I have once made a small poll (with open answers) in 2013 on Facebook to ArchiCAD users about those same issues to spanish speaking users, with the following results:
43.2% Saw that many potential users and offices had a (historic) conformism with AutoCAD.
20.5% The lack of ArchiCAD publicity
13.6% Difficulty of finding high well trained ArchiCAD users.
6.8% The lack real case scenarios tutorials that can be applied to real project.
4.5% Have experienced that other program users had the erroneous idea that the orders for managing AutoCAD and Revit would be similar.
11.4% for other reasons.
But after maintaining little chit chats with many members I got those conclusions:
1. Many older generations (specially those in high positions that make the purchase orders) do not really know what is BIM, nor its advantages on the productive level, and they would repeat the same mantra that they have already read or heard from their surrounding.
2. There isn't a sufficient number of BIM managers that can act as direct ArchiCAD evangelists in different firms and offices even when ArchiCAD is their best option.
3.Their is no standardized official definition for the BIM manager term, as any company can give courses on their program suites and give them a certificate at the end of the course.
4.There isn't a sufficient number of examples of how to handle big project (either in size or complexity) in ArchiCAD. And although this aspect have improved in the few last years, I still see that the examples are deficient.
5.Office firms will always ask themselves these questions, is their is a sufficient number of ArchiCAD users with a desired minimum degree of proficiency that I can get them easily, and the answer in many of the cases is No, and not if you compare it to its direct competitor.
6.And this is the most stupid excuse I have ever heard, but I have heard it more than once in many places, since ArchiCAD had the "CAD", then it's CAD not a BIM.
Beside my personal experiences:
1. There are two cases that must handled with a special treatment:
1.a. Some of those that make the purchasing orders were not and will never be closely related to AEC professionals, so I have my doubt if they will ever consider ArchiCAD as they tend to choose the safest route, and go with the flow (for obvious reasons).
1.b. Many of those positions that have the ability to place a purchasing order, have been disconnected from day to day tasks of modelling/drafting work, and those tend to make decisions based on the information from their trusted sources ... for instance I had experienced a firm that was in the process transition from CAD to BIM, and when even though I offered and pushed forward ArchiCAD for practical reasons (and obvious ones), as it was already the suite that suited them best in more than 95% of all the cases for their their style of work.
If you want to start breaking that tendency:
1. Introduce ArchiCAD actively in universities, school and collages, make ArchiCAD professionals go their and give ArchiCAD classes for free, and have a hotline so that when those student suffer a set back (due to their lack of experience with the program) they will always know who to call.
2. Introduce ArchiCAD licences at governments agencies, so that ArchiCAD users can delivery their projects in ArchiCAD native file types, something similar to the approach that is being applied in Singapore.
link to the poll results:https://www.facebook.com/groups/archicad.es/search/?query=nader%20belal&epa=SEARCH_BOX
43.2% Saw that many potential users and offices had a (historic) conformism with AutoCAD.
20.5% The lack of ArchiCAD publicity
13.6% Difficulty of finding high well trained ArchiCAD users.
6.8% The lack real case scenarios tutorials that can be applied to real project.
4.5% Have experienced that other program users had the erroneous idea that the orders for managing AutoCAD and Revit would be similar.
11.4% for other reasons.
But after maintaining little chit chats with many members I got those conclusions:
1. Many older generations (specially those in high positions that make the purchase orders) do not really know what is BIM, nor its advantages on the productive level, and they would repeat the same mantra that they have already read or heard from their surrounding.
2. There isn't a sufficient number of BIM managers that can act as direct ArchiCAD evangelists in different firms and offices even when ArchiCAD is their best option.
3.Their is no standardized official definition for the BIM manager term, as any company can give courses on their program suites and give them a certificate at the end of the course.
4.There isn't a sufficient number of examples of how to handle big project (either in size or complexity) in ArchiCAD. And although this aspect have improved in the few last years, I still see that the examples are deficient.
5.Office firms will always ask themselves these questions, is their is a sufficient number of ArchiCAD users with a desired minimum degree of proficiency that I can get them easily, and the answer in many of the cases is No, and not if you compare it to its direct competitor.
6.And this is the most stupid excuse I have ever heard, but I have heard it more than once in many places, since ArchiCAD had the "CAD", then it's CAD not a BIM.
Beside my personal experiences:
1. There are two cases that must handled with a special treatment:
1.a. Some of those that make the purchasing orders were not and will never be closely related to AEC professionals, so I have my doubt if they will ever consider ArchiCAD as they tend to choose the safest route, and go with the flow (for obvious reasons).
1.b. Many of those positions that have the ability to place a purchasing order, have been disconnected from day to day tasks of modelling/drafting work, and those tend to make decisions based on the information from their trusted sources ... for instance I had experienced a firm that was in the process transition from CAD to BIM, and when even though I offered and pushed forward ArchiCAD for practical reasons (and obvious ones), as it was already the suite that suited them best in more than 95% of all the cases for their their style of work.
If you want to start breaking that tendency:
1. Introduce ArchiCAD actively in universities, school and collages, make ArchiCAD professionals go their and give ArchiCAD classes for free, and have a hotline so that when those student suffer a set back (due to their lack of experience with the program) they will always know who to call.
2. Introduce ArchiCAD licences at governments agencies, so that ArchiCAD users can delivery their projects in ArchiCAD native file types, something similar to the approach that is being applied in Singapore.
link to the poll results:
Still looking?
