ARCHICAD 22 announced

[Laszlo Nagy]

New version has been announced, for details please go to:
http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/

Please use this thread to talk about your impressions of the new features.

[fhedberg]

Still no ability to schedule curtain walls...?

[Barry Kelly]

Sure there is.
I can't say I have tried it as I don't use curtain walls so can't vouch for exactly what you can get out of a curtain wall schedule.

Barry.

[JGoode]

Are we going to be able to utilise the Level Of Detail addition in our own objects?

[Steve Jepson]

LaszloNagy wrote:
...

Steve,
I think you will be able to do these kinds of things, but differently. ....

Yes, I think I will be able to do some of that. The part that I am concerned about is the limitation there may be due to the Calculation Units we have available for Interactive Schedules.
I would like to see an example of using Expressions for an Interactive Schedule showing quantities in Board Feet.
I can imagine how something like how many Units of SPF 2x6 Studs 104 5/8" could be reported using Expressions, but I am not sure how Expressions will be of any help in getting more dimensional Units of Measure/Calculation Units into an Interactive Schedule.
Perhaps someone can tell us if we will be able make an Interactive Schedule show quantities in Board Feet or not. If expressions can make that kind of thing possible, then I am all for it and will take the time to figure it out. If not, then I am not sure I will have any use for it.

[poco2013]

Your asking a question that only the beta testers can answer definitively and their still under the NDA but based on the videos:

If you want the BdFt of the joists which are beams

1. set up a criteria to report the applicable beams
2. Set up a expression column to cal Bd Ft for each board based on the available properties as in"
(MROUNDUP(WIDTH) in * MROUNDUP(HEIGHT) in * LENGTH ft)/ 12
This give the Bd Ft for each joist
3. Then use the standard schedule sum Fot the total Bd Ft. of Joists.
A disadvantage is that BdFt should be reported in standard lengths which I think you can do with this feature using the IF Function -- but a nightmare to set up.

You still can't do BdFt for Wall Studs since the Framing tool returns a object which does not report the number of studs in a wall. You would still have to modify the GDL object to get that which is doable. Then you have the problem of the footer/header. Still best to do everything within the GDL object. Note that the wall Framing Tool is not a supported feature -- so your on your own there?

This brings up a recurring problem concerning Archicad's decision to use internal functions instead of a scripting tool. The requests for additional capabilities will be endless and, in the end, overly complicate this feature perhaps to the point of being seldom used - then another abandoned tool not completely thought through?? INMNSHO.

[Barry Kelly]

JGoode wrote:
Are we going to be able to utilise the Level Of Detail addition in our own objects?

Sure, I don't see why not.
You would have to get the settings from the MVO and then script your object to make use of them.
You can do all that now if you really want to by creating your own MVO LOD settings (but you are better off waiting for 22 now for compatibility reasons).

Barry.

[Barry Kelly]

poco2013 wrote:
Your asking a question that only the beta testers can answer definitively and their still under the NDA but based on the videos:

NDA has been lifted, so ask what you want.
For specific answers it will probably be best to wait until 22 has been released.

I am not familiar with the term 'board feet' but you can certainly determine the length of an element and round it up to ordering lengths.
Then schedule the total number of elements at that length.

Barry.

[poco2013]

Barry wrote:
I am not familiar with the term 'board feet' but you can certainly determine the length of an element and round it up to ordering lengths.
Barry.

Boards are rounded up to standard lengths of 2' increments with a limit of 20' (16' practically) of which there is no function presently defined. You would have to use the IF Function to set a constant then use that constant in another formula to cal Bd Ft. (There is no SET variable function ). Also the if function always returns a value which make the logic near impossible. You then have the problem of which calculation is done first as there is no way to control the sequence of calculations unless possibly it is done in the order listed in the property manager -- and this approach may create conflicts with other formula?

I'm guessing most would find this procedure as too confusing?

[Barry Kelly]

poco2013 wrote:
I'm guessing most would find this procedure as too confusing?

It certainly won't be easy for the average user.

You can't control the sequence of calculations of the properties as such (you can in the expressions themselves), but if one property relies on the result of another property, then it won't be evaluated until the relied upon property is evaluated.
I guess you could get in a mess if one property relies on another, which relies on another, which relies on the first.

Rounding up to a specific (2') increment is easy and we can schedule each of those lengths.

The hard part would be breaking the length down to a maximum of 20'.
Actually that is easy too but you would end up with a decimal number rather than a length.
So for the short lengths you will be scheduling the actual rounded up length.
But for the long lengths (say 24') you will have either a number (1.2) of lengths (which is fine if you just want to schedule all these units and end up with a total number of 20' lengths) or you will end up with 2 properties - one that says 20' and one that says 4'.
Now the problem is in the schedule these will be separate fields and can't be combined into the one column/row.
I guess this is not a problem if you are happy to have 2 columns/rows in the schedule - one for 20' boards and one for shorter lengths.

I think I am starting to confuse myself here now.
I am not sure if I have explained myself terribly well.
A lot is possible with the expressions in properties - but I am not sure this is one of them.
The trick is trying to combine the results.

Barry.

[Steve Jepson]

poco2013 wrote:
Your asking a question that only the beta testers can answer definitively and their still under the NDA but based on the videos:...

In addition to the videos some of us have also participated in some Webinars which try to explain how it works.
I have been testing versions of 22 since before last November beginning with Alpha and pre-Alpha versions. I think it is safe to say that none of us are totally up to speed on the use of Expressions.
I think very few ArchiCAD users (including the Beta Testers ) will ever bother to even explore it. I hope I am wrong about that. In any case, the NDA was lifted on May 2. However, there is still perhaps some level of discretion that is appropriate since we have not finished Beta Testing yet.
Expressions are new enough that we were not told about them when we first began the testing back in November or so. We are now on the 7th testing version of 22 (Beta4 INT). There could be one more before the Release Candidate version. ? Expressions is a rather complicated aspect of the program that I have not had the time to explore much and people who do know the answer to my questions are very busy.

I have been asking the question about how Expressions may be limited by the Calculation Units available for Interactive Schedules since last February. 150 views on the BETA Forum 0 replies. I know what I think the answer is, but I would like to have it confirmed by someone who knows for sure before I spend a lot of time figuring it out myself.