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The director of the French company Altimède Stratégie talks about his experiences with adopting ARCHLine.XP and LIVE into their architectural/BIM practices.
The company Altimède Stratégie was founded in 2019 in Angers, France. It works with other private companies, municipalities and individual customers as project manager and general contractor. As part of project management support, it deals with the analysis of the future of real estate, the assessment and presentation of customer needs as well as the support of investors. As a general contractor, the company deals with architectural planning for private individuals with a maximum area of 150 square meters, and also collaborates with architectural partners and trading companies on larger projects. From the first phase of the project, from the first consultation, all drawings and plans are created in the company's own design office.
Anthony Gernais previously worked as Chief Financial Officer and Director of Real Estate and has also worked as an outsourcer during his 23-year career, in particular for the SAUR Group, which has a real estate portfolio of 380 properties worth €26 million. Among other things, he is the director of Altimède Stratégie, he answered our questions.
What were your expectations towards an architecture/BIM software?
ZW France (ARCHLine.XP representatives of the French-speaking countries) has responded to our needs with ARCHLine.XP. We use ARCHLine wherever section drawings and 3D plans are needed. AutoCAD is only used to integrate plans into ARCHLine. In addition, we also often use ARCHLine.XP LIVE, which allows our customers to view photos and videos of the project at a very early stage.
We also use Revit and the 3D Wharehouse to integrate elements into ARCHline, but ARCHLine is the “one in all” software for us.
What do you think of ARCHLine.XP Professional and ARCHLine.XP Live?
We were very pleasantly surprised by the performance of the software, its ease of use, the variety of design options and the fact that all objects can be modified according to individual needs. Compared to Revit, we have the impression that ARCHLine is much easier to handle and yet much more powerful, especially because of how ARCHLine is built up. I always have the feeling that we have not yet reached the limits of the program’s abilities!
We were simply amazed at the knowledge of ARCHline.XP LIVE!
With LIVE, you can create a video in minutes, which presents the plans to the customers in a very lifelike manner. Such an impact is not possible to reach with 2D drawings. In LIVE, we can see the surroundings, enter the building, add decoration, people, cars and vegetation. The plan can really be brought to life! We presented a video to one of our public sector customers. They were able to get a first impression of how the land is utilized, how the building structure will be set up and what it will look like with the environment around it. They loved it.
With LIVE, you can create a video in minutes, which presents the plans to the customers in a very lifelike manner. Such an impact is not possible to reach with 2D drawings. In LIVE, we can see the surroundings, enter the building, add decoration, people, cars and vegetation. The plan can really be brought to life! We presented a video to one of our public sector customers. They were able to get a first impression of how the land is utilized, how the building structure will be set up and what it will look like with the environment around it. They loved it.
How did the software meet your expectations and needs?
We didn't have a BIM solution at all, until now.
One of the most important things for us is to be able to create reusable models/designs, which can save us a lot of time.
It is fun to work with ARCHline: it is not boring, not complicated, but intuitive, fun and above all: very productive!
Do you recommend the use of ARCHLine to a real estate strategy office / consultant?
Not necessarily in real estate strategy or consulting, but it definitely is a great match to the needs of project management, because this program makes it possible to extract all elements, technical sheets and quantities of the building from the plan. We can calculate the material requirements for the project, save time and thus be save with the economic side of design, even from the first phase. With ARCHLine, enormous savings can be achieved here, as soon as the plan is ready, we receive the quantities with just three clicks. Also the calculation of labor costs is very accurate, without this function, we would have to calculate everything manually.
What future projects do you have planned for ARCHLine and ARCHLine Live?
We have a lot of projects going on, but most of all, I would like to design a villa in ARCHLine. That would be a great opportunity to learn in constructive ways what the program is capable of. For that, we could use ARCHLine.XP LIVE, too.
To sum up, we hope that ARCHLINE will help us in the preparation of many beautiful projects, it has significantly increased our efficiency so far, so we are ready for the next step!
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