Some time during this coming week, we can anticipate an announcement from Graphisoft concerning their new MEP Modeler for ArchiCAD.
Various people that you know from these forums have been beta testing it for some time, but of course have been sworn to secrecy. We've just been released from our non-disclosure.
So, I can start the 'leak' of information here. 😉
Personally, I have no real-world MEP experience, so my opinion doesn't carry a lot of weight compared to other people that you may hear from.
I'm really impressed with the MEP Modeler. It's fun to use and has quite a bit of intelligence. Routing and editing is easily done in 3D as well as 2D, and the various parts snap together intelligently...including smart connection 'ports' on both new MEP objects as well as related objects in the standard library (sinks, WCs, washer/dryer, furnace, etc). Touching elements can be treated as an assembly.
Conflicts with other building elements are easily highlighted with a Collision Detection feature that really works well and is cleverly integrated with the markup features of ArchiCAD. Only collisions between MEP elements and any other element are detected. (It is not a general-purpose collision detection feature: it will not detect a column that penetrates a floor, for example.)
The MEP Preferences let you pre-define the typical sizes and lengths used for ducts, pipes and cable carriers to make it easier to work with components that correspond to actual building elements.
The MEP Systems dialog lets you define the various systems to be used in your building and how elements in each system should appear. For example, ductwork is for air, but you can define systems for Cooling, Exhaust Air, Heating, Return Air, Recovery Air, etc as desired, all of which would use ductwork, but might display themselves with different pens, materials or line styles - and which would be selectable as systems.
There are a couple of unique work methods, but nothing big - just have to learn it. For example, if you select multiple MEP elements and want to modify them together, you cannot use the Object Settings dialog or Edit Selection Set, instead there is an Edit Selected Elements dialog. But, since that dialog is customized for MEP, it is actually cleaner, once you are used to it.
There are new pet palette options for editing, and there is a connection library part that one can assemble along with other AC elements and save a custom MEP part with smart ports without programming in GDL. For example, if you needed a floor grate for a conditioned air system, you could create it with tiny walls or beams (etc), place the connection object as desired under it, and save the bits as a new lib part. When you route ductwork to this floor grate, it will snap to the port.
This is just a way-cool and long-awaited addition to ArchiCAD.
I have no information on pricing, etc.... so am staying tuned for the announcement like everyone else. We're told that a WIBU protection keyplug is required to run the MEP Modeler within ArchiCAD: it can be either the same keyplug that has your ArchiCAD license, or a separate one.
Cheers,
Karl
PS There is also a new plug-in for AutoCAD MEP 2008 and 2009 that allows you to export AutoCAD MEP systems into ArchiCAD via IFC. I did not test this, so can't offer any comments.
PPS I do not receive any compensation from Graphisoft for this post or any of my time/work on these forums or the wiki.
One of the forum moderators
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