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New Yearly Release Cycle - Graphisoft Insights Follow-up

Emoke Csikos
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Dear Community Members,

 

We have started this topic, so you can reflect on the news we have shared on Graphisoft Insights: New Yearly Release Cycle. Please share your thoughts here, under this post.
Thank you.

Emőke M. Csikós
Global Content Manager
18 REPLIES 18
Martin Jules
Mentor

Could we have a clearer roadmap like that of Vectorworks for example?

 

Scheduled:

 

Mjules_0-1678974044345.png

 

Martin Luther Jules
AC 10-28 (Full)
Asus | 64 GB RAM | Windows 11

In Development:

 

Mjules_2-1678974365817.png

Active research:

 

Mjules_3-1678974435217.png

 

Martin Luther Jules
AC 10-28 (Full)
Asus | 64 GB RAM | Windows 11

I think the roadmap will be released in April Martin. So this is not a roadmap but more a timeline.

AC27 ARM // MBP M2 Max // Twinmotion | Corona | Rhino

www.senoglu.co

@Emre Senoglu I hope to see the public roadmap as shown in the previous examples through the Graphisoft website on April.

Martin Luther Jules
AC 10-28 (Full)
Asus | 64 GB RAM | Windows 11

Hear, hear! It absolutely needs to be structured like this.

 

They also need a "write-in features" section by users and a voting system, so the devs know what features are "truly" wanted.

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System

What's so fascinating and intriguing looking at that Vectorworks roadmap is how a lot of those features and tool improvements/wishlist items seem to be taken either directly from ArchiCAD itself (as in the features it currently has) or from the Wishlist section here as features that some on here have asked for improvement in, or introduction to the program. 

 

I've made a similar observation in the Revit Trello board/wishlist forum as well as in the feature set list in AutoCAD in recent years.

 

Having worked in Vectorworks over the last several years and seen the direction they're attempting to take the program in as well as the discussions held over there with their users and developers, it tells me that it's not so much that we have a whole bunch of Vectorworks/Revit/Autodesk users and developers lurking on the forums here and either cribbing off of the program and discussions here, but rather the opposite in that you have an increased proliferation of ArchiCAD or former ArchiCAD users in there boards driving the discussions and introducing ideas for features that come directly from their experience using ArchiCAD to be introduced in these other programs.
(In fact, I've actually observed this in real time with screen caps being shown how a particular feature works in ArchiCAD and why and how it would be useful in a Vectorworks BIM environment or in a Revit feature upgrade in the future.)

 

The overall and over-arching point here is that if you don't serve your users' needs and requests for program improvements in features and tools, your competition surely will, facilitated by some of those same disgruntled users (and more pointedly, former users) and refugees from your program who see their needs not having any priority or significance for developers here.

 

As you can see first-hand from some of those features in that roadmap.

 

I wonder for how much longer Graphisoft will be able to sustain this "brain drain" of user insight, knowledge and experience accumulated over years, with users opting for other market alternatives (or being forced to) and that they're now practically just gifting their rivals and competitors in the market.
I know for a fact that there a couple of users here who are still active on this board (for the moment,....and still users,....again for the moment...) bringing up issues and concerns, but who also show up in other program forums as well with the other programs they use or are forced to use for job-related reasons.


Some of those features in that Road map in the development and 'In Active Research' (i.e....'Wishes') are real nice, though...
Totally pie-in-the-sky as far as we're concerned over here, of course....
But would be great to have.


It must be nice.

jl_lt
Ace

those guys at vectorworks surely are working. Maybe eliminating perpetual licensing did motivate them

mthd
Ace

Nice to see an outline of the release cycle and the inclusion of more potential beta testers in Q2 & Q3 before the actual official release date.

 

Even with construction scheduling you need to allow for lead and lag times.

 

I think this will manage expectations with the identification of more bugs during the beta testing phase with more beta testers potentially being available.

 

Also having the official Windows and Mac versions released at the same time would be good too in managing expectations.

 

I look forward to it all unfolding this year.

AC8.1 - AC28 ARM AUS + CI Tools
Apple Mac Studio M1 Max Chip 10C CPU
24C GPU 7.8TF 32GB RAM OS Sequoia

We need MONTHLY live streaming and user interactive YouTube events like Twinmotion has. You cannot properly gauge what your users needs on a quarterly basis. Rotate a developer and an administrative (sales policy) member in the events also.

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
MinhNguyen
Expert

Excited about the changes! During the Technology Preview period, will there be any update to that Archicad Technology Preview build, or it would stay (without any updates) similar to an RC build for the whole period?

BIM Manager
DKO Architecture - HCMC

Maybe when the Technology Preview is released, there will be some event or some other way to ask these types of questions from GS HQ people directly.

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

@Laszlo Nagy  This is why I would like to see a monthly Graphisoft stream like Twinmotion has. They do theirs really well. Especially lately when they've been going over their "yet-to-be-released" preview versions. This would be a key ingredient in GS getting interactivity and feedback from users.

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator

I'm not seeing anything in the timing of this yearly cycle that is different with regards to Apple's fall release of the new version of macOS.

 

So, I'm curious how "Following software industry standards in our yearly release calendar will enable us to support the upcoming new Mac and Windows operating systems more efficiently."

 

If by 'industry standards', Graphisoft means that they will test using Apple's beta macOS throughout the development cycle, then there is some hope that when the new macOS is released, the just-released Archicad might be usable.  I guess the proof will be in the pudding this fall.

 

One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB

That's exactly what I'm hoping for. I mean, they need to have that legitimate reason for adding another 3 months to the release this year. That would be the only acceptable reason. Fingers crossed.

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin

@Rex Maximilian This is something you could communicate to GS HQ guys in the Q & A session during the next event.

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

I plan to. 👍

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
stefan
Advisor

I'm old enough to still remember 3-year release cycles of BIM and CAD software. And frankly, I preferred it this way. While I don't necessarily object to new and shiny features, stability and compatibility may be jeopardised this way. With a new release every single year and only one version to downgrade to, it may require you to have several versions running in parallel, having to decide on which version to start a project in and have a good strategy on library object development.

 

In a three-year release cycle, you would have one big upgrade with the new stuff and then 36 months of refinement, bug fixes, small workflow improvements, but in a stable data format. You can more easily plan upgrades etc...

 

That is also what I prefer in Rhinoceros: they are on a 3 to 4 year release cycle and release "when it's ready" (or that is the intention).

The reverse experience I have is with Unity: as I'm not using that platform on a frequent basis, every single time I open it, the software is updated and you have to decide on a newer install, on migrating projects (the only way is up) and hoping that the core features have not become deprecated.

 

That said... having a more public roadmap is a nice shift to how you address your users: you show more of an engagement, an ambition and people can be better informed in the evolution for the next few years...

--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad28/Revit2024/Rhino8/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sequoia+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book

I would only hope the Roadmap is flexible, so you can give priority to some features rather than others based of user feedback