A little bit of background

This is a blog about Architects (sometime) and their beloved (or less so) CAD tools.

Turns out, even if is 2013 there are rather few independent (and useful) reviews for modern architecture CAD software floating around the internet. This makes it difficult to evaluate them on merit versus marketing "speak". Often, the software the architects and design professionals use is determined more by the market penetration of a mainstream product then real value. Main players  in CAD business (with large marketing departments) tend to steal the show and leave the smaller (and smarter) ones out of the media spotlight. This blog is looking to review (as much will be possible), the products available and provide an alternate and more balanced view at the tools used to create architectural drawings.
 
The profession has changed dramatically with the advent of CAD (and BIM)  in the last 10 years. However, few know that CAD technology has been around for at least 20-25 years, initially in domains that had nothing to do with architecture and more to do with building cars and planes, were the need to view, generate  and automate complex geometry was more acute then in architectural field. An excellent read at mainly British and American efforts to develop cad tools can be found here: http://www.cadhistory.net/ . The History of CAD by David Weisberg is a (free) primer on the subject. A shorter, chronological list of early CAD systems in western world is found here: http://mbinfo.mbdesign.net/CAD-History.htm.

Modern architectural programs (on PC or Mac)  usually are large and complex beasts and once you get locked into an ecosystem, is hard to snap out of it.There are many factors at play, from compatibility, corporate policies, price deals, support or local needs. Along the journey we will take a look in detail at much ballooned marketing acronyms  like "BIM" or "Cloud CAD",  that sometimes is pushed on architects responding to questions nobody asked for. Also we will look at stuff like 2D vs 3D, Unified Model vs Federated Model, solid engine options, file format wars, reference files, construction documents generation, rendering engines, solid vs surface modeling and so on. Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride!!