CAD, BIM & 3D

SpecifiCAD (found at http://cadalytic.com/index.php?dir=products ) is a plugin for AutoCAD Architecture (ADT), Revit, Bentley Architecture and SketchUp to retrieve "generic" building products and to be able to swap them with vendor-specific parts when required. I assume it is US-oriented. It is currently available as a free beta-version and an ArchiCAD version is in the pipeline as well. It is not mentioned, but I assume it is only for Windows. The CAD-versions use the iDrop technology from Autodesk, while the SketchUp version uses the 3D Warehouse. But most current CAD software is (or will be) compatible with the 3D Warehouse as well.

On http://hypercosm.com/download/teleporter/sketchup/index.html you can download a free (Windows-only) exporter for SketchUp 5 or 6 to export models for the Hypercosm player. With this plug-in for web browsers, people can interactively view your model from SketchUp, without the need to open a file or have SketchUp installed. Not for Linux or Mac. Also available for 3ds max. Also available as a non-free Pro-version.

At http://www.k-3d.org you can download the Open Source K-3D application. While not as extensive as Houdini, it mimics the approach and workflow of the procedural animation toolkit for modeling, rendering and animation. And the best part: available for Windows, Linux and OSX (when all additional problems are solved). Everything is set up very flexible: you can use different rendering engines, such as Aqsis and YafRay, you can make networks of interconnected parameters, you get a flexible interface and you can extend it at will. Not bad.

With the new release of ArchiCAD 11, the student version is still freely available. Register at https://eduregistration.graphisoft.com for a temporary serial number. After about a month, you should be contacted by the local reseller for a final serial number for the rest of the year. The software is available for Windows and Mac (Intel and PPC) and is fully compatible with the commercial release (libraries, updates, add-ons). It displays a watermark on the viewport, plotted files and exported PDFs, but is fully functional. Commercial users might want to look at the BIM Experience Kit , which contains a 30-day fully functional trial version and tutorials and examples. Don't Use Cracks, Download ArchiCAD!