Fullscreen Mode Mac - Archicad 16

[archislave]

Yes, Folks! I have been writing about this since 2006 when I first used Archicad on Mac. I was struck by the fact that Archicad was a loose colleciton of the icon bar and project navigator. They only loosely stick together and do not form a unified monolithic window like on Windows or other Mac OSX apps from Apple. To me this was a left over mode from OS9 classic.

Well, here we are waiting on v16 all these years later and Graphisoft still has not taken the time to update the UI after ten years of OSX. Full screen apps are now required by OS X Liion to be fully compliant.

I think Graphisoft will have egg and rotten tomatoes all over their faces if they do not give use a new gui in Archicad 16.

[archislave]

As I said it is not a problem if you keep the same desktop set up. I only have and want one computer. I am working on it connected to a monitor some of the day but like the option to take it to work at a coffee shop or to a meeting. I then want to take it home and work at the kitchen table or home office. So we should have an option for a unified window and a floating palette.

Come to think of it this is the way Windows Archicad works. You drag the palettes into the side and and it is subsumed into the frame of the window creating a unit with the frame and drawing area. I think you can drag the palettes out and they float. This is what I want for the Mac OS.

I never understood why you would need to have multiple monitors having to move your head back and forth and spanning monitors to pick tools. I would rather have everything in a single focus. With 30" monitors you still have to zoom in to get proper snapping to endpoints etc. So isn't a single monitor enough for archicad? Maybe you want to display email on the side but that would not be a reason to not have a single archicad window.

I think multiple monitors are a throwback to the 90's illusion of power user. But then again monitor were not larger than 20" so it was functional I guess!

[Anonymous]

Bricklyne wrote:
For all your complaining and talk of threatening to leave ArchiCAD for Revit, you seem to be glossing over the fact that despite everything, Graphisoft have had more significant improvements to ArchiCAD in just this version alone than Autodesk have had in the latest 2 versions of Revit combined.

Of course Autodesk have many more programs to support. I wouldn't be surprised if the Revit Architecture team is comparable in size to ArchiCAD's. And I agree that GS is still holding a solid lead.

I also agree with Karl. I've yet to find any use for the full screen mode.

[archislave]

Where do you find the statistics of Archicad vs Revit use? Is it broken down by country?

OK guys! I will settle for the same type of unified frame as the Windows version of Archicad, but I want it on the map. Read... Palettes and menu bar that will subsume itself into the window frame or become floating if drug out in to the drawing window. This has always been the convention of windows gui and the one instance that I prefer of windows over mac - one of the few.

This might change as windows 8 and Metro are looking very clean and modern. I just don't know if win 32 apps will have the clean look until Metro layer has many apps and market acceptance. Then maybe they will give win 32 programs a clean metro look. Ironically, the Metro convention like the iPad is for fullscreen apps.

[Anonymous]

I would also like to see a significant update to the ArchiCAD interface both Mac and Windows. But whether this should be a top priority would depend on how much resources it would require and how much this would take away from other development. There are hundreds of interface elements that would have to be redesigned and that's after the big job of doing the overall redesign and specification and before the other big job of actually making it all work. I suspect the redesign issue is a major reason Autodesk went with the crappy ribbon thing. They have an awful lot of apps to maintain.

There is also the question of where things are going with Mac OS trending toward iOS and Windows 8 looking very tablety by default. Any major rethink would also have to take this into account and much would be conjecture at this point. It may well be that GS is already working on the outlines of such an undertaking while watching the OS developments.

[Anonymous]

archislave wrote:
You might say why spend extra on a Mac. Well, build quality is amazing and solid. I have seen some of the new windows Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks and they still do not have the satisfying feel of unibody aluminum. Plus, the fact is I can always choose to run windows or mac on the macbook.

Yes I have a 6 month old i7 MacBook Pro and still find it sluggish running Revit in parallels compared to natively with bootcamp. I hear it's mainly an issue with ram, so might not be as bad if I upgraded to 8gb.... but yes great computers!

[Gerald Hoffman]

Yes I have a 6 month old i7 MacBook Pro and still find it sluggish running Revit in parallels compared to natively with bootcamp. I hear it's mainly an issue with ram, so might not be as bad if I upgraded to 8gb.... but yes great computers!

You can run 16 GB on the MacBook Pro. It is cheaper now too than when I got mine about 6 months ago. I don't think I ever run out of ram and I run Parallels as well. I don't have Revit so I don't know how that would perform.

Cheers,