Migrating from Chief Architect

[Anonymous]

I am migrating our office from Chief Architect to ArchiCad later this week. Do you have any suggestions or advice for us to minimize the designer's trauma? This was my idea so any issues that crop up will be rightly laid in my lap.

Thanks
Jon

[Anonymous]

This has been discussed a lot in the past.. a search should get you some answers.. May I ask what type of work you specialize in and what is Chief Architect NOT doing you hope ArchiCAD will?

[Anonymous]

jonthepain wrote:
I am migrating our office from Chief Architect to ArchiCad later this week. Do you have any suggestions or advice for us to minimize the designer's trauma? This was my idea so any issues that crop up will be rightly laid in my lap.

Thanks
Jon

Jon,
Its probably safe to assume that migrating from Cheif Architect means you do primarily residential work. If you list some of you initial concerns, maybe we can give you a little more specific guidance.

Also, please visit the following thread/wish about a "Residential Forum". Please post your opinion about this suggestion as it relates to your new experience with ArchiCAD. Please also be sure and Vote

Here's the link: http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=8306
Dan K

[Anonymous]

Rashid,
I'll do a search-I am sure that'll get me up to speed concerning "concerns."
Thank you.

Dan,
Good call-we do high end residential design.

Re: Reasons for a big change-

My boss-the lead designer-needs a smooth walkthrough because he often modifies his design with the clients in his office. CA takes several seconds to render each camera view; there is no walkthrough capability.

By the same token, I need software that changes from 2D to 3D windows quickly. It is frustrating for the designer to watch me waiting for a 3D view to render for 20 seconds so that I can check my work.

My want is a 2D interface that is similar to Autodesk products. CA is frustrating to use in drafting mode for someone with Autodesk experience.

I have been taking Autodesk product courses at our local college thinking that we would go that route, however, after putting several CAD programs through their paces at the Baltimore home show this past weekend, we settled on ArchiCAD. It had a smooth walkthrough inside a fairly complex live (editable) file and still looked good enough to impress clients. CA is somewhat prettier, but time is money.

I'll try and come up with some specifics when the CDs come in. Right now I'm just spinning my wheels in Demo mode. Oops there goes the phone again...

Thanks
Jon

[TomWaltz]

jonthepain wrote:
I am migrating our office from Chief Architect to ArchiCad later this week. Do you have any suggestions or advice for us to minimize the designer's trauma? This was my idea so any issues that crop up will be rightly laid in my lap.

Thanks
Jon

You should look at getting the "Project Framework" book from ObjectsOnline.com. It is a pretty solid guide on how to use Archicad in the real world.

[Anonymous]

Will do. I was concerned about which book to choose after reading some very negative reviews about some of them on Amazon.

[TomWaltz]

jonthepain wrote:
Will do. I was concerned about which book to choose after reading some very negative reviews about some of them on Amazon.

Amazon's last Project Framework was for Archicad 6.5 The latest edition covers Archicad 8.1 (even though 9 is the current version).

I would go through objects online. They should have the newer version.

[Anonymous]

Project Framework is available from CadImage too, I've only seen up to Ac8.1 version, don't know if Ac9 edition is available.
Jon, it looks from your avatar that you could do with Dwight's "Lightworks in ArchiCAD" too.

[Richard Morrison]

Jon,

I won't try to argue you out of ArchiCAD, of course, but the reasons you've listed below are not the best reasons to switch. (There are better reasons to switch.) Some are just wrong. See below.

jonthepain wrote:
Rashid,
Re: Reasons for a big change-

My boss-the lead designer-needs a smooth walkthrough because he often modifies his design with the clients in his office. CA takes several seconds to render each camera view; there is no walkthrough capability.

No, just use Chief Architect in Render mode with the "dolly" tool active. ArchiCAD can generate MOVIES in a way that Chief can't, but for real-time movement within a model with the client sitting next to me, Chief does as well as ArchiCAD, IMO, maybe better.

By the same token, I need software that changes from 2D to 3D windows quickly. It is frustrating for the designer to watch me waiting for a 3D view to render for 20 seconds so that I can check my work.

You can have both 2D & 3D windows open concurrently in Chief, just like AC. If you're taking 20 sec. to render, something is wrong-- bad hardware, too large of a model, etc.

My want is a 2D interface that is similar to Autodesk products. CA is frustrating to use in drafting mode for someone with Autodesk experience.

Well, AC's 2D drafting tools are superior to CA's, as is the whole area of CD production, but I would try to get AutoCAD out of your bones before using ANY other drafting program. If you try to treat them as similar, you will just get frustrated.
<snip>

[Anonymous]

Smooth walkthroughs are available in real time, in Open GL mode, if you can approximate textures adequately, and lighting is not an issue, and everything generally looks darker and gloomy, and glass is either totally obscure or totally invisible. (Maybe CA does this better? I'm not qualified to answer that one).
I have recently had clients sitting beside me for most of a day going through their new house, room by room, tweaking things here and there (windows, materials, room sizes and layouts) until they were happy with what they were getting (sometimes going around in circles, back to what we had proposed in the first place. We are the professionals, after all). They really got a feel for what we were giving them, and with a few quick LW renders for better quality textures etc, they went away very happy. ArchiCAD was a superb tool for this.