations and the 3d model as you draw the floorplans, I'm not impressed with the renderings at all. They are almost as bad as sketch up though it seems the Revit 2009 version might have addressed that issue. The two things that I really like about it is that it generates a schedule as you design the model and you can import your sketch up model, interject floor levels and foundations and begin to add interior details. This is really great if you are designing a highrise. You can create your massing in sketch up and import it into revit. Design a floor and multiply it vertically as many times as you need to. You can always go into each floor plan and customize it if you don't want all to be too similar. You can set it to replicate every other floor, every 5, 6 or whatever you need. Imagine having to do all that in cad!

One software that is great but not too common is Bryce. Bryce 6.1 is great for creating really stunning landscapes! Mountain ranges, realistic skies, ice caps, whatever you need. I tend to use this for the sky lab and just import a jpeg of my model into it. So if you have a project out in the boonies and going out there and taking a picture is not too feasible, then you might want to use bryce but that is all you can do with it though. You really can't design realistic buildings. I've been able to make little ships and huts but buildings; not so much.

Form-Z and 3D studio max are great for importing images and rendering them realistically. I've never really used studio max much so I don't have too much to say about it. Form-z I have used for rendering images I did in sketch up and 3d models from cad (this was before I began to use archicad and revit and before podium and turbosketch were created). So in the light of the other options today and considering how long it takes to really master Form-z, I would say that the end does not really justify the means. Some people really good with form-z might disagree with me on that but all in all, time is essential in architecture. Anything that allows you complete a project faster is always better and worth investing in but form-z is not.

Maya and Rhino are two programs that I haven't used much personally because they don't seem to be for anything strictly architectural. They are more for video games and other fancy types of computer modelling. I haven't seen anything relating to building design. If there are any maya or rhino experts out there that disagree, please educate me.

So what was the point in all this? Well, I think that the more programs you can use, the better but it is really about what you are comfortable with and I also wanted to let you know whats out there. The more familiar you are with one program, the better and faster you will be with it and like I said, speed is good but instead of trying to do everything with one program, decide what aspect of it works best for you as no program will work well for everything you want to do. I think a project comes out better when you can combine the best of all programs in your arsenal than trying to use just one.

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