Ouch!!! Chief Architect Australia get scalped !!

I just need to post something so you know that I am still alive! It's been quite a busy couple of months though I have a number of good articles in the works and some good ideas coming from James I have just not found the time or energy to spend in carefully editing a detailed post but I thought this could be of interest to aussie cadders.

Chief Architect I was surprised to learn had a support team/supplier in Australia but now in the words of the supplier "Chief Architect Inc's USA short sighted management has made the decision that in an effort to support all Chief Architect users 'more efficiently' (?) they will totally eliminate the middle men.. i.e. their remaining commercial Chief Architect dealers acoss the world, before the end of the year.. and have started the ball rolling by terminating the contracts of Gordon McDermott and his dedicated team at BayCAD in New Zealand.. and of course ourselves here at Chief Australia." Read the rest of their web page epitaph here. They don't sound too happy! ...."Only an American company could stoop this low in an effort to save their own skins." Ouch! Them's fighting words.

I came across a small local firm here in Perth that was using CA when I was starting out with ADT. A builder I worked with also bought CA 1997 thinking he could do some of his own drawings but he ended up giving it to me and my kids enjoyed playing with it. It's great how you can very easily get something you could immediately show a client with a walk through, something it would be great if we could do in ACA now 12 years later! Sigh!

Here's a link to a great 'Walk Through' presentation from ArchiCAD's Virtual Building Explorer from a young local team that are doing fantastic things using ArchiCAD. (VBE is a paid for add-on to AC). It's about a 14mb download that allows you to tour the house like you would a 3D game. Sensational. Worth the download.
http://mikasadesigns.com.au/Jacobs.html

So when can I do this in ACA? I've just been playing with Design Review 2010 and it's just not up to the standard required. Lighting washes out the materials for my front view, the camera view too narrow to negotiate the internal of the model for a walk through and it's awkward to navigate. It's pretty pathetic in comparison with what I see in the ArchiCAD's VBE.

I have changed work places and am now in a better place of common sense. I have brought ACA into an Autocad, Autosketch, ArchiCAD, chaotic environment and am going thru the phase of standardizing the work practises around ACA. (Heck even with Autocad there is various plot files being used - all custom and none any good) Is that a good idea?? I don't know! ArchiCAD is the prime tool in the residential housing market here (or Autosketch and I'm not going there!!) as it has been well marketed here in Perth. I don't like ArchiCAD.... too messy and proprietory but should I be going Revit? I don't know why I want to spend more money and another 2 years becoming profficient in another package to do what I can already do but it's a different story setting up an office. So I wrestle!! At least with ACA on subscription it's a small step to the Revit Arch suite if they decide on that path in the future. I've spent so much time with ACA and finally comfortable setting up content and standard palletes etc.

Ah! Such is life.

Best to ya!