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2024 Technology Preview Program

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Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

ArchiCad openGL in every view.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Full Open GL in every view. Graphisoft might be heading this way soon. I don't know. Archicad has had disabled options like hidden line view for open GL in the 3d window for some time. Things would surely work a lot faster if everything were done with open GL. No more regenerating sections and elevation etc.

The possibility would be to have two live views open at once (section/ floor plan etc.), and you could select a door in one view and it would highlight and move in all open views.

I'm working on a house renovation. As a test I set up some orthogonal open GL views of the model that corresponds to the sections/ elevations, roof plans, floor plans. It would be very fast if it were possible to work this way.

Add to that a new modeling and object making environment and we'd be in business. I know it easy to say.
11 REPLIES 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Floor Plan and openGL elevation
A little bit ambitious and overly-optimistic if you ask me.

Not that your sentiment for the wish is ill-intentioned or misguided; it's just that when you consider and look at the trajectory and progress of Graphisoft's development efforts on ArchiCAD for the last 4 versions and try to extrapolate, it just seems overwhelmingly unlikely that such a wish could be fulfilled.
Especially when you consider all the "progress" made in the most recent version in AC14.

That being said, it would be pretty sweet if the Section/Elevation Windows along with the Plan were able to have a somewhat simultaneous interactivity with the 3D windows. Much like Revit does it. But with Revit there's a price since that interactivity begins to noticeably slow down much faster and drag down performance, the bigger and more complex your model becomes compared to ArchiCAD's 3D window complex model handling.

There's another reason why I think this is highly unlikely; well 2 actually.
Firstly, when you mention that they've disabled hidden line view for OpenGL, I don't really think it's so much that GS has disabled it as much as it is that they simply can't do it, as a basic limitation of OpenGL rendering and implementation. The point being that OpenGL probably has a lot of limitations that would make it unsuitable for (if not outright incapable of) 2D Documentation, and Vector output. as you would have to do with Elevations and Sections.
Why else do you think that you can only do 3D documentation with the Internal Engine instead of with the vastly superior (quality-wise) OpenGL engine?


Secondly, 3D window model renderings (be it through OpenGL like in ArchiCAD or DirectX/Direct3D like in other software) is a direct function of one's GPU or graphics/video card and not their CPU. Your plans, sections, elevations, are all handled by your CPU, (which is why ArchiCAD saw so much performance improvement in those windows when it became multi-core capable in version 12). Graphics cards are specifically designed and built to handle that specific kind of workload, but not the kind of information and data that is handled by the CPU.

And I believe that in order to do what you are proposing or wishing for, Graphisoft would be forced to rely on the capabilities of GPU's and multiple GPU providers rather than being able to control the performance and quality on a more standardized and benchmarked platform like CPU's are.
This is despite the fact that GPUs these days are rather powerful (with even the possibility of multi-GPU PC's) and offer more in certain areas such as with Real-time renderers that are now becoming more and more fashionable and standardized.

It just seems like there would be a lot they would have to give up in terms of capabilities, versatility and performance to make Elevation/Section windows OpenGL (and consequently GPU-reliant) than GS are prepared to do, (or possibly capable of, at this point in time).

I know that Revit's capability of simultaneous interactivity in all windows (i.e. move one element in 3D and see it moving simultaneously in all windows, as opposed to waiting for regeneration and updates) is implemented through how their software is coded and their 3D display is Direct3D and not OpenGL, I believe.

So the implication for GS to achieve similar performance might have to be a complete re-write of ArchiCAD's source code and to overhaul their entire kernel - something, which, I believe it has become abundantly obvious in recent years, that they are either incapable of, or unwilling to do.

Sorry for going on too long and too much of the tech-talk, but I believe it ties into larger issues of ArchiCAD's overall development and roadplan for the future, especially as it relates to, or depends on Graphisoft's capabilities and decisions.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for your response. I have an older version of Revit that i have not used since version 6. I switched back to archicad at that point because it was more fluid in some ways.

I ultimately would like to see something as fluid as sketchup and yet have the documentation work flow that we need and am hoping that archicad will be the one to provide for that at some point. If they don't someone will.
Anonymous
Not applicable
ArchiCAD seems to be in no-mans land on this. It's either too interactive or not interactive enough. If you work with auto-rebuild elevations and sections you have to wait for the model to rebuild every time you move something or open a layout sheet or new section. If you work in manual rebuild mode you have to make sure you rebuild everything when publishing. It would be nice to have more control over the frequency of updates. I'd be happy to be able to open an elevation, make ten or twenty moves then sit back for a bit while everything updated.

Or, if all was updated continuously and seamlessly without ever waiting. That would be even better.
Anonymous
Not applicable
phubbell wrote:
It would be nice to have more control over the frequency of updates. I'd be happy to be able to open an elevation, make ten or twenty moves then sit back for a bit while everything updated.

Or, if all was updated continuously and seamlessly without ever waiting. That would be even better.
You can set elevations / sections to Autorebuild, but have "Update Auto Rebuild viewports continuously" turned OFF, so you make several changes in the view (without the waiting for continuous rebuilds) then do a manual rebuild when you're done. So it regenerates when you first open the Elevation / Section, but editing is quicker once you're there. This is the way I prefer to work. Views on layouts can also be set to be manually or automatically updated.

Never having to wait would be ideal, though.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Doh. Thanks. I thought I was saving time. I thought that by having this turned on, new windows would open up faster.
Anonymous
Not applicable
s2art wrote:
phubbell wrote:
It would be nice to have more control over the frequency of updates. I'd be happy to be able to open an elevation, make ten or twenty moves then sit back for a bit while everything updated.

Or, if all was updated continuously and seamlessly without ever waiting. That would be even better.
You can set elevations / sections to Autorebuild, but have "Update Auto Rebuild viewports continuously" turned OFF, so you make several changes in the view (without the waiting for continuous rebuilds) then do a manual rebuild when you're done.

Never having to wait would be ideal, though.
For those who haven't used this (Update Auto Rebuild viewports continuously) before, (as I hadn't), it took a bit to find:
Options>Work Environment>More Options
Anonymous
Not applicable
Glad I'm not the only one.
Anonymous
Not applicable
The auto update performance is very much CPU related. I used to turn it off to save the wait time and do manual updates when publishing but on my current machine (MacPro 2008 dual-quad core) the update lag is insignificant.