Multimedia presentation tools: show off your designs with these hardware and software favorites

CADalyst, August, 2004 by H. Edward Goldberg

THIS IS THE FOURTH YEAR I've written about digital multimedia for presentations. For 2004, industry trends are heading toward high-quality digital presentations for presentation boards, the Internet, and CD-ROM and DVD. The emphasis is on real productivity--how much more one well-trained person can produce on a computer, and the corresponding financial gains.

Currently, optimum productivity with state-of-the-art technology requires an investment upwards of $10,000-$15,000 in a suite of software and hardware products. That includes a computer workstation, color laser printer, CD/DVD burner, and the like. With such a setup, you can produce all the professional construction, presentation, and public relations documents required for any architectural practice. It not be necessary to invest so much in each workstation, and you can share peripherals, but capabilities quickly diminish as you spend less money.

One of your most important decisions will be what digital multimedia presentation software to use. This decision depends on your budget, ability, and specific needs. Here are my favorites from the many options available. Also see the Cadalyst Labs review on p. 16 for more options.

@Last Software w SketchUp 4.0.

SketchUp (www.sketchup.com) is the best AEC multimedia and presentation software on the market--not because it's perfect and not because it does everything, but because it does so much, so easily, at a very reasonable price ($495, $95 upgrade). This software, with its patented push and pull technology, is easy enough for new users to pick up quickly and sophisticated enough for top architectural firms to use on international projects (figure 1).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

New to v4 is a Texture Tweaker that lets you stretch and manipulate any texture or photo across any continuous surface. You can now place a photo of a building onto a 3D square created in SketchUp and model directly from the picture. The new Intersector provides Boolean modeling and performs multiple changes in rapid succession. With SketchUp's new Ruby Scripting Interface, you can automate almost any task.

SketchUp is available for both the PC and Macintosh. If you want to produce subtle or photorealistic lighting, use Phong or a similar photorealistic renderer. You can also export SketchUp models to Piranesi to produce results that approach photorealism. SketchUp includes a free downloadable reader so clients can interactively explore but not change models. A test drive is worth a thousand words. To this end, SketchUp offers an eight-hour free trial of a fully functional, downloadable version of the program. If you use ArchiCAD or Architectural Desktop, download the free plugins that let you import SketchUp models and automatically make roof, walls, slabs, doors, and more.

Adobe w Photoshop Creative Suite.

If there's a single software program besides CAD that every AEC firm should have, it's Photoshop from Adobe (www.adobe.com). This raster-based program is the most used graphics software program in the world. Whether you're putting together a 2D presentation, inserting a 3D model into a photograph, or creating logos or content for a Web site, this program does it all. The new Adobe Creative Suite is a complete design environment that combines full versions of Adobe's professional tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, and Acrobat Professional--everything a professional office needs for its presentation and PR requirements. Creative Suite Premium, with all of the programs, sells for $1,229. Creative Suite Standard ($999) includes Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Another suite to consider is the Adobe Video Collection 2.5 used to edit videos and make DVDs. This product delivers a comprehensive toolset for Windows-based video production. The Standard edition ($999) includes Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects Standard, Audition, and Encore DVD software. For even more powerful features, the Professional edition ($1,499) adds Adobe After Effects Professional and Photoshop CS software. The products are all available separately, but the suites are the best buys.

Version Cue is a new Adobe product that helps you find files, track multiple versions of files, and share files for creative collaboration. Version Cue ties the Creative Suite together for groups working collaboratively on projects and saves work to a common server. Watch a video of Version Cue in action at www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/versioncue.html.

For the best Photoshop tutorials for architects and the AEC market, check out Scott Onstott's site, www.scott onstott.com. His "Photoshop for Architects" series include Essentials, Plans and Elevations, and Compositing. These video tutorials are amazing--they include all you want to know, as well as information you had no idea you needed to know. They're a bargain and will take any Photoshop presentation a giant leap forward. You can download them for $34.95 each or buy them as a package on CD-ROM for $99.95.