V21 or ditch Articad?

We have been with Articad since V14 (15 years?). Every version has had its own teething troubles and I always end up saying ‘why did I bother’ at first. Things settle down and you get used to it’s quirks.
Looking at the posts for V21 it seems things are going to be just the same. This wouldn’t be so bad if not for the loss of Dongle use. With V20 we have the option of a ‘licensed’ machine and a Dongle. We take the Dongle out with a laptop for measure-ups and occasionally working from home. From what I understand V21 is licenced machine only (not interested in transferring the licence to a USB drive temporarily if that’s an option, need to grab and go). We have 2 workstation and 2 laptops. 1 of the workstations is a ‘licensed’ machine and the others use the Dongle. All are running V20 so any can be used on any design. We pay around £100 a month support for the ‘licenced’ machine which includes ArtiPano.
My predicament is, do we:
1, upgrade to V21? Which would mean having to pay another £100 per month for the second workstation and god knows how we would do measure-ups. This isn’t very appealing money wise or hassle wise judging by the V21 posts.
2, stick with V20? Seems like the beginning of the end if we’re always using an old version. It sounds like catalogues aren’t backward compatible?
3, call it a day with Articad and find an alternative . Would look at Compusoft first as we have EQ.

It feels like Articad are forcing our hands into making a choice. We originally paid around £3,500 of the 2 Dongles all that time ago and have had a support package on and off along the way. Can’t recall ever having to call for support for their assistance so really the £100 a month is for the development of the product, which has never been 100%. How long do we keep shelling out for imperfect software? I know the others probably aren’t perfect either but I know Articad definitely isn’t perfect.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to work with, we can do a design in as little as 10 minutes. Produce a basic or highly detailed image or Panorama, and import custom or pre-made models from SketchUp.

Any ideas or anyone in the same boat?

Hi Chris...
That this a long time using one design software.... I have used it on and off (10-12 yrs) and more lately off . Jumping to any other package is going to be a big step as they all work differently. Some will force you to be more accurate with picking the correct graphics especially for the pricing side.
One option if you want to "upgrade" with V21 is to try something like Teamviewer so the more powerful desktop machine can be the host and the laptop (Remote) logs into it to run ArtiCAD while out on site etc. This way you don't need to mess around with licence switching.... you can even log in on your phone or simple tablets as you are not using these to process renders as this is all done on your host machine. The other benefit is you don't have to keep transfering drawings, textures, favourites etc....

I would have a look at Compusoft (book a demo) as it uses the same rendering engine as ArtiCAD to see if it would work for you....

Another long term user. If i didn't have clients who send me v21 files i would still be on v20. No improvement apart from maybe better default materials. (Still don't use them!) The material editor has become a bloated mess with so many duplicate textures. Always having to clean it up at the end of the week. Also had to re-do all my favourites. Still get the odd glitch with cornice and using lit appearance can cause the render to craw sometimesl! Not a fan of how the lighting seems to work compared to v20. Maybe that's just me?

I have started learning blender as a replacement.  It is still just ahead on rendering and has sketchup import so until that changes i don't see many switching to a kbb competitor!

Darrel wrote:Hi Chris...
That this a long time using one design software.... I have used it on and off (10-12 yrs) and more lately off   . Jumping to any other package is going to be a big step as they all work differently. Some will force you to be more accurate with picking the correct graphics especially for the pricing side.
One option if you want to "upgrade" with V21 is to try something like Teamviewer so the more powerful desktop machine can be the host and the laptop (Remote) logs into it to run ArtiCAD while out on site etc. This way you don't need to mess around with licence switching.... you can even log in on your phone or simple tablets as you are not using these to process renders as this is all done on your host machine. The other benefit is you don't have to keep transfering drawings, textures, favourites etc....

I would have a look at Compusoft (book a demo) as it uses the same rendering engine as ArtiCAD to see if it would work for you....

Thanks Darrel, 
Do you know the rough cost of Compusoft? i.e upfront and ongoing costs? Really not keen on moving and learning a new system but need to know what options we have.

I don't know Chris...
I think Nathan (Minch) will be able to give you more info on this. He has said it's interface and setup is better than ArtiCAD. They are working on getting it to use external graphics like Sketchup ones but has many up-to-date graphics onboard anyway for most users...

I have been using Winner for about 4 weeks now. No software is perfect, if you take the good bits from both ArtiCAD and Winner you would get close!

I don't think I'd attempt this using ArtiCAD, one up for Winner!
 It has taken just over an hour and I've not started on the kitchen, although it will be a very simple one with an island.
Very low res screenshot.

Impressive Stumpy....
Seems they have thought about portal placement for exterior geometry...

Code:

If geometry is outside wall boundries then
Portal bounds = opening width x external distance to furthermost object
else
Portal size = opening width x opening height
end if


Nice stuff!.....Yup, that ain't happening in ArtiCAD!

Hi Stumpy, looks great. Will have to post final image.
Couple of questions,
what’s glitchy with Winner?
How much does it cost?
How much of the image/design is out of the box?
Is EQ part of the package or an add on?
Cheers Chris.

Wow.. im really impressed with that Stumpy! Great work. What are rendering times like in comparison to ArtiCAD?

Sorry to change the subject.
Stumpy - Those renderings look really good! What model are you using for the Bifold Doors? Partician Wall system (#03)? How did you arrange for the doors to open?

Lukeh1101 wrote:Wow.. im really impressed with that Stumpy! Great work. What are rendering times like in comparison to ArtiCAD?

Thanks. Like ArtiCAD it's up to you really. A standard quality image about 20 minutes although set at the max in a large size, and with glass about 3 to 4 hours. What I like with Winner is you can set up the images to render and everything runs in the background, so sometimes I will have 4 images set up and I'm already working on another job.

Large doors on Winner are a bit crap so I used 3 doubles, changed the colour and opened two doors. Not the look the customer wants but the best I've sussed so far! Each Door has part of the wall showing. At first, I used a 6m opening with 4 doors in the same position but with each door with a different door opening angle but I could not get it to look good. This is one of the downsides with Winner (no external models).

I have finished the design now but I forgot about a wine cooler so I'll need to go back in. More bloody rendering! This image is just a mood image so does not show much of the kitchen.

Stumpy these are great, had to do a double take on that last image! you may slowly be converting me but i do love being able to import sketchup models....