PowerCADD files from 2005

[JaredBanks]

Does anyone know the easiest way to open PowerCADD files into ArchiCAD? In the next week or two I'm probably going to be working on an old project done by a now retired freelancer who used to work in PowerCADD. So I have the files, but not access to the program nor the person who did them. Joy.

Thoughts? I'm thinking I could perhaps download a free trial of PowerCADD or some other program that can read the files (Are there any?) Fun. Fun.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

There doesn't seem to be any trial version to download from the website. You may be to find a user who can export the DWG for you. At $995 it's a bit much for a single use unless it's a big project.

Assuming you have hard copies, it may be easier and even better to just scan those and trace over them in ArchiCAD. That way you aren't subject to possible drafting/modeling errors due to snapping to dodgy points in the DWG. It is not uncommon for 2D drafters to get their drawings good enough for print but not accurate enough for modeling.

[JaredBanks]

Matthew,

$995 is a bit steep! I would love to do everything from scratch -especially because some of the original drawings (elevations among other things) were hand drawn. I have a feeling though that the fee is going to be tiny. Nonetheless I will definitely argue for redrawing everything if the revisions are more than a couple of little tweaks. I'll probably end up tracking down someone who has PowerCADD.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

You might check the PowerCADD discussion board at

http://www.designcommunity.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=3

to see if someone would like to give you a hand translating PowerCADD files to DWG. If there aren't too many I might be able to help.