Have ArchiCad 14 yet? What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Mine has not come yet but I am interested in hearing people's reaction.

[Anonymous]

Got it a week or so ago. Just loaded it on my Mac yesterday.

Seems “zippier” but nothing to extra ordinary.

Modeled a home quickly with 14, to see if any of the commands I used most frequently were changed or updated. Nothing notable.

To me its neither a good or bad upgrade. IF, IF I didnt have the 3yr subscription I would not have upgraded.

[Anonymous]

No tremendous improvements. Shadows in Open GL are great to have, but they REALLY slow it down. The video on the GS web site got me all excited about it, but I just turn it off 95% of the time. Too bad.

One thing that is unsettling is that in 2D it's noticeably slower! Redraws of pop-up elements such as the text entry box fade on and off, creating a very annoying lag in work flow. I have to wait a couple of beats between every action. I'm used to operating very fast, at least in 2D, and this is bad.

I've tried adjusting my Redraw settings to no avail. I'm using a pretty new 17" MacBook Pro and 30" Apple Display. Moving from 12 to 13 last year I saw a slight responsiveness increase in 2D, but this year is a definite slowdown.

I've also had some anomalies in the doors and windows, with more difficulty than ever getting things to look the way I want. This might shake out with more use, but so far I'm not impressed, as I was expecting more improvements in the doors and windows.

We are heavy Teamwork users, but don't have any responses on that yet. INstallation on our server was fine.

Cadimage Tools have changed all their tools, so I had to buy updates there, too. They have "rebranded" their company and changed the names of some tools and parts. The changes are generally for the better name-wise, but this means that my old projects in AC13 that are coming into AC14 have to have those parts updated. There is an automatic updater, but it had some glitches, adding fills to parts where there shouldn't be, etc. I've lost almost a day fussing with all this, and have three support tickets in to Cadimage for things that just don't work still.

So far, AC14 gets a grade of D from this user (a former reseller from years ago, and active user since 1991 and v.4.02). Upgrades tot he left of the decimal point MUST be better than this.

Since the initiation of the subscription modality, GS has been resting on its laurels. When they were the only BIM in town and hoping to steal market share away from 2D CAD, they were aggressive with each upgrade. Now, with those 2D competitors in our 3D world, it's all the more important to stay ahead, but - for the most part - we're not much faster, don't have many more useful tools, and don't have better looking output (a particular sore point for me, where SketchUp has easily passed AC) than we had three or even five years ago.

[Anonymous]

I have just installed ac14 2 days ago ,and since i am a student , i just dont understand the real updated function with the AC13? now ,i just trying (attached:my english is not that good......)

[Karl Barker]

I am getting a similar feeling with 14 as well that it does not seem to be that much of a speed upgrade. and it appears that loading a file seems to take even longer than with 13.
Although currently I am using existing 13 files in 14 that have been moved across.

Also, shadows in 3D window.
Great, however hat use are they? Currently they are only static.
Some simple requests:
1. Make the shadows work when navigating the 3D window. we quite often take clients on a guided tour of their building within archicad directly.
2. easy way of turning shadows on and off.
3. And this one to me is the most important. The ability to adjust the time of day for the sun on a simple live slider bar. Have a look at Sketchup. they do it nicely. This way you can see live what happens during a day with the shadows instead of what only happens at one point in time.
Would be far more useful.

[Erich]

Karl wrote:
3. And this one to me is the most important. The ability to adjust the time of day for the sun on a simple live slider bar. Have a look at Sketchup. they do it nicely. This way you can see live what happens during a day with the shadows instead of what only happens at one point in time.
Would be far more useful.

Karl, you should make this one a wish. Perhaps if we had this, and some clients, I could get my boss to open the purse strings for an upgrade.

[Chazz]

Erick wrote:
No tremendous improvements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . we're not much faster, don't have many more useful tools, and don't have better looking output (a particular sore point for me, where SketchUp has easily passed AC) than we had three or even five years ago.

Ouch!

Folks, Erick only has 28 posts here but for old-timers like myself, he is a true Jedi Master. He was posting helpful, insightful comments on previous AC talk forums while most of you were still in diapers.

Which makes these harsh words all the more stinging. Unfortunately I agree with all of them. AC does not need a few tweaks here or there, it need a complete rethinking.

I never would have even ordered it were I not on subscription (and in fact tried to get out of my subscription arguing that GS had failed to deliver a true upgrade).




[SUBSCRIPTION RANT] The subscription model creates a serious disconnect between the quality of the releases and the revenues they generate. In fact, subscription is the absolute death knell of innovation. If the developers know that they need to do great work or no one will buy or upgrade their product, that is a very effective feedback loop. If it’s good they eat, if it’s crap, they go hungry. The way it is now, they’re mostly just leveraging the fact that 1) Subscription makes it harder to switch and 2) AutoDesk is almost as bad. Talk about a lame business model.

So why subscribe? Well, for the cost savings of course! But this whole argument of cost savings is completely contrived. Before subscription was implemented (as a “voluntary choice”), upgrades were $400 or $500 (here in the USA). After subscription was implemented, upgrades are twice that (unless you are on subscription). It’s like the store that sells everything at twice the price but perpetually has 1/2 off sales. The perception of savings is completely artificial. It's infantilizing. [/END SUBSCRIPTION RANT]

[Anonymous]

Chazz, thanks for the generous words. I guess I've been too wrapped up in architecture to post much over the years...but now that I have to wait 5 minutes every time I open a TeamWorks model since it's "Checking Libraries" (huh?) then telling me that the "Library Update" failed (and please GS, match error message terminology to the status message terminology), I've finally got time post!

One problem I'm seeing with 14.0 feels like memory management. After working on a big (330 MB) file for a while, I started having trouble with the marquee tool: I'd click the first node, drag my cursor, and see no box. But when I clicked again it was drawn. I then started having trouble selecting things - it was if the objects just were not there. Then the minimize, maximize, and close dots in my plan window were empty rather than red, yellow, and green dots. I promptly save, quit, and restarted AC. But the next time these behaviors started I crashed. The selection problem happened to someone else in my office, too. In my experience, incremental weirdness after working on a file for a while usually means poor memory management by the software.

I have a little game I play: I have a pair of potential indicators that I've been looking for for a while, which I think will show that GS has really gotten under the hood and cleaned things up (alright, I've got about 27 of them, but here are two good ones):

1. Window management. I don't know about the Windows side, but on the Mac AC doesn't play friendly with other software. See attachment, where the Manage BIM Server Libraries window is on top of Safari...but Safari is active. AC didn't give way as it should. When AC files are opened, the initial prompts 'jump' in front of other applications in a way no other complying software does.

2. GS Bug Reporter, or, "What, is this 1992?" Although some new panels were added to the bug reporter with 14 (I unfortunately found out the first day), the text entry is still one long line, with no text wrap. Unlike in this forum, you can't then read what you wrote, edit easily, etc.

The reason these are good indicators is that they are not mission-critical items. They are messiness issues. But if they are fixed, it indicates that GS is really getting in there and looking closely. In the mean time, join me in what I do: Every time I crash I send a report to GS, and in my long single line of text I mention the wonky text entry and sometimes one other problem. I've got no indication that anyone is paying attention to these so far, since these have been issues for many versions of AC, and it makes me wonder the degree to which they are paying attention to the problems underlying the crashes.

Oh...my file just opened. Off to work.

[Anonymous]

I am an Archicad subscriber, just received AC 14 last week, installed it but not had a chance to work with it yet. Scrolling thru the posts sounds like ground hog day. The same frustrations on every release. A/C 13 was appalling the library parts, pens setting did not match correct en settings, some objects defaulted to pen 8 (0. in australia. Constantly adjusting the pens. Not good.

What should be done to get archicad as a true cutting edge BIM software.

1- allot of the objects are hardly used library parts should be purged/ adjusted to suite country of release.

2- I believe archicad should take a more aggressive approach and buy cigraph, cadimage and incorporate these tools into archicad make A/C more productive.

3-Simple massing tool (sketch up or similar) not available with in A/C. Available in revit (amazing!!)

4-Rendering tool how does it compare with revit, again artlantis engine should have been incorporated into the software at least since V 8.0.

4- ability to "flatten" the model so it can be directly exported as 2d planes to laser cutter this will allow, to easily make physical models.

5- Free form modeling scripting, "digital architecture" is the norm in allot australian universities. Easier export into STL file (rapid protyping).

6-I also beleive it was a missed opportunity in not puchasing ecotect (autodesk win).

Archicad might be the better product compared to Revit, but the perception of the profession in Darwin is opposite.

Wake up graphisoft! the tortois (revit) is walking past you!!

Edward

A/C 13/14 Windows 7 and Mac (snow leopard)

[Anonymous]

I've played with the New ArchiCad 14 for a few days and my advice so far is: DO NOT UPGRADE.
It is awful at best. I have never had ArchiCAD crash so many times ever. (and I've been using it since the days of version 4.)

- If you use other windows and doors than the ArchiCAD ones the schedules crash the software. Therefore: NO GOOD.
- The fonts have been revamped and our old fonts have disappeared. Therefore: NO GOOD.
- The Library Manager shows all kind of duplicates, true and not true (!!!) For finding what the duplicate files are you have to open three more windows (OK just two windows but you have to navigate the second one.) Just to find out that ArchiCAD was wrong and that there are no duplicates. Therefore: NO GOOD.

And I am afraid to look into the objects settings.
It's best to wait for 15.

[Anonymous]

Like many here, without the subscription I would not have upgraded. In 17 years, this is the first upgrade that has nothing useful to me at all.

For the first time ever, I'm questioning whether ArchiCAD is the best tool for me.