This is our chance...to bring Autodesk to their knees...

[ares997]

We have a very short window in time and space, and now we have more than enough ammunition to take down goliath. If you think about it...David brought down the giant with technology. It wasn't because he was necessarily smaller than the giant, but more inventive, better long reaching technology, an eye for understanding the means and methods for getting the job done in his current market. That is what Graphisoft has gave us yesterday, though it might not be in our hot little hands. We the Archicad Marines need to start making some frakin' noise out their.

This is the point at which we can sit in our cubicles and say, umm I'm not really sure if it is what I think it is...when it is more than you could have ever dream of.

Ironically enough Autodesk yesterday started to buckle, as well as said that they would be offering inventor as a free download, "no kidding."

Come on guys there should be at least a blog each from all you loyalist who have been here since the beginning. This is our house now go out and take the gorilla by the balls to take him out.

Even with AC12 and AC11 we were still way ahead of the curve and have always been, now let's start sending info to WIRED.COM, ENGADET.COM , USA TODAY, CNN, ETC. Graphisoft has put a lot into this release. Testing it throughly, making sure it works with Snow Leopard (which is why they delayed the release until yesterday, considering Snow Leopard was on Friday so that gives GS 30+ days to get it ready for the MAC kids out there.)

The Graphisoft Team has not only change the rules about what can be done in a yearly release cycle, they have change what will the future be for us.

Graphisoft's "biggest not-so-secret weapon is its staff of developers [who] focus enormous talent on a niche, which Westerners can't match."
Jonathan B. Levine, Business Week, USA

"It's passion, and a good deal of business sense, that helped turn Graphisoft into a global player."
The Wall Street Journal

We are a team based all over the world and need to act like one more now then ever.

This has happened a few times before
1. The cpu and drafting in a machine
2. Going 3d
3. Going Parametric + GDL
4. Going BIM
5. Going in with the DELTA SERVER

If you can imagine what this could mean even outside this industry it is far reaching.

Get out there and make some noise.

Please don't hesitate. We need to start scaring the investors of AUTODESK today and now we have our $5k keys ringing in their ears.

We have ECO designer, we have VBE, we have MEP, our company, our team has brought us the weapons within this year that dominates all other products out there.

Pull your fingers out of your ears and start emailing, witting blogs, witting your congressmen, telling your friends, telling your enemies that we are coming for them one seat at a time.

[Karl Ottenstein]

ares997 wrote:
Does anyone know the history of Graphisoft in the 80's or where I could find it?

There is a wonderful book by Gabor Bojar, the founder and still Board Chairman of Graphisoft:

The GRAPHI-story: Entrepreneurship in Hungary in the Twilight of Communism

Published in 2005, I don't know if the English version is available in any general channel. I and other beta testers for ArchiCAD 10 received signed copies as a very nice gift after that test period as part of our beta award.

It covers the very beginning - sneaking computers across the border, first versions of software, etc - all especially interesting to a Westerner to read of the hurdles that had to be gotten over under communist rule - through the IPO and to around 1998. There are numerous personal anecdotes, some involving people many of us have known and still are with Graphisoft, or have moved on to other things. Lots of photos. There are twists and turns in the path of the software and the firm and in its marketing which also make it a very interesting read.

I'm looking forward to the next volume ...or the revised edition that brings us up to date.

Karl

PS If anyone can read Hungarian, that version is listed here:
http://epiteszforum.hu/node/208
http://plaza.velvet.hu/product/konyv/gazdasag/kozgazdasag/bojar-gabor-graphi-sztori.html

[Anonymous]

ejrolon wrote:
AFAIK nobody except GS uses GDL, Revit has its own system based on editing pre-existing objects to create New Families.

This is an unfair oversimplification of Revit's workflow.

Just to clarify: generally to create a new parametric object in Revit, you start with a blank family template, and you model the object. Geometry becomes parametric when you merely add dimensions to the geometry: give the dimension a label (like Length or Width, etc.) and voila - parametrics! Even AutoCAD has tried to copy this functionality but it's nowhere near as user-friendly! You may also add material / texture parameters for rendering purposes, as well as textual data (fire rating, cost, etc.) Quite flexible, and not terribly difficult.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Just to clarify the clarification.

I was inferring that Revit's object creation workflow was easier than I wrote. Maybe it should have been:

"This is an unfair over complex-sification of Revit's workflow."

[owen]

Wes,

I've only had a brief look through the Revit Families Guide and have not dabbled in family creation in Revit. Are you able to edit Family object code directly or is it via the GUI only? (fairly certain this is the case) Do you think it would make a difference if you could do both - i.e are there some aspects of the GUI that are cumbersome and could be quicker/easier via code (or more powerful with complex parameter equations)

Notwithstanding the fact i have not actually used the family editor, it looks pretty user-friendly. Hopefully Graphisoft understands that this sort of feature for ArchiCAD (GUI+code creation of GDL objects) would be a really, really good thing - it would certainly eliminate all the complaining about how hard it is to make decent objects and the state of the ArchiCAD libraries if it were so easy. I think you would see a large amount of content created very quickly (some good, some bad as seems to be the case with Revit Families).

It just seems like such an obvious thing to do. I cannot think of many more important, useful features that could be implemented than this if done correctly.

[Karl Ottenstein]

metanoia wrote:
Geometry becomes parametric when you merely add dimensions to the geometry: give the dimension a label (like Length or Width, etc.) and voila - parametrics!

Sounds wonderful. We keep dreaming and hoping for something like that in AC.

Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:

metanoia wrote:
Geometry becomes parametric when you merely add dimensions to the geometry: give the dimension a label (like Length or Width, etc.) and voila - parametrics!

Sounds wonderful. We keep dreaming and hoping for something like that in AC.

Karl

We have that (sort of) now with the complex profile tool. It is very similar to the way Revit makes all family parts. It will be great when we can create a window/door/object in a profiler type environment (vertical stretch, horizontal stretch, etc.)

[owen]

outpostarc wrote:
We have that (sort of) now with the complex profile tool. It is very similar to the way Revit makes all family parts. It will be great when we can create a window/door/object in a profiler type environment (vertical stretch, horizontal stretch, etc.)

its pretty crippled parametrics though, all you can do is stretch a profile within two constraints to the wall/column/beam dimension. It would be great if you could define more complex wall profiles with parametric relationships between sub-components, etc

[Anonymous]

owen wrote:
Are you able to edit Family object code directly or is it via the GUI only? (fairly certain this is the case) Do you think it would make a difference if you could do both - i.e are there some aspects of the GUI that are cumbersome and could be quicker/easier via code (or more powerful with complex parameter equations)

It just seems like such an obvious thing to do. I cannot think of many more important, useful features that could be implemented than this if done correctly.

Editing any code (which is usually logic inside the families) is done while editing the family, which can be done at any time. I can for instance put error trapping into families so that the bottom pane of my window (which functions as a vent) will never be less than say 200mm in height, like this:

IF (BTM_VENT_HEIGHT > 200, BTM_VENT_HEIGHT, 200)

The IF statement checks to see if the bottom vent's height is greater than 200; IF it is, THEN BTM_VENT_HEIGHT can be its current value, ELSE it is set to 200. Most users don't go to that kind of trouble, though!

So you have the GUI for creating geometry and then you have the dialog for creating / editing / programming parameters, in every family. You have both...

[Karl Ottenstein]

owen wrote:
its pretty crippled parametrics though, all you can do is stretch a profile within two constraints to the wall/column/beam dimension.

I agree. And, of course, if the stretch zones are not set up properly, then the adjective is 'distort'.

I don't think I would use the word 'parametric' to describe complex profiles at all; certainly no comparison to what Wes describes.

Cheers,
Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

metanoia wrote:
IF (BTM_VENT_HEIGHT > 200, BTM_VENT_HEIGHT, 200)

Nice that it is the same syntax as Excel's IIF, so that users do not have to learn anything new.

Cheers,
Karl