Is this something I can get into in my spare time?
I have no training as an architect or a structural engineer.
>>964807
Drawing? Sure, but without the professional knowledge you won't even know what you are doing. That is the difference between fantasy fictional illustrations and actual real buildings.
>>964811
Eh, there are enough resources online for him to learn. If it's just for a hobby it doesn't have to be 100% cleared for council and up to code, just has to be close enough.
>>964807
You can, anyone can do it, just depends on how accurate you want to be and how long you want to be learning. There is a lot of shit to learn, construction methods (for ALL areas of a building), materials, standards, local, state and country codes, standards and regulations. When being a drafter you have to sort of be a jack of all trades but a master of none, you have to know the basics in every aspect of a building so that you can roughly design it right, but then you hand it off to someone that knows the details.
I'm Australian so what I say will probably be different for where ever you live, but here there is the Australian Standards (details on how things need to be built, very specific things) the National Construction Code (more generalised on how things need to be built) then there are legislations and council regulations which all depend on where you are building, these things will guide your design and give you the limitations you need to make up a building and can be viewed for free online.
The easiest way to get into this is probably take a short course, again in Australia we have a thing called TAFE, you can do a 2 year night course that will teach you all of the basics you need to design structures.
If you're just doing it by yourself at home, if you want them to be accurate designs in any way, it's going to take years of learning.
>>964807
I'd suggest something like SketchUp as a jumping off point.
It's very fast and fairly intuitive, very easy to make a quick mock up of your idea. You can also export projects to your desired CAD file format for further editing and revising, rendering, etc.
I'd also suggest not using ArchiCAD... AutoCAD's been on the Mac for a few years now, no point in settling.
There are plenty of good online books and video tutorials. I highly recommend watching video tutorials and learning how pros utilize their work space, work flow, hot key configurations, etc.
It makes a huge difference in creativity, speed, and legibility. If you ever plan to plot your designs, I'd research it first. There are a lot of nuances when plotting, fighting with line weights, etc. A lot of it is trial and error.
>>965422
Another good reason to learn AutoCAD (And even Revit) is that if you say that you're a student on the Autodesk website you can use a free student version of any of their programs for three years. The only difference between the free student version and the full version is that when you print a document out it has "student version" around the edges. So it's a pretty good deal for someone that's learning.
if you want to mess with the more artsy type stuff and the ideas of architecture, try rhinoceros5 by mcneel. It does everything, its cheap, and works well with adobe illustrator for making posters and graphics. Can do rendering nicely and has tons of open source mods and addons for making otherworldly "buildings" ala suckerpunch or evolo
if you want to make additions to your own house or something try revit. autodesk gives out free trials to "students" with only an email address required. Revit is the home depot equivalent, that will literally build a total virtual model of every "standard" part of a building, down to the smallest products, and its up to you to push it to be less boring/formulaic. Not something many people care about desu. BUT if you want/need to go to your local building code department and get renovation plans approved for a pet project go for it.
Autocad is old, on the way out, not worth learning. Use Revit or a similar BIM modeler for this stuff
>>966188
AutoCAD is old but most certainly not on the way out, a lot of architecture/drafting firms still use it. Older architects/drafters are the ones usually running the show so they decide what the employees get to use and they often are stubborn on tradition and with taking up new technology. Sure if you're designing big structures (shopping malls, 4+ story buildings, stadiums) a company will use revit because having it all in one file rather than ten thousand CAD files is easier, but for small scale residential people still use AutoCAD and will for a while.
This is coming from someone who loves using Revit, I think it's the knees on those bees but a lot of work I've done had to be done in AutoCAD because that's what the higher ups wanted (had a few bosses who refused to use computers at all, they would still hand draw stuff then pass it on to others to digitise it)
>>964807
If you want to have archvisual as your hobby, sure.
Get familiar with center to center measurements for floor to ceiling height, double volumes, and basic frame structure construction if you want. Its really time consuming... I wouldn't even call it hobby because its too much time consuming. Read catalogues and look for "International Style" architecture if you want to look for some boxy with glass minimalist buildings (because you posted that picture). Or try refer to existing buildings. Then proceed to recreate them.
Learn revit, basically some sort of The Sims with all stuff like doors, chairs and shit ready for you to place. BIM software, like revit, is pretty young (and not many people still adapt to them) but it still can transfer to AutoCAD lines if you want to produce working/submission drawings. Revit is pretty simple compared to sketchup when you get the hang of it, and might be handy in future.
You wouldn't suddenly get an "architect" badge for it tho, since the profession is protected by law. You need to go to school for that shit like 4 years to get into that industry (and that only gets you into Assistant Architect positions)
But archvis pays good paper for freelancin, go for it OP.
>>965422
>to your desired CAD file format
It's going to look like a tessellated mess, but I suppose you could say you could "export it".
Without NURBS surfaces, Sketchup will never be CAD.
i wonder how the peopel in the middle age planed and builded theyr houses
>>966996
Wealthier homes would be designed by architects, modest ones probably were built on intuition and at best, with adherence to common vernacular practices
>>966198
I work for all small practice and we use revit LT for everything, despite mostly focusing on domestic and small residential projects. We really only use CAD for detailing. Making revisions and altering the design is so much faster than having to redraw everything in CAD. Also discrepancies between drawings are much rarer. We've done a couple of building control jobs where we've got the planning drawings in CAD from the original architect and things like windows and doors don't match up in plan and elevation, sometimes out by up to 500mm.
That being said it can be real bitch to work with sometimes.
>>967020
yeah, Revit is a joy to use for when you're working the broad strokes of the project but by the time you're getting to the details it fights you more than it helps you.
>>967013
Carpenters and masons were a profession back then. Building codes ain't new either, ancient Rome had them. People knew how to build shit and they often overbuilt shit just in case anyway. Homes these days need architects because they are built so close to the limit to keep costs down.
I fuck around with sketchup a lot. In fact, pretty much anytime I'm designing anything or need to visualize something I draft in it sketchup first. I even bought the "lightup" plugin which is absolutely fabulous except I didn't realize it was a TIME LIMITED license... it expires after a fucking year. That was great though while it lasted. Fucking gorgeous shit.
Anyway, here's a whole castle estate i made in sketchup as a hobby when i needed to unwind between assignments and junk at uni.
>>967164
Oh also I use EASE in my professional work. It's like a weird cross between autoCAD and spiceLT but for designing and simulating room acoustics.
not particularly user-friendly but really hot shit
>>964811
Can you forward this message to some of the builders in my area?
