New IRIS owners, Architecture

[Douglas Noble]

The Department of Architecture has recently acquired
some personal IRIS machines to use for instruction
in architecture and environmental design.

I would appreciate it if I could get some suggestions as 
the advantages and disadvantages of the various software
products available for 3D architectural design, as well as 
any specialty programs (finite element analysis, ray tracing,
etc.) that are popular.

I am a novice at the SGI's, since we just received them,
but I have experience with micros and minis such as VAX
and SUN. We run X11R4 on the SUN's - Is this appropriate
for the Personal IRIS?

Please mail me your comments - anything is potentially
helpful. Are there any schools of architecture out
there using SGI? I understand Princeton and Utah(?) are doing
research with them. How about undergraduate instruction?

Many, many thanks for helping a novice!!

Douglas Noble

dnoble at ced.berkeley.edu