PLN Viewer

[Anonymous]

I would like to state that our company has used ArchiCAD for at least 6 versions and we have been busy and successful the entire time. We certainly credit ArchiCAD with helping us attain that success.

We like ArchiCAD and look forward to its continued development and improvement, however, I must say that in the current AEC space, having a CAD program that has absolutely no option for a native-format viewer is long past outmoded. I think especially as the industry adopts a more electronic workflow from project beginning to end, the ability to send native format (e.g. PLN) files to other members of the team for importing into their CAD programs, or simply to view a file quickly, without having to generate additional files (e.g. PDF or DWG) is crucially important to maintaining an efficient communication process. Especially given that the secondary files need add another level of version tracking/duplicate management to an already complex file management process.

It is past time for a Distributable PLN viewer, and I strongly urge the many other users out there, whose multitude of posts I have read, to respond here and show Graphisoft that a PLN viewer is a component we need. And we need it now.

Thanks,

Thomas Doxtater

[Djordje]

It does exist, as 5D Presenter in the Constructor package.

I have spoken about it to various Graphisoft people, some of them rather high up.

Regretfully, the comprehension of the requirement was not present.

[Karl Ottenstein]

I don't understand what is wrong with ArchiCAD itself? It can be freely installed on any machine and run in demo mode to view any pln file. Or am I missing something?

Karl

[Anonymous]

A viewer would be preferable to quickly viewing model versions without having to load large libraries. It would also be a preferable medium to for fellow office workers who need to print of a quick set of drawings. I find conversion to DWf or PDF is not always exactly translated. AC could do a much better job. Efficiency in a busy office is key.

[Karl Ottenstein]

CCEdwards wrote:
A viewer would be preferable to quickly viewing model versions without having to load large libraries. It would also be a preferable medium to for fellow office workers who need to print of a quick set of drawings. I find conversion to DWf or PDF is not always exactly translated. AC could do a much better job. Efficiency in a busy office is key.

Ummm... without loading the libraries, you cannot view the PLN, right?

Yes, AC could be stripped of perhaps half its size (disk and memory) to become just a viewer, but the libraries would still be needed..and the actual running of it would be no faster. It has to do what it has to do to display the model. What you see in AC is the fastest that GS is able to provide at the present time. If they came up with something faster, it would be in the product itself (and thus in demo version).

AC will print in demo mode.

Karl

[Rakela Raul]

takes 5 seconds to save a 'project preview', then you can browse them as you do with your jpg's (if the file name doesnt tell you anything)

sorry i read to quick !! but already sent

[Brad Elliott]

My main issue is that I would like the client to be able to freely explore the model in 3d. That has its own issues but with some of my clients we reach a point where I would like them to be able to explore on their own. Asking them to install ArchiCAD, especially on a windows machine, and then having them deal with the interface is more than they or I want to deal with.

What I need is something like an updated Meander where I can save some plan views and a pre-set 3d model that they can explore. Frankly I wouldn't use it with all of my clients, but the ones I would it would help immensely.

[Anonymous]

Try Solibri- it has a free java viewer for IFC models.





http://www.solibri.com/

[Anonymous]

Wasn't there once a program called meander that allowed you to peruse the 3D model?

Lately I've been saving the 3D model as a dxf - opening it up in sketchup and re-saving with the display options i want and sending that to the client for review.

Works well and sketchup is free.

[Dwight]

Meander did not allow exploring the 3D model.

Meander was a utility that presented a plan view with link locations for a series of VR panoramas. You would click on sets of footprints to switch views. This was not "live," but took some time to set up and render.

It was tricky because by combining zooming with cross-fading the eye was fooled into a sense of movement.