Software for architects in Morocco — what to buy first, and what to skip

An architect is paid for a document, not a picture. Plans, sections, elevations, details, a permit file that a control office reads line by line — that is what leaves your desk, and it has to survive several rounds of revision without losing its scale, its layers or its title block. Software for this part of the job is judged on drafting precision, sheet layouts, dimension standards, plotting to a fixed scale, and how cleanly the file opens on someone else’s machine.

In Morocco that last point decides things. DWG is the working currency between architects, bureaux d’études, contractors and control offices. A file that arrives converted, at the wrong scale, with external references broken, costs a colleague an afternoon and costs you a phone call you would rather not make.

Images are a second, separate job. A client who cannot read a section can read a render, and renders win competitions and unlock approvals. But the render is built from the drawing, after the drawing exists. Buying the image tool first is the most common expensive mistake in this trade — a beautiful portfolio, and no way to issue a permit set.

On a small budget, buy AutoCAD first. It carries the part of the work you are actually paid for: sheet layouts, dimension styles, annotation scales, external references, plotting to scale, and native DWG that opens correctly at the other end. Everything below is optional until someone is paying you specifically for images.

3ds Max is the control option for visualisation. Modelling with the modifier stack, UV unwrapping, physical materials and lighting, the Arnold renderer in the box, animation when you need a walkthrough. It reads DWG and links Revit models, so the plan becomes the base of the scene. It runs on Windows only and it is heavy on hardware.

Lumion is the speed option. Import from SketchUp, Revit, ArchiCAD, 3ds Max or DWG, drop the model into a landscape, and have a presentable image or a video walkthrough the same evening — its library of trees, people, cars and skies does much of the work. It wants a strong graphics card.

They do not replace each other. Lumion has no dimension standards, 3ds Max issues no drawings, and AutoCAD produces nothing a client signs off as a render. Autodesk products are contact for pricing here, in dirham, for the term and seat count you describe.

Blender is the big one. Free, open source, and for stills and short animations genuinely enough to start a visualisation practice. The honest limits are a steep learning curve, an interface unlike anything Autodesk makes, and a plugin culture that assumes you enjoy tinkering. If you are paying for nothing yet, install this first.

If you only receive drawings — you review them, you print them, you never edit them — you do not need a drafting licence at all. Autodesk publishes a free online viewer for DWG and DXF, and most engineering offices will send a PDF set on request.

Free 2D drafting exists: LibreCAD, QCAD Community Edition, and FreeCAD for parametric work. They are fine for study and personal projects, and painful the day a bureau d’études expects native DWG with intact external references.

Two licences to read before you rely on them. SketchUp’s free web version is for personal, non-commercial use, and Twinmotion’s free tier is likewise non-commercial. Terms change; check them yourself.

Delay BIM. Revit and ArchiCAD are another budget and another way of thinking — buy one the month a contract requires it, not the year you read that it is the future. And if you are a verified student or teacher, Autodesk grants free educational licences. Exhaust that route before you spend anything.

Autodesk products — AutoCAD, 3ds Max, the collections — are contact for pricing, and this page will not invent a number. They are subscriptions priced abroad, and the figure moves with the term, the number of seats and the exchange rate. Ask on WhatsApp with the term you want, and you get a dirham price for that.

The pieces around the drawing do have fixed prices:

• Adobe Creative Cloud — 400 MAD for 4 months, for boards, panels and portfolios. Three terms of four months make a year, so 1 200 MAD.
• Microsoft 365 — 100 MAD for 3 months, for descriptifs, quantity tables and client correspondence. Four terms of three months make a year, so 400 MAD.
• Bitdefender Total Security — 399 MAD for 1 year across 5 devices, for the machine that holds every project file you own.

The cost nobody quotes is the machine. Lumion and 3ds Max want a dedicated graphics card and plenty of RAM, and in a young practice that upgrade often costs more than the licences. Budget for it before the software, not after.

Before you buy. ROSH™ Company Labs is an independent one-person business, affiliated with no vendor and an authorised reseller of nothing. It is not a formally registered company and issues no tax invoice, so if your accountant needs a facture, buy direct from the vendor or from one of its authorised resellers. Purchases here are at your own risk.

A first setup that actually works, in the order the money should leave your account:

1. AutoCAD, contact for pricing. This is the licence your invoices rest on.
2. Microsoft 365 at 100 MAD for 3 months, for everything written that travels with the drawings.
3. Bitdefender Total Security at 399 MAD a year across 5 devices. One lost drive with no backup ends a small practice’s month.
4. Blender, free, for your first renders while you find out whether clients will pay for images at all.

Upgrade when the work asks, not before. Adobe Creative Cloud at 400 MAD for 4 months the day presentation boards become a deliverable rather than a favour. Lumion when clients are paying for walkthroughs and you have a machine that can run it. 3ds Max when a render has to be exact rather than fast — materials, lighting and a camera you fully control.

BIM last, and only against a written contractual requirement.

A simple test before each step. Name the last three jobs that would have paid for the licence. If you cannot, the licence is not what is holding your practice back.