AC15 has some great new tools and features. I've always modeled a lot in the 3D window.
- The new reference plane which came with the MEP tool is now in archicad. It is adjustable and lets you place it where and at what angle/plane you need it.
- the shell tool, finally we are no longer limited to basic shapes and geometries. It's fun sketching/designing in 3d. I've been able to create parametric shapes easily and quickly. It's limitations right now are edge handling and inability to place doors and windows in the forms. You can place skylights. Current design trends blur the distinction between wall and roof so hopefully this will be addressed quickly. For now, just place a wall in an opening and place the d/w in the wall.
The renovation manager, long overdue, works really very well. Instantly the need for dedicated layers to distinguish between existing to remain, demo and new is gone. E,D and N are set by each element and display is controlled by the renovation status. You will need to redefine your views with the reno status, but it so much simpler to work.
I particularly like that in renovations when a door or window is replaced or eliminated this is now set by the element status. For example if you are replacing a door, you set the existing reno status to demo and then in the same [exsting] wall place a door with its reno status set to new. You don't have to cut out the wall around the door and duplicate the wall so you can put in a new door. The reno feature handles this. A drawback is that as yet, you cannot separately set the reno status for frame and door.
I also like how it handles door/window openings.You don't have to cut out the piece of wall a demo d/w sits to demo the entire wall and put in a new wall in which to place the door. You can put a demo d/w and a new d/w in the same wall and the renovation filters handles the rest.
The renovation status greatly facilitates presentations when you need only flip through the different filters to show existing, demo, after demo and new. This is a big hit with owners and contractors and ye olde bosses.
IFC is also improved, which is so important in the big BIM picture of being able to exchange data with the rest of the team. but that's for another post.
Erika
Architect, Consultant
MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Yosemite 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OSX 10.11.1
AC5-18
Onuma System
"Implementing Successful Building Information Modeling"
