Before going on i would like to point out that although i am for specialized plugins i am totally against resolving our basic needs to plugins. For example a plugin i own now cost 80$ just for its AC11 version with no new features. Just a recompilation! Imaging having multiple licences and multiple plugins.
And that is for superbasic stuff.
Lets get now to how i use archicad
1) Site construction and handling. GRADE: 0/10
This is totally absent in archicad and its an essential part in EVERY project.
Although cigraphs plugin tryies (and does help) to fill the gap such a complex part of the project needs internal access to the program and not just an API set.
2) Construction
a) Footing: With the new profiler the footing drawing is easy. It could be more parametric out of the box although GRADE: 8/10
b) Columns: With v10 i use polygonal walls (for shear walls) the span multiple stories. That way when editing a column the edit spans multiple stores. GRADE 8/10
c) Walls: In a project i have to types of walls. Walls that have above them beams and those that dont have. The main problem with walls is to coordinate when editing walls and beams. When multiple editing is involved there is too much trouble. Free form walls are also a problem. Turning of noncore parts of composite walls is also a sever handicap . GRADE 7/10
d) Beams: Basic problem is coordinating with walls. ALso curved in 3D GRADE 7/10
e) Slabs: Mostly ok. Basic problem assingning material to each face. GRADE 8/10
f) Roofs : For simple roofs its perfectly ok. For complex stuff
. GRADE 7/10g) Freeform: Hmmm. Just the profiler and some paths. Use gdl. And SEO. All very hard to combine and use and EDIT. GRADE 3/10
h) OuterSkin of building: I have a lot of trouble on that stage. If you dont create an exterior coat for your building you get all sorts of lines in elevations AND rendering. I use a pluging that creates an accesory for that part and although it does the job its too heavy. GRADE 4/10
j) Material Handling: This is from the stone age. Just to change all references of material A to material B its trouble GRADE 3/10
3) Annotations
Except dimentioning and text annotation i really think there is a need for a keynote system. GRADE 7/10
4) Other engineering stages.
Unfortunatelly we have no plugins for later stages so we basically have to draw them in 2d with the main drawback that we dont have infos in the BIM database.
The new worksheet strategy makes it easy to insert (in 2d) drawing from parteners that use 2d drawing but does not make the step to help me when tracing those elements to provide the bim model with more relevant data except from 2d lines
So no calculations for reinforcement for example
GRADE 0/10
5)Calculations
You can already do a lot of things with the current program. The problem is that not many people are familiar with property gdls which are really powerfull. There is a lot of ground for improvement here AND of course the estimating part that is totally missing GRADE 6/10
This is the big picture for me.
I could create a huge wish list per situation but this is not the reason i did this post. Its because i hope everyone could discuss the SUPER BASIC stuff that he finds missing from archicad
Still looking?
