ArchiCAD market share >> curiosity question??

[Anonymous]

I've tried doing a little browsing research to see if there were any stats regarding say ArchiCAD / AutoCAD / Microstation comparitive market share for Architecture application in the US / worldwide / europe / pacific basin / etc >>> no can findy.

Just a curiosity bug in my bonnet > is this info available from GS or other?

[Chazz]

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=16330&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=craigsl...

You will never find reliable absolute numbers but I'm not sure that it matters. More interesting to me (and immediately available and a very accurate metric) is want ads listings. In my area on this day revit beats ArchiCAD better than 2:1.

To most of us in the real world -- people who are looking for jobs, wondering what software tool tool to run their business on, etc. -- the percentage of use in their corner of the world is the only number that really matters.

[Anonymous]

Chazz wrote:
You will never find reliable absolute numbers but I'm not sure that it matters. More interesting to me (and immediately available and a very accurate metric) is want ads listings. In my area on this day revit beats ArchiCAD better than 2:1.

From what I've seen Revit has been doing pretty well in the SF Bay Area lately. This may be due to Autodesk being based in San Rafael, Ideate's success as a dealer, or some combination of these and other factors. I don't think this is necessarily representative of the situation nationally, and I doubt that Revit is doing as well outside the US. There may also be more openings for Revit users since there are so few of them around.

[Chazz]

Matthew wrote:
From what I've seen Revit has been doing pretty well in the San Francisco Bay Area lately....

True. And I continue to get regular mailings and email from Ideate too. They are really aggressive.

The question then is: are we, here in the tech hub of the world, a statistical outlier or are we the vanguard -the lead swell in a massive wave?

I tend to think that as goes California, so goes the rest of the country (and to some extent the world) but this will probably get me branded a geocentrist. Still, a lot of things that start here end up everywhere (Craigslist being the most convenient example).

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

With the gradual switch from 2D to 3D, Autodesk will retain its solid worldwide leadership in terms of license- and user-count --most (70%? 85%? 95%?) Autocad users will sooner or later become Revit users, at least before moving on to who knows what else many many years from now.

And Graphisoft's market will expand quite a bit, from being a niche product for the 0.1% or whatever of the architectural market using BIM/Virtual Building, it will grow into a niche product for the 30% or 50% of the architectural market using BIM/Virtual Building.

For whoever license-count or user-count in the foreseeable future is a big decision-making factor, I would tend to think that it is so obvious that things will go that way that real data is not really needed. And for whoever license-count or user-count is not a big decision making factor, I would tend to think that the thing just doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Chazz wrote:
The question then is: are we, here in the tech hub of the world, a statistical outlier or are we the vanguard -the lead swell in a massive wave?

It's hard to know for sure (my crystal ball is in the shop for a tune up) but there are plenty of ways the rest of world does not follow California's lead.

I recently used Revit on a project and am working with one of my clients to coordinate with their consultants that use it. I still have a lot to learn about the finer points of productivity, but as far as I can see right now any proficient ArchiCAD user would be very unhappy to switch.

Right off the top, unless I am missing something, you would be giving up the magic wand, pet pallet, find & select, interface customization, and trace & reference, and I find the snaps and constraints less intuitive and much less versatile (though this may change as I get more accustomed to them). Similar functions can be accomplished with thoughtful organization of the families and relationship settings, ie the Revit Way, but I find this more limiting than the wide range of practices that can be accommodated in ArchiCAD.

[Chazz]

Ignacio wrote:
And Graphisoft's market will expand quite a bit, from being a niche product for the 0.1% or whatever of the architectural market using BIM/Virtual Building, it will grow into a niche product for the 30% or 50% of the architectural market using BIM/Virtual Building...

Not surprisingly, I don't see it that way. My contention has always been that there are powerful network and platform forces at work here. Groups tend to follow market leaders in a winner-take-all way. This becomes all the more true where there are limited open standards for file formats etc.

There are no real competitors to MS Office (at least no shrink-wrapped applications) because everyone wants to use what everyone else is using. We don't really seem to want a bunch of application-independent document formats, so instead we have, as a group, decided on Acrobat and PDF (however, there used to lots of players in this space).

Apple is able to compete a little in the OS space because they make something that is perceived by many to be vastly superior. For all of their effort and innovation they get maybe 8% of the market. But Graphisoft is no Apple. For a while now ArchiCAD has been the exact opposite: buggy and hard to use. What 30%-50% wants to migrate to that?

[Laura Yanoviak]

Chazz wrote:
I tend to think that as goes California, so goes the rest of the country

I know many Californians that think the same way, and this is so absolutely wrong! Absurd!

We resently were contacted by a Revit reseller, asking us why we were still using AC when so many of their clients had switched from AC to Revit. I interpreted this as a flat-out lie. First of all, I know most of the AC firms here, and none of them have switched. And secondly: WHY?

[Erika Epstein]

Chazz wrote:
For a while now ArchiCAD has been the exact opposite: buggy and hard to use. What 30%-50% wants to migrate to that?

For all its bugs it is still wonderful. And do you know whether or not Revit and others aren't also that buggy? More to the point, when comparing software you compare what they can do.

Its been only a few days since my "vitriolic" outburst. Andor contacted me immediately with requests for files. I assume he did this with others as well. Tests I did for them this morning went GREAT. The point is their EXTREMELY FAST response. Do other software companies respond anywhere near this level?

[Anonymous]

46cruisair wrote:
Just a curiosity bug in my bonnet > is this info available from GS or other?

About statistics, you can browse this link each quarter.
http://download.graphisoft.com/ftp/investor/en/2007_q1.pdf
Go to page 7, Geographical breakdown of revenues.

Not a direct answer to your question, but may be instructive.