Archicad 24 released

[Laszlo Nagy]

Archicad 24 was released today in multiple languages, along with new versions of BIMcloud and BIMx. Please read the press release here:

https://graphisoft.com/contact-us/press-relations#/pressreleases/graphisoft-delivers-archicad-24-and...

Effective today, the International, US, UK and Ireland, German, Austrian, French, Italian, and Brazilian localized packages are available for download on the official download site:
https://www.graphisoft.com/resources-and-support/downloads

Along with the release, lots of new materials are available about Archicad 24. Here is a list for reference:

Archicad 24 microsite on graphisoft.com: http://www.graphisoft.com/solutions/products/whats-new
Archicad 24 Help Center articles: https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/?p=127166

Archicad New Feature Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnXY6vLUwlWXQHbH-NRf1_83sdzZNNYip

Archicad 24 Teaser:



Archicad User testimonials:



Archicad Teaser:



BIMcloud Teaser:



BIMx Teaser:



Integrated Design - The Power of ONE:



Integrated Design - Testimonials:



Meet the CEO of GRAPHISOFT:



GRAPHISOFT Career - Introduction by the CEO:



Meet Our Partners - Part 1:



Meet Our Partners - Part 2:



Meet Our Partners - Part 3:

[jl_lt]

Well, i dont know about you guys, but my mind is completely blown away. We can nitpick about details all we want (and of course we will!) but this is incredible

[Kristian Bursell]

jl_lt wrote:
Well, i dont know about you guys, but my mind is completely blown away. We can nitpick about details all we want (and of course we will!) but this is incredible

completely agree.
so glad to be an Archicad user

[Jp1138]

Well, I feel that for small firms there are not so much novelties. Python and Param-o are interesting, but more a long term thing. Mep integration instead of being a paying feature was a must. Maybe the new objects and textures are great, will see when our version comes out. Am I forgetting something? No new tools or mentions of fixing interface inconsistencies.

And the new integrations with Nemetschek products are understandable but worrying, as it seems to mark a departure from the openbim vision that Graphisoft has been defending until now.

[sedley]

A download link for the US version of Archicad would nice.
Only getting access to the Int. version.
Thanks

[Bricklyne Clarence]

Jp1138 wrote:
Well, I feel that for small firms there are not so much novelties. Python and Param-o are interesting, but more a long term thing. Mep integration instead of being a paying feature was a must. Maybe the new objects and textures are great, will see when our version comes out. Am I forgetting something? No new tools or mentions of fixing interface inconsistencies.

And the new integrations with Nemetschek products are understandable but worrying, as it seems to mark a departure from the openbim vision that Graphisoft has been defending until now.

Co-sign and I'll go even farther.
Yes, I'm going to be that guy, who's not going to join the inevitable chorus of congratulations and kudos but rather go the opposite way.
I don't post much here anymore since I was threatened with a ban for defending myself not so long ago, but I'll make this one exception to post again just for this after which, who knows, I may just get banned for sure this time because I'm going to be blunt.

As a WINDOWS Archicad user in a small firm (read: non "Key Client"-type, non-"Big name/Starchitect-type of firm) more focused on DESIGN, and ....with a separate workflow with our non-architecture discipline collaborators that doesn't depend on the type of integrated process that Graphisoft seem to be aiming for here (most of our non-Architecture AEC colleagues barely even use BIM at all),....this version release is not just disappointing but I would even go as far as say it's maddeningly infuriating.

Heck, 'disappointing' would be a vast improvement at this point from where I'm at. At least it would bring me back to base-level response to a new release.
When I saw the initial list of new features clips on the official ArchiCAD Youtube page, the disappointment did sink in as I went through feature after feature that almost seemed aimed at other AEC professionals rather than at the Architectural designer. Then after going away and letting it sink in a little and coming back to see the expanded list on the Graphisoft page, the anger then came.
Most of the supposed Architecture-related new feature improvements don't even seem to be developed by Graphisoft themselves and are more third-party products and the few that are almost seem like their flipping those of us in the categories I lined out above, the bird.
How you justify talking about Dark theme as a new feature, and then using the very reasons that a lot of WINDOWS-based Archicad users laid out for wanting it, as to why it was included ....... - only to reveal that it's only for MacOS users - is utterly beyond me.

It's almost like saying that ArchiCAD now has multi-monitor support.......but only for MacOS user.
Oh wait....
Bad example.
That actually is real.

But you get my point.
I thought we were past this sort of staggered new feature release that seemingly only favors one segment of the user-base while treating the rest (who are the majority and the actual revenue base for GS) like the red-headed step-child when we went through this whole song-and-dance years ago with the BIMx initial release only for iPad users.
I get that Graphisoft developers are big MacOS/Apple/Steve Jobs fanboys, but honestly this is just bad form and frankly speaking, unprofessional on so many levels, I feel. It's a minor and possibly even insignificant thing to nitpick, but really it's emblematic of the whole problem with Graphisoft approach to developing this tool these days and their tone-deafnes to the vast majority of their users (....the ones who don't matter to them anyway.
(*And to be honest, the dark theme wasn't even that high on my own personal list of things that they should be addressing. Like I said, I'll take the ability to user BOTH by HD 4k monitors to their full potential over any cosmetic changes graphisoft decide to make the the interface which hardly even takes into account user-input anyway)

My actual apathy towards the rest of their third-party/ non-core improvements (Param-O, Libray part maker, etc) stems from their own history with this sort of thing and this sort of development route they've taken in the past (Anyone recall Lightworks, Maxonform, et al?). I'm happy for the people that finally got Python scripting into ArchiCAD - it seems like a powerful tool and under different circumstances I'm sure it will be useful to those so inclined to programming, scripting and coding, but honestly there's an entire separate other thread elsewhere here outlining why people who are trained as visual-based designers might not be enthusiastic about having to learn how to code and script - especially in entirely different software - just to get the most out of the one they really use. So maybe let's not flog that dead horse,......again.

But just as an aside and as a brief example, I saw somewhere (on one of the demo videos I believe) where one of the "new features" touted was real-time rendering (in a different software, I might add.....Twinmotion), by which I assume they meant Raytracing in Twinmotion which,..... is a bit puzzling and mind-bogging if only because I seem to recall the developers of Twinmotion, Epic Games - whose current Twinmotion release available to ArchiCAD users does NOT have real-time (RTX) raytracing (despite the promise of it last year) - indicating that they do not expect to integrate or have that particular feature available or ready in Twinmotion anytime before late 2021.
Do you see what I mean?
Do you see why I can't be bothered to get excited about something that Graphisoft have ZERO control over - even while they choose to use it in their (some would say bait-and-switch) marketing?
And speaking of bait-and-switch and misleading marketing - we've also been through that one before.
Anyone who's used the software long enough to remember version 12 and the introduction of the Curtain Wall tool?
The signature building they used on the box cover, a shopping center in Budapest, I believe, that has a striking curtain wall that was supposedly made with the new tool.
Except that no one could figure out how they made the top double-curved corners using the CW tool. And it wasn't until later that someone revealed they used GDL coding to do all that. Not the curtain wall tool.
Even the CURRENT version of the Curtain wall tool still can't make that sort of form. And speaking of "current", the CURRENT version (v23) signature box-cover building's signature feature (the curvy-wavy roof) was made in an ENTIRELY different software altogether - with ArchiCAD'sonly contribution being the presence of a Rhino-ArchiCAD bridge - which, for the love of me, I can't figure how they got to cleanly import NURBS geometry without considerable degradation as they seem to have, as the current version we have seems to.
But I digress....

I'm sure there will be those that feel different about this version release - as is clearly evident upthread - and for them, I honestly am happy for them. Truly, I am.

I'm also certain there will be those that will be peeved by my less than enthusiastic response, and to them - especially the power-brokers that be that threaten banhammers and such- I would only ask that you see the frustration from out end as we shell the amounts of money we do and year after year get nothing but disappointment.

And to Graphisoft, Congratulations for the new release, I suppose. At least you got it out on time this time and we can only hope it's more stable.

It would be really nice just for once to get a version that improves on a lot of the problems, issues, shortcomings that many of us long been asking for and which can actually help us DESIGN better.

Sorry for the long rant.
I've said my piece.
I'll head back to hibernation and lurking and you may resume the obligatory showering of praise, kudos, congratulations and rose petals.

Feel free to disregard, delete or ban as your hearts desire.

[drh64]

Disappointed.
Small firm user for 14 years.
Now looking at other options.

[henryL]

Bricklyne wrote:

It would be really nice just for once to get a version that improves on a lot of the problems, issues, shortcomings that many of us long been asking for and which can actually help us DESIGN better.

I totally agree with that.
Adding new features and not fix/ renew the old tools and the whole software is shameful.

drh64 wrote:
Disappointed.
Small firm user for 14 years.
Now looking at other options.

Small firm of young architects here. Archicad users from the beginning 4 years ago. We are now afraid archicad will not fit our needs not even in the next 5 years. No site tools, no project versioning ...

From now on we will alway keep an eye on competitors software

I'm quite sad because today i will close my pc and I will think "maybe next year..."

[Anonymous]

I am good with version 22! I have been an ArchiCAD subscription user since version 8 and upgraded throughout the years with every new release. That was until version 23. Sure there were a couple of new neat features in 23, but not enough to make me say, "I got to have that!" I actually felt bad not upgrading to version 23 last year. (I even began to doubt my commitment to the tool.) I said to myself and others, "I will wait for version 24". Well here it is, one year later, and again, I am not inspired to upgrade. I sympathize with many of the earlier comments from frustrated users.

While I still feel that ArchiCAD is the best tool for architecture, I am just fine with version 22. Maybe version 25...

[jl_lt]

Mr. Clarence, i think many here understand and share your frustation, including me, as we have extensively discussed in the other long thread in the forum. But also, lets look at the bright side: I dont think anyone in that thread would have thought they would be including the python thing, or the Graphical User interphase for GDL scripting (Mr. Moonlight?), new and better educational programs, integrated MEP... and also releasing it the same day they announce it?? i mean, come on! its a lot of good stuff. A lot of the points discussed in that thread involve many of the things they are presenting in this version. The python API in particular will open up the possibilities exponentially for the code-inclined people (which of course, i am not), and i hope that scripts can be shared or bought (i want my automatic dimesioning tool really bad, the requirements of which i have already layed down in its appropiate thread, so if anyone out there can do one i would gladly pay for it).

So we dont have Ray tracing on twinmotion?? it will arrive! meanwhile, let us amaze at the marvel that even current twinmotion is. What took 4 days can be done in 2 hours now.

If they are able to expand the market share with all this they presented, then theyll have the will (and resourses) to fix many of the small problems we have mentioned. Now im pretty sure they are very aware of them. The important thing is to keep pressing up, so please Mr. Clarence dont be afraid of getting banned, as your posts have generated a lot of much needed discussion)

As for the small office vs big office mentality i have been seeing off lately in the forums, hope we can shake that off. There is no small project. Sometimes the smaller projects become more complex than a hundred floor building.