topic Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals? in General discussions

Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Daniel — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 18:58:24 GMT

As a BIM manager, one of my strongest tools has been the help center user manuals. The searchable, official content is an irreplaceable resource when searching for or directing users to the developer-intended use of a tool or function.

With every link to the help center redirecting here, I am at a loss for the digital content of the official Archicad user manuals and best-practices recommendations. I will also have to stop recommending the "What's this?" functionality within the software itself now that it fails to bring up the selection-specific user manual section.

Don't get me wrong, I use the forums almost as often as the user manuals and I am thrilled to see a facelift on the interface, but I urgently require access to the version-specific user manuals to do my job. Please let me know if they are in a new location or available by other means.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

hevi — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:13:23 GMT

Seems as there are quite a few broken links around at the moment - should be prioritised.

I'm using AC 24 and the 'What's this' works for me. However, graphisoft.com/resources-and-support/getting-started > helpcenter.graphisoft.com links to community.graphisoft.com

Until fixed:

Archicad 25 | User Guide Chapter | GRAPHISOFT Help Center

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Daniel — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:19:40 GMT

Thanks for the link! I managed to find a few others that still work as well.

I hate to be fussy about the updated platform, but our team just upgraded to AC 25 today so the difficulty in accessing the User Guides was alarming. Good to know it seems to be a temporary issue.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

hevi — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:20:00 GMT

User Manuals are still under helpcenter.graphisoft.com but Knowledgebase links to articles on different boards on community.graphisoft.com

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Francois Swanepoel — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 11:11:42 GMT

I have to agree with @Daniel

Accessing the official User Guides is a critical component for us to deliver effective and fast user support.

Requests / Suggestions:

Please give a menu with links on the new Community site for direct & logical navigation of the official User Guides via an indexed menu? was very and super easy for most users to find their way to official answers.
The offline "Archicad Help" installation files could work / help but has 2 key problems:

The images are really bad quality which makes it not effective in resolving user questions
It is nearly impossible to simply share a direct link to a user (because the installation links are operating system specific and also could varies from computer to computer

The "What's this?" / "Help" links in the software UI (now broken) worked great before. I really hope Graphisoft can restore this functionality to Archicad's UI?
Can the "What's this?" / "Help" not be linked back to the offline "Archicad Help" installation files in stead?

PS: ///// I am glad to see that in the UI the Menu > Help > Archicad Help goes directly to the online link for the official User Guide for that Archicad version (tested 25+24). /////

The way that it works now is (1) with no general notice to users (including us that support users) and (2) is so hugely different. "Different" is not necessarily "Bad" but the new Community site search prioritizes forum post more than the official User Guides.

The search page also presents additional forum info that is confusing & distracting users from the actual answer sent to them.

When questions are not resolved in the User Guides, then Forum discussions are great for further detailed discussions & sharing knowledge & brainstorming for advanced solutions.

Studios are under pressure all the time to do more with less. "Information overload" and distractions are disruptive to production, meeting deadlines and maintaining high quality.

Impact:

The new Community platform takes way more time than before just to find & share the link to the relevant & official answer to a user's question.

Everyone loses time just to get past resolving questions and get back to work that is done under pressure already.

I really hope the new Community platform will bring us back to a focused & manageable access to the great resources we have become used to from Archicad.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Karl Ottenstein — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 02:41:41 GMT

@hevi wrote:

User Manuals are still under helpcenter.graphisoft.com but Knowledgebase links to articles on different boards on community.graphisoft.com

Sadly, the manuals are not available at the moment... as helpcenter.graphisoft.com has been re-directing to this Community site for several days now. I have not heard when this will be fixed.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

hevi — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 07:22:20 GMT

@Karl Ottenstein wrote:
@hevi wrote:
User Manuals are still under helpcenter.graphisoft.com but Knowledgebase links to articles on different boards on community.graphisoft.com
Sadly, the manuals are not available at the moment... as helpcenter.graphisoft.com has been re-directing to this Community site for several days now. I have not heard when this will be fixed.

Yes, the helpcenter.graphisoft.com redirects to community.graphisoft.com but using a path like this it's still possible to reach the manuals.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 18:54:13 GMT

The following FAQ web document contains the links to all User Manuals:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/What-s-new/Frequently-Asked-Questions-FAQ/td-p/304247

Go to Section 16, and that is where you will find the links.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Johan Stinckens — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 13:43:37 GMT

Lazlo,

Thanks for pointing us to the post with links to the manuals.

However, having to look for a post on the forum while it used to be at hand from the Help Center! Can we agree that this is in fact not an improvement?!

Why not just add a 6th logo which holds the Help Center?!

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Lingwisyer — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 01:44:37 GMT

Not a forum, so it should be on the top ribbon. Or on a new line.

Re: Where are the Help Center user manuals?

Johan Stinckens — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 09:07:54 GMT

As this Help Center info currently runs in between the forum posts I had pointed it there.

But indeed, would be much clearer if it was a seperate item on the ribbon. Good thinking! Let's hope it magically appears there in the next few days. 😁