topic Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9 in Modeling

What do you think of the features announced for V9

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:33:24 GMT

What do you think of the features announced for V9?
I personally think its just v8.2
Just 5-6 features to excuse a new release

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Dwight — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 10:15:24 GMT

The "Trump" card on this upgrade is the new renderer - an entire new plateau - in these inflationary times, that deserves a whole new integer.

This does bode ill for the future of upgrades in general. I expect that after software releases hit 10, they'll start jumping by factors of 10 - we'll get to "ArchiCAD 20" long before plasma diffusion environments are practical as architectural communication tools.

By then, there will probably be a reality TV show involving the "Trump," it would be called "The Upgrade." Upgrades will be so frequent and unrelenting by then, his tag line will be: "You're tired!"

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Thomas Holm — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 10:19:03 GMT

In the software industry, version upgrades usually mean important changes to the user interface, new features, and/or file-format changes that make saved files impossible to open in previous versions without conversion or special procedures (i.e. Save As...). Version upgrades usually cost money.

AC9 has all of that.

Point upgrades (x.1, x.2 etc) usually mean completion or improvement of already implemented features, along with bug-fixes. Point upgrades are usually free.

AC9 has that too (better PDF integration for example). But it has more, see above.

I'd like to add that the interface and handling changes in AC9 might seem small to some, but for me who has publicly wanted some of these for eight years or more, this is big. Having migrated from a Microstation environment, I can tell that the flexibility and streamlining of your workflow offered by AC9 will leverage the program's usability in a quite noticable way.

It will also be an important selling point to practices based on Microstation and Autocad, where some of these features are taken for granted. And this will be of significance to all of us!

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 11:17:10 GMT

1. don't you think it's a little early for a pole since most have not even seen ArchiCAD 9 yet?

2. the poll questions are very interesting... a little skewed maybe ???

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 11:35:27 GMT

woodster wrote:
1. don't you think it's a little early for a pole since most have not even seen ArchiCAD 9 yet?

2. the poll questions are very interesting... a little skewed maybe ???

Why skewed? It has one very positive, one negative and one neutral.

Any suggestions for altering it?

And secondly we can commend on the features we know there are in V9.
Be sure if they were more they would have told us.
As simple as that

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

__archiben — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 13:35:11 GMT

oreopoulos wrote:
What do you think of the features announced for V9?
I personally think its just v8.2
Just 5-6 features to excuse a new release

i think maybe people should wait until a more detailed list of features becomes available before voting. there is not enough information here to be able to judge!

see my post here:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=20156#20156

~/archiben

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Djordje — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 18:30:11 GMT

woodster wrote:
Why skewed? It has one very positive, one negative and one neutral.

Work with it a month.

Then open 8.1

Click on a slab and wonder why it is not selected.

Place a cursor on the edge of an object and wonder why it does not turn into Mercedes. The cursor, that is.

Click into an object, or text, and wonder why it is not selected.

Curse as you can't split a polyline.

Wrestle with the DWG sent from AutoCAD 2004/2005.

Edit a slab, roof and a mesh and curse as you have to edit the fill that you have to put on top.

Break your fingers typing CTRL V.

Export to ArtLantis or something else and waste more time than you have to spend to learn LightWorks.

Set the working environment umptillionth time.

No, I will not mention the text. Intentionally.

Do not judge by demos. Read between the lines. Upgrade.

It is worth it.

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Dwight — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 18:45:29 GMT

I am just advised that the US price to upgrade is $495.

Chicken feed.

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Dwight — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 18:46:27 GMT

And for anyone contemplating a new renderer - give LightWorks a chance.....

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Vitruvius — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 19:00:45 GMT

I've always found every upgrade thoughtful, well conceived and a boon to productivity. My only caution is that GS not repeat the V8.0 fiasco. I'd rather wait a few more months to get a stable product that I can use with confidence.

That being said, 8.1 is a fantastic programme. Aside from the powerhouse computers at the office, I use it at home on a 1999 iMac G3 and it still works flawlessly and relatively quickly (though I'm never at the same speed drawing with a glass of Shiraz at my right hand). I'd upgrade the home computer if it were a problem, but it AC really does run well on the old beast. Kudo's to the GS softwriters and the Apple engineers.

From Djorde's description of the new features it sounds promising - a lot of dead dull productivity enhancements and one or two headliner features. I know I'll gravitate to the productivity enhancements. More time to sample the Shiraz with my wife!

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Dwight — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 19:49:57 GMT

It is a lot "smoother," as one might expect. Cartainly the work surface is much more active with the implementation of object surface sensing where clicking within a slab, say, will select the slab. This function can be toggled since one is often working within the confines of a slab boundary and inadvetent slab selection can occur.

We can always hope for the sophistication of the LightWave [not LightWorks - ArchiCAD's new rendering engine - a NewTek product for modeling and rendering with a really swank shell interface that is totally unlike the Mac OS] GUI.

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:17:19 GMT

8-6-4 for now.

I guess the long list of wishes is just to pass our times, and communicate.
But why am i looking strange at the result? ...{selfcensored..politics not allowed }

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 11:26:26 GMT

Where does Graphisoft keep its 'wish list' ? I have a few that I'd like to add.

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 17:20:18 GMT

Vitruvius wrote:
I've always found every upgrade thoughtful, well conceived and a boon to productivity. My only caution is that GS not repeat the V8.0 fiasco. I'd rather wait a few more months to get a stable product that I can use with confidence.

Please see my comments here:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=20338#20338

as well as those of others who have used 9.0 for several months on real projects.

Yes, 8.0R1/V1 was a disaster and GS admitted it.

9.0R1/V1 (unless it has changed from the last beta release) is a solid, stable release and waiting a few months is only delaying your productivity gains IMHO. Projects begun in 8.1 can simply be opened in 9.0 and work continued.

Once you've used 9.0, you'll never want to go back.

None of the people who have posted comments on their experiences with 9.0 are resellers - and so none of us have any financial gain to result from saying what we do. I'll admit, I have a stress reduction benefit ... since as a consultant, it is easier to teach and work with people who are on 9.0 than to fumble with workarounds for all of the new features. 😉

Cheers,
Karl

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Vitruvius — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 19:48:23 GMT

Well thanks Karl,

For pilloring me as a negative guy.

Cheers (perhaps), Cameron

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 04:34:34 GMT

Dwight wrote:
I am just advised that the US price to upgrade is $495.

Chicken feed.

True - except for those of us still forking out private school tuition and doing a grand total of maybe two projects a year on it, especially right at the same time as finally *having* to upgrade formZ, and to their commercial version to boot <sigh>.

I've already owned more versions of Archicad than I've done projects on it, so I'm really wondering if it's worth upgrading again just yet. I still haven't installed the last upgrade I was sent, whatever it was, haven't even looked at it.

I suspect I'll end up doing it anyways.

Wendy

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

Rob — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 06:05:08 GMT

let me join you guys after spending some time in a sweet oblivion in Central Europe.

As a beta tester I can say that v9 is really stable (I should say unusually stable as to my big surprise after v8.0 experience), finally delivers standard GUI and so much needed renderer / text tool. I know there are new bits and pieces all over the thing which improve over all performance BUT I suppose the other major problems have not been tackled at all, such as stairs (3rd party solution is a bit risky business), beam geometry limitations etc. Unfortunately some of the new features are not fully implemented throughout the thing (storey visibility for lib parts, different section/plan fills for walls, some tool palettes are not still dockable, Plotmaker is still a shocker not using same k-board shortcuts and procedures).
Talking about version number is in my opinion totally pointless but I agree with v9, it deserves that at least for its new look/GUI capabilities and the renderer which is really fantastic.

Re: What do you think of the features announced for V9

stefan — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 10:01:27 GMT

Wendy wrote:
Dwight wrote:
I am just advised that the US price to upgrade is $495.

Chicken feed.
True - except for those of us still forking out private school tuition and doing a grand total of maybe two projects a year on it, especially right at the same time as finally *having* to upgrade formZ, and to their commercial version to boot <sigh>.

I've already owned more versions of Archicad than I've done projects on it, so I'm really wondering if it's worth upgrading again just yet. I still haven't installed the last upgrade I was sent, whatever it was, haven't even looked at it.

I suspect I'll end up doing it anyways.

Wendy

I'm not doing any real projects with ArchiCAD anymore, since I'm not into commercial work anymore... So that makes my commercial effort pretty expensive.

Can't you use student versions? And ask the reseller for a good deal for a commercial upgrade. In Belgium, architects can buy ArchiCAD much cheaper during their two years of internship. In my time, I just missed this opportunity, which would have been a saving of about $2500... Damn.

Yes, FormZ is also expensive. Rhino is cheaper, but not sure if it fullfills your requirements.