ADT 2005 Review

[aaronrumple]

http://www.aecbytes.com/review/ADT2005.htm

[gregcashen]

And in conclusion...


...as the architectural profession and the building industry as a whole eventually move away from the reliance on 2D drawings to communicate the information in a building information model, and instead rely more on the intelligence of the model itself to yield the required information, a solution like ADT is likely to lose ground, particularly to the more sophisticated BIM offerings in the AEC industry.

:wink:

[Scott D Davis]

Wanna see some sparks fly? Post that quote "over there." :D

[aaronrumple]

Given the lack of BIM apps on the market - good to see that Revit is now one of the "more sophisticated BIM offerings"...

;)

[hand471037]

Remember that the person who wrote this article (who's very nice BTW, she's local and I've talked with her once) is very pro-Revit, and as such is gonna make quotes like that. :)

[Scott D Davis]

Very true Jeffrey! She obviously remains very 'objective' in her writing, and tells it like it is. Here's a quote that I like, considering most that swear by ADT, site the fact that it's autoCAD based as an advantage....


The AutoCAD base of ADT, which is currently its key strength, is also its biggest limitation from a long-term perspective. While ADT makes AutoCAD significantly more productive as an architectural tool, the BIM-related benefits it can deliver are necessarily limited by the object-CAD technology it is built on. As the industry moves to replace 2D drafting with vastly superior and more intelligent building information modeling technologies, the benefits of ADT will no longer be as compelling. While the interface enhancements introduced in versions 2004 and 2005 have improved the usability of ADT well beyond earlier releases, ADT remains a daunting software and takes serious effort to learn and master. The process of creating and editing building objects such as walls, slabs, roofs, and so on was significantly improved in ADT 2004, but still remains complex and not very intuitive. For instance, ADT does not even have an option in its Wall tool to directly create a rectangular set of walls, which is such a basic requirement—you still need to create four separate wall segments to accomplish that. And although the new grips capabilities for moving walls while retaining connectivity are certainly a very welcome improvement, no similar relationships exist between other building components to facilitate intelligent interaction with less user intervention.

[gregcashen]

It is interesting to note she has a PhD in Architectural Technology or something, so she is approaching it, not from the bias of using the software, but of how the software should work, period. I think it lends some credibility to her views on Revit...she is not biased by having bought licenses, she just firmly believes that BIM is the future.

[hand471037]

Lachmi Khemlani has a great outlook on this stuff, has used many different platforms, written books on some of them, and even did her thesis and studies on this stuff (I know, I was part of one). Definate big-picture kinda stuff.

I think her outlook on this is way better than most 'CAD collumnists' who seem to either spout marketing dribble that's only slightly altered from the company press releases or haven't worked in the field for several years now and who's last production experance was on Autocad 14 or ADT 2... which unfortunately is a lot of the 'CAD press' if you will. IMHO that's why so much of the stuff written about CAD can be just so strange sometimes!

[Wes Macaulay]

She's also talked about the Achilles heel of Revit too with respect to large projects -- not that you can't do them, you just have to know how.