Archicad 10 is announced

[Greg Kmethy]

Dear Talkers,

You can read Graphisoft's announcement on Archicad 10 here:
http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/ac10/

[Chazz]

the wrote:
On Windows, it is possible to take advantage of the U3D file format.
U3D (“Universal 3D”) is a file format for 3D data. It is a
standardized three-dimensional data format with the purpose of
facilitating 3D data exchange among programs of various kinds.

and

ArchiCAD 10 is integrated into the Windows XP environment as
much as possible. Every button, pop up menu and other controls will
look and behave according to the standards of Windows XP; also, the
current Windows XP Theme settings will be automatically applied to
ArchiCAD.

Ok maybe the U3d thing is a technical glitch (although one that I thought was fixed a while ago. Mac users can view embedded U3D date in PDFs AFAIK).

But this XP STYLE thing is an outrage! Yeah, I know we all live in Bill's world and no, I'm not tying to fan the fames of platform war but does this sound like a good idea? Couldn't they have come up with something better? So much of XP is a copy of OSX (and a bad one) that it seems a poor choice to use it as your target for graphic excellence. Why not just go to the source and copy Aqua?

Is this a cross-platform app or something that's meant to look like a windows port?

The reason AC was first written for Macs is because GS saw that creative people were using that platform. This is still the case (maybe more so today. Certainly, there are stronger incentives for many creative pros today).

I design buildings. I need to care about aesthetics. Naturally, I notice and care about the look and functionality of stuff I use everyday and that's a big part of the reason I like/use OSX. Windows users rarely say XP is better looking, just that they don't put a premium on the visuals and want something cheaper/more compatible/more mainstream/blah blah blah.

So if the only decision is visual then why not emulate something that is visually stronger?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Chazz wrote:
But this XP STYLE thing is an outrage! Yeah, I know we all live in Bill's world and no, I'm not tying to fan the fames of platform war but does this sound like a good idea? Couldn't they have come up with something better? So much of XP is a copy of OSX (and a bad one) that it seems a poor choice to use it as your target for graphic excellence. Why not just go to the source and copy Aqua?
...
So if the only decision is visual then why not emulate something that is visually stronger?

Chazz, dude... you're not sounding like a mellow Santa Cruz kind of guy! 😉

On Macs, we expect applications to look like Mac applications. On XP, we expect them to look like XP apps, which follow changes in the 'appearance' settings of Display Properties.

The quote from the PDF indicates that 10 does that now. That is complying with Windows standards. To have the XP version mimic another interface/appearance, however superior, would result in an application that does not match the other apps on the platform.

This improvment in standards-compliance of AC 10 on XP has no affect on the performance or appearance on Mac OS X. So, as a Mac user, why are you outraged at what the XP users will experience?

Cheers,
Karl

[TomWaltz]

Karl wrote:
This improvment in standards-compliance of AC 10 on XP has no affect on the performance or appearance on Mac OS X. So, as a Mac user, why are you outraged at what the XP users will experience?

Cheers,
Karl

Because he's the "Nattering Nabob of Negativity"?

[godi]

As a Mac user I don't like the more and more Windoze appearance of Archicad

Why we can't have our (much nize) icons and (much better) navigation ways?

Is so difficult to understand?

[Chazz]

Karl wrote:
This improvment in standards-compliance of AC 10 on XP has no affect on the performance or appearance on Mac OS X....

Oh, but were it so.

Look, I got the memo on the "'appearance' settings of Display Properties" but I don't think you (or even those without Ph.D's in this stuff) could cogently assert that AC is not becoming more and more windozey with each release. How long AC been compatible with OSX? -- and still there is no support for any of the stuff that makes OSX such a nice place to do business (sheets, core imaging, transparency, font book, system-wide spelling, blah blah blah). It looks windozey and it smells windozey and it makes me feel tainted. Even here in laid back Santa Cruz.

[TomWaltz]

Chazz wrote:
Look, I got the memo on the "'appearance' settings of Display Properties" but I don't think you (or even those without Ph.D's in this stuff) could cogently assert that AC is not becoming more and more windozey with each release. How long AC been compatible with OSX? -- and still there is no support for any of the stuff that makes OSX such a nice place to do business (sheets, core imaging, transparency, font book, system-wide spelling, blah blah blah). It looks windozey and it smells windozey and it makes me feel tainted. .

Call me crazy, but I don't think Archicad looks "Windows-Y" at all.

Granted, Archicad does not tie in to Mac Services the way I would like, but I cannot say it has much bearing on my day, either. I think part of the problem is that it's still a Carbon app running as much legacy code as they can get away with since GS does not have the resources to update the code the way it needs to be to take advantage of newer features (since, say, OS 10.0).... the same limited resources that I'm theorizing are holding up the Universal Binary as well.

[godi]

Every new ArchiCAD since the first window version, is more powerfull but less intuitive and more difficult to use and learn.

You, windows users, are so used to this, the complicated way, that don't see the easy, funny and more productive other one, the mac way 🙂

[Anonymous]

What you guys are talking about? Every mature software that is evolving unfortunatenly is becoming more and more complicated. That is the nature of the Beast. If you want more options, you need to put them somewhere. It makes menus grow, that means more things to learn, remember etc.
On the other hand AC was born on MAC it is much more MAC than ex. AutoCAD. How much more MAC it could be? More fancy, big icons buttons, animations etc, much bigger screen you need to work properly. And definitely I'm not missing floating toolbars. The way it is right now looks good.

[__archiben]

Chazz wrote:
this XP STYLE thing is an outrage!

chazz mate! when i first read that on the feature list (many months ago now) i was a little shocked too. but after calming down and looking at it properly all it means is that the windows version has been integrated more fully into the XP aesthetic environment. the mac OS version already has been integrated into OSX's 'environment' . . . albeit the carbon one not the preferred cocoa one.

take a chill pill fella

~/archiben

[Rob]

Every new ArchiCAD since the first window version, is more powerfull but less intuitive and more difficult to use and learn.

this is not a problem of the UI mate...as Miki suggested...

Now, I do not understand you guys on Mac platform... you sound like you had that cringe about anything that is not using mac gadgets and even on different platforms. I've got nothing against macs but I am more efficient on win platform and vice versa for someone else but when I am working on any particular platform I WANT TO USE NATIVE SYSTEM RESOURCES. Mimicking features (and especially graphic ones) of other platforms is a ridiculous idea...