CAD, BIM & 3D

This week, for the first time, BricsCAD is released for the three major Operating Systems available: Windows, Linux and now also OSX. After getting rid of its IntelliCAD legacy, the Belgian company Bricsys retargeted BricsCAD as a DWG-compatible development platform for all kind of CAD uses: 2D drafting, 3D modelling and rendering, custom development, Mechanical Design and (a long time since the demise of the “Architecturals” module) now also for BIM Functionality. Let’s start with that first: How does BricsCAD approach BIM? From the Release notes: “Instead of creating a set of dedicated BIM primitives like walls, slabs, columns, etc..., each with their own restricted behavior and properties, we opted for offering maximum flexibility. Any 3D Solid can be used in a BIM model” This is interesting and in line with the way freeform and modelling software approaches BIM: define any geometry and classify it afterwards (e.g. SketchUp, Rhinoceros). BricsCAD is DWG based, but supports IFC impor...

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...

Disclaimer: I was asked (politely) by somebody from Cometdocs if I would be interested in reviewing this iOS app. This is my personal review and there was no financial compensation, but the software vendor was willing to provide additional information where needed. From PDF to CAD drawings This isn’t my first blog post on this subject and probably won’t be the last either. http://cad-3d.blogspot.com/2014/03/able2extract-converting-pdf-back-to-cad.html http://cad-3d.blogspot.com/2013/05/from-pdf-back-to-dwg.html Despite the fact that 2D CAD drawings are widely used and shared, many of them only in the form of a non-editable PDF. Or so the CAD drafters assume. Regardless of your motivation to return an exported PDF into editable format, I assume here that it is not to circumvent any copyright protection measures. Cometdocs PDF to AutoCAD (dwg) Cometdocs has several PDF related apps available in the App Store. Here we specifically look at PDF to AutoCAD (dwg) ( https://itunes.apple.com/...

When looking at the Graphisoft site, in the list of books, I’m always disappointed by the lack of ArchiCAD specific books. There are a few mentioned, but they are for older versions, usually (down to version 9 still, which is when the whole Publishing workflow was still in the external PlotMaker software). This is not usable today. The first book in the list, however, was a recent eBook, by Nicola Petkovic: it consist of 4 separate books. And that is what I’ll discuss in this blogpost. Master Class - Step by step guidebook You can order them separately or as a bundle, with discount. There is also the option to buy it as a hard-copy. Masterclass 1 (beginners level) - basics, tools (wall, slab, door, window, stair…), Priority-Based Connections, editing, basic floor plans and layout… Appendix 1 for Master Class 1 (Intermediate level) - plan & layout, building materials & PBE, window- and door markers, 3D sections/cutaway, Zone tool in 2D and 3D Appendix 2 for Master Class 2 (Inter...

Disclaimer : I was politely asked by the developer of this software to feature a review on my blog. They offered a free license code, so I could test out the software properly, but provided no other compensations and did not interfere with the actual review. They were available for questions, but the review is my personal opinion. What is Able2extract? The software allows you to convert PDF documents into editable digital documents in various formats. They focus on Microsoft Office formats (Word, PowerPoint and Excel), but also on CAD users, by allowing conversion into the AutoCAD DWG or DXF format. There is a Standard and a Pro version, with the major difference the addition of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in the Pro version, which will allow conversion of graphics into characters or text. http://www.investintech.com/able2extract.html The program is fairly easy to use. You load a PDF, define pages or selection areas to extract and then choose an output format. The...

Disclaimer : I was politely asked by Emily Donalds from Cometdocs to possibly feature a post on their PDF to AutoCAD webservice. While wary about advertisement, this is an open and free offer and useful for CAD users. On http://www.convertpdftoautocad.com you can (obviously) convert PDF files to the AutoCAD DWG format. In a time were probably every single PDF containing CAD drawings was originally created as a digital drawing anyway, it makes sense to optimise on this kind of drawings. You can go to the website and, without creating an account or registering, you can upload a PDF from your computer. It should not exceed 40MB and you need to be willing to enter your e-mail address, cause the conversion process will happen on their servers. The service is free and upon testing, was reasonably fast. The example I tried was a PDF from a elderly care centre provided during a research project and was originally drawn digitally (although I'm not aware of the exact software th...

While I can not put my hands on the new versions of both of these applications, the web is getting filled with announcements so it is a good moment to see where both of the most popular BIM authoring tools are going to. I go over the "new" features and see how they relate to their main competitor. This way, my post is not simply a copy-paste of the PR mailing ;) Revit 2014 I got most of what I learned about if from this blog post . Displaced views to make open perspectives is nice to have. ArchiCAD does not have it, but it could be faked when placing multiple views on a layout. Double click to edit sketch of floor/roof is also a nice, small improvement, that might be quite handy once you get used to it. I remember it from MiniCAD when I used it in 1998-2000. In ArchiCAD, you click on an element and a floating palette pops up with all editing functions that are relevant. In Revit, you get a few extra icons on the ribbon. Edit and manage materials in a single...

While they still don't have the same popularity as AutoCAD, the Belgian team of Bricsys produces a solid and (mostly) homegrown CAD system: BricsCAD is a DWG-compatible drafting and modeling system, which could replace AutoCAD (LT) in many cases. It is a low-cost alternative for accurate technical drafting and 3D modeling. They offer their software now for free for educational users, as announced on  http://blog.bricsys.com/2012/05/new-bricsys-academic-program.html The programming interfaces, allowing you to develop add-ons in a variety of programming languages (Lisp, C++, .NET), should also be available soon. Currently, you can already apply for free access to the developers program. This is quite useful as some developers use this software as the underlying platform for a full CAD solution (add-on and CAD-system) at the price of the add-on. BricsCAD runs on Windows and Linux and an OSX version is said to be in preparation.

At  http://processingjs.nihongoresources.com/bezierinfo/ you can read a quite detailed text about Bézier curves and the math behind them. Interestingly, most graphics are dynamic and you can interact with them, when you have a recent browser with good Javascript support. Nice and informative.

As announced on  http://news.progesoft.com/?eng&p=123 , the Italian developer progeSOFT released iCADMac , which is a version of progeCAD to OSX. According to http://www.deelip.com/?p=5389 , this is a branded version of ARES from Graebert. I don't really like the name of the product, but do try it out if you are looking for an alternative drawing software on OSX. I don't fully agree with their wordings of it being the "first real AutoCAD alternative for the Apple Mac OSX", since I already talked about other offerings, such as DraftSight, CADUntu and ARES and even AutoCAD itself . That said, competition is welcomed and while VectorWorks and ArchiCAD and AutoCAD are the "big" applications on OSX to beat, there is room for more. (edited: with link to deelip.com for more info)

Instant Scripts are free scripts (with pro-versions available, moderately priced) for architectural modeling inside SketchUp, created by Vali Architects. Nice story too: after a long time working in AutoCAD and writing scripts in AutoLisp he currently has more fun in SketchUp, yet still tries to be productive. Instant Roof Instant Road Instant Site Grader Example of what you could create with the Instant Roof script:

CAAD is not dead. But the word "Computer Aided Architectural Design" has been used for so many things, that it is hard to not have some kind of preoccupation with the meaning of it. While BIM is currently one of the most interesting approaches, it still is only a subpart of CAAD. Just like parametric design or semantic web can fit into it. But what I really wanted to share with you is a  wish list for the future of CAAD. Let us choose  any modeling approach and mix them in the amount we want Direct modeling, such as in SketchUp Parametric Modeling, with support for coding and graphical creation/editing, such as in Grasshopper or (to some extent) in Revit Start from measurements, e.g. pointclouds, surveyors data, geo-information, photographs... 2D drafting if you want Let us  work on ANY design phase and on ANY scale level  in the order we want in short (well, I did a PhD on that): we want to be able to elaborate rough models, but at the same time to be able ...

Today, I got a notice that the Mac version of AutoCAD is available from  Autodesk Educational Community > Mac4students . Downloaded, installed and activated in about 5 minutes. It does give a special feeling to not have to launch Parallels to open and edit DWG files with AutoCAD in Windows. And it works nice and smooth, which (unfortunately) was not the case with some competing CAD packages making the switch to OSX.

DraftSight , on which I already reported, has now been released for OSX as well as Windows. And a Linux version should be coming. This is free 2D CAD, but not Open Source. http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/draftsight-overview/ It's based on the ARES Commander software from Graebert, but only 2D. I loaded an old AutoCAD drawing and found the interface not too snappy. And frankly, while AutoCAD r13 or r14 was a good program, it has evolved. As a "copy" of an old AutoCAD 2D CAD program, I wonder why they don't try to do something original themselves. Draftsight reads DWG files, uses them as native format, and allows export of a drawing into SVG, PDF, bitmaps and, wait, STL? What? A 3D format to be exported from a 2D file? What were they thinking? Well, the STL export did not work due to missing components. And exporting the drawing into SVG crashed the application... Damn. Well, the SVG could be loaded into Inkscape, luckily, but then it was slow as hell. And the DX...

When you go to https://myarchicad.com/ you can register for a free download of ArchiCAD (as a trial, as a student, as a teacher and as a classroom version). The software is the "real" thing, but with banners on the output for the educational versions. Apart from ArchiCAD, you also get access to additional add-ons, such as EcoDesigner, MEP Modeller and many of the popular plugins. You can also register for Artlantis from there and there is a large collection of learning material as well.

The recently updated Autodesk Student Portal ( http://students.autodesk.com ) now hosts more software then ever (e.g. Revit, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Maya, Ecotext and many others) and the license terms have been extended from 13 months to 3 years for most of the applications. AutoCAD displays a banner on all printed material, but is otherwise complete and compatible. The Mac version should also become available "soon". You can also try other of their flagship software, such as Inventor, Softimage, MotionBuilder or Mudbox if you are interested.

If you register (and qualify as as student) at http://student.myvectorworks.net/ you can download and activate VectorWorks as an educational version. The student version is always the "previous" version. Will very soon be r2010 when r2011 is released. Now only r2009 is available. (edit: according to the comments, it seems that the most recent 2011 version should be available for students soon) It is free and available for OSX and Windows. The student version has a visible banner on all output. When your school has a lab-license, this allows you to print without banners. The software is fully functional and additional modules such as RenderWorks are included. The software has come a long way since the old "MiniCAD" I used in architectural practice. But despite that, I'm not still not fully convinced on the 3D interface. But even then, I did create some very usable 3D scenes even with the "first" VectorWorks version, so it can only be better than what i...

The Bricsys team now officially announced the availability of BricsCAD for Linux . This is a native Linux version, using wxWidgets toolkit to get a native Linux GUI and using to a large extent identical code as the Windows-version of BricsCAD. There aren't many options for DWG editing on Linux so this is a really welcomed addition to CAD on Linux. A large part of BricsCAD is available (programming in Lisp, Diesel, making add-ons in C++, modeling in 2D and 3D, etc...) but some features are just too connected to the Windows-platform (VBA and .NET scripting, OLE, ActiveX controls etc...). It is closed-source and commercial, but at a highly attractive price compared to AutoCAD. I've seen the presentations on the Developers Conference in Ghent this year and they explained their attention to quality control and stability and also how the Lisp Engine is much more performing than on Windows. If anybody has any experience with the Linux version, please react. How responsive is it with l...

OK. Everybody is talking about it. Many people have been requesting this for over 10 years now. And now Autodesk finally announced the imminent release of the mac-version of their still popular AutoCAD drafting and modeling software. What it is and what it does, you can read on countless other places. E.g. http://www.autodesk.com/autocadformac http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2010/08/autocad-for-mac-and-autocad-ws-for-ios-devices-announced-by-autodesk.html What it means to architects and education, is something I want to comment on. AutoCAD is a generic application. Many architects and engineers use it. You have to deal with DWG files even if you use other software. Offices working on Mac had to use other software (VectorWorks, ArchiCAD, ARES, eDrawings, soon BricsCAD) to load and inspect DWG files on a Mac. Or install Windows in either bootcamp or Parallels and install regular AutoCAD or a competing software. So there is now an (additional) option to load, inspect, edit and...

Graebert ( http://www.graebert.com ) is a CAD Developer who have released their ARES Commander Edition software for the three major platforms: Windows, OSX and Linux (in beta). It uses the Qt toolkit to make their GUI (and probably some other aspects) work on all platforms. The software is generic CAD, with 2D drafting and 3D Modeling features, such as reference files, ACIS solid modeling, programming (Lisp, C++, ARX-like, DRX), plotting/layouts, ... Some Windows-specific features (ActiveX, OLE, COM, VSTA) are obviously not supported in the OSX and Linux versions. Compatible with DWG files and similar commands to AutoCAD. It is commercial software, but currently, the introductory price is about €500 till the end of September 2010. There is a free trial version, which does not print or save, unless you register it and then it is a time-limited watermarked demo.