PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DESIGNERS 3D CAD SHOOT-OUT
by Professor Geoffrey Moore Langdon
As of today (Thursday, 11 December 1997) all the results in all the categories of Designers 3D CAD
Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems are now posted on the Web site. We
have also started uploading all the Teams actual drawing submissions done
during the 3 hour charrette, starting with the MiniCAD Team, which is the
overall winner and now current holder of the Architectural CADD Cup.
Four Teams came away from the competition as the clear winners - winning
over 85% of all the categories between them :
- The MiniCAD Team, winner of the Architectural CADD Cup, and many of the
categories.
- The AllPlan Team, which missed out on the Architectural CADD Cup by one
vote, but was the favorite of the judges on the jury by a comfortable
margin, and winner of many categories.
- The ArchiCAD Team, which, with 6 first places, 6 second places, and 6 third
places actually was the medal winner with 18 over MiniCAD with 17, in the
various categories, and, in particular, took some of the most important
categories, such as best architectural collaboration software.
- The Microstation TriForma Team, which was the audience's first choice, and
also a clearly excellent software winning a number of other categories.
The judges on the jury were very very conscientious and scrutinized not
just the final end products but carefully watched the process and
techniques the Teams used, so they could give us some insights in a number
of categories, such as how easy and how accurate were the 3D modeling
details. Each of the 12 CAD softwares represented are excellent and ideal
for some practitioners in our widely diverse construction industry. In many
cases the Teams were able to make their point and appeal. Thus, it is
important to look at the results in areas critical to your firm - for
instance, BuildersCAD, though not a top placer, clearly demonstrated that
it may be the best software for design build firms. An analysis of each
Team will be posted soon.
Also of interest is the software currently used by the audience, and
whether they planned to change what software they use after seeing the
competition. As is typical of architects in New England the predominant
software in use is DataCAD, followed closely by AutoCAD (with all the
various versions combined), followed distantly by MiniCAD, Microstation,
and No CADD use.
We invite you to take a look at the results, and to look at the drawings
and judge for yourself. Once all the Team drawings are posted we will have
a Web vote, so you can tell us what you think.
The Designers 3D CAD Shootout