I'm just the opposite... I know AutoCAD so well that I find myself using it as a crutch when I should really be using Illustrator, InDesign, or just drawing by hand.

wait a minute...u can draw by hand? whoa. it never occurred to me to do that....

i don't want to sound like a broken record but , Rhinoceros is the solution and replacement to all my problems

A'sthenes - u need to work on your stump speech.

hah

look at this new plug-in, I know your not a bike architect but...

http://www2.rhino3d.com/resources/display.asp?language=&listing=4340

Rhino is my favorite hammer too

uh...that plug-in is amazing...

what about hammer?

sorry bout the music... no wait, crank it!

Valve's Hammer (when it was called Worldcraft) was my intro to 3d modeling. You can complain about the lack of complex modeling tools but you have to remember that its designed for use with a compiler (bsp, vis, & rad) that handles geometry in a particular way to run smoothly realtime in the game. Plus, because it is so simple its quick to learn.

I think there's something to be said for teaching architecture students something like Hammer for their first 3d modeling program - make them compile the model and walk around it like a human being does instead of spinning a model around in the modeling program (treat the model like an environment and not an object).

I always used to enjoy walking around my models in ArchiCAD, and I've always toyed with the idea of using the Unreal Engine or something to make a map of a project and then run around it during presentations.

TO EVOLVE OR DIE!

i like playing with hammer for two reasons...

physics (which is starting to make its way into max, etc)

and artificial intelligence.... i really am hoping i can create environments out of intelligent swarms... now that would be cool. sadly, that's beyond my small time scripting abilities. for you kids in school with oodles of time on your hands, do that.

but i have a problem with using a 3d program to "experience" an environment... not that it's not useful, it is, it's just that something is lost in the translation...

revit? if i wanted to spend my days entering data spreadsheets i would have become an accountant

Postal, maybe something is lost in the translation, but would you still say that a static rendering, an animation, or even a scale model is a better representation of an designed space than a compiled game environment is? I'm only saying I think it is good in relation to those things and that the game environment is the closest to the real built thing that we have.

CAD drawing is great for the client, cos they can see the thing in photorealistic level and no need to be cheated by those fake free hand rendering no more.

unplugged: No. 2 lead pencil, statler mars eraser, yellow bumwad

hand drafting is coolio in scool cuz no need to change dwgs and duplicate bits hundreds of times to make acceptable basic plans and elevations, etc. on project with many players and during construction even the number of changes and corrections and additional info needed made my life a kind of personal hell when i first began in office. i LOVE cad all to bits for saving me that hassle...AND for making it possible for me to do all that crap work so fast i don't need to hire someone i can'T afford to do all the revisions for me.

i don't know revit. i do know most of the rest. so far we do most work in autocad, except modeling, for which we go analog or use c4d...rhino is now looking to be important though cuz we got a job that requires scripting. so now i am learning that nonsense. but if i didn't/couldn't do that the work would go elsewhere. so again i LOVE cad. makes my life possible...

except for all those times when it sucks.

Think of the things that are the most tedious to do in 2d cad programs:

1) scheduling & tagging
2) area calculations and other take-offs
3) keynoting
4) coordination between drawings

BIM (my experience is with Revit specifically) makes these things 10x easier to manage and with greater accuracy. The worst parts of a drafter's job go away.