ARCHICAD 21 announced - how do you like the new features?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Please see the announcement and info about the new features here:

http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/

Let us use this thread to discuss the new features of the program.

On the above page there is also a link using which you can register to watch the ARCHICAD 21 Event.

[Jere]

I spoke with a Graphisoft rep at a recent conference. He mentioned that a RVT family importer was in the works for this version or the next. Does anyone know if this is the case?

I do a few projects with systems furniture and similar products where being able to import a .rvt family would be extremely helpful.

[Anonymous]

Yay ! We are still getting the boxes for 21 and for future versions the box is an optional extra.

[Barry Kelly]

mthd wrote:
Yay ! We are still getting the boxes for 21 and for future versions the box is an optional extra.

I need a new monitor stand.
My old version 13 box is getting a bit squashed now - needs replacing.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Oh ! Is that what the box is for Barry

[Barry Kelly]

mthd wrote:
Oh ! Is that what the box is for Barry

Yeah, the last decent door stop was version 6.5 that had about 6 printed manuals in it.
These new ones just don't have the weight for that.

Barry.

[stefan]

You never forget the feeling when you receive your first ARCHICAD box... Even though all you need today is pure digital: download, reference documentation and a software license.


On another note: let's not forget that GS has the tendency to develop features that take more than one release to be integrated widely and you may just see the full impact over a few versions e.g. glimpses of classification which were already in place in AC20 (together with the property system) and which will hopefully continue in the future, to not only cover element & zone classification.


And while we're at it... maybe it's time to get rid of the "tools" a bit more: it's not simply a "Wall" with the wall tool or a "Column" with the Column tool... There are

• parametric objects (Window, Door, Object, Skylight...)
  
  freeform geometry (Morphs, Shells, Meshes),
  
  planar elements which can (or should be able to) host openings (Walls, Roofs, Slabs) and which can be layered
  
  Profiled elements (Wall, Beam, Column, now also in Objects)
  
  Hierarchic elements (Curtain Wall, Stair, Railing).

With the classification you are more free to give them any meaning which makes sense in the project and not be restrained by the initial geometric behaviour.
This is also more in line with current, complex projects and what is happening in other software too.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

stefan wrote:
You never forget the feeling when you receive your first ARCHICAD box... Even though all you need today is pure digital: download, reference documentation and a software license.


On another note: let's not forget that GS has the tendency to develop features that take more than one release to be integrated widely and you may just see the full impact over a few versions e.g. glimpses of classification which were already in place in AC20 (together with the property system) and which will hopefully continue in the future, to not only cover element & zone classification.


And while we're at it... maybe it's time to get rid of the "tools" a bit more: it's not simply a "Wall" with the wall tool or a "Column" with the Column tool... There are

• parametric objects (Window, Door, Object, Skylight...)
  
  freeform geometry (Morphs, Shells, Meshes),
  
  planar elements which can (or should be able to) host openings (Walls, Roofs, Slabs) and which can be layered
  
  Profiled elements (Wall, Beam, Column, now also in Objects)
  
  Hierarchic elements (Curtain Wall, Stair, Railing).

With the classification you are more free to give them any meaning which makes sense in the project and not be restrained by the initial geometric behaviour.
This is also more in line with current, complex projects and what is happening in other software too.

Let's also not forget that GS have a tendency and habit of introducing these big new tools every couple of new versions, and then abandoning any further development on them when they direly could use improvement.

Biggest example for me being the Curtain Wall Tool, which when they introduced it in Version 12, the building used to advertise it on the box,...in Budapest (I forget the name), little did we know at the time that it was (and frankly speaking, STILL is) virtually impossible to model the roof or upper part of that curtail wall structure (the curved part) with the curtain wall tool as it was (and is) and that the people who built the model (also the model used as a demo for the then BIMx progenitor..BIMexplorer) achieved this feat using custom GDL object modelling (which is still out of reach for most archiCAD users for that level of GDL scripting).
Suffice it to say there was a level of false advertising involved in that, but we let it slide in the hopes that this would get rectified in subsequent versions but it never was.



You still can NOT model that building as is, - NINE whole versions and almost a decade later - with the current curtain wall tool.
And that's a shame.
There was a similar issue with the custom profiler when it was first introduced in version 10 and being incapable of doing curved profiles, but at least in that case that was rectified a version later in version 11.

Let's hope the new Stair Tool (and Rail tool) don't fall into the same trap of stagnated development and that this isn't the last we see of any improvements on the two of them.

(*Similarly a Morph 2.0 and a possible Shell 2.0 would be nice, following in the example of Teamwork 2.0 which was a significant leap from the original. Just things to consider.)

[Erwin Edel]

Bricklyne wrote:
(*Similarly a Morph 2.0 and a possible Shell 2.0 would be nice, following in the example of Teamwork 2.0 which was a significant leap from the original. Just things to consider.)

In terms of shell, just being able to adjust the angle of edges like you could do with slabs/roofs and for shells and multiplane roofs to be able to allign the textures so your fills line up in elevation and plan the same way would be a nice start

[sinceV6]

Hi.

So finally had the time to look the KCC, new features videos and things being posted here and facebook group regarding AC21. Learned some time ago not to have any expectations for each release until watching those and more info came afloat. While the new tools are actually welcomed -and disregarding the current bugs and findings being posted on facebook- considering all the work that has been put into them, I see them as the long-overdue-overhaul-new-stair-tool and the keep-up-with-industry-standards-and-requirements-new-railing-tool. That's it. AC should have had these years ago, although looking at the new features per release web page, one can understand the work being done each release.

The way I see it, nothing will change until the modeling kernel is revamped, and I don't see that happening soon -GDL being the core- (unless it is the biggest and best kept secret in AC's history). But let's not forget this is software... it may not be easy, but it can always be rewritten/upgraded. If AllPlan could integrate a parasolid modeling kernel, and Aut*desk could rewrite 3dsMax's basic modeling kernel for high poly count and viewport code, GS should've branched this out as well a few years ago. The grasshopper integration is a nice addition, and I agree that AC can't do it all, but it definitely can do more: converting nurbs to segmented geometry is a no no, and a slow performing model with a few million polys is not good for today's standards.

To me, the most useful features are
1. The integration of autotext in labels, no GDL needed. This is what GS should aim for regarding GDL. Want to keep it because it is efficient? Make it so a user can create anything without writing code.
2. The constant display of contours & shadows, faster feedback of the OpenGL 3D window and 3D styles as a set of rules. High quality textures in full 3D models you can walk into create the best presentation tool.
3. The new classification system and its integration in other parts of AC. This will greatly improve some workflows.

Let's see how this new version performs.
Best regards.

[TMA_80]

As many here, I find the stair tool a long overdue enhancement and I congratulate Graphisoft for the quality of the effort considering the complex task.
The stair is finally behaving as any other tool in Archicad. ( A sort of what Cadimage had almost achieved with Staribuilder and even their railing tool)
What it is however obviously missing is the multistory stairs and "ramps" ...(I just hope these will not be the next big features of ArchiCAD 22 … )
There is also that feeling that some practical features (even ramps) are kept on hold so to justify next version, although importants.

I think a lot of us, taken on count the ongoing work on the rhino - archicad workflow, expected an enhancement on the nurb and Curve handeling ( although it seems sort of better ).

I hope some other tools will have, as the stair tool, the same care especially those for which devlopment has stopped (curtain wall ie as mentionned above)