Aeco vs Revit or Archicad

First of all i must say that i am an Autodesk user.

I use Autocad, Civil 3d, Revit Architecture and in the past autocad architecture. I,m from Greece where its difficult to find microstation users.

For education and skill improvement i start watching the training videos of microstation and open roads technology , and in many cases i like very much some features they have.

So last days i watched some videos of Aecosim building designer.

I have also download a 30 day trial today.

But after watching the first videos, not fascinated at all and i want to ask a few things to decide if its worth to continue training.

At first i must say, that what i liked in bentley ,is that it has the same platform for the most of its products. So i believe that if you make a model with power in roads you can open it with Aeco and you can model some building elements it . And then continue with power in roads, with road design.

I open a dgn file which i made with the live training that i get  a month ago with Power in roads, and i open it with aeco and of course i cant edit it but i can model some things save the file and then continue with power in roads. Is that true? I dont know if this could be done with the previous version of power in roads which was project based like the old Autodesk land desktop.

In Autodesk side you need object enables ,witch sometimes don't work perfect between Autocad and its vertical, but you cannot doing this with revit which you should export it in order only to see in in e.g. civil ed and not as you see it in revit.( no materials and other visual effects.

But what i see in the first video of Aeco is that instead of open roads technology,You must build a project, in which every floor is  a different file and in the end all floors attached to a separate file to built the whole model.  Its like autodesk architecture. But this workflow has some serious disadvantages.

You cannot make edits in sections and levels of the whole building. E.G. you cannot align windows of different floors in an building elevation view.

Its not as dynamic is a project in a single file.

I think this way is an old way and this is why autodesk buy revit which is similar to archicad, with many differences of course but with the same philosophy.

But as i said i don't know Aeco and maybe i am wrong.

So i want to ask. Is it possible in Aeco to built the whole building in a single file?

I saw that with floor selector i can built easy multiple floor in a single file but is there an option to make clipped views in a  range of every floor?

Is it possible to work in a single file?

And another question.

When i start Aeco it says that there was no interoperability with previous versions?

So a model make witch made with Aeco SS5 won't be opened with Aeco SS4 or it will be opened and it won't be edited?

Parents
  • Yes you can build an entire model in One file or many.

    I prefer many as then more than one person can work on the file, the files are smaller and therfore quicker and less gets in the way while you are working.  And with a reference file(s) you are working as if in one file with instead of slogging through 1000 levels you segment your job into smaller sections.  (Note that you can reference all drawings into one empty file and see it all.  Then only activate the drawings you want to work in and the others can be set to fade out and not effect what you are doing.

    Don't understand the clipped view thing you ask for.  But I can clip anything

    It can read any previous version but you don't want to give your new file to  an older version of MS.  You can save as an older version but will lose some new features.

    I think between ss2-ss5 you are probably OK it is more something like SS1/ss5 and V7 or let us say V4.  I have files that go back to the 2nd version of Microstation.  I can work on them all.  But if I update it I could not open in my old version 2 if I still had the 5 1/4" floppy of that program.

    Ustn since 1988
    SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64b

    Eric D. Milberger
    Architect + Master Planner + BIM

    Senior  Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center

    The Milberger Architectural Group, llc

Reply
  • Yes you can build an entire model in One file or many.

    I prefer many as then more than one person can work on the file, the files are smaller and therfore quicker and less gets in the way while you are working.  And with a reference file(s) you are working as if in one file with instead of slogging through 1000 levels you segment your job into smaller sections.  (Note that you can reference all drawings into one empty file and see it all.  Then only activate the drawings you want to work in and the others can be set to fade out and not effect what you are doing.

    Don't understand the clipped view thing you ask for.  But I can clip anything

    It can read any previous version but you don't want to give your new file to  an older version of MS.  You can save as an older version but will lose some new features.

    I think between ss2-ss5 you are probably OK it is more something like SS1/ss5 and V7 or let us say V4.  I have files that go back to the 2nd version of Microstation.  I can work on them all.  But if I update it I could not open in my old version 2 if I still had the 5 1/4" floppy of that program.

    Ustn since 1988
    SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64b

    Eric D. Milberger
    Architect + Master Planner + BIM

    Senior  Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center

    The Milberger Architectural Group, llc

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