topic Re: Archicad the best solution? in Modeling

Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:16:49 GMT

Greetings all,

My partner is currently studying interior design, and has begun tackling courses involving room and furniture design. Being a 3d modeller in the past, i know what a viscious learning curve any software in this realm carries. Primarily she needs to be able to design interiors, inculding kitchen cabinetry etc, and my wish is that she be able to output quality 3d renders of her environments with as great ease as possible. I am far from impressed with auto-cads native renderer.

Her college recommends archicad for students doing architectural design, but have little recommendation outside this software. Hence i'm here to ask, Is archicad a suitable solution for an interior designer - or has anyone a recommendation where else to look? I have been unable to locate anything of a professional level that seems focused towards interior designers.

Any suggestions, or direction would be fantastic

Charles

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Brett Brown — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:35:56 GMT

Have a look at Chief Architect

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:41:56 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, i've looked at home design and cheif architect a few months back and the render output on them was very average. i feel i'm at a point where i need an architecturally sound starting point, then a 2nd program to ship out the model to to add furniture, textures, lighting etc for best quality render output?

So would it be best to start with archicad and then once finished modelling an interior, send it to something else for adding furniture - even 3dsmax or something? is this heading in the right direction, or is there a more compatible 3d program?

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:47:01 GMT

Hi!

What about SketchUp? There is a lot of free components and there are two versions, free and pro.

Regards :

Antonio.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Dwight — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:18:38 GMT

If you need the most professional renderings with the most varied and complete entourage choices, AutoDesk's 3DS Max remains the dominant product.

It is also the most difficult to use.

Archicad users mainly export to Cinema 4D and Artlantis.

Cinema is beautiful - AND a modeler capable of NURBS.
Artlantis is simple and quick.

Archicad's library and other sources of furniture objects should meet your student friend's needs unless they are seriously into that Louis XIV with the brocaded dingle balls stuff.

They should start with Archicad and Artlantis.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:54:39 GMT

Thanks for the reply, i was happy with the artlantis rendered images in the samples somwhere on this website, i've used 3dsmax quite a lot for a long time now, however i'll definately check out cinema and artlantis..

I am after professional renderings, however functionality and ease of use is important too, for time saving. I'll sample artlantis + archicad tonight, as well as look into cinema4d - already using 3dsmax to assist with rendering her current project modelled autocad.

thanks again

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Dwight — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:22:47 GMT

Your nickname reminds me of:

"I saw a man walking with a three legged pig. I asked "How does your pig have three legs?"
He said "This pig saved me from a house fire AND pushed me out of the way of a speeding bus. A good pig like that you don't eat all at once."

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:26:46 GMT

"Spider Pig, Spider Pig,
Does whatever a Spider Pig does"

D'oh

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Richard Morrison — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:04:02 GMT

Walkingpig wrote:
Her college recommends archicad for students doing architectural design, but have little recommendation outside this software. Hence i'm here to ask, Is archicad a suitable solution for an interior designer - or has anyone a recommendation where else to look? I have been unable to locate anything of a professional level that seems focused towards interior designers.

Any suggestions, or direction would be fantastic

Charles

Depends on her focus. If primarily residential, I would encourage you to take another look at Chief Architect. It has, by far, the largest library of residential furnishings available. The rendering you may find to be much improved, as well. However, you can always export the model and render in whatever program you like, such as Artlantis or C4D. The BH&G Home Designer Pro software may be a better value for what you need, though. (Same program as Chief Architect, but dumbed down a bit.)

If her focus is commercial design, then Archicad (perhaps the new START edition) could be the way to go.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Richard Morrison — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:06:00 GMT

Walkingpig wrote:
i feel i'm at a point where i need an architecturally sound starting point, then a 2nd program to ship out the model to to add furniture, textures, lighting etc for best quality render output?

BTW, isn't your partner supposed to be the one doing the school work?

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:06:27 GMT

Hehe,

Alternatively, it actually derives from an episode of the Simpsons where Burns is desperately trying to avoid donating $1mil to charity, and at the same time homer has managed to get a pig stuck in the dam wall....

that enough info:)

Richard: Yes she is, however 3d is something i understand, so i'm better placed to assist her in choosing a software platform to learn, and also learn it first to teach to her - hence my involvement:).

I had a quick look at those renders from Chief Architect just earlier when someone suggested it. She has mentioned to me that kitchen design (cabinetry) is a large part of her role, and CA seems to have some tools to assist that, so it may be worth playing with. The interesting part is how easy the expot to a better renderer will be, whether she would have to retexture everything etc. With autocad -> 3dsmax, it attempts to transfer the textures as well.

Thanks again for everyones contribution.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:42:55 GMT

Modelling:
AC is very good for modelling interiors and furniture with middle amount of detail. For very detailed modelling, seen at close distance, the best choice is an Engineering modelling application like SolidWorks or 3dsMax with PowerSolids plug-in.

Rendering:
Ac is not good for interior renderings! For nice results the best choice is ArtLantis. For very high quality renderings use VRay or Maxwell or something like these. VRay seems to be the fastest.

Dwight wrote:

Archicad users mainly export to Cinema 4D and Artlantis.

Probably true for Canada! 😉 3dsMax and Maya are the preferred applications for VRay users. By the way, 3dsMax is very user-unfriendly, so do have this in mind!

Below is an example of a simple square sink, which will get you in a lot of trouble to model in AC or 3dsMax!

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:24:36 GMT

Point taken,

I do understand the merits of being able to create an architecturally sound environment in a piece of software designed with that end in mind. I would find it frustrating at best to create even a room in 3ds max alone, its so much easier to get the precision with walls etc in autocad - and assumedly arcicad.

I"ll get her to sign up for the student version so we can go and look into artlantis. I'll also look into those power solids addons for 3ds max. I find the workflow style in 3dsmax incompatible with my brain - being a lightwave user by choice - however i've spent tonight working her current project into a 3dsmax scene to for her assignment due tomorrow (while she is at college gossiping with the girls!)

Thanks again for the opinions, i'm looking foward to sampling what seems to be the strong recommendation - Archicad + Atlantis

Charles

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:23:39 GMT

Walkingpig wrote:
...I would find it frustrating at best to create even a room in 3ds max alone, its so much easier to get the precision with walls etc in autocad - and assumedly arcicad...

Forget Autocad - it is far behind AC! It is a primitive application with limited modellig tools. The only thing it does better than AC is complex surfaces.

Also, I know dedicated Autocad users who model their entire 3D scenes in Max and use Autocad just for drawings! It is like driving a Ford Model T in the 21 century! In fact, it is the Model T of CAD applications and should take its desired position - in the museum! 😉

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Richard Morrison — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:11:33 GMT

Walkingpig wrote:
Thanks again for the opinions, i'm looking foward to sampling what seems to be the strong recommendation - Archicad + Atlantis

On this forum? What a surprise!

I gotta say, though, it seems like you are searching for the software that works for YOU and your rendering needs, rather than what will be easy to use for your partner. As a working architect and interior designer, I can tell you that photorealistic renderings are nice, but having something that an interior designer will actually use, without too much pain, is even better.

When your partner graduates, competency with a high-end rendering program is probably not going to get her hired as much as well designed projects with lesser quality renderings. And if she can't replicate the renderings that you've done for her in school, an employer will be justly upset.

BTW, here are some renderings by an acquaintance, all done in Chief Architect, without any outside rendering programs: www.girerddesigns.com/
They aren't V-Ray quality, of course, but they are certainly good enough for school work, and for the vast majority of professional work.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:39:01 GMT

In a sense i am searching for sometyhing that works for me, because that makes its something i can teach my partner, however i am certainly looking for something that produces the right standard, with the greatest of ease.

She is fortunate in that she has the talent for her industry, she is redefining the benchmark at her college each week with perfect marks, and is already happily in the industry. So she has the time after college to make sure any extra skills she wishes to carry on (such as these tools) can be honed.

I am sure you are right, that she doesn't NEED these skills - but neither of us are fans of doing things by halves, and even though these sorts of tools may not be largely involved in the interior design industry - i am sure that they can become nothing other than increasingly desired over time.

Those chief architect pictures you linked are certainly a step up from last i looked at the software, i will certainly organise another look into it - thanks again.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:42:22 GMT

Archicad+Blender+blendigo+Indigo =

cost you nothing (except archicad of course)

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:29:02 GMT

Miki wrote:
Archicad+Blender+blendigo+Indigo =

cost you nothing (except archicad of course)

Hi Miki,

What was the rendering time on this image? Also, how well did Archicad transfer the files to blender? Any other interesting things you've found using that software?

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:02:04 GMT

Well, I overkilled it a bit (cautics etc.) and it took ~80h. Keep in mind almost no test renders were needed though. And I was learning it. It looked pretty straight forward (conversion wise). Convert geometry (3ds or obj) ->adjust materials (in blender using blendigo) -> assign lights (support of IFC light is great) -> hit render and wait (go see movie and sleep )

couple of test

check the indigo gallery, and very supportive forum.

Re: Archicad the best solution?

Dwight — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:06:38 GMT

how many pixels in 80 hr??