Anthony Frausto-Robledo, Publisher Architect

CAD has spent decades teaching us to speak its language: commands, shortcuts, rigid workflows, and tool specific habits that make switching painful and training slow. We want the reverse. We want design software to understand us. That’s where this conversation goes, fast: from the daily reality of producing architecture and publishing product coverage, to the next wave of AI in CAD that could turn plain English prompts into real geometry.I’m joined by Anthony, an architect who also runs Architosh, and that dual perspective keeps the discussion grounded in real work. We talk about why CAD and BIM tools still feel hard, why moving between platforms like Vectorworks, Archicad, SketchUp, Rhino, AutoCAD, and Revit can be such a mental tax, and why “assistive AI” is more than a flashy feature. We dig into early examples of prompt driven drafting, what’s genuinely impressive about modern AI understanding messy text, and why the real payoff is generating many correct actions from one clear description, not drawing a single line faster.From there we take on bigger forces shaping AEC software: why Mac support has lagged despite Apple’s hardware gains, how Autodesk became a center of gravity for the industry, and what cloud first development means for the future of desktop tools. We also get honest about the fear underneath the hype: if AI reduces the grunt work, what happens to entry level roles and the career ladder? If you care about CAD history, AI in engineering design, AEC software strategy, and where drafting workflows go next, you’ll want to hear this one.