At 1.44 on this official Graphisoft video about a competition winner, I notice they flash up a view of a board showing lots of curvy-blobby architecture, with a tongue-in-cheek caption of "ArchiCAD 15 secret plans???;- )'"
Now, it's unlikely they would have done all those actually in ArchiCAD yet, but why would they have an ideas board full of curvy buildings when we know ArchiCAD doesn't do curvy stuff very well?
I'd guess they must be seriously thinking about it at the moment.
I'd say there was a fair possibility that this might be coming within the next couple of releases, but I'll reserve judgement regarding how useful this might be for me until some official info is released!
Now, it's unlikely they would have done all those actually in ArchiCAD yet, but why would they have an ideas board full of curvy buildings when we know ArchiCAD doesn't do curvy stuff very well?
I'd guess they must be seriously thinking about it at the moment.I'd say there was a fair possibility that this might be coming within the next couple of releases, but I'll reserve judgement regarding how useful this might be for me until some official info is released!
kiwicodes wrote:This is not BIM software at the moment. It's a parametric modelling software. I'd say it was targeting Rhino users, rather than Sketchup or ArchiCAD. Students are going to go crazy over this!!
This is what AC15 will be competing against
The 'Spoon' technology sounds interesting. Is this a cloud-based service; i.e. Vasari doesn't actually run on your machine - you just see the results on your screen; or does your computer still do the hard work and just the software components get streamed to your machine as and when necessary. Or even something else?
And of course Autodesk will go to great lengths to ensure that ArchiCAD users can easily import the data for use in our models too!
IFC : no chance!
Peter wrote:From what I've read of it, that Spoon technology is akin to what Graphisoft's own Virtual Building Explorer (VBE) does in producing a self-contained .EXE file of a VR model.
This is not BIM software at the moment. It's a parametric modelling software. I'd say it was targeting Rhino users, rather than Sketchup or ArchiCAD. Students are going to go crazy over this!!
The 'Spoon' technology sounds interesting. Is this a cloud-based service; i.e. Vasari doesn't actually run on your machine - you just see the results on your screen; or does your computer still do the hard work and just the software components get streamed to your machine as and when necessary. Or even something else?
It's a was to package whole applications into a single self-contained file that doesn't require any installation to run and that includes all of the program's pre-requisites.
Also, while they say it is 'Cloud' capable, I don't think that that's the express purpose of it.
I think Cloud computing still has a ways to go before it is feasible for most people running applications and doing day-to-day work and at the moment it's mostly just speculative technology.
kiwicodes wrote:
This is what AC15 will be competing against
Peter wrote:
This is not BIM software at the moment. It's a parametric modelling software. I'd say it was targeting Rhino users, rather than Sketchup or ArchiCAD. Students are going to go crazy over this!!
You're correct in that this isn't currently BIM, although the fact that they say it is parametric, tends to indicate to me that the intention is for it to tie into Revit as a front-end (Free-form?)conceptualization tie-in as a potential replacement to Sketchup/Rhino imports.
At the very least it does show that Autodesk is paying attention to that particular aspect of Revit's (and the wider BIM technology) shortcomings
vis-a-vis Free-form modeling, and design conceptualization at the beginning of most Design processes.
But the fact that they are building it on top of Revit's infamous godawful and atrocious interface doesn't exactly put them in a good place to start. For one thing, looking at those videos, designing in this seems a lot too much like "designing"(if you can even call it that) or working in Revit
Think multiple dialog boxes up to 7 levels deep just to make a simple change to a parameter.
Revit itself is handicapped by the fact that it is or rather was built on the foundations of Pro-E or Pro-Engineering, an parametric Engineering program where it's two original developers used to work before they decided to develop Revit.
The problem with this that Architects don't think or work in the same way as Engineers do - so if you develop your program to function as if it's an engineering program, but for the purpose of designing architecture, then you have a problem. It's part of the reason why Revit is supposedly so much better at documentation than it is at design, and also why engineers and consultants enjoy using it's cousins (Revit Structure, MEP et al) more than Architects actually enjoy working in it.
It's also a reason why it's not as scalable as ArchiCAD (or even Bentley Microstation) when it comes to large models and why it begins to choke when your model gets large with a lot of over-constrains.
So why they would choose to develop a conceptual designer on top of the Revit interface, to go against Sketchup and Rhino which have more accessible interfaces and workflows, is beyond me. As a direct competitor to those 2 programs with that interface, it's a non-starter.
But like I said, at least it shows that they are thinking about it.
A few other random and not so random thoughts:
It's good to note that GS is finally paying attention to the modeling tools that have seriously and desperately needed an upgrade for the longest time. That's assuming that any of what was leaked is true and also depending on to what degree they are serious in this regard and how far they'll push it.
But of course, it's not surprising to see the usual "Why do we need this?" or the "Do we really need these tools" crowd piping up as usual. Just because you don't need certain tools improved doesn't mean that other people don't want them addressed, and not every body plans on using these tools to do "Blob-tecture".
Personally, I hope they address the long-standing issues such as the moe obvious ones like the Stair Toool and/or a more intelligent rail tool, as well as a more intuitive, graphical and fully parametric Custom object modeler that would hopefully free them from that GDL-programming albatross that has hung around their neck for the past 20 plus years.
Nobody uses DOS anymore, so why make your graphically trained users to have to write lines of code to create a parametric door or window.
Even programmers today have Visual C++ and things like Grasshopper for scripters in Rhino with visually orientated interfaces, so this is really long overdue.
As the old adage goes, in ArchiCAD it's easy and a pleasure to design buildings in, but a nightmare and a headache to try to create parametric custom objects in, while in Revit it's easy to create custom objects in, but a nightmare and headache to try to design buildings in.
GS can easily rectify this in one or 2 releases and I hope we see the start in AC15.
great !! cannot wait to start playing with it.... recently, im having the need (and strong) to speak revit.... I am feeling HC, as a matter of fact.
Cities, our MEP subconsultants, are using it and too much of a problem for us.
Good news and welcome model'g tools !!
but i feel we are behind anyway, the communication among BIM softs is much more urgent @ this point... IMHO (& ignorant)
Cities, our MEP subconsultants, are using it and too much of a problem for us.
Good news and welcome model'g tools !!
but i feel we are behind anyway, the communication among BIM softs is much more urgent @ this point... IMHO (& ignorant)
Still looking?
