Documentation
About Archicad's documenting tools, views, model filtering, layouts, publishing, etc.

why is Archicad making the simple task harder. I'm ready to go back to version 19

Ron
Booster

I've been using Archicad Sine V4.1 in 1992. I've upgraded off and on over the years. I recently switched from V22 to V25 and I'm not happy. Had already seen little improvement from 19 when I went to 22. here is my list of complaints after a month of using V25. some are carry overs from 22

Complaints of v25

 

  1. Detail marker has only a center hot point instead of also having them at the 12, 3,6 & 9 o’clock positions why get ride of something so usefull
  2. Why the separate equip button, un needed programing and waste of screen real estate, I got rid of it
  3. When opening another file I now have to click on options button to bring up option to open new while keeping other open why add more unneeded clicks do programers get paid by the click
  4. Why doesn’t Archicad include the add ons in the program so I don’t have to add them on every new version of Archicad.
  5. I don’t use the tab bar but it is now irritaing since if my mouse gets close a picture pops up obscuring what I need to do. So I got rid of the tab bar but now the action center pops up first thing which I don’t need thus requiring me to click another button to be where I should have been. Note this happens if you don’t have the tab bar up but now I have to have the tab bar up which is the start of my complaint of the tab bar. Time would be better spent making the stairs work
  6. The action center itself is useless it does nothing it claims library needs updating go to update and no it doesn’t same with other items in the action center
  7. At least Archicad has rollup garage doors now but they are still nothing like the real rollup doors I use
  8. Kitchen cabinets what a joke I’ll be using the old Archicad cabinets for now. The base cab with one door only ? seriously and lots of line features but still can’t turn off the back cab line
  9.  Stoves still look wrong in 2d will continue to use others as long as I can, Archicad used to have a good stove in 6.5 but they got rid of it and it can’t be updated like other objects
  10. Stairs still suck will continue to use the stairs from 19 if I’m ever not able to use them in future versions I will go back to making them out of slabs or mesh or morph tools. Believe me morph is faster less playing around I do the math draw and fill and extrude done
  11.  When going to open another Archicad file from an open file the tab takes up the length of 3 monitors and I have to slid it left and right. Its interanl to arhcicad since no other programs have that problem.
  12. Why doesn’t Archicad have a standard shower head not these eleborat crazy things that 90% of people don’t want
  13. Archicad use to have a nice tub/shower with enclosure and shower head and door. I’ve had to make my own but it doesn’t always move with next version and I have to remake.
  14. When a slab is shown on other stories you can no longer click on it to see what its elevation is
  15. Have not been able to quick slecter magnet tool on roofs since Archicad 22 why?
  16.  When placing a fill origin I used to be able to set the origin before laying out the fill, best method, then it became after you place the fill, now you place the fill and it puts the origin at the center and you have to find it and move it to where you want it. Every change arhicad makes makes it more difficult not easier. NOW I HAVE TO DRAW A  REFERENCE POINT TO WHERE I WANT TO MOVE THE ORIGIN TO SINCE I CAN NO LONGER SET THE ORIGIN FROM A KNOWN POINT
  17.  Bay window does not work at least ≤ 30º
  18.  Used to be when I clicked on a beam it would give me the top and bottom elevations now it only gives me the top and I now have to do the math in my head to determine the bottom of the beam. Why is archiad making things harder

 

 

BTW the stairs still don’t work worth a dam I still use the stairs from 19 or make my own.

I have finally been able to make one rail work but still can’t get it to do vertical pickets

 

I'm using mac pro16 

28 REPLIES 28

I set my WE to not open in a new tab, and then when I want 2 or 3 elevations open it's very easy to right click the saved view and it provides the option to open in a new tab.  I find tabs one of the most helpful additions to my work flow.

Rick Thompson
Mac Sonoma AC 26
http://www.thompsonplans.com
Mac M2 studio w/ display

you may not be understanding what I am referring to here. please see attached pdf showing the difference between V25 & V22. V22 shows the top and bottom elevation for beam when i select it V 25 only gives the reference elevation. 

I do know how to set its position when placing or if i want to relocate it but often i need to know the top and bottom position when placing other elements to it. 


Screen Shot 2022-06-09 at 8.49.56 AM.png

Thanks for sharing the screenshot.  I had launched AC 10 and back then, the top and bottom appeared in the Info Box labeled 't' and 'b' and you could even use keyboard shortcuts to jump to those value boxes and change the value to move the beam.  I found it pretty handy in the day... don't really know what version first deleted that.

One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB

OK, so what you are saying is you want to see both top and bottom heights of the beam - not just the reference height.

It is the same for walls, slabs and columns.

We have the overall height and the base or reference line offset.

We can't see the actual top and bottom heights in the settings.

 

I am guessing we will not get this back in the info box or element settings, so the only options I can suggest are to place an elevation label showing both the top and bottom elevations (it can be in a layer that is automatically hidden in you plan views and only shows while you are working and turn it on).

 

Or you can place other elements in 3D using the top or bottom of the beam and the blue temporary guides (or you can place the orange permanent guides) or you can snap directly to the beam if your element is actually touching it.

 

Maybe that is not quite the same as simply selecting the beam and seeing what the heights are options that don't involve calculating heights yourself.

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

I appreciate your response but thats a lot of work arounds for something that was automatic before and allowed me to set elevations of post etc to the beam without having to go to 3d select and drag or stretch. please convince Graphisoft to bring it back. the info is in the computer, they had to remove the programing lines to get out  it should be straight forward to put it back. I was hesitant to upgrade to 25 but did so since the older versions won't work on the new mac computers. Hopefully Mac doesn't change their architecture again for another 10 years


@Ron wrote:

please convince Graphisoft to bring it back.


If only I could.

 

You have raised your concern here which is fine, and someone from Graphisoft may read this - but don't rely on that.

But be sure to contact your local Archicad support and make this suggestion to them as well.

Ask them to pass it on to HQ or if they can give you a reason as to why it is different now.

Going through the proper channels is the best way to try and get something changed.

And if enough people have the same suggestion, they may just consider doing something about it.

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

I will contact them but with little hope since several years ago I posted a similar screed on this site with some 25 complaints and Archicad actually contacted me and said they wanted to make a phone appointment which they did but they never followed through, we made three appointments for them to contact me they failed to follow through on any and when they asked for a fourth appointment I said forget it quit wasting my time. I appreciate your help on this issue and hope that enough others read this and make similar complaints. 

Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin

I think this change in the Beam tool's Info Box panel is probably related to the fact that multi-segment Beams were introduced in AC23, the Info Box was changed then. Maybe it is because Top and Bottom are no longer relevant when each of your Beam segments can have different geometry and thus can have different Tops and Bottoms. In such a case, all you have left is the Beam's Reference Line location which you can still define with the Info Box field.

Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27

that makes sense however when not using a segmented beam there is no reason to not show top and bottom elevations. that feature would not be highlited when segmented as happens on other features. this missing feature is making a lot of work more cumbersome.

 

thanks for the response