My thoughts after using Archicad for years

[PrzemN]

How about “now for someting completly different” idea for new Archicad version: let's get rid of a lot of old annoyances and stuff going sometimes deeply to the past. Here's few as the begining of discussion:

 - why we have 3 ( or even more ) different ways of how the settings work? changing dimension units / changing pen colors / changing model view options / changing layer combinations. Sometimes you have to write using keyboards, sometimes it changes after applying settings, sometimes you need to apply setting, change and update etc. It is a mad programmers idea

- why we have an totally outdated 3d window settings, going back from Archicad 5? 4? 1?: we can’t move a view in the setting window, it is not showing proper way when you have your working plan rotated. How about a new option to setting few cameras the easy way - without the mess it is right now, like in other 3d programs. And – as we are already in the 3d window: why we still have to do the resolution trick to save 3d window content as a good quality jpg? 

- tools, tools - I could write about it for hours. Maybe it is a good time for reviewing things we got? like – there are slabs flat from bottom and with the slope on the top. Or roofs, or walls with different color / texture on all its sides etc, etc. 

- How about looking how tools works in other 3d programs and making some adjustments? Like making the morph as easy to work with - as it is in sketchup? Why stretching library element in 3d window is sometimes killing my high end pc ( GUI, but not when using keyboard shortcut )? Who made a grid tool working as it is? How about showing terrain levels as a curved lines? Adding a thickness to it? Putting a path or a road easily? etc, etc

- Why some commands work in some places and some are not? Yes, I can change a wall angle in section but how about ... just rotating it?

- How about making everything adjustable for our company needs, like customizing project info ( not only adding, but also removing unused, so there is less mess )? How about having a possibility to import toolbars from earlier Archicad version without messing with new commands in menu?

- Talking about reviewing old stuff - how about making old roof / wall / addons like accessories actually easy and worth using? Has it been EVER updated? It looks like a remorse from the deep past, left nobody knows why. There is a lot such a things. Copied and pasted.

-  How about maybe making a ecodesigner actually a valid tool especially now, when we have “green deal” incoming? I know it has now a different name and works as a tool, but it is basically the same program

- Why renovation filters can’t work for building materials and composite structures? like changing the material thickness, or maybe the whole material? Yes, I would like to easily show that I added 5cm of insulation to existing wall. 

- why we can’t schedule EVERYTHING the same way? Almost everything we use to make our projects has a width, height, thickness, view from top, side, etc. But it seems not for archicad programmers. We have different sets of attributes for almost every existing element. Why?

- How about reviewing and making every tool or addon - like paramo - more usefull? or killing it and saying that it was a dead end? How about - not limiting Python API? Maybe giving us some options to add usefull automation the easy way? ( imagine automatic dimensioning, that … works ). I am pretty sure there is a lot of incredibly talented Archicad users, that can improve this program – if only you’ll give them a chance by not making it a secret wisdom.

- Imagine having the possibility to make connection between - let's say - 2 walls manually when Archicad algorithm has some other ideas how it should look.

- Textures, libraries ... and other old friends. We'll met again in Archicad 35 and I am pretty sure in Archicad 50 if I am living long enough. Maybe then adding few high quality librabry objects will not kill my new quantum computer

- why ... ( put those little things that make you crazy, everyday you are using Archicad 

Each year we get an update with almost nothing interesting for ARCHITECTS, with added half useful tools, that we already know will have to be changed ( like this time - keynotes ). I have nothing against testing things and changing it later - if only it wouldn’t be sometimes the only updates we got.

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Have a nice weekend guys

[Laszlo Nagy]

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@leandrolopes wrote:

Vectorworks belongs to the Nemetschek Group. Which owns Archicad. Both have their biggest shareholders as Blackrock or The Vanguard Group. Can't remember which now.

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Where did you get that info?

All I found was that over 50% is owned by the Nemetschek Family and its various members:

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/NEMETSCHEK-SE-436349/company-shareholders/

[PhilA42]

As someone who has spent a good part of their career at the intersection of the climate emergency, urban policy simulation, advanced data analysis and visualization systems, it seems to me that Graphisoft's Archicad needs to be far more engineering and simulation oriented with a view toward providing two things (at least) to users - architects AND other built environment professionals:

a) A running dash board showing the structural and fire integrity, carbon footprint and energy consumption profile as materials and composites decisions are made and switched around in any building design.  Archicad is a lot better than Revit but increasingly I think it will be ever more important to connect (with the proper IFC data nomenclature)  Archicad models to urban/city digital twin models for simulating urban dynamics and the social, economic, energy, mobility and environmental consequences.  Happy to expand on this

b) Buildings today are largely poorly crafted hand-made prototypes that never go into production. The explosion in parametric and generative design systems along with the urgent search for solutions to the 100 year time warp of the global construction sector with its egregious waste and fragmented supply chains.  Integrating design and engineering with the manufacture, fabrication and assembly of "componentized" buildings as products is a real possibility and a potentially transformative approach to solving the global housing crisis addressing supply chain, time-to-occupancy, the cost of waste, and the current poor performance of most buildings being built.  A two-way optimization process for taking a BIM design into an optimized manufacturing and fabrication process will become ever more important.  Imagine designing and manufacturing jet engines the way the construction is currently organized.  Flying would be incredibly unsafe and out of reach for everyone except the 1%.

As I've observed on several occasions, "Architecture isn't Ornamental - its Fundamental" to the functioning of society because buildings are in fact provisioning mechanisms that enable a huge array of human social, economic, cultural and enducational endeavors to take place.  When poorly designed and executed and poorly located, "architecture" can impede the achievement of a wide array of policy goals and aspirations.  Today we rely largely on hope that a developer's set of ideas will somehow advance policy goals.  Thus far this isn't working well - except for the developers.  What will be critical is to shift this passive bystander's hope into properly-simulated solutions that demonstrate how greater certainly can be achieved will become increasingly important if we are ever to slow down the climate flywheel.

There are profound implications and opportunities for transforming Archicad into a BIM system which seamlessly connects to-and supplies models for-the polyhedra and huge data storehouses of urban digital twins.  Doing this will - I think - be key to the product's success.  The entire architecture profession is transforming as a result of AI, generative design systems and data science.  I hope that Nemetscheck can somehow rationalize or integrate its various related products into a seamless computational environment that enables the future social, economic and environmental DNA or the places people inhabito be visualized WITH quantitative metrics identifying how urban forms enable policy goals to be achieved rather than impeded. .  As I mentioned before, the construction sector is in a 80+ year time warp despite all of the new materials, "designs" and architectural door prizes being given out.  I'd sure like to see Archicad/Nemetschek be a major player in transforming built environments (new and existing) into places where sustained livability and prosperity are the norm and not the exception for the lucky few.

[leandrolopes]

Just the two of them belonging to the same group should raise some eyebrows. This is not good for a competitive market, it undermines our options and demonstrates that deep down we are all hostages to the choices of just one group. This includes whether we will have the right to own our tools or whether we will be sheep paying rent for the rest of our working lives. Anyway, here is one of a series of incredible articles brought by Artem Boiko that mentions the issues of lobbyists and shareholders. I believe we would all gain a lot from reading the entire series.
But I know that some will only try to undermine the veracity of the issue by diverting attention from the real problem... We are in a monopoly and we are mere puppets in our industry when it comes to software tools.

https://boikoartem.medium.com/lobbyist-wars-and-the-development-of-bim-d72ad0111a7d

[Laszlo Nagy]

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@leandrolopes wrote:

But I know that some will only try to undermine the veracity of the issue by diverting attention from the real problem... 

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Please just don't present false info as fact. What you said is true for those big US CAD/BIM companies, but not for Nemetschek.

Source:

Nemetschek holders (majority stake by Nemetschek family, no BlackRock or Vanguard) :

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NEMD.XC/holders/

Autodesk holders (yes, BlackRock and Vanguard at the top):

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ADSK/holders/

Bentley holders (yes, BlackRock and Vanguard at the top):

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BSY/holders/

Trimble holders (yes, BlackRock and Vanguard at the top):

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TRMB/holders/

The conversation can go any way you guys what to take it, but if I see incorrect info (to my knowledge), I will correct it.

[leandrolopes]

Yes, maybe I expressed it wrong about who owns who, and that didn't change the problem at all, in fact you just proved exactly what I said: that manny connected to the company in any way, or even overly devoted fans and blinded for the allert by this,   would diverge from the attention of that we have an oligarchy forming in the BIM scenario with two or 3 groups making massive acquisitions, taking away from the end user the free choice that an open market should bring. We still have two big players :You can call them blackrock, bentley or autodesk, you can call them graphisoft or Nemetschek... nothing changes as they are the ones to dictate sometimes absurd rules, butchering (not sure if this is a real word in english but, yet...), small competitors and shaping the market to what benefits them. Like the rent only option. Our choice today is, pay forever or use nothing at all. 
But that is just my opinion. And it is nothing more than speculations from one already scalded cat. Do whatever you want with it.  
Really sorry for the bad english and for any misanderstund that it may bring along. Feel free to delete the post. But I needed the rant. 

[PrzemN]

Another concern is that GS seems to be pushing AC to be a jack-of-all-trades, covering structural engineering, MEP engineering, energy analysis, and more. This might even work if the modules had evolved since their release, but they haven’t. For example, I don’t think Ecodesigner has seen any significant updates in nearly a decade.  Or renovation that does not work for components. Or design options. Or render engines (redshift). 

I agree, I also think it would be much better if all those addons are developed independly - and talking about ecodesigner ... it should be one of the most developed tools in Archicad right now. But it seems it exist only to answer the difficult question if we have any tool like this in Archicad for a new customer that wants to buy a licence.

All these topics have already been discussed within this forum for years. Not much seems to change. I have a hope that alternatives like blenderbim or freecad will evolve during next 6 years of transition period from user owned software to rental licences. I am certainly keeping an eye on that

Yeah, me too. And yes, nothing is going to change. For me Archicad 28 as a new version is a joke, with its not BIM keynotes as a main theme of the upgrade

[PhilA42]

You're exactly right regarding EcoDesigner.  When that came out years ago I recall asking why the totality of the BIM model couldn't drive the energy and carbon assessments - you had to state what type of windows the building had rather than EcoDesigner reading window properties from the BIM model itself.

When EcoDesigner was added it turned Archicad into a substantial product capable of dealing with operating costs (resulting from energy consumption) and the carbon footprint of the digital twin of the actual building to be built having been developed.  The climate emergency that has overwhelmed our species argues unequivocally for the Graphisoft development team to seriously improve EcoDesigner and make its internals readable by external energy simulations such as those readily available in add-on products in Grasshopper, for example.  The other aspect of EcoDesigner is its references to and use of mechanical /HVAC systems in use in Europe and Scandinavia.  In North America and elsewhere different systems are used.  These include, for example, ground-sourced/geothermal and air-sourced heat pumps with air chillers distributing conditioned air to fine-tune the climate modification properties of external envelopes, along with solar panels, inverters and battery back up systems.   In North America there are major moves already funded (over $1 trillion in the US alone) to deal with the climate emergency. Being able to simulate the carbon footprint of a building's digital twin within Archicad employing a significantly updated EcoDesigner module would make creating net zero carbon strategies for a structure's design easy to accomplish.   It’s an opportunity for Graphisoft that is literally a jewel in the rough laying in the carpet largely ignored.

The Architecture profession is facing major changes to how it does business and the span of control it exerts over the process of accommodating future demographics, new ways of conducting commerce, different types of mobility systems, the need for far healthier built environments and a host of biodiversity issues that result when something like a building is dropped on top a new or existing site.  The role of AI, generative design systems and data science will become core competencies of those practicing architecture.  Thankfully the critical climate emergency we are all facing means that anyone thinking that becoming a "starchitect" and winning all those architectural door prizes is in the wrong line of work.  Architecture is, at its core, a profound public health endeavor where built environments are not ornamental; they're fundamental to enabling successful communities to thrive and for people to experience safe, healthy and sustained livability as the norm and not the exception for the wealthy few.

The role that Graphisoft could be playing in this is, I think, significant.  But to do so, Archicad needs to be shaped into a tool which robustly and credibly supports architects who increasingly are likely to be engaged in shaping urban and environmental policy as much as they may be engaged in the nuts and bolts of bringing a new or retrofitted building on line.

business

[AlexK]

May I add the need for an option that the sun follows the camera in the 3D window. It's so tedious to constantly have to change the sun position when you move the camera around the building