AD is a far easier program to learn as a new user.As a student this year at NCC, I have been introduced to ArchiCAD as a design tool. I have been told that ArchiCAD will be replacing AutoCAD in a lot of firms in the near future. Throughout my own personal experience, I have noticed that ArchiCAD seems more simplistic. ArchiCAD seems to me as if I were building with Legos again. Many things an architect would like to introduce into his/her design are all placed into the program as pre-constructed objects. These are things that are made by someone else, downloaded from the Internet by any individual, and then placed into their construction. It just does not seem like a real technical piece of equipment for an experienced computer aided drafter.AutoCAD on the other hand is a very technical and exact software operation that an architect builds based on the world coordinate system. This, of course, is used in all areas of study and a system that everyone is familiar with. Using these coordinates a production can come out being more exact and brought forth on a more professional level. The amount of accuracy that AutoCAD produces differs from ArchiCAD by on ten-thousandth of an inch. This may not seem as a tremendous difference, but when involving stretching of existing lines and manipulation of objects, these numbers play an important role. Using AutoCAD an object can be transformed in any direction and it will keep the accuracy without deforming. An object transformed in ArchiCAD is very obvious because the lines become fuzzy and undefined. These deformities can be very distracting to a clients eye when proposing an idea.As an owner of both programs, I have discovered that a strong project and presentation consist of drawings done both in AutoCAD and ArchiCAD. Since both programs excel in their own areas, an Architect could use a combination of these programs to reach perfection when submitting an idea to a client....
