Learning ACA for residential work

[Irish2]

Test driving ACA 2013. Moving from Acad LT. I do primarily residential work but ama also looking at contract drafting for Arch. firms, etc. ACA is a much more complex program and it would seem that OOB it is set up for commercial work. The project manager itself is almost overwhelming! Are there any resources out there that would help me learn this program first towards the residential side and then more into the commercial?

I struggled with the decision to go to ACA instead of Revit LT simply because I am much more familiar with Autocdad versus not knowing anything about Revit. I am wondering if I bit off more than I can chew though with ACA? I am a one man shop and can't afford too much down time learning. Any insights or suggestions are very welcome!!

[pendean]

There are many good quality books you can purchase that cover AutoCAD Architecture: but yes, it is a learning curve well beyond plain AutoCAD but it's not hard to master if you understand construction (not to insult you in any way, but do you? it's difficult for a draftsman with no ARCH experience to grasp alone without hands-on training if you don't).

A good starter book IMHO is:

Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture 2013 Fundamentals by Elise Moss

Ther are also some free YouTube Videos and not-free Online Tutorials to get you into the program in more depth out there.

[Irish2]

Thanks Dean for your response. Yes, I have many, many years in the construction business- not just design and drafting. That started out being "on the side" and then changed to my profession quite a while ago. Your inference is spot on: actual experience makes a huge difference.

I have looked at quite a number of you-tube videos and have learned a lot from them. I have even purchased a dvd training set put together by Addis Reid. Its all very good stuff but again, since I am starting at the beginning these resources are all geared to commercial work and that is very different than residential. At least in the way you set things up. Seriously, that project browser is intimidating! 

I did come across the book from Elise that your mentioned. It would appear that is the only other resource available that may suit my needs. Seems all the resources are being put into Revit even though they are selling more ACA than Revit. 

[Irish2]

In thinking about it some more I am wondering if perhaps ACA is way overkill for the type of work that I primarily do?

[KathyMoffa]

I would recommend the latest Paul Aubin book, Mastering ACA 2011.    I have his 2010 book, and he has an Overview chapter that is great for getting started.   As to your question re: whether ACA is overkill for Residential work, I would say, yes, probably, especially if you don't have a lot of time to spare to learn the product.   There are many time savers, like automatically generating elevations and sections, but mastering the execution takes time and effort.  You can't generate something that you haven't drawn (though you can edit both elevations and sections after the fact), so if you want a certain hatch pattern, it has to be specified in the object's style (wall, door, etc).   ACA also requires a far more robust computer system than  AutoCAD Lt.   But--I assume you need to do some amount of 3D presentation, and that you can learn to do quite quickly in ACA, and you (or at least I)  can see design mistakes quickly in 3D.  I too wish it had more tools and templates for Residential, but I don't expect any to be forthcoming, and Revit appears even more oriented towards large-scale (follow the money) commercial projects. 

As to Project Navigator, it's one of my favorite things in ACA.  It's kind of like a smart Windows Explorer, and with great drag and drop features.  

[Irish2]

Thank your for your thoughts and words Kathy. They reflect some realities that I am already seeing even early on. After digging into things even more it does appear as though Autodesk is not investing much in the way of resources to further develop ACA. I know from talking with a few resellers they would just as soon ACA went away so everyone would focus on Revit. Not sure why that is but there is much about much I do not know!

[croc49]

The bulk of my work is also residential, and I concur with Irish2.
I use Revit on some small jobs, but am an experienced user of ACA.
About a year ago, I became sick to death of ACA Xref and material issues, similar to those mentioned by Odin Cary of Archidigm last  year in his blog.
Changing a material at Construct level in Project Navigator would take a few minutes of manipulation at View and Sheet level if the drawing doesn't crash - a real pain.
The workaround of unloading all constructs in Views, purge everything with style manager and then reload constructs works, but not at sheet level.
I followed Ntellery "Multi level in one file" idea  - refer http://ausaca.blogspot.com.au/.
I'd like to acknowledge his generous assistance, because I managed to put together a one file system that works for me.
Nathan drives most of his stuff through lisp (and I also use his routine), but I have developed more of a Ribbon input arrangement.
On model and sheet layouts, I can represent through the different display reps (high, low, medium etc.) 7 different plans of the same level - site, drainage, landscaping, floor, footing, roof, and energy efficiency.
Ribbon tabs set up the display reps, required layers, plot style, text and dim style, etc. for each layout.
All model objects are set to show various linetypes, thicknesses, colours, etc for each display rep.
I have done a number of multi levels as well.
It's an absolute dream to work in one drawing, with everything one instant click away (Nathan uses keystrokes).
Printing layouts is no more complex than Sheet Set Manager.
The increase in productivity is astounding, because you're not waiting for other drawings to open to change.
Been thinking about ditching Project Navigator completely in 7-8 storey high risers for one file, now that computers are getting faster and faster.
I'm sure ACA could perform better under a one file system.
Autodesk should look at this concept, but as you say, they would rather it go away.
Just hope that ACA sticks around long enough, because it's far more customisable than Revit, hence more productive.
Unfortunately, I haven't learnt how to convey my system on YouTube, but I may get it out there over Xmas break.

[ntellery]

I didn't have time to jump in earlier but thanks croc for the good word.  Just to back up what Kathy said, the PN is quite good at organising componants of a project and if it's a larger one then even better as if it's all in the one file it does get crowded.  I learnt the PN from Mastering Architectural Desktop 2005  from Paul Aubin.  David Koch, who has helped Paul in his latest series has an excellent resource site.  His gear for scheduling is fantastic.

First though, ACA/Revit Lt?  Both programs will require serious learning time as half baked both will give you grief.  In ACA you can (& will) drop back to Acad 2d to get the job out the door whilst you are learning. With Revit you have to complete in 3D so you will learn faster! Many reviteers still do details back in Acad so that seems to work.  Revit Lt is cheaper than ACA and both are probably aimed at Commercial rather than resi so tend to be overkill and do things the hard way.  What do you want out of it?  I do mostly residential work and render nearly everything as just part of the process which doesn't take much extra (though lots to get to that point) and wins clients over.  It's not at the highest quality but enough to do the job.   Revit Lt doesn't have the render engine but does have access to the online rendering service with subscription but is that paid per use?  ACA at the moment can't use the cloud rendering but has Autocad's rendering engine with ACA's materials system.  So if rendering is possibly part of your future income stream then ..... otherwise if it's just CD's then...  ?

Revit Lt doesn't have multiple users on the one project 

I have only lightly played on an older version of Revit !!

Find out who your potential clients are and what they are using and intend to use.

A Revit sale point is everything is in the one file so why they didn't do this in ACA/ADT I will never know.  Took me a long time but now that it's done it's so much easier for reasons I detail in my blog and show on my youtube channel.  There is a series there about my system of doing it all in the one file.  The chief reason for one file is it's so much easier to manage rendering, however it's also easier to manage interaction between componants like walls that travel 2 floors, connections to roofs etc.  If you are used to manipulating layers you will 'get' my system.  ACA OOTB and the PN create way too many layers for resi work. I also show tips about the roof object which is a primative beast, autodesk not having updated such an obscure architectural object as a roof creation tool since release ADT1, but which does have a lot more power than is first obvious. Indespensible for resi work.

Indespensible site for learning ACA is www.archidigm.com  Odin is the master !! He has now released his detailed guide which has tonnes of secrets on every part of the system plus he has great styles content for great price.

In some ways ACA is overkill however I don't think there is anything out there that isn't.  They don't tend to package for Residential work except maybe Chief Architect.  ArchiCAD is the same, where the divide line is over colaboration rather than resi/commercial and perhaps rendering.  You say you do some comm work, so do I, so you don't really want a job that only does most of your work! You can also check out Visionrez.com for their custom version of ACA or the add on for ACA.  They ARE customised for resi work and they are a work shop not just a shop so you know it works.  

And yes you are correct that Adesk is promoting Revit over ACA despite the still wide usage of ACA. It is a very capable program.  Revit is better is some areas but not in all.  For me there is little incentive to move across to Revit however for you starting from scratch.....

cheers

[Irish2]

Thank you NT. Lots of great info and insight. I presently have Chief Architect as well and it is actually surprising the similarities it has with Revit. Even much more refined in many ways than Revit but the biggest diss is that it doesn't translate as well as it could. Dwg yes but the 3d info stays behind. Very good program though if I was just doing residential which is what I have been doing for years but with this economy I am trying to position myself for being able to do more. That is where my decision lies along with my lack of decisiveness. Which direction to go...

As I see it now ACA is probably not my best choice simply because of the large learning curve- right down to the fundamentals. Since I am at the beginning of my direction choice it is a large part of the decision.

Revit LT is all new, except for similarities to other programs, and so is the learning. Could be a good thing since I won't be mentally comparing it.

Stay with acad LT and perhaps use sketchup for any 3D stuff.

Still always comes down to what direction I am trying to go. Thank you all for your thoughts and insights!