Thursday, February 14, 2008

2D CAD sucks

I've recently been forced to work on an Autocad project out of neccessity (lack of staff). I have to say that after spending 12 hours attempting to somehow remeber what I'm doing in Autocad, it just plain sucks. I really truly beleive that moving to a non object based Computer Tool like 2D CAD was one of the worst things our industry ever did. We should've stuck with pen & paper until a tool like Revit or Archicad or Tri-Forma came along. At least when we were drafting on paper (or whatever) a person really thought about what it was they were going to represent when that line was drawn, because no one wanted to redraw. With 2D CAD we got the notion of "oh its easy to change". Well yes, its easier to change, but working in 2D CAD has I think also fostered a notion of "we don't really think about what is going on" Now, this is not to say that people don't think when working in CAD, but I think you also can't deny that these ideas do potentially prevade our profession in some form or another, at different levels of intensity. I simply cannot beleive how painful it is to manipulate "stuff" in 2D CAD versus an object modeler like Revit. I am so frustrated by this, I simply want to run from my office screaming....

Sorry this isn't much of an informational post, but I'm somewhat frustrated..

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You might want to take a look at a different CAD product. General CADD is very easy to use and learn. www.generalcadd.com

Unknown said...

You might want to take a look at a different CAD product. General CADD is very easy to use and learn. www.generalcadd.com

William J. Polhamus, I said...

I have two Autocad Classes under my belt that I took in the 90's. Sounds like you have not drawn a lot if your having to remember what you were taught. Getting a B.C. in Architecture does not make you a draftsman. Revit is a good tool for show and tell. You can not throw a program like this at centuries of established industry practices and expect it to work miracles. This is going to be the largest learning curve that a contractor will ever face.

Robert said...

"Sounds like you have not drawn a lot if your having to remember what you were taught."

I actually never received any formal training in Autocad. So, remembering something I never totally learned (and never really wanted to) made a frustrating week that much more challenging.

"Revit is a good tool for show and tell."

I would argue that Revit is far more useful then just a "show and tell tool". Revit is a powerful program for designing and documenting a building.

"This is going to be the largest learning curve that a contractor will ever face."

If a contractor is using Revit, and interested in IDP, then yes, there is a huge learning curve. If an architect is using Revit to develop a typical set of 2D documents as a final product. Then there is no learning curve for them, only us. It is still important to know what a good 2D document look like, but I don't need to know how to use Autocad to develop a good 2D document.

William J. Polhamus, I said...

"I have to say that after spending 12 hours attempting to somehow remeber what I'm doing in Autocad"

This leads anyone to believe that you have had some Autocad training.

"I really truly beleive(sp) that moving to a non object based Computer Tool like 2D CAD was one of the worst things our industry ever did."

Been doing it since the 70's. Worked fine and is still working fine.

"working in 2D CAD has I think also fostered a notion of "we don't really think about what is going on"

a good set of shop drawings in the hands of a competent person(not a newbie out of college, with the greatest computer software program) is and will be what the end fabricator always uses. Revit gets you close, but architects do not know everything, and much of the designing is left to subs.

Anonymous said...

I have just recently started using Revit MEP 2011 and 2012 and I think it absolutely sucks period as a program. This program is totally not efficient at all and especially the piping module for plumbing vs heating piping applications is terrible. Whoever the people were at Autodesk that wrote the software need to go back to the drawing board. Autocad is such a cakewalk to do things and in my opinion is so much easier of the two ways to do when issuing contruction docs. Revit flat out is a joke!!!