15 replies to this topic

[D M]

My first exposure was with the IBM 736 Fastdraft system in 1984.

The system purchased by the company I worked for at the time came with two workstations (see picture), a plotter (carousel pens) and the CPU (the refrigerator sized box in the background)

This system cost $134,000.00

 

The display had a fixed ‘function’ menu on the right hand side

and all drawing was done with a light pen.

 

‘Points’ were the base, two of which would create a line, which in turn could be used to create shapes.

Groups of shapes could be made into ‘Patterns’ and patterns could be made into ‘Views’

Circles where a thing unto themselves. Dimensions functioned like Autocad™, .. pick 1^st point, then second and then position dimension line, .. and of course text was just text.

The plotter would move the paper back and forth perpendicular to the back and forth run of the pen.

We saved our drawings on 8” +- floppy discs (flexible floppy) that could hold 512Kb each

[Keith Almond]

In Britain, before I emigrated, I used a system called Radraft on a Sun (Sparcstation) Engineering Workstation probably 1989. Pen Carousel Plotter. I think with the software the cost was about £80,000.

 

My first introduction to Softplan was version 5.5.2.5 in .... Lets say 1992 or 1993.

[Thomas Roman]

"Cadvance"... mid 80's.... they touted how far ahead they were than AutoCAD because they could draw a "double line" with user defined line separation... wow...

[Chris Stewart]

SoftPlan v8

[Yvon Gonthier]

The 1rst drafting program that I really used was Softplan v8 but years before that, I had a workshop day where they had AutoCAD on a machine that looked like an arcade game with a big roller ball as the mouse

 Wow, feeling old

[Todd Williard]

AutoCAD V10  then V12. early 90's.

Chief Architect version 4 thru 6. mid 90's

Softplan v11 to present

[Yvon Gonthier]

AutoCAD V10  then V12. early 90's.

Chief Architect version 4 thru 6. mid 90's

Softplan v11 to present

What convinced you to switch over to Softplan?

[Todd Williard]

For me it was more about speed and working drawings looking professional. I made the right choice and haven't looked back since.

[Warren Ducote]

Generic Cadd.   Man, that was a long time ago. I think sometimes in the mid 80's. Then I moved to Softplan V8.

[randolph cohn]

I had been drawing on "the board"

(architectural school and than in practice) until 1998

when thomas roman came to my home office

to pitch the cad program he was the rep for.

 

his sales pitch:
thomas proceeded to tell me how he had worked for a mid-size architectural firm

in the east coast and ran the cad department.  he decided he wanted to go out on his own

so spent 2 years, while still working for the firm,  trying out most of the

professional cad programs of the day.

he was a top notch cad operator in those days so he knew how to test them.

after two years of checking them out, he came to the conclusion that "softplan" was the way to go

especially for a solo architectural office,

luckily for me, tom was the only rep from any cad company who responded.

i was sold and never regretted the decision.

 

i learned with v10 (out of the dos days and 1st SP windows version)

i thank softplan for each new version after that.  they just kept on getting better.

 

btw,  thomas had me study no more than ONE hour a day

and write down all questions.

than came to my home office and spent the day sitting next to me

showing me how to do what i didn't understand.

he did this for a year plus.

 

thank you tom for making me decide on softplan.

 

the kind of work tom does.  "impressive"

thomas roman website:

 

http://www.tr-architecture.com/

 

construction docs:

 

http://www.softplan....tural_Plans.pdf

 

http://www.softplan....of Stockton.pdf

[Michael Roman]

My first CAD experience was with VersaCAD back in 1985-86.  We were the first High School in the State of Wisconsin to have a CAD department.  We had a pen plotter and 4 CAD stations.

I have been using SoftPlan since Version 10.  I have used AutoCAD, Chief Architect and Revit.

I am now using 2016 and I don't regret choosing Softplan for a second.

If you are doing residential work, in my opinion, you can't find a better product.

[Gary Hood]

I first bought SP V3 in 1990. Back then, one had to buy the base module, then add the "Automatic Cross Sections & Elevations" module. I also bought my first 486 machine then & proceeded to learn both. I upgraded every second version of SP. Prior to that, i worked in a sweatshop, pumping out house plans on the board, which was an excellant expeirience.

[Jack Carson]

SoftPlan version 4.8 I think.  Back in 1988. 

[James Ryan]

I started with Softplan in ver. 11 and have never regretted the decision. 

[Gary Hood]

SoftPlan version 4.8 I think.  Back in 1988. 

I think that would of been 1992, or 3. Maybe the Admin could post a list of release dates for all of thier versions c/w (new) features . Would make for some conversattion!

[Jack Carson]

I could be wrong about the version number,  But it was in the late 80's.