[nzlug] Architectural CAD

[Olwen Williams]

My partner is an old-time manual draughtsman currently converting to
CAD. He had left the business, then had a bad accident, leaving him
physically unfit and ACC have funded some retraining.

The two most used programs for architects are probably Archicad and
Autocad.  Both are very expensive.  Archicad is specifically designed
for architecture and has NZ addons for our type of building.  There
are tutorials available.  Archicad also does not run on Linux as far
as I know, but there is a Mac version as well as the Windows version.

I would not consider Inkscape.  I just took a look at the Octree site
and it looks as if it's along the right lines.  I took a look at
something a while back which I can't remember the name of now.  I
didn't find it easy to use at all.

I think that this is one area where the right tool makes the job much
easier.  With Archicad once you have done the drawing cross-sections,
elevations, window and door schedule, lintel schedules, bracing
calculations, perspectives and floor plans are all available, and
updated as you change anything.  A big library of details is available
and many manufacturers provide details for their products on disk.

The other tool my partner has learned to use is Masterspec.
http://www.masterspec.co.nz/  I haven't seen it in action but it
produces a word document so it may be a complex word macro.  With this
he can produce a specification for a normal house in an hour or less.
Just select what you need and it's done.

On 09/03/07, Johann Schoonees <j.schoonees at irl.cri.nz> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Is anyone here in the architecture field - architecture as in buildings?
>
> I need to advise an architect on a free (mostly as in beer)
> architectural CAD program to run on Linux.  She has limited CAD
> experience from some years ago and now wants to give it a try again.
> If the CAD solution is good enough it may become the practice standard.
>
> http://www.free-architecture.org/?q=node/2 has an overview but, not
> being an architect, I found myself getting confused about what the
> various tools actually do.  What would an architect use for drawing up
> plans, elevations, etc. of an existing house, and for designing major
> extensions?
>
> Octree http://www.octree.de/ looks like a candidate but its no-source
> licence seems to limit it to non-commercial purposes only?
>
> BRL-CAD http://www.brlcad.org/ is under BSD, GPL and/or LGPL licences
> but looks more like solid modelling than architecture.
>
> Should I be considering Scribus http://www.scribus.net/ or Inkscape
> http://www.inkscape.org/ ?
>
> Other suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
> Johann
>