topic Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure? in Modeling

Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

rob2218 — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:29:03 GMT

I'd just like to know.....is all.
Cause I'm getting a bit worried.
Worried because everywhere I turn I see "Revit" this and Revit that......

2 years ago...I was told that GS North America was going to make a big push in the U.S. market....so far....it's tough actually seeing this in the trenches.....

GS North America - if you are out there...what are yer plans here?
As a "loyal" Archicad user....mind I add I was using Acad and ADT for over 20 years - since version 2.5......I'd like to know what plans you have.

I'd hate to have to switch over to the 'dark' side just cause I'm not informed.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

NCornia — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:01:50 GMT

Perhaps this is a good indicator: community/press_zone/indox-reseller.html

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

rob2218 — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:23:33 GMT

NCornia......

What's the "FULL" website address?
I can't seem to plug the one you put up and get anything.
thanks,

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:53:13 GMT

http://www.graphisoft.com/community/press_zone/indox-reseller.html

I'm worried about ArchiCAD too. When I talk to others most have never even heard of ArchiCAD let alone even seen it.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

rob2218 — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:50:48 GMT

"Worried about Archicad"...yeah. I'm sure GS is listening.....are you GS?
Listening?
What are you doing to help promote Archicad sales in the U.S. for 2011, 2012...etc..?

I know the construction/design market is shot to heck and back but.....
What are you all doing at GS?

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Greg Kmethy — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 01:13:03 GMT

rob2218 wrote:
I'd hate to have to switch over to the 'dark' side just cause I'm not informed.

This is what we have done this week: We have signed up a new reseller; co-sponsored the BIM & Single-Family Residential webinar with Architectural Record (more than a thousand would-be BIM users showed up); sponsored the Building of the Year contest on ArchDaily, "the world's most visited architecture website", in which, BTW, an ArchiCAD-designed building won the Industrial Category.

We have recently added new sales staff to cover areas where we are not represented by resellers, we are actively looking for new resellers, and we continue our student campaign - which we believe will pay off in the long run. We also support initiatives for interoperability - because what we really believe in is that it should not matter what everybody else is using. You should have the freedom to choose whatever tool works best for you, and you should not be bound to use one tool just because that's what the others are using.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:02:52 GMT

gkmethy wrote:
rob2218 wrote:
I'd hate to have to switch over to the 'dark' side just cause I'm not informed.
This is what we have done this week: We have signed up a new reseller; co-sponsored the BIM & Single-Family Residential webinar with Architectural Record (more than a thousand would-be BIM users showed up); sponsored the Building of the Year contest on ArchDaily, "the world's most visited architecture website", in which, BTW, an ArchiCAD-designed building won the Industrial Category.

Greg - As a new user (Jan, 2010), I'm very glad GS's marketing efforts reached our small office. I'm pretty sure that for both GS and users, a thriving presence of ArchiCAD is desirable, so I wish for greater success for everyone's sake. We have invested enough in, and become sufficiently dependent on, ArchiCAD that GS is essentially our partner.

At the same time, I found this week's Single Family Residential (a big part of our work) Webinar disappointing. A cynical view would see three architects with a chance to talk about their work, acknowledging in a very general way that BIM was helpful or profitable - no lessons to be learned (for users) about how to use BIM/ArchiCAD well, nor any proof or examples (for potential users) of how ArchiCAD will help accomplish aims.

Paul

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

rob2218 — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:11:36 GMT

I too am hopeful that GS can out more Archicad on the desks
Of users. Again. I can only give my baised opinion
Based on my sole use of one BIM product.....Archicad.

Perhaps I should take at the very least a beginning course
In Revit just so I can compare the two.....see how one works
Over the other.

How can I help GS?
If GS "is" truly looking to ramp up.....they can give me a
Call....I'd love nothin more than to try and convince other
Architects about Archicad.....so GS, if you are serious about
Increasing sales in North America.....I'm here to help.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:42:38 GMT

GS's downfall was never getting away from the Architects. They should have started focusing at least some of their efforts on manufacturers and CAM around v6 or so. GDL would have been an easier language for multi axis CAM than AutoCAD but there was really no interest other than the Log Home project which eventually fell by the wayside. Just like ArchiFM. A great SW but because of the lack of readily available objects to maintain it too fell by the wayside.

IMO Nemetschek should sell to SolidWorks as they are looking to get into the architectural arena and it is already commonly used by many who actually manufacture parts that create the products you use. Manufacturers won't use AC because it offers them no benefit and as it continues on that way ArchiCAD will become less beneficial to Architects regardless of how superior the software may be. Many manufacturers who use SolidWorks merely assemble their products with the CAD files provided by the manufacturer of the components they use. The number of manufacturers offering their products for Revit has already surpassed ArchiCAD.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:07:44 GMT

Jeffrey wrote:
GS's downfall was never getting away from the Architects. They should have started focusing at least some of their efforts on manufacturers and CAM around v6 or so. GDL would have been an easier language for multi axis CAM .......

Hmmm - you got me wondering with this one. I have never thought about it from this angle (and I still think it's a little odd) but what about the rest of AEC first - structural, services etc.
Autodesk is almost an ecosystem unto itself and they can boast about interoperability amongst their own products (although in many cases not as great as you might assume) - but Nemetschek is IFC-focused

.... so it's not only about marketing ArchiCAD in north america but marketing/lobbying for IFC.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

rob2218 — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:05:55 GMT

You really think an I.F.C. format is going to dominate the standard?
Are you kidding me?
IFC is just another way of saying...ummm....do you want DWG, DXF, or TIFF or PDF.....just another set of letters which "tries" to convince the masses that IT (IFC) will be the industry standard.

Problem with standards, once again, is there are so many to chose from.....and until one company, one entity, one sole determining factor can make IFC "the" standard, it wont happen.

I've had to deal with IFC translations between Revit and Archicad....and let me tell you it's a freakin' nightmare!!! Really it is.

Either one of two things happened in my dealings with IFC. A) the Revit user on the other end just didn't know WTF they were doing when creating objects in REVIT or B) IFC really does suck and translation is terrible....PERIOD.

Just my thoughts.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:24:01 GMT

Rob,

Just because Revit is lousy at working with IFC doesn't make it bad. Autodesk have a strong interest in seeing that IFC either fail or succeed slowly. Despite that they are being forced to support it anyway. In the meantime firms like Nemetschek and Tekla are moving forward aggressively to support it and the efforts are paying off. Graphisoft is also working on their own end run by making Revit add-ins to make the Revit IFC output less crappy. These still have a ways to go but the initial efforts are promising as well as useful.

Tekla is also starting to push into markets outside its traditional structural focus creating some direct competition to Navisworks. This could be a game changing turn of events.

I use IFC a great deal and to good effect in many projects. It still has a long way to go but the alternative of everyone using Revit is not only unacceptable but also unworkable. Revit is good but not good enough for that.

BTW: The incompetence of some Revit users is also not a reason to slam IFC. I have seen the same problems with AutoCAD users not even understanding their own file formats (DWG and DXF) well enough to interoperate and of course blaming the failure on the other software.

Cheers,
Matthew

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:44:18 GMT

[censored] ........ [censored]

I guess you feel strongly about this. LOL!
Matthew has put it very well so I don't need to repeat. Just remember that it is easy to do anything badly. Forget about communicating between software packages - I have had terrible experiences working with files done by others using the same software. As with anything there has to be a discipline about how you set things up - to prepare in the future for x, y and z - and BIM is no exception. Actually it is even more important here.

IFC is as good as you prepare t make it.
But on the other hand, if it actually is 'censored' then we might as well update the websites of graphisoft, tekla, solibri and co each with a big countdown clock to oblivion.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

rob2218 — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:58:17 GMT

I've lost my freedoms.
Funny thing was is that the "censored" words weren't even bad words.
Someone at GS decided they were and censored them.
The words I used were an 3 letter acronym starting with the letter "W" and ending with the letter "F".

The second word I used was what you do when you sip a shake thru a straw.......now, if this aint censorship...I don't know what is.

Sorry GS feels I may have written bad words but I didnt...just for the record folks.

Back to the IFC issue....er...really I don't want to stray from the topic of "What is GS doing in North America to further promote their software"?

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:57:59 GMT

It can be difficult to discuss vacuum cleaners or abbreviate the World Tennis Federation around here.

I remember being a bit surprised the first time it happened to me. I think they're just written into the filters. I don't know if they were specified by Graphisoft or are just part of the default forum stuff. It does seem a bit extreme but I do appreciate the level of civility here. It's quite a contrast to many of the blog post threads I run across (and I'm talking about the relatively civil ones).

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

vistasp — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:18:59 GMT

Matthew wrote:
It can be difficult to discuss vacuum cleaners or abbreviate the World Tennis Federation around here.

I remember the time it censored the word t-e-e-n and I thought, "World Tennis Federation???". Then, Laszlo pointed out that the word is often followed by a three-letter word that sounds a lot like what a vacuum cleaner does.

I think censoring is built into phpBB and while I'm sure the list of banned words is editable, I don't think anyone has bothered to do so. It's sort of like using the default Work Environment.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

Stress Co_ — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:12:54 GMT

Matthew wrote:
It can be difficult to discuss vacuum cleaners or abbreviate the World Tennis Federation around here.

You mean "W-T-F Dad" doesn't stand for: "Wow, That's Fantastic Dad"?
I'll have to have a talk with my daughter.

Re: Graphisoft Plans for North America exposure?

JaredBanks — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:20:34 GMT

rob2218 wrote:
How can I help GS?
If GS "is" truly looking to ramp up.....they can give me a
Call....I'd love nothin more than to try and convince other
Architects about Archicad.....so GS, if you are serious about
Increasing sales in North America.....I'm here to help.

Have you contacted your local reseller to see if they want some pro-help?