ArchiCAD 18 announced

[Laszlo Nagy]

Find the official announcement and new features at:

http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/archicad-18/overview/

[Chazz]

Stress wrote:
My take-a-way from watching that video... "Ok, now we're completely lost"

That video was absolutely baffling and left me feeling embarrassed for its author. It also made me realize just how good I have it with Artlantis.

3 things make Artlantis a better experience:

• 1. A nice visual library of procedural shaders and textures
  2. Drag and drop texture application --it's actually fun to do.
  3. A PREVIEW WINDOW (this is huge)

Sure, Artlantis has its quirks (like a nice French car from the 60's) and having to export is a drag but I think they strike a better balance between ease-of-use and crazy photorealism perfection. Artlantis gets sweet spot that most architects/designers need. And the batch processing makes production jobs really good in an office setting. Nothing in the AC 18 rendering videos makes me say: "Wow, this is so much cooler than Artlantis!"

[Eduardo Rolon]

Just to balance out the Nattering Nabob, I do enjoy using Cinerenderer and the settings are not that difficult. Settings are as simple as Artlantis or as complicated as C4D and it is as fast/faster than Artlantis on the same hardware.

[Chazz]

ejrolon wrote:
Just to balance out the Nattering Nabob......

Thanks Eduardo. Yes, my gloomy prognosticating is in need of balance. Good to hear Cinerenderer (sounds like a pastry) can be enjoyable and fast to use. Maybe the video script writer was just having a bad day.

In the AC implementation of CineRender, is there a way to process scenes in batches? Maybe just make a movie? Or do it via publishing saved render views? If it is faster, I assume it is using all the available cores, as Artlantis does.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Renders happen in the background, so you can keep working in AC as they happen. So, it is sort of like a batch render... but unlike, say, the Artlantis batch render, there is no control once the process has started... you cannot pause, only cancel, etc. Yes, it uses all available cores.

A standard material library, tuned for CineRender, comes with AC 18. So, for most people, the complexity of clicking on all of those controls to create a new sophisticated shader won't be an issue.

Worth repeating is that CineRender has a real, 3-D grass option. Looks great (the perfect, weed-free lawn) - softening exterior building elements adjacent to it - and renders quickly. For those still living in the 70's, it can be used for shag carpet, too. 😉

[Laszlo Nagy]

Yes, I think Eduardo is right: it can be simple, you don't have to deal with the more complicated settings most of the time if you don't want to.
That video shows you a process of developing a sophisticated surface. As such I think the author actually wanted to show all the various options that are now at your disposal. He may also wanted to show you that you will have to learn them and use your head when creating them because there is not always a step-by-step formula to achieve the surface you want and operating a high-end rendering engine is pretty much an art form in its own right (at least in my opinion).
However, most people will almost never have to do that if they don't want to. AC18 will come with a library of 300 surfaces (and 800 for subscription customers, I think) so they will be able to use those, maybe modify them a little if needed. But those surfaces should satisfy a lot of users.
So just because that video shows the extensive list of options and settings you can use does not mean that you will have to use them always, every time on all projects.
There will also be a Basic or Beginner mode in CineRender in which you can produce pretty high quality images with a few mouse clicks using defaults surfaces and scene settings.

[Ivan Piljek]

Karl wrote:
Renders happen in the background, so you can keep working in AC as they happen. So, it is sort of like a batch render... but unlike, say, the Artlantis batch render, there is no control once the process has started... you cannot pause, only cancel, etc. Yes, it uses all available cores.

A standard material library, tuned for CineRender, comes with AC 18. So, for most people, the complexity of clicking on all of those controls to create a new sophisticated shader won't be an issue.

Worth repeating is that CineRender has a real, 3-D grass option. Looks great (the perfect, weed-free lawn) - softening exterior building elements adjacent to it - and renders quickly. For those still living in the 70's, it can be used for shag carpet, too. 😉

Can we export this grass and carpet as real 3d objects into Artlantis, or it works only in Cinerender.

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Renders happen in the background, so you can keep working in AC as they happen.

Hmm, after I hit the render button in 3dsmax, the CPU usage jumps to 100% and i can't do anything on my computer, not even web browsing. This means that Vray is squeezing every last drop of CPU power for rendering, and that's what i'm expecting from an rendering engine. It seems that's not the case with the new rendering engine? Or it has a "background rendering" mode which it's not using all the CPU cores, besides the normal rendering mode?

[Jussi_]

Rick wrote:

Jussi_ wrote:
I read that WIBU dongles need to be changed, since AC18 does not support it any more. .

Not sure where you read that, but my old blue wibu dongle works fine with 18 beta, and there was no mention of an issue after release, that I have heard. CUT.

This local distributor in Finland is very reliable source, they are ArchiCAD specialist, not marketing people:
http://www.mad.fi/mad/archicadpaivitys.html
Old WibuKey works with ArchiCAD 7…17 . Next ArchiCAD 18 -version does not open with WibuKey-license, therefore WibuKey has to be changed to CodeMeter-license.

On the other hand Graphisoft page has this info (that gives me hope, like your beta version report, thx)
http://www.graphisoft.com/support/system_requirements/index.html
Protection Key
You will need an ArchiCAD 18 WIBU-Box / CodeMeter hardware key or CodeMeter Act software protection key to start the ArchiCAD 18 program.

[Jussi_]

Jussi_ wrote:
My point is that old users need to access to old ArchiCAD documents with ArchiCAD they were created. Without conversion hassle (and numerous errors). This should be paying customers choice. Keep those obsolete machines, operating systems and software versions.

To me is much easier to skip new ArchiCAD versions than give up access to old ones. I am skipping AC17. Fate of AC18 is undecided by me.

These are ArchiCAD versions that handle nicely documents created by previous versions: AC7, AC9, AC16
Many of you must remember that change from version nine to ten was a tedious task. If you have few billable hours for old project, doing it with ArchiCAD version that behaves well with old document can be wiser than going through conversion.

[Barry Kelly]

Jussi_ wrote:
I read that WIBU dongles need to be changed, since AC18 does not support it any more. .

I have heard that 18 will work with the WIBU key but it will be the last version to do so.
I am sure that Graphisoft would have announced by now if 18 does not work with WIBU key.

Barry.