20-20 Design by 20-20 Technologies

Bid4Build Construction Estimating Software by Bid4Build

Bid4Build is well suited for all types of residental construction, insurance estimating, electrical estimating, home remdeling, and many areas of commercial construction.  Bid4Build extensive database and category listings enable the construction professional to provide accurate estimates which span the gamut of contractor jobs, including most every common building material.

SketchUp by Google

Google SketchUp addresses some of the CAD needs of the construction industry, though its users also range from architects to video-game designers.

PriMus DCF by ACCA Software

PriMus DCF is ACCA Software’s free tool for creating, publishing and sharing price books, price lists, estimates and bills. DCF stands for Document Computation Format; this standard lets users open and save documents in numerous file formats, including DOC, XLS, XML and PDF, all while working within Internet Explorer. Several PriMus DCF frequently asked questions are addressed on the ACCA Software website.

Aveva PDMS by Aveva

Aveva also offers Aveva PDMS 12 as a complement to Aveva Plant. (PDMS stands for plant design management system.) The software has a Microsoft Office-like interface and uses rule-based functions and checking tools to eliminate design errors, thus removing on-site delays due to inaccurate materials information, the vendor said. Moreover, designers can view an entire design at all times and create design databases by adding instances of parametric components from an existing catalog.

o2c Interactive by DataCAD

An acronym for “Objects to See”, o2c Interactive is a 3-D viewing and presentation program that allows users to test different design scenarios in 3-D. Users of o2c have the ability to edit materials and textures, batch process photorealistic images, and publish to the Web as an HTML file for presentation.

Rhino by McNeel North America

McNeel’s Rhino 3-D software lets users analyze and fix complex 3-D design problems. The software allows for free-form 3-D modeling as well as 2-D drafting, annotation and illustration; it supports polygon meshes and point clouds as well. Users can create, edit, analyze, document, render, animate and translate NURBS curves, surfaces and solids, the vendor said. Rhino allows support for IGES, ACIS, Parasolid, DXF and DWG, so users can exchange drawings with their own CAD software.

PDF Revu by Bluebeam Software

Bluebeam Software's PDF Revu can convert CAD files and Microsoft Office files to PDF files with one click. (PDF stands for Portable Document Format.) The software can also export to file formats such as JPEG, GIF and Bitmap.

Revit Architecture by Autodesk

Revit Architecture, from Autodesk, is building design software that is optimized for Building Information Modeling (BIM) and is ideal for sustainable design.