[CAD Note] Parametric Design. Maya.

Because parametric design is ideally suited to the mastery of rapid fabrication, many architects believe that parametric design skill need to be among the dozen or so capabilities that define the digital toolboxes of forward-looking architects.
Parametric design allows users to modify relationships between various features while tracking the history of those changes, thus updating all interrelationships performed after the modification.
This is a common technique used in product fabrication, but the precision involved in manufacturing software (accurate to thousand of an inch) can be limiting to free architectural design exploration. Thus several famous architects have instead adopted the animation program Maya because it permits more fluid design exploration with less emphasis on manufacturing tolerances. Maya has several beneficial attributes that aid in conceptual design studies: manipulation of mathematical algorithms using embedded language scripting can autogenerate complex forms, ease rapid prototyping of study models, and create compelling and informative walk-through animations. The number of potential parametric relationships is limited only by the diversity of data. The benefit for architects is that a fully developed singular parametric design project may be easily tweaked to create wildly dissimilar results for other projects. Complex results dazzle the uninitiated, but can be surprisingly simple to generate for those with an understanding of how parametric design works.
http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/