Cadsoft Reveals Enhancements in Envisioneer v11 for BIM

Full disclosure: Cadsoft is owned by a major investor in ENGINEERING.com. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author.

Envisioneer generates a material take-off with one click

Cadsoft Corporation, a Canada-based company offering 3D modeling software for both the residential and light commercial markets, recently revealed what’s new in their next release. Envisioneer v11 for building information modeling (BIM). Envisioneer allows you to take your project from concept and design to construction while the BIM toolset within the software also allows you to share building information with clients, builders, engineers, material suppliers and other professionals. Envisioneer comes in four different products based upon your needs: Personal Architect, Pro Architect, Building Essentials and Construction Suite.

Personal Architect is the entry-level offering for designing and detailing new residential and remodeling projects. It includes tools for design, modeling and presentation.

Pro Architect is the next level up, and is recommended for residential design professionals who want an easy-to-use BIM software. It includes the same tools as Personal Architect but also offers construction documents, precision drafting tools and the ability to do quantity takeoffs.

Building Essentials, the third offering in the Envisioneer lineup, adds advanced framing and integration tools to complement the previously mentioned ones. Building Essentials is recommended for estimators and design professionals and provides links to estimating and accounting software packages and 2D drafting platforms such as AutoCAD.

Construction Suite is the fully-featured Envisioneer BIM product and includes all the tools contained within the above products with the addition of tools for manufacturing panelization and for generating quotes.

As for what’s new in Envisioneer v11—there’s a lot! To list a few:

Hands-free authorization, including subscription licensing
Touch screen computing compatibility
Import sinks, doors and windows of any shape and size
Reorient geometry on import
Improved railing post insertion
Simplified building location setup
Elevation and section datum lines
Improved auto exterior dimensions, including angular dimensions
Improved auto interior dimensions, including additional control over dimension placement
Attributes linked to project settings
Consolidated assemblies, including materials, trim and framing members
Improved takeoff for surfaces, including calculation of perimeter
Updated AutoCAD DWG and DXF exports
Updated SketchUp Export
And more