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Autodesk Architecture Performance

jmanganelli

I haven't used autodesk architecture or autocad in about two and a half years, though i used to be very good with it, very fast.

even so, it was often a slow, cumbersome app -- it would struggle on big projects or with lots of text, etc, even at times on a first generation quad core machine with a quadro fx gpu

these last couple of years, i have kept up with the changes/improvements autodesk has made. after years of sluggish development and response to user needs, from my somewhat distant perspective, it seems these last couple of year autodesk has made great strides with a number of their products

recently, i had need to do some technical detailing so i decided to do it in autodesk architecture. i was a bit excited to get back to it, especially to see all of the exciting new features, the GUI, etc

i figured i'd import my rhino model (small, rectilinear) and start breaking it apart for detailing

performance was underwhelming. for all the new, the gui, the added features, bringing in a simple 3d model and detailing with a bunch of annotations was no faster or smoother than it has ever been

has anyone else had a similar experience? It seems the improvements of the last few years have not been well integrated/ have not addressed optimization.

given the success and user experience i've had with rhino and doublecad these laste couple of years, it is difficult to understand why anyone would pay $3500 for autocad or $5000 for autodesk architecture

 
Feb 7, 11 8:39 am
le bossman

are you talking about architectural desktop? personally, i don't understand the existence of the program, given the presence of revit in the autodesk family. it has a primitive bim platform, similar to vectorworks. the only thing good about it is that it can coordinate window schedules and automatically heal walls when you insert windows and doors.

Feb 7, 11 9:45 am  · 
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jmanganelli

yes, architectural desktop. it is autocad with an architectural package built on. i've worked at three firms since 2004 and all of them used it

in each, we looked at moving to revit. in each, leadership decided against it b/c:
- institutional clients wanted electronic copies of the .dwg files for all renovations and new work
- contractor and consultants did not use their respective revit variants and the entire design/build group wanted to stick with one platform
- industrial clients were still using 2d autocad documents with no plans to change anytime soon and required dwg files in autocad for all facilities development and renovation

i think even though it is not autodesk's flagship product, it will be around for a while until large clients update the way they maintain electronic documents of projects and until the revit variants for structure, mechanical, etc are on part with revit architecture. i've been told by consultants that revit structure is close but mechanical not even close yet

but even with revit, when we looked at it in late 2007/early 2008, the reseller recommended we'd still want autocad or autodesk architecture for detailing b/c revit's drafting is not as good --- don't know if this is still true

point is, coming back to autocad reminded me of why i stopped using it

Feb 7, 11 10:32 am  · 
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