New to BIM and Looking for Advice

[Anonymous]

I am considering leaping into BIM technology to advance myself professionally and creatively. I am Mac, and have been since the introduction of the first Mac. I really want to invest in ArchiCad as opposed to AutoDesk/Revit, but would appreciate advice and counsel from those who are more fully entrenched. Is ArchiCad here to stay? Is it considered an industry standard? Will I be able to exchange files to and from AutoDesk or other CAD programs? I am eager to learn. Any help would be appreciated more than I can say.

[Erich]

Well, no one else has taken a shot at predicting the future so I will. Our office made the switch to BIM, in ArchiCAD it is called Virtual Building, a few years ago. We were a PC office and looked at ArchiCAD, Revit, and Vectorworks as our main contenders. ultimately we decided that for our needs ArchiCAD worked best. It has a long, 20+ years, history and was obviously not just a flash in the pan. It communicated better with the other programs we needed. It handles text better than Revit (at least at the time, I am not sure if this is still true). And best of all it has this wonderful forum. Today, we are primarily a Mac office and are quite happy.

The bad new is that here in the US Autodesk again appears to be buying the market with free Revit upgrades and massive marketing, so ArchiCAD will remain a niche player, although hopefully with a bit bigger market than before. For us that was not a problem as we are a small office and have VERY stable staffing. For you...you must decide.

"Is ArchiCAD here to stay?" It appears to be from both it's history as well as the things you hear. However, like life, there is no guarantee. But they don't appear to be going away soon.

Poke around on the forum and you can begin to see some of the issues that surround the change to a BIM solution. With decent training, or if you are lucky enough to have someone who can champion the program, you should be fine whatever program you choose. Without that, the best program in the world will fail you completely.

If you have other detailed questions, you can PM me and I will answer what I can.

[Pete]

I have used a PC for 24 years. There were times when I wondered how long it would be before Microsoft drove Mac to the boneyard. Last year I switched to Mac and couldn't be happier.

Since you obviously were not swayed by the market dominance of the PC, I would not worry about Autodesk's market share in the US. A lot of people hate Autodesk for the same reasons they hate Microsoft.

ArchiCAD is a great tool and great tools (like Mac's) tend to stick around, possibly even flourish in the face of a Goliath.