topic Re: Annoying Archicad in Modeling

Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 12:39:45 GMT

This thread is for those things Archicad does that during the daily grind makes one clench their teeth.

This is not meant to be a wish list, but a place to tell the devs what where and how Archicad causes frustration while using it (and maybe a place where "bad" behavior can be explained if there is a reason for it).

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 12:48:38 GMT

My first annoying behavior is one I run into many many many times every time I use Archicad and this is my #1 most hated Archicad behavior.

When I select a group of objects to move to another location, when I select a node it automatically selects a deform command instead of the drag command. 9999 times out of 10000 times I do this I'm looking to drag my group of objects. Once in a blue moon I might need to have multiple objects selected to see a deformation take place but it's almost never.

Everytime I use Archicad this comes up many times each session. It slows me down, adds thinking effort to solve each time which adds to mental fatigue, and it's illogical. Or at least I have yet to find a compelling reason (or any reason) why a deformation command should be default instead of the drag command.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:07:04 GMT

My second most annoying behavior is any box that pops up, especially the layer settings box. It seems I'm resizing them and repositioning them too often.

I figure that the box's position is stored with the profile but something is resetting them.

But how those pop up windows are handled besides just frustrates me. Like I can't hit a maximize button to make boxes like layers, or the object setting dialog box full screen in one click instead of having to repositioning the box and hovering twice over the edges to resize.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:26:02 GMT

A third annoying behavior is the interface design of boxes like the settings dialog box. The paradigm of using the collapsing what ever they're called and the box itself following the movement of those collapsing tabs on wide screen monitors is no less than painful.

I'm constantly fiddling with this in a bad way. I would much much much much much much much much rather positioning and preview thingy stay open and the other scrolling tabs are handled as tabs that can be easily switched between in the space under the positioning and preview area. I rarely need to have two of those open (as in I can never remember even once I need two open at the same time). But the CONSTANT unnecessary fiddling with is annoying.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:33:42 GMT

Something else I'm starting to notice with AC 18 is I'm doing more menu drilling to get to settings. This is a direction I'm not liking. For instance, in the attached picture I'm hitting that custom settings button and opening the all parameters section way way too often. I prefer settings where as many options are visible at one time as possible.

Please just remember this one simple thing when it comes to UI design

Menu Drilling = Bad

Sometimes it's like AC is designed around a 1024x768 screen.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:39:52 GMT

The lack of expand all and collapse all on many menus and lists is frustrating.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:54:40 GMT

The orthogonal lock seems a lot less responsive now the horizontal and vertical drag command have been combined for the last few versions of AC. Combining these drag commands has actually slowed me down (sometimes for up to 30 seconds as I'm trying to get AC to lock in a direction). And it's not me. Everyone in my office has complained about this and I've ran into this on every machine I work on.

It was much better in the past when I just kind of moved in direction I wanted and hit shift and it would lock. Just simply work.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:57:52 GMT

Another really annoying behavior is the orange ball of getting the hell in my way.

That ball should not appear under my mouse or over hot spots/nodes.

Re: Annoying Archicad

DGSketcher — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 19:24:24 GMT

Have you considered moving to Sketchup?

It's sometimes to easy to slate GS for what in the big scheme of things are just petty frustrations on a truly exceptional expert system. Yes it's not perfect but I don't see anything else out there to tempt me away and AC becomes more useable with each release.

We would all love a system free of bugs that did our job for us but the reality of human errors in the programming will always be a factor until Skynet takes over.

Re: Annoying Archicad

gpowless — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 13:31:32 GMT

My biggest beef is when placing objects,columns, walls or slabs only to find that the place storey is offset one or two storeys. Having to place an object twice slows the CD process down by 1/3.

The default storey of any object should be fixed at the current storey when it is first selected. If a user wants to move the object then and only then should they decide to open the object dialog and change the storey.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Link — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 21:23:32 GMT

gpowless wrote:
My biggest beef is when placing objects,columns, walls or slabs only to find that the place storey is offset one or two storeys. Having to place an object twice slows the CD process down by 1/3.

The default storey of any object should be fixed at the current storey when it is first selected. If a user wants to move the object then and only then should they decide to open the object dialog and change the storey.

Just FYI that you can change the home story easily, by opening the settings, copying the elevation to project zero, changing the home story, then pasting the elevation back in.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:58:42 GMT

DGSketcher wrote:
Have you considered moving to Sketchup?

It's sometimes to easy to slate GS for what in the big scheme of things are just petty frustrations on a truly exceptional expert system. Yes it's not perfect but I don't see anything else out there to tempt me away and AC becomes more useable with each release.

We would all love a system free of bugs that did our job for us but the reality of human errors in the programming will always be a factor until Skynet takes over.

The point of this thread is to let the devs know areas of the software that are particularly frustrating to use so they get a heads up on areas that detract from the use of it.

I use Archicad to make money, have no desire to drop AC for Sketchup. But since I use AC day in and day out all day long, I really would like for as many as these frustrating areas to go away.

Re: Annoying Archicad

gpowless — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:58:15 GMT

Just FYI that you can change the home story easily, by opening the settings, copying the elevation to project zero, changing the home story, then pasting the elevation back in.

Cheers,
Link.

Tried that. It keeps reverting back to various stories based on the project zero.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Eduardo Rolon — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 14:44:32 GMT

Another procedure to change object stories is to "right click" and select "Relink to …"

Re: Annoying Archicad

DGSketcher — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 15:52:17 GMT

zeropointreference wrote:
The point of this thread is to let the devs know areas of the software that are particularly frustrating to use so they get a heads up on areas that detract from the use of it.

Yes I sort of get that but it also looks like a list of complaints suggesting AC isn't fit for purpose! Surely the wishlist section would be more appropriate for most of these points so they can be voted on and addressed individually. This thread is already becoming fractured with solutions to different complaints.

I'm not saying your sentiments are not founded just there are possibly better ways to address your concerns.

Have you considered taking the points up directly with your dealer as another option?

Re: Annoying Archicad

Matt Balaam — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 23:44:32 GMT

zeropointreference wrote:
My first annoying behavior is one I run into many many many times every time I use Archicad and this is my #1 most hated Archicad behavior.

When I select a group of objects to move to another location, when I select a node it automatically selects a deform command instead of the drag command. 9999 times out of 10000 times I do this I'm looking to drag my group of objects. Once in a blue moon I might need to have multiple objects selected to see a deformation take place but it's almost never.

Everytime I use Archicad this comes up many times each session. It slows me down, adds thinking effort to solve each time which adds to mental fatigue, and it's illogical. Or at least I have yet to find a compelling reason (or any reason) why a deformation command should be default instead of the drag command.

There is an easy way to avoid this, use the Drag keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+D) to initiate the drag command, you then don't have to worry about which pet palette option is active. This also means that if you do want to repeat a previous pet palette action it will be remembered after the drag rather than having to activate it again.

Typically your left hand will already be sitting in this corner of the keyboard so the shortcut takes minimal time to activate, in fact you can usually press it while you are moving your mouse to the hotspot you want to drag from.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 12:53:31 GMT

zeropointreference wrote:
My second most annoying behavior is any box that pops up, especially the layer settings box. It seems I'm resizing them and repositioning them too often.

I figure that the box's position is stored with the profile but something is resetting them.

But how those pop up windows are handled besides just frustrates me. Like I can't hit a maximize button to make boxes like layers, or the object setting dialog box full screen in one click instead of having to repositioning the box and hovering twice over the edges to resize.

For me the position of Dialog boxes is stored and restored properly when I again activate them.
I you experience that position of Dialog boxes is not remembered by the program, you should report that to your reseller as a bug. The only time I think this can happen is when you activate another Work Environment Profile or Palette Scheme in the Work Environment Dialog. But if it is happening for another reason that is a bug in my opinion.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:10:14 GMT

zeropointreference wrote:
A third annoying behavior is the interface design of boxes like the settings dialog box. The paradigm of using the collapsing what ever they're called and the box itself following the movement of those collapsing tabs on wide screen monitors is no less than painful.

I'm constantly fiddling with this in a bad way. I would much much much much much much much much rather positioning and preview thingy stay open and the other scrolling tabs are handled as tabs that can be easily switched between in the space under the positioning and preview area. I rarely need to have two of those open (as in I can never remember even once I need two open at the same time). But the CONSTANT unnecessary fiddling with is annoying.

This is something I too find frustrating. When I open the various panels of a Dialog the height of the Dialog constantly changes. This is especially frustrating when I open the Parameters (Custom Settings) panel of the Object Settings Dialog, then resize the Dialog down so I see many parameter. Then I switch to another panel, which closes or compresses the Parameters (Custom Settings) panel since now they cannot all fit vertically. Then when I again open the Parameters panel, it is again sized back to its default vertical size and I again have to resize the Dialog vertically so I can see enough parameters for my purposes.
I think ArchiCAD would have to try to resize itself to the largest size that I specified by resizing. This way when only the Parameters (Custom Settings) panel open it would return to the large size I previously specified.

But I don't know how useful a maximize button for Settings Dialogs would be. I mean when any Settings Dialog is maximized, on my screen they would become 1920 pixels wide so I would have to look to the left side of the screen to see what field I want to modify, then look to the right side of the screen to modify the field. Sound like something that potentially can waste a lot of time.
Much easier to just resize the Dialog to the size I need (of course with the program remembering those sizes the next time I open the Dialog - which my copy does).

I also agree with when DGSketcher that these should become individual wishlist items. Some people may agree with you on some items and disagree on others. If we could vote on each it would be clearly visible which ones many of us consider important issues.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Steve Jepson — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 16:24:50 GMT

perhaps it is my settings somewhere, but I am continually frustrated that snap points are not showing up when I need them. I don't like having to find a place on what I am wanting to see snap points on that will make them show up, and then racing to try and hit it before it disappears.

Re: Annoying Archicad

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 19:35:19 GMT

Steve wrote:
perhaps it is my settings somewhere, but I am continually frustrated that snap points are not showing up when I need them. I don't like having to find a place on what I am wanting to see snap points on that will make them show up, and then racing to try and hit it before it disappears.

Yes this is frustrating, its like the sensitivity knob needs to to be turned up a bit.