Finally got the height and the garage figured out for The Peninsula. I still have several details to add to it but at least this massive structure is no longer floating along the Southbank.

I’ve been working on a plan view of the Prudential Plaza building and adjoining parking garage. This is the most complicated building I’ve worked on so far (excluding bridges).

I can’t wait to get this in as it’s such an important part of the Southbank skyline, and will really help in filling in the gaps.

I’ve also begun the Aetna building plan view, which will also take a moment to complete.

I’m drawing all of my plans in Illustrator because it’s what I have. This has had it’s benefits and drawbacks:

A) The major benefit is all of my objects blocks are whole objects (this plan view has been altered for readability however). When I import the AI file into Lightwave I can begin extruding immediately. If I need to do some booleans I can, but I’m not committed at import. If I were working in a CAD-based program, none of my objects would import as solids and would be simply 2-point polygons (i.e. individual lines).

B) The major drawback has been that I could produce drawings much faster in a CAD program. I would also be able to draw at 1:1 scale. I may be able to turn off Anti-Aliased Artwork and work faster in Illustrator though. That was one of the features I really enjoyed getting in Illustrator v7, I think it was, so I’d have to turn it back on for other work.

I would consider getting something like AutoCAD LT for my plan work, but as I understand should I want to sell my license it would take nearly an act of Congress to transfer IF Autodesk allowed it. So for me that’s not owning a license, and I won’t pay for something I can’t own.

Sketchup would probably be another alternative. I’ve used it in the past before Google purchased it and it’s a great piece of software. It would also allow me to import the completed model right into Lightwave. I’m more interested though in getting a license of the LWCAD plug-in for Lightwave.

My production flow is nice because I’m not sending/receiving files with anyone else so I can dictate what my pipleline needs or does not need.

More updates to come… stay tuned.