11 replies to this topic

[Kerry Calvert]

How do I fight off the push by a number of people in my office to switch from Sofplan to Archicad?

 

I have been using Softplan for longer than I care to mention and the company I work for has been using it for at least 14 years however the Archicad users are showing off their fancy 3D drawings which has management thinking a change may be due.

 

Shiny new bobbles have their attention and it is hard to fight off sparklies.

[Keith Almond]

Watching a couple of ArchiCAD video's it seems quite powerful, but REALLY REALLY UNINTUITIVE. It looks like it may have quite a learning curve.

[Yvon Gonthier]

It's hard to give an honest evaluation unless you use both programs extensively. As Keith mentions, video's and presentations are nice but it's always a question of the amount of work and time required to bring it to that level. I took a few courses some years ago when the company was looking at doing the switch and I hated it. Luckily, we stayed with Softplan.

 

The attraction of Autocad programs is that you have so many people trained on it because it covers so many industries. That's also a draw back because when you try to cover all fields, you don't specialize in anything thing.

 

It also takes time to build speed in programs like that and all the info (Symbols, ...) and plans that were created all these years.

[Daniel Zanoli]

What would it cost to purchase and train the entire staff to switch to a new software?  Wow...  

[Marcie Franklund]

I’ve got the opposite question. I’ve been asked to talk to two drafters to try to convince them that they should switch to SoftPlan from ArchiCAD. The company they work for would like them to switch because SoftPlan could save them time & money. But the drafters are against it because they don’t believe SoftPlan can give them the high level of projects that ArchiCAD does.

 

What should I tell them? I’ve never used ArchiCAD but I have heard it is somewhat similar to Revit which I spent several years in school trying to learn. What I couldn’t learn in a few years in Revit, I was drawing in SoftPlan in a week or 2. So where’s the drawback? Are there things they will no longer be able to do if they switch to SoftPlan?

 

Thanks!

[Gary McKeon]

ArchiCad is an awesome program. One of the biggest things it can do that Softplan doesn't are battered walls. The renderings are quite good as well. It is such a superior program in every way to the Autodesk line of programs. From my perspective, to gain all the advantages possible from ArchiCad you need to purchase pretty much all the different modules which is very pricey. The learning curve is quite steep as well and every few versions they do a major platform change which requires a bunch of new learning and updating of older plans. To me it is way overkill for residential work unless you are consistently doing multi-million dollar designs that require a tremendous amount of detailing. Once again, Softplan hits that sweet spot of value along with much easier to use than the other. Since Sketchup came along it has, in my opinion, reduced the need for these very high priced programs when coupled with Softplan. ArchiCad is also designed for large commercial and industrial sized projects which means there is an awful lot in the program that isn't needed for what we typically do. 

 

Marcie- no, there really isn't much these people can do in ArchiCad that can't be done in Softplan. What it does require is a different way of approaching the software as Softplan is not anywhere close to being a technically complex program to use as ArchiCad is. A lot of their users will interpret that to mean that Softplan is inferior when in reality they have just made it much easier to use instead of complicated.

[Thomas Davis]

Marcie- no, there really isn't much these people can do in ArchiCad that can't be done in Softplan. I fully agree! There are many SoftPlan users that can utilize the program to its fullest potential, thus being able to do anything the other programs can do!

 

What it does require is a different way of approaching the software as Softplan is not anywhere close to being a technically complex program to use as ArchiCad is. That is usually the hangup with Autocad users or any other users of complex CAD programs. The simplicity of SoftPlan does not make sense to them. It can't be that easy, and if it is, then the program must be inferior. The other issue is that since SoftPlan is so user friendly and easy to use, it challenges their years of training and "being set apart". If it is that easy, then anyone can pick it up (why did I spend years learning this other program)

 

A lot of their users will interpret that to mean that Softplan is inferior when in reality they have just made it much easier to use instead of complicated. It is always easier to train someone that has not been immersed in the "complex CAD environment", than it is a seasoned "complex CAD user". They have been brainwashed by the "industry standard" mentality that exists.

[Marcie Franklund]

Thank you Gary and Thomas! I will be meeting with them next week – I have a feeling they completely agree with the thought that SoftPlan must be inferior because of how easy it is to use. But I’ll try my best to convince them otherwise!

[randolph cohn]

simple "true" story

 

a school friend who was also a registered architect who used architectural desktop (the top autodesk product at the time) called me up and asked if he could come up and see this "softplan" program draw and do 3d renderings so quickly.  i had been telling him about.

 

he said he was getting tired of spending so much time on getting good 3d renderings, if any at all,

out of his program .  as we all know,  our clients require them now.  

as you know, softplan builds the models as you draw the floor plan.  yes!  it's that easy

 

my friend came with a contractor friend the next day and said, let's see softplan do it's thing.

 

i asked him to tell me what he wanted as i drew the walls, openings, roofs, etc, etc, etc,

 

 

i didn't show him any 3d as i was drawing.

i sent the two of them out to look at the view with some coffee.

I thru  in some landscaping and hardscape while he was gone.

called them back in after about 20 minutes.

 

the first thing they was was the 3d drawing on the screen.

 

after a few wows,  they asked for the softplan contact info and bought 2 programs later that day.

 

i've vever seen archicad in action but one architect told me he bought it and after a long time

of learning the program, he gave up on it,  it wasn't the program he was hoping for. i did tell him about softplan.

note: not sure what he's using now.  

 

btw, the person who convinced me to buy softplan was a registered architect from the east who

had left an architectural firm where he was the head of the CAD department.

before he left that firm, he spent 2 years checking out all the top cad program including the ones mention here.

he picked softplan.  that was good enough for me.  tom roman is still using softplan to this day.

 

 

check out the SMALLWOOD house tom did all in softplan at LINK below:

 

http://softplan.com/?page_id=524

 

 

 

http://tr-architecture.com/

 

randy - rpcdesign@aol.com

[Marcie Franklund]

Thanks Randy! Those stories are great to hear. And I will for sure pass on the link to the sample projects. The Smallwood project is very impressive -- if SoftPlan can do that, I doubt they can find anything it cannot do!

 

 

-Marcie

[randolph cohn]

marcie,

 

i do believe smallwood was "ALL DONE" in softplan.

 

tom roman doesn't have any other cad programs.

[Don Gibbons]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to set up a test: take an agreed upon project, two experienced users (one SoftPlan and one ArchiCAD), and let them draw. At the end of 6 or 8 hours, see what the results are.