Archicad 27 Interface

[jonchis]

Hi,

I've been on Archicad since 4.5, 1996? A devout fan, it fuels my career and a very enjoyable workflow.

However

I've just upgraded to AC 27 and i have to ask the question, is anyone out there feeling any issues with the new interface?

Fill tool, i get a list i have to scroll through, rather than a much faster splash screen of all my fills.

Wall tool, select a material, i get a list i have to scroll through, rather than a splash screen of all my materials.

Similar with all the tools and selection preccesses i need to do.

waaaaay slower.....

It's emabarassing, I often sit with my clients and work my way through a design at critical stages, I'm finding this a massive backwards step. I'm scolling, hunting, and thinking "This is progress?"

At this point, i wouldn't be renewing my Select Subscription, I can't work that slow.

I would welcome any fresh insights.

[Kamelite]

How many hours have you spent in A27? Just curious.

Isn't this one of those things that takes time to get used to? I see you have years of experience in Archicad, but even you have to spend time getting used to changes... If it as step forward or not is of course an interesting discussion!

.Kamelite

[scottjm]

Can you clarify what you mean by ‘splash screen’ of an attribute?

I’ve found the attribute picker improvements since ac26 a massive time saver. Being able to sort attributes into folders and search for an attribute is amazing. 

[Eduardo Rolon]

Welcome to AC25.

This was discussed at nauseam during the Beta for 25. We lost…

  

[jonchis]

Eduardo, thankyou for your input, I wasn’t aware that this had been raised during beta testing. 
it’s good to hear there was a pushback, but sad to learn we’ve lost that interface.

For one, I’ll be shelving my deployment of AC27, that’s just too much of a backwards step, way too slow. 
every selection process take so much longer.

regards from Perth WA

[Lee Hankins]

Surely if the attributes (Building Materials in your example) are sorted in to folder like ‘Brick’, ‘Siding’ etc you know which type of material you want and then the list becomes much shorter when you select the correct sub-folder. It seems from the screenshot that all of the Building Materials are still in one folder which is not the intention of how the attributes are stored. 

I spent a bit of time updating our template to separate all attributes in to folders and so far everyone much prefers this and feeds back that it’s much quicker. 

[DGSketcher]

I find organising things in folders and also search to be quite effective. Unless you have a huge amount of attributes?

[mthd]

Hi @jonchis, from Perth WA I am from the outer Brisbane area. I see what you mean by having clients with you and changing the textures or colors with them present. The lists are much longer these days but if you a have a special folder for client presentations as others are saying above that might speed the process up for you. You can always ask them to pick some colors or textures before they visit you and apply them to the model before they visit. Using design options before they come to display various colors schemes in advance. A few ideas to think about with AC27.

[Eduardo Rolon]

FWIW I don't mind folders I just hate the single column view.

From AC07 until AC24 I never had to scroll a list except for the Layers now I constantly have to do it…

[jonchis]

Hi Eduardo, and to everyone who has commented. Like you Eduardo, since AC4.5, all the way through, I’ve enjoyed the speed and intuitive interface of AC. 
I typically undertake 40-50 projects a year, and due to the nature of architecture, projects are in design, development approval, building permit / working drawings stage, or construction and supervision. I certainly won’t be porting my projects in hand to AC27.

having tried one project only, my initial impression was “this can’t be right”.

it was like running into a brick wall in terms of speed.

i feel that when we, as a global community, need to find workarounds and solutions to claw back some of the efficiency, it’s very clear the software has taken a wrong turn.

it has however made one thing clear to

me, I won’t be continuing my commitment to the Archicad Select program, I don’t need to be spending $2k a year being forced to go slower. The software was fine before it was broken.

thankyou to all, rgds John 

[mthd]

That’s fine and everyone has to make a personal decision about their own business model and future workflow. All the best with the path you choose to go down with future CAD products. I am personally ok to continue with AC and I am thankful for the new design guides and design options. No CAD software is perfect they all have their issues.

[Barry Kelly]

Don't forget the search at the top will allow you to start typing key letters or words, and the list will then be abbreviated to show just what you have typed.

Even if it is within a folder (which I still don't like folders - but that is another story).

It takes a bit of getting used to.

I also liked the 3 or 4 columns lists in the old versions, but the search is pretty good if your materials, surfaces, layers, composites, etc., are all named clearly with key words.

Barry.

[DGSketcher]

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@jonchis wrote:

it has however made one thing clear to me, I won’t be continuing my commitment to the Archicad Select program, I don’t need to be spending $2k a year being forced to go slower.

I joined at 4.5 as well, and am in the same space, BUT the change in CEO has me now sitting on the fence. You might want to wait until there is an official statement on how things might change before making a financial decision that could become an expensive re-entry. There's still a racing car in there somewhere, it's just someone hitched a trailer full of #h%* to the back of it five years ago. 

[jonchis]

Gold, DGSketcher, you’ve made me smile.

I will be shelving AC27, and use AC26 or AC25, my AC Select comes up for renewal in January, if they can’t fix this broken interface by then, I’ll be out.

AC25 has been perfectly functional and fast, as you correctly point out, it’s a race car – I don’t need to be dragging a trailer around – particularly when my clients are with me in an intensive, collaborative design session.

Have a good one, rgds jc