ArchiCAD 10's not so great features - wish list

[Anonymous]

Right so i was elated at all the new features of ArchiCad 10 until. .... i had to render (I was heavily reliant on Artlantis 4.5) and require to import Word or Excell documents. Unfortunatly i left all this to the end assuming it would be like in ArchiCAD 9 and that i could do all of the above.

Ok so could graphisoft kindly advice - is there a plug in that would enable one to save as Artlantis 4.5 from 10. Upgrading to Studio is an option (kindly do not give this as one of the options) but as time is of the essence and i do not live anywhere close to an Artlantis dealer it would take 6-8 weeks to get the upgrade if all goes well (Artlantis 4.5 took 12 weeks to get here) and it will cost me. Another option i picked up from the forum would be to save as a 3ds - I have tried this and my model was way too complex for this. In addition learning how to work with the lights in the 3ds model was a nightmare and like i mentioned time is of the essence. ArchiCAD 10 despite it's very cool features is rather weak when it comes to rendering and especially for Panoramas and Scenes. I feel i cannot tie up my computer for 10 - 20 hours to archieve what Artlantis could do in minutes.

I also cannot import word documents. All this is a bog down reducing productivity and taking me more steps back then i had moved forward with 10.
Kindly respond

[Djordje]

TomWaltz wrote:

Tom wrote:
I don't understand why any program (programmer) would remove something that works well. Autocad does that on a regular basis, one reason I don't shop there anymore.......

I'm totally guessing, but I suspect that Graphisoft had to revise their translation system for the new element types in AC10, namely profiled and sloped elements. They probably decided to only export them to the latest ArtLantis.

To me, it's just one more reason to use Lightworks.

AFAIK the plugin is developed by Abvent, not Graphisoft. Therefore, while I perfectly clearly see the commercial reason, it is not a good one. R is so superior to 4.5 that the only reason not to upgrade would be 5000 miles of desert or ocean to the nearest shop. Classic is AFAIK abandoned as an idea, so 4.5 could be the cheap option.

If there were a technical reason, maybe it would not be bad to know it? Just out of curiosity?

[Anonymous]

Tom wrote:
I don't understand why any program (programmer) would remove something that works well. Autocad does that on a regular basis, one reason I don't shop there anymore.......

I thought Tom was refereing to the "removal" of OLE. I especially will miss the Live Spreadsheet Link, when I finally "jump" to AC10.

[Tom Krowka]

Actually, I was referring to the OLE function. I still do think it's poor planning to remove any part of the program that actually works well.
Or if it is removed, replace it with something that works equally well and performs the same function. What are programmers thinking.

Maybe we should remove random keys from their keyboard every six months, or have thier monitor not display certain colors. But only we know which ones.

[Chazz]

We're drifting a long way from Artlantis (not to mention Namibia), but I have to ask, is the loss of OLE really that bad? OLE never worked on the Mac version of AC so maybe I don't know what I'm missing but the PDF method is great for me. Printing to PDF is almost as fast as saving a doc. The only issues I have is that updated PDF's seem to need to be told to update in Layouts rather than doing it automatically. The other issue is that AC does not allow you to open and place a 10 page PDF in one fell swoop. Other than this I love it.

[Anonymous]

Just a work around but is it possible for you to save the ACX file as a AC9 file then generate the 3D view and save as Artlantis 4.5. Might be the quickest solution.

Philip Caine

[Djordje]

Chazz wrote:
We're drifting a long way from Artlantis (not to mention Namibia), but I have to ask, is the loss of OLE really that bad?

As Dwight said elsewhere, you don't know what you have until you lose it ...