| I always said that if I can
draw it faster with a pencil, why bother with a computer?
Such was the case with Computer Aided Design (CAD). CAD
programs began development about 20 years ago as a vector-oriented
(line drawing) system. Every line on the print-out was a
line manually drawn in the computer. Plans, elevations and
sections took longer to create in the computer than with
a pencil. 3-D was an additional overlay program that took
hours to generate 3-D views. We never used that system.
Enter object-oriented software…
Object-oriented software began development about 10 years
ago. It started as a kitchen design software and grew to
incorporate the whole house. The computer thinks in terms
of 3-D objects rather than 2-D lines on a paper. For instance,
a door in a traditional CAD program is merely a set of lines
drawn to “look” like a door. On the other hand,
with 3-D software, a door is considered an object: It has
a shape, a texture, a color, and takes up space. In this
type of system, you don’t draw a door, you place a
door object, and the computer does the rest. Coupled with
the growing power of personal computers, it was feasible
to move to the computer, and it made the job of designing
much faster and more efficient.
The advantage of using a system like this is clear, and
we put 100% of our clients on this system in 1997 for obvious
reasons: A house can be viewed (and printed) from any 2-D
or 3-D angle. Interiors have all the doors, windows, cabinets,
and even the buttons on the dishwasher! Exteriors have the
roofs, siding, and brick or stone: All viewable in 2-D or
3-D!
And because of our 3D CAD system, any changes we need to
make happen immediately, as opposed to having to
completely recompile plans using traditional CAD software.
This adds incredible value for our clients who can see the
changes to their plans onscreen, while they are in our office.
Here are some testimonials from clients about our system:
| When we first started our project,
we were dreading that our plans were going to take
a long time to produce because many of our friends' plans
had taken up to several months to complete. In their
experiences, everytime they gave feedback on what
their architects produced, they had to wait several
days or even weeks to review the changes. With HOMETEC, we gave
Rick our feedback, and he made the changes on his
computer right in front of us!
We didn't have to wait to review the changes because
they were already made! We had completed plans after
only three meetings! We highly recommend using HOMETEC,
and have referred several of our friends.
|
-Brendan and Moira Delumpa |
|
