CAD, BIM & 3D

Moving from CorelDRAW to … I have been a longtime CorelDRAW user. Around 1997, I bought a license for CorelDRAW 7 when I was working as an architect. And till today, I have good memories of its decent drawing tools, multi-page layout capabilities and very usable grids and snapping tools. It came with a huge third CD-ROM filled with clipart. Quality was OK, content varied, but just to point at the times we were in, you received a full third book as a printed catalog of all clipart! CorelDRAW is not just vector drawing. It was a suite, including PhotoPAINT , which was more than enough and replaced Photoshop for me. The other company programs varied over the years, from CorelDREAM (an entry-level 3D modelling software) to R.A.V.E. for Flash animations and some additional utilities, such as a Font manager, Image Vectorisation, a collection of fonts etc… The computer store suggested my to buy it as an upgrade, which did not pose any problems whatsoever for installation (“You can upgrade fr...

This is part 1 of a series of posts about getting BIM data into Unity. After our introductory post, we go through the basics of getting an ArchiCAD model into Unity. Getting from ArchiCAD & Unity The following model is the final result of my first series of Video Tutorials for ArchiCAD ( recorded with ArchiCAD 16 ). Taking ArchiCAD files into Unity is easiest when passing through Cinema 4D, using the Exchange Add-on, which allows ArchiCAD to export native C4D files and which has an option to integrate updates to the model, while retaining materials and animations in the Cinema 4D project. Cinema 4D projects can be placed directly in a Unity project, in the Assets folder, which triggers a background FBX conversion. You can also opt to export the model manually which gives more control. Either way, you end up with the ArchiCAD geometry into Unity, following the structure and hierarchy that was visible in Cinema 4D. Updates to the ArchiCAD model can be synced in Cinema 4D and ...