ArchiCAD 9 is shipping in mid-September!

[Bence Kovacs]

Dear Archi-Talkers,

We are happy to announce on ArchiCAD-Talk that ArchiCAD 9 will be released in September 2004. Shipment will start with the INT, US and GER versions followed by other localized language versions over the coming months. Based on the results of extensive beta testing we are confident that this version will be the most robust version of ArchiCAD ever. Please check www.graphisoft.com for the official press release on ArchiCAD 9! And... enjoy!

Bence Kovacs
Vice President

ArchiCAD Product Management
Graphisoft

[Fabrizio Diodati]

Answering to Bence’s kind words,
As I already wrote some time ago speaking about ArchiCAD 9, all the beta testing phase of ArchiCAD 9 has been very impressive for me: professional, “reactive” and serious.
Quality Assurance is one of the best thing in the “new” Graphisoft age and together with a lot of other changes (most of them very good also for someone, like me, who sometime still dreams about the “old good times”) the attention to the 3rd party developers products gave me the feeling we can see a very good ArchiCAD future.
Once again, thank you Graphisoft for the beta testing opened to the 3rd party developers software and for releasing so prompt the API Developer Kit (very stable, robust and… without bugs!).

Thank you Viktor, Kono and Bence

[Anonymous]

sorry, i didnt have time to go through all posts on this topic, so i will risk repeating something somebody had allready said...........but i just have to comment on this 9 release (though i havent tried it myself, only have read new feats pdfs)


my greatest discontenpt with previous releases was TIME AND TIME AGAIN the lack of 3D modeling capabilities! and with this 9 the story continues......... yes it has some neat features, but it looks to me as if its nothing more than a slight make-up. couldnt graphisoft really think of nothing else to improve other than appearance of icons and, i quote one of new features: "Library Parts’ Name is Shown Bold in Info
Box"!!!??? yeah, i really coulnt have survived without this one!!! Well, graphisoft, this kind of stuff is done when you you are a mile ahead of the competition and have all the fundamentals sorted out, then you can allow yourself some fine tuning! and a new rendering engine?!? i dont know a single serious AC user that finds ACs renderer remotely competitive, so just adding a little raytrace surely isnt going to convince them to change threir lightwave or mentalray for lightworks!


speaking of fundamentals, how about some modeling tools already?!?!? it is outrageous that after paying so much for AC one still has to purchase external addons in order to create a simple slanted wall!!!
but i suppose its not GSs fault. after sweeping trough this forums i really got the impression that THE USERS ARE COMFORTABLE WITH THE PRESENT STATE. am i the only one that has problem with this? do you folks really prefer gdl scripting instead of clicking few points in space (then why do you need AC, you can write your own cad from a scratch)? have you ever had to make something else other than 4 straightup walls? what do you do when a structural engineer asks a wireframe model of your spacetruss in order to perform analysis? heck, how do you even make a spacetruss?


dont get me wrong, i can make ANYTHING in AC, but the time it takes.........takes much, much more to do that than to format text manually, for which we got a new tool now!!!

[Anonymous]

Said all that so many times.. but when you hear people say.. its ok... its fine.. its great then i am simply amazed.

[Richard Morrison]

I'm glad I'm not in GS's shoes.

The users said, OVERWHELMINGLY, "First fix what we've already got, so it's stable and works as advertised before you go adding more features."

GS listens, and DOES that, and then gets accused of not providing enough new features. I guess it's a no-win situation for them.

Personally, I don't care if a 3D modelling program is integrated or is a 3rd party application, as long as it's available. (And it is.)

[Anonymous]

come on, richard!
"First fix what we've already got, so it's stable and works as advertised before you go adding more features."

fixing bugs and increasing stability isnt to be done with NEW RELEASES (which 9 obviously is) but with FREE SEVICE PACKS AND MAINTENANCE UPDATES! i hope you are not telling me that its ok to pay extra few thousand EUR just to get something youve already paid for to actually work as advertised!?!?
if you are so gallant no wonder you dont mind paying lousy few hundreds for external addons!

and its available? it is......if you are referring to form z, rynoceros, lightwave or autocad (archiforma and similar gadgets are far from serious modelers)! buy them as well?

ofcourse we dont need this much firepower. a little polishing of something like gdl toolbox with proper snapping would be a good start. implemented not an addon! but start moving in this direction!!!


but i guess with users so deeply satisfied its never going to happen
right oreopoulos.......its simply amazing...........

[Djordje]

kllk wrote:
come on, richard!
"First fix what we've already got, so it's stable and works as advertised before you go adding more features."

Put the things into perspective.

The real leap in recent development of ArchiCAD was 8.0 As much as it was a leap forward in the terms of concept and the workflow, it was a leap backwards in the stability and usability terms. It brought such a huge amount of novelties that many people still don't KNOW about them, let alone use them! Then came the free 8.1, again feature wise a proper UPGRADE, that due to the 8.0 outcry we got for free. If any other company made it, it would have been called 8.5 or 9; Graphisoft is too modest and was too sincere in giving decimal descriptions.

Now, after 12 months, a new version, with a reworked interface and a myriad of improved and reworked functions, ALL OF THEM BASED OFN THE USER WISHES, much increased fuinctionality, AND a full blown raytracing renderer.

Agree - the freeform 3D modeling is not OBVIOUSLY present in the package. However, it IS available, and sorry - ArchiForma is anything BUT not a proper modeling environment.

The basic misunderstanding here is that the users look at ArchiCAD as primarily 3D modeling software, which it is not, in a sense that for example FormZ is.

Being able to do anything in ArchiCAD ig commendable; however, I do not agree that it takes more time than in anything else.

Just a personal opinion ...

[Anonymous]

Well Djorje

The point is that from v7 to v8 did you here anyone complain about not having new features? Of course things are missing and will always be.
The complain was about stability. OK. But this is supposed to be fixed in service packs.

In V9 we get interface and usability features an only very few building tools.
And this is AFTER 2 years. Version 8.1 was 1 year ago but it was mostly a stable v8 with few (but nice) new features.

There are tons of things we cannot do, or need to much time to do, with the current state of AC. With that develepment pace i would retire before i see them in AC. (free profil shaped walls., hotspots to define edge height of walls, stacked walls, walls that follow story height, free shaped columns, rotate in 3d, just to mention few very basic stuff missing and the list is very very big)

[Anonymous]

exactly!

it goes way beyond v8. basically, the only new modeling tool since v5.0(!!!) were boolean fx. just this in 6 new releases and almost 10 years! come to think of it, boolean is THE ONLY new building tool since AC one!

damned, AC is supposed to be BIM app! it means that you BUILD a MODEL and then extract all information and project documentation from it. and how are we supposed to BUILD with such an limited arsenal? if MODELING is secondary issue?


but as i said, its not graphisofts fault. they really listened and gone for users demands. oreopoulos, if you go to "wishes" forum youll see that everybody is soooo satisfied with the core engine that a little make-up is all they needed!

well, cant change the world......only myself................or my cad software!

[Thomas Holm]

I agree completely with Djordje. Archicad is - and has been from the start - all about productivity and ease of use. It's not primarlily a free-form modeler for Gehry-type stuff. However if you want to do that in AC for some reason, there are options and add-ons available, as well as import options from other modelers.

But productivity, easing the architect's burden of getting paper and digital documentation for the producing of buildings out of the door, that's the core of Archicad. The bulk of these buildings don't use slanted walls to such an extent as to motivate a priority development. They are special, and need special tools.

AC9 adds a list of productivity enhancements, some of which have been on the wish list for several years, along with some lesser. I'm very happy the new management at Graphisoft now is listening to the users in a way they didn't do before. It encourages me to think that they will eventually run down the list to what oreopoulos wants as well.

To me, as a maybe less high-aiming architect, I still have things on the wish list with higher priority. I'd like to be able to open several different 3D windows at once, and I'd like them all to be simultaneously updated in real time, to see what I'm doing when I work. I'd like to be able to add text and 2D symbols, as well as shadows and shading, in all windows alike, wether plan, section or 3D. I want to get rid of all modal dialogs - I want to be able to have any I like on-screen, with an Apply button to use if I want to change a setting.

These are all productivity enhancements, no new modeling tools. Still I'd be happy to call it AC10, because it would change my way of working. It would make me faster, and perhaps give me more time to think about slanted walls 😉

[Anonymous]

Let me state it differently beacause i think the whole discussion does not make sense.

A simple example.
We have a wall and want different fill in section and in plan view.
Is this a wish for AC10??
This should be in from AC1 or AC2.
Basic stuff. Pdf export is good but its for AC8-AC9...

Do you see the point. There are many many many BASIC stuff missing.

And one thing more. As a BIM tool we need improvement of data extraction tools. Please tell me the improvements in thoose tools in V9.
I can write you a few basic ones missing.
How can V9 be a step forward when we dont get not even one step forward in the data extraction part.

If you are builgin a simple house thats ok, but try a more complex structure you are doing compomises here and there.. and keeping notes of what is misising.

Do you see the point?