topic Re: Cadimage and AC20 in Collaboration with other software

Cadimage and AC20

Richard Morrison — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 01:02:29 GMT

I am trying very hard to use the Cadimage tools with AC20. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a LOT of changes, with virtually no way to figure out what is different, or where functions have been moved to, or whether they were deleted. All of the documentation seems to be for AC19 and earlier.

For example, in Doors and Windows, where are the presets now? Where is the sketch design vs. detailed design? This is like a whole new program with virtually zero documentation. Have I missed something somewhere?

Re: Cadimage and AC20

rjwilden — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 10:44:50 GMT

Richard I share your pain. I use all the Cadimage tools and it's a constant battle staying up to date and dealing with a new set of bugs every year. You finally get to know where they are hiding the settings, and then they completely redesign the whole interface, of every tool. I couldn't afford the time to sort it all out this time, so went back to using V19. 10 years ago I complained to the developers about another set of changes they had dumped on us . They told me this would be the last. HA! Hate to think how many times the UI has been rejigged since. I keep plugging away thinking this time I will beat it, but I never do.
It's very unproductive for the single users. Sometime I think about getting off the gravy train and growing roses? Here's an idea for the folks at Graphisoft, "biannual updates" so that we get at least a year of smooth sailing. Maybe the second year could be spent tweaking all those tools that need fixing and improving.!!!!!!

Re: Cadimage and AC20

Richard Morrison — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 16:10:31 GMT

Glad to know that I'm not alone. Clearly, there is a lot of potential in their tools. But some things about Cadimage's development decisions are just very strange. I probably wasted far too much time yesterday trying to figure out where the deck edge boards had gone. The interface did not match anything like the documentation was showing. I finally found a new "getting started" tutorial that mentioned the hotspots that were now exclusively controlling the edge boards. Great, except the mitered joints and half-boards are now gone. How is this an improvement?

Do you guys in NZ really specify door objects by dimensions that include the frame? This is so unlike the GS-designed doors, and which makes it so unintuitive to put together a door schedule, that I have to wonder if the software people have any appreciation for real-life construction at all.

It's now three months after the release of the AC20 version of Cadimage tools, and other than some very superficial "getting started" videos, I can find NOTHING that tells me how to use these tools. I was hoping that maybe the NZ people got a "What's New" PDF, at least, that could be shared.

Re: Cadimage and AC20

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 04:15:03 GMT

RM, the NZ people are too busy doing the Haka for world rugby union and as a consequence have burst a few blood vessels in the brain maybe? We across the Tasman have our own door and window builder now. I think Cadimage need to give more support for their tools.

Re: Cadimage and AC20

Stress Co_ — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 05:30:52 GMT

In anyone's estimation... is this an improvement??

Door + Window Builder
AC19: Graphically choose to select panels, zoom, etc.
or
AC20: Open a pulldown menu and find your choice

Re: Cadimage and AC20

Gerald Hoffman — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 16:03:51 GMT

Marc,

I agree with you on this one. It takes more time with the pull down. I did find the older interface buttons a little tiny sometimes to hit but that is just a function of screen size, I often work on my 17" laptop screen.

However on the Roof Cladding I do like the size of the editing screen for Edges a lot better than the limited size of the previous dialogue box. That is once it was pointed out to me where to find it.

I do think that a video or PDF of the changes in each tool would be in order as they are significant and I am spending (wasting) a lot of time trying to find things that I knew before but have been relocated.

There are also some bugs that I have found and reported which also take time but CadImage is responding quite quickly to my Support tickets.

Cheers,