Many years ago, when I persuaded our office to go into CAD, I devised a small project comprising a workstation (we were doing a lot of large office interiors) and invited CAD vendors to draw it, from scratch, whilst I watched them do so. The demo was done in the supplier's own office so that there could be no excuses for poor equipment. I gave them several weeks notice, so that they would be prepared, but did not give them the project. They got 2 hours to produce a dimensioned plan, elevations and one 3D view. Only one vendor could produce it in the time and that is what we bought.
What was disappointing then, and it might be the same these days, is how poorly prepared vendors were to demonstrate their product on a real project. The representatives doing the demo's just didn't know how their software worked, and our assesment may have been based on the competence of the demonstrator, rather than on that of the product.
But, are there better ways to evaluate a new product?
KeesW
Cornelis (Kees) Wegman
cornelis wegman architects
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