May 17 2021 ARCHLine.XP Professional

May 17 2021 bimsoft ARCHLine.XP Professional
When it comes to design software, the choices are endless. To meet the needs of many professionals, the industry provides software solutions for 2D, CAD, and BIM design. What are the strong points for each type, and which one should you use for which kind of work?
In simple terms, we can say that
Let’s dissect each term.
Whatever the project size, or the industry, the most basic building tool of any technical drawing is usually a CAD software. CAD stands for Computer Aided Design, meaning that technical drawings, which up until the 80s were traditionally created manually, are now “aided” by software solutions to boost productivity and speed – but chances are that if you are reading this, you already knew that. Odds are, you also started your designing career learning how to draw lines on a computer screen. To this day, CAD is the most used 2D drawing method in the industry, and most design offices have a few copies of some CAD software products.
A typical CAD interface and content. Image courtesy ZWCAD Spain
So what happens if you do need 3D? Especially when your end goal is to create renders, or you need models where things have substance and mass, you need to be able to model 3D spaces and objects. What you crave is the freedom of imagination, to model anything you want, with lightning speed.
Luckily, there are many products for such aims – SketchUp, Blender, 3ds Max, etc. The workflow is simple, but powerful – we draw polylines, extrude and sculpt them, until we hit the desired forms. Then, we apply materials and push our model into rendering. Such tools are great for architectural, interior, landscape or product design, or basically any areas, where computer-generated images are desired. Again, based on what you need, you have tailor made solution for product design, the film industry,
Well-known 3D modeler SketchUp in action. Simple, yet powerful tools to create 3D solids. Image courtesy Ibercad Ida
Why 3D modeling software? The advantages:
The shortcomings:
Let’s talk about data first: in the construction industry, producing a 2D drawing or a 3D model might not be enough. It is ideal that the whole lifecycle (design, building, operation, demolishing) is paved with data and information, which should be accessible to all stakeholders of the building project, at all times. For architects, this means that we not only need to model a building, but also have to work with all kinds of specification and data (construction schedules, information about the materials used, data parameters of the project, and many other miniscule things), which we have to attach to our models – and this is actually what BIM does.
BIM stands for Building Information Modeling, and it is not a software, but a way of managing data, a method for storing and standardizing information, which can be read by other professionals (other architects, interior designers, MEP professionals, etc.), even if they use different software platforms.
A building model, stored in IFC format, is being imported from one BIM software (BIMvision) to another (ARCHLine.XP). Note how the geometry and information is kept. Image credits: CADLine Ltd.
At the same time, BIM solutions should allow professionals to use their existing CAD knowledge (and files) and 3D modeling experience, otherwise no-one could expect the users to drop everything they know, and relearn a new method. Therefore, BIM should give you the power of data, but at the same time, it should look and feel like the programs you already know.
Just like with CAD and 3D modeling, there are many software choices for those, who seek a BIM solutions. ARCHLine.XP stands out from the crowd of BIM products, because it makes heavy use of traditional CAD drawing and 3D modeling practices, making the transition to BIM a seamless experience. Here’s a few neat things what ARCHLine.XP 2021 provides:
Apart from what has been mentioned in the video, you can also count on these useful tools:
Why not give it a test drive? You can download a 30 days trial from here.