Archicad 27.2.0 Update Preview

[vlahtinen]

Quote from Archicad 27.2.0 Update Preview announcement article:

Update Previews are an early version of the official update and may differ from the final release. However, they are thoroughly tested to ensure quality and reliability.

I’m confused. What does this mean? Is the update ready for use in production? How it may differ from the final release?

We will create Public Update packages for all languages in the coming months.

In the coming months? Really? Some fixes are already way overdue given that Archicad 27 was published four months ago.

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Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon

[Barry Kelly]

That is correct, but I was also hoping it would show the full version number as well.

But it doesn't - just say 27 and the build number.

I should have checked first.

Barry.

[Matthew Johnson]

Since installing the Update Preview, has anyone else experienced a slow response when doing a rectangular selection with the arrow tool? 

[Kornel Beleznai]

Hello there,

I appreciate you reaching out with these questions regarding update previews, I'll try my best to explain the background of it as clearly as possible.

Preview updates are considered to be fully tested and functional update packages, that normally contain all bugfixes and features that will be included in the final version as well. The purpose of releasing a so-called preview version earlier is that users who are willing to participate in the "preview program" can try the updated version beforehand and leave feedback based on their professional experiences, filtering out any potential problems that the tests were not able to detect.

So differences between the preview and the final versions can come from:

• issues found and reported by the preview users, or
• other crucial fixes that could be implemented during the preview period.

Those who turned on the Check for Updates notifications for preview updates during the installation of Archicad, will get notified about the early release through the Action Center. Of course, anyone else who is interested in the preview update can visit our Updates page and download the installers. If you would like adjust your Check for Updates preferences, you can always do that in the Work Environment settings (see the screenshot below).

When it comes to future updates, the general approach is that we release previews for all major updates (like AC27.2.0) but not for the smaller Hotfixes (like AC27.1.1 or 1.2). The main difference between the two is that updates contain more bugfixes and usually features too which means more risk and more need for testing, hence the preview version.

Reflecting on the availability of other languages: according to our release schedule, the final release, that will include all localized versions, will be available in the beginning of April.

I hope I could give you all some clarity about the update previews.

Kind regards,

Kornél

P.S. about the "/" Sonoma issue: according to most of our users' feedback, the problem seems to be solved in the AC27.2.0 update (preview), so if you still have issues with that function, please contact your local support. Hope it gets resolved asap!

[thesleepofreason]

Alright - so basically a release candidate and not ready for production. But if it is all about testing - shouldn't the timeline be rather clear and not "coming months". I mean its already "thoroughly tested to ensure quality and reliability" so live testing should just be a failsafe to trigger within days/week right?

And it would be good with at clarification of how preview users are suppose to "report" any issues found as there isn't a clear feedback channel.

[DGSketcher]

This feeds into that Thermocline discussion that keeps raising its head. What message does it send when already some have been burnt by failure to launch releases and even when successful there isn't a short order delivery date for the current release. Should I trust software that even the developers are unsure of releasing?

And the good old bug report where we are repeatedly told to contact our local office when some don't even have a local office or they are non-responsive. The UK one has been good, but there are enough posts on here to suggest that support isn't what it should be in the rest of the world.

[vlahtinen]

Thank you for your reply. This helped to understand the difference between the update preview and the final update.

However if the final (and production ready) version is published in the beginning of April, that's over half a year after the release of Archicad 27! Given that the update contains important fixes to bugs that cause crashing, this seems really unacceptable.

In this case, from user's point of view, it would have been better to release bug fixes to most common bugs and to fix macOS Sonoma compatibility as a smaller hotfix as soon as possible and then do the new features and less common bugs as a major update.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

the channel was full of talk about the next release in February. A Preview is not a release. Pure and simple. April is far away; further given that this is a Leap year.

[Vicente Donoso]

486 million Spanish-speaking individuals in the world, and as always, the SPA version is due in April….

Eurocentric Archicad not surprising at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

[Koji]

Agree!

[gaba]

in version 27.2 Preview I couldn't open project 27.1.2 (~335Mb), there was MEP in the project;
I disconnected all libraries (also 27.2), but that didn't help either;
I tried "open with repair" and it also gave me an error; every time ArchiCAD 27.2 crashes;
so I saved the project from version 27.1.2 to 26 and only project 26 opened successfully in version 27.2; I connected the 27.2 libraries and OK;
I also did another test: I removed all MEP objects from the 27.1.2 project and immediately loaded the project in 27.2 Preview without any surprises 🙂