Maxon Freeform in ArchiCad

[Anonymous]

"SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – JUNE PROMOTION!

Graphisoft and Maxon are happy to announce a new partner solution for ArchiCAD called FreeForm. Based on Cinema 4D, FreeForm allows users of ArchiCAD to edit elements of building models as parametric primitives; with extrusions, holes, planes, points and paths; or with deformers and form generators, providing total design freedom!"


I'm not sure what this is, but it sounds pretty interesting. Total design freedom? I like that. Anyone care to comment.

[TomWaltz]

For GDL experts: since MaxonForm creates a script and not a binary, with some copy and paste you can easily assemble one object that has even more parameters (maybe different levels of detail, or parts of the object individually resizable…).

3D:
In ArchiCAD by default objects get 3D hotspots at the edges of the bounding box. To allow exact placement and alignment in 3D, there is also a possibility to place additional 3D hotspots on the model anywhere you need.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't any GDL-script-level changes be lost the next time you edit the object in MaxonForm?

[Akos Bezegh]

A reediting in MaxonForm will of course overwrite the object. To avoid this you should save the custom object under another name.

[Anonymous]

Akos wrote:
Modeling freedom in ArchiCAD?
I have to emphasize that introducing MaxonForm does NOT mean that we stop developing ArchiCAD’s own modeling capabilities. MaxonForm was NOT developed to replace the freedom in modeling and editing ArchiCAD construction elements. MaxonForm is a tool to create free-form organic objects.

Akos

Thx for the answer.
It is glad to hear that MaxonForm will not be an obstacle to archicad modelling capabilities.

But let me point the main drawback of the maxonform solution.

The problem is that archicad simply imports and exports a mesh, and not a parametric object. This is done because gdl (and archicad) does not support complex 3d objects (this is why i say archicad is 2.5D and not 3D)
If it did support, then maxonform could export the objects in pure gdl which would mean parametric objects.
How could that be? Simple If every basic MaxonForm Object and every Maxonform action would have a gdl equivalent, then a macro-like gdl could solve the problem.

Imagine for example a gdl metacode like this

Create a box
Twist the box (even define a plane of twist)
Bend the box..

[Anonymous]

Question:

Is there a CAD software that can
Create a box
Twist the box (even define a plane of twist)
Bend the box..

[Petros Ioannou]

Adalbert wrote:
Question:

Is there a CAD software that can
Create a box
Twist the box (even define a plane of twist)
Bend the box..

I think Form.Z can do such transformations.

Petros

[Anonymous]

NO, there is not (as far as i know. Petro can FormZ be regarded as a CAD program?)

BUT there is also no CAD program that uses parametric scripting lanruage like GDL (which could be really powerfull).

Why this is not done is simple.
CAD programs have a really long history. Back in time, harware was not ready for real 3D. When hardware was ready for 3D CAD software was difficult to change the basic structure, so 3D objects are defined as meshes. This also secures object import export between packages.

I was talking about that procedure as a proposal to INNOVATION.

Do you think Adalbert that such a procedure is not needed in cad programs?

[Petros Ioannou]

Kosta,
Not really a CAD since FormZ is advertised as a "General purpose 3D solids and surface modeler", although it has been widely used by Architects and introduced many times as a CAD application (as in the school of Architecture here in Thessaloniki). Besides IMHO the whole point is to decrease the distance between CAD and modeler apps and include both these sub-categories into a powerful BIM application. (Not in the way it has been done so far by using addons which is equal to using an external application)

Petros

[Anonymous]

I agree.

Cad and 3dmodellers would in the end converge.
Ofcourse a cad does not need a topology brush like ZBrush, and even subdivision meshes are not very important to cad modelers (not VERY).

[Anonymous]

We've brought all of this up in other areas of the forum, especially the wishlist area. Archicad needs real 3D. Whether or not there is another CAD/BIM program that can do it is a question for a REVIT, Microstation, or AllPlan expert, not for me. I simply know that AC cannot. Vectorworks can do most of the 3D operations discussed above in this thread, but then it fails as a real building modeler, and so we are stuck (at least on mac) with no good BIM/CAD program with good 3D.

The fact is that we continually hear nothing from GS about whether AC will ever be able to do what Petros and oreopoulos and the rest of us are clamouring for.

Can GS create a suite of reasonable 3D tools built into Archicad and easily manipulated directly from the 3D window? Yes or no? These do not need to be at the Maya/C4D level, but perhaps at the level of Sketchup with nurbs thrown in.

Old timers (GDL scripters, et. al.) may not like to hear it, but the youngin's do a lot of working and thinking and design directly in the 3D window. A CAD/BIM program that had the tools of a Sketchup or FormZ would capture a much larger segment of an ever-growing market. Doesn't GS realize this? Don't they know that plugin in windows (archiforma, profiler) and exporting to other programs are no substitute for working in the 3D window of the native program?

Is it or is it not possible within the GDL framework and code underneath AC to give us the ability to push/pull/transform/twist/extrude existing GDL objects, esp. WALLS, SLABS, and ROOFS live in the 3D window while having these objects retain their BIM and 2D qualities (and of course to be able to create new freeform objects and assign them BIM properties if so desired)?

Honestly, how hard can this be? How hard is it to give us the abilty to tilt a slab, edit the edge of a roof, batter a wall, extrude a railing, etc... Vectorworks can do all of this and so much more, why not AC?

Why does GS ignore it and try for MaxonForm and plugins instead? Enough people have been screaming for this for long enough that I astounded by the silence from GS, from re-sellers and yes, from our dear moderator, too.

What gives? Hello, anyone in Hungary listening?

Rant over, nuf said


Oh, and walls need to be visible across stories.

[Djordje]

Petros wrote:

Adalbert wrote:
Question:

Is there a CAD software that can
Create a box
Twist the box (even define a plane of twist)
Bend the box..

I think Form.Z can do such transformations.

Petros

Form.Z is not CAD. It is modeling software.