Building Systems 2004

[jbelectrical]

First, I would like to apologize for the off-topic thread, since Building Systems 2004 really isn't AutoCAD, however, it is largely based around it.

I work for a small HVAC/electrical/plumbing/fire protection engineering firm. We upgraded all of our workstations to AutoCAD 2004 about 4 months ago. My employer is now considering purchasing Building Systems 2004.

Basically, I'm just trying to get as much input on it as I can. There doesn't appear to be much information available - nobody talks about it. Autodesk gave us a one hour demonstration last week. I was impressed by many of the features that they showed us: "behind the scenes" three dimensional ductwork, ceiling space interference detection, circuit overload detection, and a plethora of other features.

At the same time, however, it appeared that many of those tasks could be performed just as efficiently and within the same time frame as a moderately skilled person using AutoCAD. I also have some doubts about the ceiling space/interference detection feature. I imagine that one would have to use floor plans made in Architectural Desktop in order to take advantage of such a thing.

Well, I greatly appreciate any information given.

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[mjpakh]

Purity,
I own a small drafting and design company. Autodesk required that you purchase Architectural desktop to use building systems. Also you may wish to upgrade your software one year later only to find out that you are three releases behind. Now you have to pay the same if not more for the software as your initial investment. Autodesks solution for this problem is to put you on a subscription (approx. $1100.00 per year) that you can only purchase at the time of the upgrade. This is pretty expensive to the small business. The real solution should be to limit new releases to one per year.

I suggest looking into a software package called MechQ.
This software package works within AutoCad and is available from an Australian organization for approximately $500.00.

This sounds like the ideal solution for you and your organization.