The architectural design process has taken another step toward the cloud. The popular Architectural Graphic Standards (AGS), which is part of the Graphic Standards series published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is now available on MADCAD.com through a cloud-based, annual subscription service.
After its debut in 1932, AGS soon became a bookshelf staple for design professionals and students alike. With instructional text and clear technical drawings by the architects and original authors, Charles Ramsey and Harold Sleeper, AGS is now updated regularly by members of the AIA. The 11th and latest edition of the "architect's bible"—as it is commonly referred by the publisher—was released in 2007. Like its predecessors, the 11th edition was available in hardcover copy and on CD. At 1,120 pages, the literal heavyweight in design standards rarely made it outside of the office to jobsites.
The cloud-based version alleviates the heft. Users can access the online version from any desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device with an Internet browser and connection. Along with the ability to search and access content and 3,000 architectural details in DFX, DGN, and DWG formats, subscribers can create custom libraries that link AGS content with MADCAD’s repository of more than 50,000 cloud-based codes and standards, which include publications by ASHRAE, the International Code Council, OSHA, SMACNA, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
An annual subscription to AGS costs $150 per user. An annual subscription to AGS along with several major design codes codes standards costs $820 per user.
Other titles in the Graphic Standard series, such as the Architectural Graphic Standards for Residential Construction, Interior Graphic Standards, and Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards, will be available on MADCAD in the near future, according to a press release issued jointly by Wiley and MADCAD.
