In the News: Autodesk Architectural Studio,NIST, and Archicad 9

The September issue of AECbytes is devoted to covering three of the top recent newsmakers in the AEC industry. We will start by bidding farewell to Autodesk Architectural Studio, an incredibly cool tool for conceptual building design that will, as of September 15, no longer be developed, sold, and supported by Autodesk. AECbytes Newsletter #13 provides a brief overview and history of the product and analyzes why the product did not become a commercial success. It also presents Autodesk's perspective on the issue and elaborates upon the reasons that forced the company to make the decision to drop this innovative product from its solutions lineup for the building industry.

The second newsmaker that will be profiled this month is a key report by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) entitled "Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry." It estimates the cost of efficiency losses in the U.S. capital facilities industry resulting from inadequate interoperability among computer-aided design, engineering, and software systems to be $15.8 billion per year! AECbytes Newsletter #14 analyzes and summarizes the findings of this 210-page report into a more concise and easy read.

And finally, watch out for the product review of the much-awaited Archicad 9, which is being released by Graphisoft this month!

Thank you
Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials> September 2004