I stumbled upon Archicad sometime in the late 90's as it was being demonstrated at a construction industry trade show and was wowed by what I saw. At the time I was still drawing by hand and had dabbled in a couple of 2D CAD programmes but never saw any real benefit to them, but when I saw a "real" building emerging on the screen in front of me I knew it was time to join the revolution.
Within about a year I was able to purchase my first license, immediately threw the drawing board out and started modelling in 3D. The difference it made to my ability to discuss a clients design was incredible, previously I would show my clients (usually a couple) the plans for their new house, the wife would generally have no real idea what the house would look like and most husbands would pretend they understood, but now they could actually see the house, they could walk into their lounge and see how big the windows were and get a much better feel for the whole concept.
I have been using it now for nearly 25 years and it has taken me to work in 3 countries and every day I look forward to coming to work and using Archicad and learning some more about what I can do with it. It has allowed me to build a company with staff located around the world and for me to work from wherever I want.
To have a piece of software that is so simple and intuitive to use yet so incredibly powerful is a great feeling.
