Archicad 26 is here!

[Noemi Balogh]

This is the connecting forum thread for Archicad 26 is here!

What is your favourite new feature? Share your thoughts and opinion here!

[Jp1138]

As it is a susbcription based software, there´s no way I´m starting to use it. I´ll stick to twinmotion and see how it evolves or just jump to Unreal.

[Ahmed_K]

Archicad is shifting from a robust design software for architects to a mixer of A LOT of ingredients, 

in the past few years, i used almost ALL of the sowtware commands, , they have sence for me as a user, 

now, you have structure, and in the very soon MEP , later maybe rebar , and so on , archciad becomes BUSY of tools, 

If you focused only on developping the architectural design part of the software to offer a much better solution for architects, surely y'oull own a HUGE part of the market, 

having a complete solution for architectural ddesign will distinguish your product in the market, 

Please don't make Archicad the Nemestchek's revit, revit is already a sh** , we don't need another one, 

A perfect solution for midscale and small projects is 1000 time better that a buggy solution for large scale projects..... 

* what about a better wall tool to design better walls that look well in 3D and 2D an have more control on stories, more accurate composite junctions, you introduced Building materials, a revolution in the BIm world, and since that, no more developpment on walls, slabs etc, 

* what about a better slab with slopes, more easy edge customisation, built in edge profiles, easier edge surfae overrides, offsetting slabs inside and outside rom reference, up and down....

* what about a more flexible door and window tool that can be fully customisable, case, sash, frames, lintel, sill, finish, etc, , you have alomst a seperated library for each AC languge, a HUGE effort is spent on 10 similar libraries that differs only in some details,....

* What about a better controle of surrfaces on walls, why we should segment a wall to small pieces to differentiate paintings, 

* what about 3D projection in floorplans, advanced depth controle in elevation, real projection of SEO, Split level ( A BIG MESS with workarounds ) 

* what about terrain presentation and sitework, 

* documentation lacks alot of basic features, 

* KEYNOTING !!!!!!!!!

* renovation and phasing, and granular renovation filters controle, 

* what about creating custom libraries, custom objects, library part maker, paramo, gdl, Grasshopper, a lot of tools, users get confused, 

we love Archicad, and as a communituy, we hate seeing our loved software freezing at the same position for years, 

small improvement where they should be will change the game , Archicad is for architects, it should fulfill all their needs before jumping to other disciplines...

i can't believe how a small feature like duplicating a cercle is shown as a key feature in the website, ....

Building materials==> revisions and changements ==> surfaces , rendering, presentation, ==> curtain walls, stairs and railings, ==> columns and beams, 

you where on the right way to a robust toolbox for architects.., needs some tweakings for sure, but a good starting point , then !! let's say hello to engeneers ......

[jl_lt]

Totally agree with you mr bouhmidage. Someone inside GS thought that More is best. Someone thought that catering to the big firms was better than listening to smaller firms. Someone there thinks that bigger buildings are better.  Even if that was true, you first give a solution to all the points you mentioned (i would add the ability to create reference levels without creating a floor plan and attach objects to those levels, like in revit).

Well, more is not necesarily better specially if everything is never finished. Smaller firms might buy less licenses but there are many more small firms than big ones (so they are going after big offices that are already commited to other software for better or worse, all while neglecting small offices that can have much more flexibility and can switch to Archicad more easily if they arent already using it.). And Big buildings will be more and more difficult to built  because of resources. So what's the long term plan here?

All of these sounds like the things you say to please corporate boards, your product and end users be demned

[mthd]

It’s time to divide Archicad into different categories.

Let specialized developmental teams work on upgrades for Architects in the commercial, industrial and low rise residential fields.

I think that is the future ? 

We have all heard of the proverbial saying below.

“A jack of all trades and a master of none”

Why waste resources on engineering software when you already have a program for that ?

I am not a furniture designer and neither do I have time for it.

I think you have way too many features to cover the basic user and they get lost or hidden in the process when it comes to new features that they will actually use.

Bloatware IMO and it just slows your computer down.

Not to mention the brain overload and distraction that comes with too many add ons or irrelevant features.

Multi tasking is a myth, you can only work on one thing at a time as a human.

I really liked Archicad but I am not happy with the direction the software developers are heading in.

Time to review the direction you are heading in.

Archicad needs to be a program for Architects not Engineers or MEP modeling or Energy Efficiency they should all be add ons that those who use them can actually pay for them.

Thank you for what you have done but I am not on board with an upgrade just yet, till you focus more on the basic user or home designer or Architect.

[David Shorter]

Not quite the same in Aus, this is what I got from the local reseller...... not in line with the launch...

Hi David, 

Apologies but as i mentioned Archicad 26 is not available that means that Archicad Australian license are also not available for Archicad 26 upgrade.

You will only be able to update your license when Archicad 26 is launched in Australia or closer to that date.

Kind Regards

[Barry Kelly]

So the Graphisoft Insights post should be amended then.

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Archicad-26-is-here/ba-p/343685

That clearly shows the AUS version being one of the first 7 language versions available.

I can get the other 6 by just altering the language version in the download link, but there is definitely no AUS version.

@Noemi Balogh would you be able to look into that please?

Barry.

[Bernhard Binder]

The whole world is mixing up Austria with Australia. So what. AUS is meant to be AUT Version. 

[David Shorter]

not from here its not 😀

[furtonb]

what is the point in this? I have a HUN license bought, but all I'm using is the INT. but as the HUN license has no updates yet, I can't use the INT either...

[thesleepofreason]

Yes, this is not really acceptable. Especially if you participated in the beta/preview and thus started the transition already. Are we suppose to sit on RC1 until a particular localisation is released?

[Noemi Balogh]

Just got a message this morning from Product Marketing to update the article. Now it says AUT. Sorry for the mistake and the inconvenience it caused!

[Barry Kelly]

Thanks Noemi,

I guess us AUS guys will just have to wait a little while longer.

Barry.

[David Shorter]

No reason they/we should. GSHQ could have been given a list of subscription clients weeks ago. Now we have to continue with a faulty RC1  INT rather h than a full INT version because of this. Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade my key before the Apple silicon preview is released

[Eduardo Rolon]

I think you are over complicating the issue.

• We needed Folders on the right side of the Palette to substitute the use of numbers and/or prefixes to for organization. They have to work as a tree structure like Views and Layouts.
  • Bonus points if the folder worked to modify all layers within it (On/Off. Lock…) Obviously this needs also to be configurable on Layer Sets
  • Extra Bonus if Folders can be used in GOs and have Properties.
• Layer Comb also needed Folders to avoid the same issues
  • Bonus: GO and Properties for Folders for Layer Combs

--

I think that with those items taken care of the Layer Palette would have gone from 85% to 95% complete. Instead we got the actual mess which is slightly less bad than the one we were using in the Beta.

Looks like GS devs only looked at what they could program and not how people use their software. A lot of effort would have been saved if they had asked and or defined the correct uses for folders on each case instead of globally developing a TAG System, called it folders and shoehorn it into every single place.

In addition if you take in consideration that their dev team (with few exceptions) is mediocre you get the worst of all worlds. Devs that think they know what they are doing, that consider users a nuisance and when called on bugs and mistakes on items they broke, the standard answer is "that it is too hard to fix it" and/or "we will fix it later".

The other item that is obvious is that they don't know how to use their software, they don't know about architecture and construction, and that whomever is advising them on their roadmap has no idea what he is doing. For example at this point we have not found any user/office (in Beta, LinkedIn, GDCP, Slack Groups, here) that uses the structural tools implemented in the last 3 versions, even during the Beta there were no bugs reported for any of the structural improvements. There are some people that "like" them but they don't use them professionally. @Djordje has me convinced that the structural effort is a good idea but it basically has the same problem as Folders the implementation is wrong.

[Martin Jules]

@Eduardo Rolon you're correct, but remember that all of the features implemented in Archicad 26 should have already been integrated in Archicad 11. There is a series of delays in the development of the software, which I can estimate up to 20 years. I don't know why, but lost time can never be made up for, and this is the root causes of the current frustrations. It should be understood that the logic of the folders is good and is in its initial phase unfortunately. Your points might be taken into consideration from time to time.

Furthermore, the structural features are not completely integrated in Archicad. No one will waste his/her time on them now. Graphisoft has been told to integrate those features since Archicad 11 as well. 

[Eduardo Rolon]

@Martin Jules I can never understand your points.

1. Why stop at AC11. If I could wish all of those features should have been available in AC01 or better yet every new feature should travel back in time and be available since the beginning on time and redo all my past projects saving me extra time…
2. The delays are irrelevant, that is why you have priorities and that is how you make up for lost time.
3. I am not against Folders or their logic but what is implemented in 26 do not behave as folders, they behave as "single tags" system.
4. I am trying to define general points that I think need addressing. I can be wrong and I can be convinced to change my opinion. Most of the items I am posting were discussed 2-3 months ago during the Beta and because of "reasons" they didn't make it into the final release.
5. I didn't write structural features are integrated. What I tried to write is that as @Djordje convinced me there need to be structural sharing workflows within AC to better collaborate.  More knowledgable users than I have mentioned that as far as they know the path that GS is following is the wrong one. So we have had 3 versions of "structural" development that does not address what users in AC-Talk, GDCP, LinkedIn, and the Beta want or need to collaborate with their engineers. Even AC users that do their own structural CDs write that what GS has implemented does not work or help them. I guess you want it since AC11 because you started on AC on 10.

[Martin Jules]

@Eduardo Rolon Eptar reinforcement and other related features from Graphisoft friendly companies were very popular at the time. I wondered why Graphisoft did not anticipate like these friendly companies? As you know, a good manager or visionary often anticipates the future!

The lesson in all this is that Graphisoft is more confident in its direct competitors than its friendly companies or its own customers. It was necessary to wait for the development of these features by other direct competitors before it was aware that BIM software must take into consideration the AEC industry in its entirety. You can see that it adopts the same attitude and I'm not sure that it will take into consideration either your points concerning the folders or the tag systems. We will have to wait another ten years to accept what you are now proposing. Regarding the tag systems, AutoDesk has implemented it for a while into AutoCAD, but the idea of folders, in my opinion, would do better the job for a BIM software if it is well implemented, for this new feature meets the standards of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). It will better help project architects who decide to work on and manage their architectural projects using a BIM software.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

---

@Martin Jules wrote:

......

Furthermore, the structural features are not completely integrated in Archicad. No one will waste his/her time on them now. Graphisoft has been told to integrate those features since Archicad 11 as well. 

---

Told by whom?

The whole nub of the frustration and dissatisfaction of this version release (and indeed going all the way back to the release of version 24 where we first got the Structural Analysis Model tools), is that Graphisoft are wasting precious development time and resources (and users' license and subscription fee revenues) developing tools like this that the vast majority of users neither need, want, use nor even asked for.

...all while things that are constantly requested to be improved or integrated continue to be ignored by Graphisoft.

As has been stated even by people who do these kinds of structural components of design as part of their mandates in their localities, they (GS) haven't even done it right or well enough that they would want to use these tools nor would be compelled to abandon whatever tools they now use to now use them.

So who is this "they" you're saying told Graphisoft since Archicad 11 to intergrate structural features?

Because as it stands even their own wishlist forums and the ranking of wishes there does not support the claim that this has been an overwhelming wish that people have been clamoring for.

[Martin Jules]

@Bricklyne Clarence It seems you only focus on 2 market segments: individuals and small firms. How about multidisciplinary firms that use Archicad from prè-design to construction evaluation? Would you like the company to ignore them? You should have a global picture of the market segments that relate to the AEC industry. 

[thesleepofreason]

That a large multidisciplinary firm would accept an application without proper object-typing and multiple instantiated group functionality but demand a half-harted effort to integrate all AEC disciplines seems somewhat unlikely.

So yes, GS could probably ignore that segment until AC is the best version of itself.

And if they actually consider catching that segment so vital for the continued existence of AC right now that they are willing to throw away almost 40 years of innovation that made it a superior application for architects then they should communicate that clearly, indicating for individuals and small firms that it is time to find a new innovative company to bet on. Or perhaps it's nice to keep them around to fluff sales numbers?

[Martin Jules]

@thesleepofreason  I don't agree with you, and it seems that there is a certain hypocrisy in your opinions on this forum. Architecture belongs to the AEC industry. In 2022, it appears impossible to continue developing a BIM software without taking into account the 2 other key disciplines of this same industry.

I don't understand why you'd like that the multidisciplinary companies or firms continue to depend on Autodesk software while you don't like Autodesk and its various products. Archicad must be autonomous as a BIM software to avoid major data exchange complications in the future.