CI Innovation taken over by Graphisoft

[rjwilden]

It’s disappointing to see small, innovative software firms gradually absorbed into large multinational platforms. The acquisition of CI Innovations by Graphisoft, and Morpholio by Nemetschek, reflects a wider pattern in which niche tools shaped by close engagement with practitioners become diluted within corporate structures. Having followed the progression from Cadimage c. 1997 to CI Innovations and now into the Nemetschek ecosystem, the shift has felt less like growth and more like a slow erosion of responsiveness, service quality, and practical usefulness. What were once focused, architect-led solutions risk becoming peripheral features in much larger portfolios. I have to say the transition from Cadimage  to CI innovations was a massive step down in terms of Service. I suspect Graphisoft will stifle  any future useful development.  I miss the good old days .

[Nuge]

I couldn't agree more,  currently looking at other solutions to eliminate reliance on Graphisoft given their track record in recent years.

[MSDC]

I suspect the loss of some large archicad clients to revit was the main factor for this move and the Australian market will be getting more love from GSHQ.. perhaps too little too late

[Patrick M]

maybe... globalization and corporate conglomerates pose a moral and ethical dilemma.
then again, cadimage tools literally have parameter sets called "Obsolete Parameters", and parameter names just listed as "????"...
Archicad has been adopting c/i developed tools and interfaces for a while now; the revised stair tool is very similar to the cadimage stair solution, the new keynote feature is virtually identical to cadimage.
doors/windows and siding/roofing are areas that archicad falls short on virtually every custom project I've worked on, and cadimge, despite it's cobbled together code, is the best solution. Merging those tools into an out of the box solution without the need for an add-on or third party support... only makes sense for the end user.

[marcoariveross]

I think their strategy will be to return the cadimage tools as part of the archicad collaborate subscription... let's see if this convinces many users who were disappointed... I still doubt that will help

[Botonis]

Ci was an official reseller but also an important addon develeper (let's not forget Cadimage for so many years!). The announcemnet is not making clear whether both roles will be supported by Graphisoft.

Obviously an Archicad 30 version with all the Ci tools implemented would be something interesting. The thing is that Ci was constantly updating the addons.

[danielk]

I don't think this acquisition was about "swallowing a small innovative software company". Central Innovation was the official reseller of Archicad in Australia and New Zealand, and from what I heard, most customers really didn't like dealing with them. I keep hearing stories like this:
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/General-discussions/Graphisofts-Invoicing-system-broke-Then-said...

I think this acquisition was probably more about this, than the CI tools. I don't know what would happen to the tools though (whether they would be integrated, or the branch would keep developing them independently).