Archicad Marketing

[KeesW]

What a disappointment. Went to the annual RAIA conference and associated design exhibition in Sydney a few weeks ago. It is the largest building product exhibition in Australia. Autocad and Revit were prominant but guess who was missing? No prizes here - no ArchiCad! Was chasing building material information on the net and came accross companies producing details for about 6 CAD packages - even for DataCad would you believe. But --you guessed it --- not ArchiCad.

I think Graphisoft is taking its users for granted. I like seeing my software of choice prominantly displayed and used in our industry. I don't like being reminded that Revit is probably as good and are trying much harder to get market share. When was the last time Graphisoft made an irresistable offer to entice other CAD users? When did they last make existing users an offer they couldn't refuse? Instead, those of us on a subscription in Aus get access to 'freebies' that are mostly out of date, going back to version 6.5 that we can't even open!

But I am wasting my breath and indignation. Graphisoft is not interested. If I change to Revit (and I have considered it) it is because of Graphisoft's indifference to its competition, its complacency, and its habit of producing upgrades with ragged edges, that never quite work as promised.

[Djordje]

Wokka wrote:
Isn't this post about how poor the marketing is for ArchiCad is in Australia?

I'm with you Cornelius, I only signed up for the subsciption to get a reasonable upgrade cost spread over a year. The so-called freebies are useless! I suppose we should voice our displeasure directly to Graphisoft Australia.

Cheers guys

It should be how bad the Archicad, pardon, Graphisoft marketing is worldwide.

The fact that most of the architects have heard of Revit, 15 years Archicad's junior, tells enough. No, it's not so good to advertize itself, nothing is.

While Graphisoft Australia, South Pole, Ras Al Khaimah or wherever might be an independent company, your complaints on the same will definitely be forwarded by myself to the powers that be - and the powers also show up here, so you have their forum user names, right?

Locally, whine to the locals. Globally, whine to the HQ. Someone might hear the whining.

And then ... to quote an ex user from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at the times of the 6.5 launch: "Why would I tell others about Archicad? It is my advantage!"

[Anonymous]

PC, Mac, Can’t we all just get along?
Really, to me, it’s far more important to focus on the structural side of life, before the BIM.
You see, BIM is dead meat in the residential market. Almost no homeowner gives a hoot about BIM.
But they do care about form and function, or should I say function and form?
You see, if/when we have another big (even seven) seismic event,(correct term for earth-quake),
BIM won’t mean squat, or should I say feces?
There are NOT enough structural (Civil) engineers to keep us building, (have you actually read the
2007 CBC yet?). If not, your putting your head in the sand ladies and gentlemen.
Besides the horrible loss of life and limb, what little is left in the new code for us to design without
structural or soils analysis is very, likely to go away. The process will virtually stop.
Translation, you won’t be able to make your bills!
So what’s the point? G.S. get structural for residential tightened up (core, code, braced wall line, etc, not a certification, just basic data.
for the ICC code family and life can be good. Marketing will be natural and easy.
Bier

[Anonymous]

I don’t know Bricklyne, who may be normally a level headed person,
(don’t we all get a little hot sometimes)?
But I second that Chazz is normally quite the intelligent and thoughtful
well informed individual and should be given some slack here.
Lets put the guns away boys.
Marketing before development is design before function.
Go Archicad!
Bier

[TomWaltz]

Bier wrote:
PC, Mac, Can’t we all just get along?
Really, to me, it’s far more important to focus on the structural side of life, before the BIM.
You see, BIM is dead meat in the residential market. Almost no homeowner gives a hoot about BIM.
But they do care about form and function, or should I say function and form?
You see, if/when we have another big (even seven) seismic event,(correct term for earth-quake),
BIM won’t mean squat, or should I say feces?

You mean owners don't like well-coordinated drawings that lead to a smoother construction process, more efficient structural analysis, or highly-energy efficient buildings that (some) BIM software helps you with?

Wow, I want clients like yours!

[Anonymous]

Tom. Please re-read, I think you missed my point about residential, (specifically what I do is remodels/additions).
And I was addressing structural, please re-read: (core-only), code, braced wall line, etc, not a certification, just basic data for the ICC code family.
If that doesn’t make for a smoother construction process, try getting what I wrote wrong and see what happens.
What was implied was, I consider it most important to get these right first, (horse before cart is all I meant).
High energy in residential is already handled by specialists in what is a section of our title 24 here in Calif
which takes up an entire 24x36” sheet.
Bier

[stefan]

Bier wrote:
Tom. Please re-read, [...]And I was addressing structural, please re-read: (core-only), code, braced wall line, etc, not a certification, just basic data for the ICC code family.[...]Bier

Bier,
FWIW, you are describing US-specific context and terms, which might not make sense for people outside. I have no clue what you mean by ICC, CBC etc...

Structural design and analysis is not performed the same in the whole world: architectural offices may do this in house or use external consultants. If you compare with Revit Structural, it has means to create the structural model, but speaks/links with external analysis software. While that might be a possible maintenance nightmare (keeping two or more software applications on speaking terms), it shows a reasonable approach to manage structural design: the BIM software can be the visual data manager (the input) for the external analysis (be it external software or external partners or both).

[Anonymous]

ICC stands for International Code Counsel.
IBC stands for International Building Code.
CBC stands for Calif. Building Code,
base document being the 2006 IBC
Almost (if not all) of the US is finally going
to one code, whose "base-document" is writen
by the ICC.
All this should help us keep the horse in front of
the cart in regards to Cad software, at least here
in the US.
Hope that helps.
Bier

[Anonymous]

Revit has taken several years to get itself into a position where it is now being taken seriously. Revit, while it was a venture capital company, made all kinds of noise and no one really took them seriously. Back then, you never owned the software; you leased seats on a monthly, as-needed basis (you needed a live internet connection to keep the licenses going each month!!) I didn't take Revit seriously until I could own it, and until it had enough features to handle the projects I was working on (this was 2002).

Revit didn't really become a viable solution for larger companies until 8.1, which came out less than three years ago. Even with the 2009 release there are tools that have just been added that address some of the limitations of Revit's file linking capabilities.

But Autodesk has been beating the Revit drum hard since 2002. Plus, they have a sales channel open to millions of AutoCAD users. If they found it hard getting their OWN users to switch to Revit, how much HARDER must Nemetschek work to get people interested in using ArchiCAD? That AC was missing in action (or missing in inaction) at a major national architectural conference is unbelievable.

AC needs more headspace with architects -- marketing it is not an option; it is a requirement. And they WILL lose marketshare to Autodesk unless they get very aggressive, and now would be the time to start doing that.

[Anonymous]

i wish they'd hurry up...the revit bug has bitten in our town and BIM has gone from unknown to a commonly used (but not always correctly used) term...

we made the decision to go with archicad a little over a year ago, and it's hard to explain why to members of our firm who look at the local community college and can take revit classes at night after work...but we can only offer...a self paced dvd? random (but appreciated) consultants that we have to import from other countries?

- where is the student version?

- where are they at conferences?

- why aren't they sponsoring architectural events?

three reasons why autodesk is pummeling them here in the states.

*sigh* i wish they'd get on it...i'm so sick of fighting over the decision...

[stefan]

FWIW, the student version is available, free. Students register for one year. This started with ArchiCAD 10. It displays a banner (so does AutoCAD), but is compatible with the full version (e.g. libraries, plug-ins).

They can improve, but it is not that they do nothing. But Autodesk is much more aggressive. This is also helped by the very large community of user fora and blogs, which cover every single feature in AutoCAD. When 2009 was released, several blogs covered it in multiple posts. Compare that to the only small bunch of ArchiCAD related postings.

I have used ArchiCAD starting with 6.0 (actually the 5.x demo version), when Revit and even ADT was not available in our country. But the moment Revit arrived, they created a lot of noise. And Autodesk has only increased the noise. But I have to admit that, as a product, Revit is really tempting. Even when being experienced with ArchiCAD.