There was a time, back in 1992, when an architect could sit down with ArchiCAD and draw a building, just like that. It was a lovely melody - a love song. Graphisoft had turned architecture into a video game. The tools WERE intuitive and basic.
Fifteen years later, this fluidity has been passed on to Sketchup.
ArchiCAD has CEASED to be an "intuitive" program. By employing more-and-more functionality, the commands become increasingly cryptic, and any productivity strategy more abstract. No more singing "yummy yummy yummy, I got love in my tummy."
It's "Volga boatmen" now.
This is why users are wasting their time fooling with the program without an afternoon of study of the cryptic basics. ArchiCAD might be getting close to how architects work, but the diffusion of tool functionality and the relationships (like grouping) that can be inadvertently created are barriers to simple functionality.
It's a trick!
Dwight Atkinson
