cadimage / cigraph - user experiences?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I've watched some CADimage videos and it looks like they have some very interesting tools.

The standard AC stairs are a pain to use, the cadimage stairs tool looks both more powerful and simpler to use - in their own video of course.
Wall cladding is another thing that is hard in AC and looks easy in CADimage.

Apparently, CIgraph is offering a similar set of tools. The website and tool menus look outdated in comparison to CADimage.

CADimage is subscription based, which I like for this purpose.The risk in investing is minimal and should AC21 offer new tools that make cadimage plugins redundant, I can just unsubscribe. CADimage claims that you can still open the AC files afterwards and that the geometry will still be there. However, you won't be able to alter the components. Any experiences on that?

For CIgraph you have to buy a license for all the plugins, rather than subscribe. This option is probably too expensive for me right now, unless someone can convince me it is really worth it.

I'm having a hard time finding reviews on CADimage. I've found some threads here about frustrations with the cadimage update for AC20 and the lack of documentation of the changed tools.
I also found this older post that did not sound very positive:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=40186&postdays=0&postorder=desc&&start=30

What are your experiences with the latest version and the latest updates?
I have 3 concerns, it would be interesting to hear your opinion on one or more of those:

1. design - will it help to produce better looking and more customized designs more rapidly?

2. documentation - is 2D representation better and more flexible that in the AC native tools?

3. favorites - can you easily make and manage favorites from the cadimage tools?

4. backward compatibility - any experience on using older files after you cancelled your subscription? Can you still convert to morph after unsubscribing so you can alter geometry manually if needed?

Thanks a lot for your help!
Patrick

[Richard Morrison]

Some thoughts off the top of my head. I used to really like Cigraph's ArchiTerra, and had a couple of other useful modules. However, since they went to a dongle-based system, they lost my business. As a (then) current user, I was supposed to get a free dongle, but that never happened. At this point, I am not willing to deal with the hassle of another dongle. Fabrizio there was great, but I haven't seen much of him lately, so don't know too much what kind of support the company currently provides. Much of the benefits of some of the other modules, like ArchiForma, has been eliminated by the improvements in native AC. Also, they were not always there with updates when new AC versions came out, which was a big problem. In short, good stuff, but headaches.

I have a subscription to Cadimage tools. I like them, generally, but there are headaches there, too. The Cabinets tool is very good, but WAY too many pages of parameters. Still, for what I want, it's the best and most flexible. If you use keynotes, then I think the Keynotes tool is probably the best out there. I like the Coverings tool for the gutters and downspouts, and it has some nice fascia and eave options in the roof tools, along with tile roofing. Objective does some specialized things very well. Electrical does not work very well with their USA parts, and annoys me greatly, because I would really like this to work. Complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Stairs are pretty good, but not without a learning curve and their own set of headaches. Doors and Windows are very flexible, but still not to USA standards, especially regarding casings, which wouldn't necessarily affect you. They STILL don't have comprehensive documentation for AC20.

Yet the subscription model works pretty well; you can start and stop easily and they seem to keep up with new AC releases. Generally, I've found that Cadimage parts can still be resized after a subscription expires, but that's the the only changeable aspect. You CAN convert Cadimage parts to morphs. Favorites work well. Why not try the free Cadimage demo out and see what you think? Hope that helps...

[Anonymous]

Hi Richard, thanks for the feedback!

I was planning to demo some cadimage tools, but after I made sure it was worth trying out. A big part of what I wanted to know is not in the demo: compatibility between versions, updates to new AC versions within reasonable timeframes, workable models after the subscription is cancelled..
That's why I wanted feedback from longterm users like you.

I guess starting out with a demo is the wisest thing to do, if the benefits are big enough to compensate for the risk of loss of functionality, I'll go for a 2 tools subscription. Will be hard to choose between windows/doors, cabinets, coverings and stairs, so I might end up with a full subscription as well

[henrypootel]

Hi Guys

@pitrak - hope you managed to get up and running with a trial - let me know if you still have any questions.

@richard - re: the electrical tool, we do know that it's not particularly easy to use for US setups right now, and that's something I'd like to change. We're planning on doing a bit of work on it soon, so I was wondering if I could get in touch with you in a month or so, to talk a bit more about what kinds of things we could do to make it more friendly to those of you in the Americas. Let me know if you're keen.

[Richard Morrison]

henrypootel wrote:
@richard - re: the electrical tool, we do know that it's not particularly easy to use for US setups right now, and that's something I'd like to change. We're planning on doing a bit of work on it soon, so I was wondering if I could get in touch with you in a month or so, to talk a bit more about what kinds of things we could do to make it more friendly to those of you in the Americas. Let me know if you're keen.

Henry,
I would be delighted to give you my feedback. I'm pretty clear on what would be useful to U.S. users, and will start compiling my wishlist.

[henrypootel]

OK great - Thanks Richard!

I can't promise we can do everything, but we'll have a go.

We're still a bit snowed under getting all the V21 stuff sorted out, but once the dust has settled a bit in a month or two, I'll get in touch.

@pitrak - sorry to hijack your thread here. In answer to one of your earlier questions, I can tell you that we try to always release new versions of our tools on the same day that the corresponding ARCHICAD release is made. In the history of the Cadimage Tools existence, we've only missed this one time (version 18 - we were about 4 days late if memory serves). ARCHICAD 21 was released earlier today, and we released ARCHICAD 21 versions of our tools about 2 hours ago.