Dear Community Members,
In these last days of the year, we are reflecting on the events, projects, achievements, challenges, and joyful moments that made 2023 so memorable.
This year we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of Graphisoft Community, though the first forum that began to gather Archicad users across the globe was posted 20 years ago (or more!). In its early days Archicad users formed local and global groups, exchanging experiences and tips on how to work better.
I recently read impressions from one in-person Archicad meetup that these meetups gather people who don’t just see Archicad as a tool but as a topic of conversation, exchanging opinions, tips, and advice, as well as a source for raising new questions.
One thing I noticed when I started my architectural journey with Archicad as a user that is crystal clear to me now as one of the faces of the Graphisoft Community: behind all the conversations, gatherings, Community posts, learnings, behind all the wishes, feedback, and opposing views and opinions is passion. The passion and enthusiasm for creating great architecture that is so well characteristic of architects, is transmitted to the tools and means of its creation.
While aligning feedback with the effort our team puts behind the site is not always easy, one thing I am certain of is that we share the passion that is pushing us forward.
In 2023, we brought the German community on board, started new programs, worked on the site reorganization and improvements, and recommitted to make Community better in 2024!
See the full list here:
New structure
Introducing new top-level categories
Previously, we categorized the content based on five main topics and workflow stages: Setup & License, Design, Document & Visualize, Collaborate, and Get Together. This year we reorganized the content to better align with the types of activities that our community engages in. This new logic has resulted in five main categories: Forum, Knowledge Base, Building Together, Developer Hub, and Product Help. We hope you find the content you seek and engage with your peers more easily.
Forum
Discussions are organized into the following boards: Installation and update, Licensing, Getting started, Modeling, Libraries & objects, Documentation, Visualization, BIMx, Project data & BIM, Teamwork & BIMcloud, Collaboration with other software, and Our Community. We have created a new page that lists all the forum boards to provide you with a quick and comprehensive overview of all the available boards and their respective topics.
We are also working on displaying extra information connected to your posts, such as displaying the Archicad version and operating system information based on your input when you start a new thread.
Knowledge Base
Articles have been organized into the following new categories: Installation & update, Licensing, Getting Started, Modeling, Libraries & objects, Documentation, Visualization, BIMx, Project data & BIM, Teamwork & BIMcloud, Collaboration with other software, and Our Community.
We have created a page that lists all the knowledge base categories to provide you with a quick and comprehensive overview of all the available topics.
German Community
This year another large community of our users has joined in the German Community, offering our users in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland the possibility to engage in German.
Technology Preview
For the first time this year, we introduced the open Technology Preview Program to give everyone a chance to test-drive the new product versions and prepare for the release hands-on. Your feedback, insights, and dedication were and are invaluable in helping us improve Archicad. The Technology Preview Program Heroes contributed the most to our successful product launch.
Graphisoft Insiders
Insiders program brings together a selected group of AEC industry experts and enthusiasts who share a deep passion for our solutions. We select participants based on diverse practice experiences and delivery methods, whom we expect to provide us with constructive feedback. Insiders are added to a pool, from which we recruit participants for activities such as interviews, usability tests, surveys, and more.
The Insiders Panel, on the other hand, is an even more exclusive group of Graphisoft Insiders who are ready for an elevated level of activities. Panel members help validate our solutions through workshops, webinars, and forum discussions, enjoying direct interaction with the Graphisoft team.
Product Help in the main menu
Besides knowledge base articles and the help of the peer community, product help documentation is always available from the top-level menu.
Developer Hub
We have established a dedicated ‘Developer Hub’ category to provide better support to our developer community.
Tip of the Month
Our moderation team selects one helpful post from our forum every month. With this initiative, we aim to promote meaningful discussions on the Graphisoft Community forum boards, recognizing users who share their knowledge and best workflows. Check the latest selected tip of the month.
Archicad AI Visualizer group
Archicad AI Visualizer is our new, experimental, AI-driven image generation tool powered by Stable Diffusion. In this user group, you can explore the tool in depth, read technical documents, and share your visuals and questions with other users. We want this experimental solution to be tested in real-life situations, so your input and feedback are highly appreciated.
BIM Talks on Graphisoft Community
BIM Talks is a monthly series of meetings for certified BIM managers and BIM coordinators, hosted by Graphisoft, where we learn and discuss everything about BIM management and coordination. Industry experts, Graphisoft consultants, product managers, and members of the group are all invited to present on the chosen topic or propose their own.
Challenges
This year we have organized three exciting new challenges – Parametric Object Factory, Flex Your BIMx, and Your Best Design Option - to learn from each other and have fun. We hope you enjoyed these challenges as much as we did. Don’t forget, Your Best Design Option is still open until the end of December.
Community Webinar Series
Hosted by architect and long-time Archicad user @Nathan Hildebrandt FRAIA, the Community Webinar Series focuses on technical workflows using Archicad, presented by users from the global user community.
Watch the latest recording of the “Door and Window schedule” webinar with Karoly Horvath and sign up for the next webinar in January about “Point cloud workflows in Heritage BIM” with Karol Argasiński.
EDU badges
Our virtual medals automatically recognize students and educators in the Community upon their first login, based on the Graphisoft ID. Student to Pro, Teaching Champion, Archicad Ambassador, and Student Sample Project Author are the badges assigned to the members of our community in the field of education.
Profile cards
Do you see a new face in Community? Learn about them by hovering your mouse over their profile picture.
Account deletion and username changes
You can now independently change your username from the user profile settings.
You can also delete your account. There is an option to recover your profile within 10 days after deletion if you change your mind. This allows for greater control and flexibility in managing personal information and preferences.
Go to My settings:
Select Username on the left, type it in the entry field then click Change Username to rename your profile:
In the same Personal section, you can find the option to close your account:
Content mentions
The same way as mentioning another user, you can now reference forum topics and knowledge base articles. Hit @ and start typing and all three sorts of options will be offered.
UI Improvements
Collection of improvements:
- Signature standard: signatures were made more compact to reduce the noise in conversations. We recommend to use a maximum 4-line height signature.
- Responsive labels and buttons: they now give you better feedback displaying the active selection and hovering status.
- Resized page layout: we made the active content area wider to fit more of the conversations and content.
- Reading status/progress bar: We added this visual aid on forum boards, to show you how much of the whole thread you have read already. As you proceed with reading, a blue-orange gradient bar on the left shows you your progress in reading the thread.
- Most recent reply info in Hot Topics: it now gives you information about who most recently replied to a topic and when they did so.
- Global notification bar: with this functionality we can notify you about on-going events and service outages. You can click on the notification to learn more, or you can hide it by clicking the "x" in the corner.
- Better visibility of accepted solutions: Accepted solutions are better highlighted now
- Label filtering for webinars and challenges: for easier navigation, use one of the available labels and find relevant content.
- Number of views, comments, and likes: This information is displayed for each topic.
- Easier subscription to forum boards and article categories with the new Subscribe button on the right. You can easily manage your board subscriptions, so you never miss the topics that are important for you.
- Original author highlighted: in discussions you can see who the original author was as it is indicated in the thread whenever they reply.
- Appearance of tabs on the site (e.g.: unanswered, solved, unsolved, etc. and in the profile settings), were adjusted to work like on graphisoft.com.
- Graphisoft ID is directly accessible from the profile menu: whether you wish to change your password or check up on your Graphisoft ID account, you can easily access it via your user profile on Community.
I am thankful for the whole team of community admins, creators, and moderators. I am grateful to all our community members for your time and dedication, support of each other, and influence on developing your future with Graphisoft.
On behalf of the entire Graphisoft team, I wish you a wonderful and joyful new year!
Thank you for being part of the Graphisoft Community.
Gordana Radonić
Global Community Manager
