Graphisoft public roadmap - Follow-up conversation

[Gordana Radonic]

Dear Community, 

We're excited to have published our roadmap!

We'd love to hear your thoughts and questions. Please feel free to use this thread for discussion.

Graphisoft Insights announcement: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Graphisoft-public-roadmap/ba-p/375281

Public roadmap on the Graphisoft website.

Thank you.

[Barry Kelly]

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@Florian99 wrote:

I can imagine that with an update of that feature: Distance Guides for positioning elements – Roadmap – Graphisoft

the interactive dims may come.

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Kind of.

It is not the actual dimensions that will be interactive.

It will be a set of smart guides radiating from the object.

A bit like the collision detection system in modern cars.

It will detect the distance in a certain direction from the element to the next closest element if I remember correctly.

Barry.

[mthd]

From the picture in the coming soon part on the public roadmap. That’s about the only little crumb I am looking forward to maybe getting right now ? I hope that list is not exhaustive because if it is, there is not much on R&D list or in the idea pool that I will actually need or use. I fully understand that Architects working on large commercial projects need those things but for me, I can’t afford to pay out SSA fees for a few little crumbs. As a one man operation I can’t afford to subsidise the commercial world’s Archicad infrastructure applications. 

Dear Graphisoft, you need to finish the job with the Archicad’s basics first before you start feeding the commercial world’s insatiable desire for other inter-operative CAD solutions. You will eventually get eaten alive by Autodesk when Archicad’s basics are not quite up to scratch or on par with Revit just yet. Try 75% on the basics inside Archicad for now as I predict you will probably get outdated very quickly with the present roadmap.

I am afraid that same group of users will breath their dissatisfaction with next version as well ?

Edit: Approximately 9 out of the 26 coming soon items are directly related to the basics inside Archicad or about 34%. I think you could look at doubling that at least in order to catch up and overtake Autodesk Revit and to stop users from moving over to Revit Architecture. I don’t know what other professional users think but it would be good to know ? 

[jl_lt]

With current archicad pace: that is, trying to implement systems that guys like Revit have had, for better or worse, since many years ago,     and current Revit pace: which is already toying with AI generative design, im afraid archicad is ALREADY obsolete.

But there is no shame in being obsolete if you are still functional and can deliver.  But, if you are obsolete while breaking/ignoring/bloating the basics trying not to be obsolete, you are in for trouble.

[abdelaziz]

Hi Barry 

and if the real dimension manages to communicate with these intelligent guides I would call it "interactive dimensions", the manual modification of the real dimension would imply a subtraction or an addition between the real dimension and the interactive dimension and we can speak of intelligence, the result applies to the interactive dimension

[mthd]

Hey abdelaziz, they look very familiar with the anchor at one end and the arrow at the other. They look like the stretch modifiers in the complex profile manager to me. How they behave will be clearly seen very soon if they make it into 27 or if you are fortunate enough to be a Beta tester, you will find out next month.

[4hotshoes]

The Q key is the default for turning it on sooner or off if you don’t want the blue circle

[mthd]

The funny thing is, that simple things like that are being overlooked and are not too difficult for them to fix. Surely that should be the priority in any CAD software application you would think ? Focus Focus Focus on the basics before you start adding all the bells and whistles or even tweaking the bells & whistles. Less is more in many instances, who wouldn’t be happy if the basics inside Archicad received significant emphasis in every release ? What percentage would you allocate to those very necessary things at least 25% ? Anyway that’s up to them and for me it’s back to the literal drawing board if I didn’t need stronger glasses now 🤓.

[mthd]

I am hoping that “Design Options” in the coming soon list is a very good feature along with “Distance Guides for Positioning Elements”. That should make Archicad even better again than other CAD for many of us. There are at least 9 things in that list that I am looking forward to and hoping that they will turn out well for all of us. It’s good to stay positive !

[nathanburkholder]

I would like to see editable dimensions after placement. In my world, it would look like this: 

Dimension two or more "walls" (really anything) using anchor points. When a "wall" is selected the dimensions on either side becomes active and you can type in the preferred dimension adjusting the "wall" exactly where you want it in relationship to the other "walls" being dimensioned. I am only using walls as examples but should be able to function with anything as long as the dimension string is connected to an anchor-point of the element. 

Thanks!

[mthd]

As you know we do things the other way around in Archicad. We move the wall and the associative dimension follows the change.

In this official video it is demonstrated but it would be nice if the other wall did not need to be intersected once again with the moved wall, it should do it automatically to save many clicks when editing a plan. Please see the attached video.

https://youtu.be/oD-5LCd9J0w

[jl_lt]

Dimensioning is one of my main frustations with Archicad. We shouldnt be click dimensioning anything or almost anything by now.   As the software is able to "section" objects it should also be capable of dimensining them.  From my point of view, dimension tool should dimension "what it sees" instead of "what you click". Of course, with the ability to add overriden dimensions to the main ones, object-distance-standard base criteria and scale sensitive.

[mthd]

There must be a faster way of dimensioning in Archicad with fewer clicks.

We are all aware of the current method of automatically dimensioning but we usually need to edit or tweak our dimensions to get them just right. This official video below shows the current methods we may use.

https://youtu.be/l36svHZxcvc

Do we have an auto dimension tool icon or shortcut key to use yet ? 

[jl_lt]

ahh, the automatic dimensioning tool. Works OK, until it doesnt, specially when you need to move/edit/delete a single element; then entire strings dissapear.  So while nice, i find it quite unreliable as you need to constantly check on it which is the source of my frustration.  And what about sections, elevations, interior elevations, details and 3d views or level tool? how about cabinet or curtain wall plans,  or even land platforms plans?or buldings that are not completely orthogonal?

My proposal is a semi automatic approach .  A tool similar to the section tool, but for dimensions and levels. You still need to drop it in place where you need it, and specify what you want it to dimension, along with other dimensioning standards, and is also view dependent (all of which you can save into favorites).  Works in plan, sections and elevations of any kind, even in 3d views and works with any 3d object or combination of them,  so you can use it even for railing plans and curtain wall elevations or lighning fixture plans, and of course, works on any angle and can be related to your project gridlines.

Also, contrary to what happens now, you can copy it among any views (like, repeat this setting in all the levels, for guys working on high-rise, or copy it in your sections for people that like to generate many sections). It can even be related to your layer combination or clasifications so you can dimension only one specific object in a given view.      Once you set it on each view, it reads the objects in the model and dimensions it accordingly, so you can edit and delete elements with gusto and it will still give you reliable dimension strings, contrary to what happens today.   If you need some ad-hoc dimensions you can add them and it gives you graphical feedback on which dimensions are user-added.  You can even apply tolerances if for some reason your model is not a perfect work of modelling art!

@DGSketcher  so yeah, we would still be quite involved in the documentation process (selecting the dimensioning criteria and placing the dimension tool) , but then let the software actually do some of the maintenance work, if not all.  It would be like combining the section tool funtionality and stability  (including the distance view on plan so you can exclude objects you dont want to dimension) with the automatic dimensioning tool criteria plus adding the ability to exclude or include any element (like the Find tool), depending on which type of plan you are working on.   Depending on the type of project, Im betting something like this could cover over anywhere from 90% to 95% of our dimensioning needs if not more. The rest is solved through ad-hoc dimensions. 

Combine the user expertise with the computer processing power and let that pretentious AI have some.

[mthd]

That’s a good explanation of what you are looking at for the future of Archicad regarding dimensions. Does another CAD product work that way ? This is why I say the basics like “Dimensions” are being overlooked, when was the last time we had an update on dimensions ? 

In my old CAD program, I used to click and drag my mouse over the elements I wanted dimensioned and then made edits from there. Of course you could set your defaults beforehand as to what part of a wall surface you wanted to dimension to. I am used to a simple fast system. I will post a video here of how it is done simply in that program with minimal fuss. 

This residential CAD program is probably one of the easiest to use on the market. We might learn a couple of things about how we could improve dimensions in Archicad for commercial applications maybe ?

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5488/dimensioning-basics.html?playlist=92

[jl_lt]

There you go. Yeah, something like this 😃

[4hotshoes]

I believe that Chief Architect was inspired by Archicad as they nearly identical concepts and tools. But I think Chief has worked hard to make it easier for casual users. It looks as though they have even done some significant improvements with more control options since I used it a few years ago. Dims are fundamental in communicating the design. Dim tools should take priority with enhanced user functionality. Wouldn't it be nice if Graphisoft had such a nice upgrade to the Dim Tool and functionality so well that they could brag about it in marketing literature. But I don't mean automatic dims, which should work anyway, I am talking about "drop-dead-easy" customization and super-easy and incredibly useful as a tool designed to make life working in Archicad a joy. Chief Architect has a huge lead in this tool. It is not perfect as it will try hard to be helpful to a fault at times. But I now see that even that level of automatic helpfulness can be dialed down by the user, which is really good.

[DGSketcher]

I have developed an auto dimensioning process for some of my objects, so I have an insight to the issues with the "Auto" aspect. I bet even a dedicated AI tool would struggle to determine what you wanted to dimension and how to present it on a general construction section, and if it doesn't give the right results then how do you fix it... manual editing?

As an example of automated section dimensions, let's take just a wall with a window opening. Where do you start, height - ok that's easy, but where do you want the dimension, inside, outside, does it clash with other graphics? The wall is a Complex profile with active offsets, at what point do you dimension all the offsets & skins rather than just the wall height? How many dimensions do you want to show on the window opening and how do you put them in context. I'm not saying the process is impossible, but you need to consider all the decisions you make as a designer to ensure the information you present to the builder is readable and relevant. 

I think you underestimate your contribution to the documenting process. 😉

[nathanburkholder]

That is actually very helpful. I had no idea.

[mthd]

It would be nice if those videos were not so difficult to find in order to help us all out.

[mthd]

Dimensioning to the sides of core of elements is what we like to do down this way. I would like the professional users to create a work shop on dimensioning for plans, elevations and cross sections.

This is what CBA Dave does on Mac for plans with Archicad. Please see his excellent video tips on dimensioning below.

https://youtu.be/_ugny2swX-w

If we had a “tips and tricks” part on the forum for things like those mentioned above. We could share our “tips and tricks” and then build on what we would like the tools in Archicad to be able to do for us in the future. There are things on the roadmap that we might like to see in progress rather than just in the idea pool. Let’s see what we get in 27 first.

All good if we can work together and show GS what we feel is outdated and is urgent.