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Will ArchiCAD have a future?

Anonymous
Not applicable
the topic is a partly answer to Mac Pro or Vista for AC and driven by a pain i feel for years and yes, the topic is discussed over and over in this forum.

i don't understand what's the buzz here: "which from the top workstations would be better?"

NONE

i'm not with archicad from the very beginning, it think it was 6 or 6.5.
sure, every next version up to that point has been an improvement. like 7 to 8.1 or 8.1 to 10. anyway- every version was developed in name of TOOLS we use in managing the project- and here we see a small change in actual way how the architects think and create architecture (except for using software for creatting bubble-architecture, and even here the solution within ac is external- maxonform:). things have become better, but..
but i just don't see (am i blind?) that the ac has been developed in the means of hardware specs, thus giving room for these software tools to work smoothly and delivering top experience. macs & pcs has grown, emmm... SIGNIFICANTLY over last 8 years.
the marginal upgrade in tools isn't reflected in upgrade how ac works with your hardware. archaic code.
i just can't stand the attitude from GS here. i mean the lines "we have to revrite code. it's huge task". no doubt it is.
archicadwiki techsupport

• no multithreading
ok, they say it's "partly". why?
(..) ArchiCAD will not be a fully multi-threaded application at any time soon. This is partly because re-writing the ArchiCAD code to support multi-threading is a huge task, and there are areas where it would not cause a dramatic performance increase. Graphisoft will focus on the areas where multi-threading brings the most benefit.
thus you don't need octocore (or even quadro) mac pro "at any time soon", because it's a big job for them. (if i think that ac on 8 cores would use 1/8 of the resources available- ).
• max 4bg ram
well, and if more is in your system, it craches. you have to use the terminal to switch off the "unneeded" ram. ^£%^$£%$
• 32 bit
nuts
Transferring a 32-bit application to 64-bit requires reprogramming even the most basic functions in the software, therefore the change to 64-bit in business softwares will happen at a much slower pace than the rapid change from 32-bit processors to 64-bit processors in the Personal Computer (PC) industry.
so mainly they are basing the answer once again on excuse, that it requres recoding ac + on a bad market practise "aww, the other business software developers are also slow on this". sorry, but that doesn't apply to other apps i use, ie, c4d, maxwell. yes, they are a different profile, but- whatever harware resources i give them- it's been effectivelly used. and that's the reason they REALLY are top software solutions. and the argument that archicad has 100x more lines of code can't be an argument.

and with the upcoming ac11... they've spent another year on writing code which sooner or later must been rewritten. with the intoduction of windoze vista more and more consumers will upgrade to 64bit systems. mac users are there already (+leopard will also be a push to abandon old g4 boxes (multicore g5 pros are still more than great)).
graphisofts advertising and managment has been pretty good, but they now have to consider answers to "i got top vista pc/i got the new mac pro octocore, but my ac isn't getting faster".
they can choose to lie about ac beeing top level software.
they can choose to get more unsatisfied customers by telling true "yes, we have worked only on tools, forgetting about cpus, bits and rams".
they can choose to sit down and rewrite ac12 as multithreaded, 64 bit application, which would give them further enormous room for implementing top cpu&ram intensive tools. those who would still use 32bit computers will have their maximum ac11 version. if he GS says "we don't have that much programmers", then it's simple as it gets- AC DOESN'T HAVE FUTURE. it's a fact. like the latvian saying "ko nevar celt, to nevar nest"- you can't carry what you can't lift.

i hope someday new ac version wouldn't be a hotfix for the previous one.

i'm sorry if i touched some of GS staff personally. i understand that you work hard, but, in my opinion, only such critism would maybe produce not only thoughts about brighter future for all of us, but you will finaly sit down, say "ok, this is the point we stop. and open new page for starting to code the real future AC version. yes, we trash the 20 year old and so beloved code, but that's the only way we can do it". ACT, please, ACT NOW! and take your time, i can live with 32bit AC11 if you state that there will be ac12 after 1.5years costing more, because you had to pay more programmers. i will buy it and bring flowers.
78 REPLIES 78
Anonymous
Not applicable
florian wrote:
Did you ever experience an airline to admit that the departure delay is due to a defective engine that needs replacement??? Yikes!!!
No, they were "fixing the wing". But at least they fixed it.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I actually had delay based on some serious (over 7 hours) engine repair. It was transatlantic flight and I was wondering If I should actually get on that plain. But it turned out - everything was OK.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Miki wrote:
I actually had delay based on some serious (over 7 hours) engine repair. It was transatlantic flight and I was wondering If I should actually get on that plain. But it turned out - everything was OK.
I would much rather they fix it than not.
florian wrote:
I remember that in the early 90's I would pester the Graphisoft people at every annual ACS-fair in Frankfurt, Germany why AC would not have any filter tools. Their response was "Who needs that anyway?"
I remember GS taking the Hawaii users' group to dinner in the early 90's and getting the same response when we requested the ability to manipulate elements in the S/E and 3D Windows...
MacBook Pro Apple M2 Max, 96 GB of RAM
AC27 US (5003) on Mac OS Ventura 13.6.2
Started on AC4.0 in 91/92/93; full-time user since AC8.1 in 2004
Anonymous
Not applicable
ac12 and multiprocessor support? the developers are reading this forum actually, aren't they?
Anonymous
Not applicable
krokoO wrote:
ac12 and multiprocessor support? the developers are reading this forum actually, aren't they?
So with multi-processor support now, will 64-bit be the next step? (AC13)
Anonymous
Not applicable
LINZ wrote:
So with multi-processor support now, will 64-bit be the next step? (AC13)
I hope so . The main slogan - ArchiCAD 12 - Accelerating the Design Experience and the very detailed "flagman" of the new features - Speed shows that Graphisoft has really felt that this is the most urgent issue to solve for further development of AC, for keeping the current users group and being attractive to new one. Guessing that more and more users became frustrated with the speed issue. Funny it conflicts with their previous statements "only rendering will benefit from multithreading etc"- now they've even included detailed points- that layouts are faster, model generation, sections etc.
Anyways, it's good they're on the track. Thank You, Graphisoft.

Just making a sticky note for those again asking "which from the top workstations would be better?"- the computer to get the maximum out from AC now is first generation CoreDuo (if talking about Intel) processor (it's 32bit, Core2Duo is 64, but you don't need that) and max 4GB RAM. Above that it's still overkill for AC.
Anonymous
Not applicable
krokoO wrote:

Just making a sticky note for those again asking "which from the top workstations would be better?"- the computer to get the maximum out from AC now is first generation CoreDuo (if talking about Intel) processor (it's 32bit, Core2Duo is 64, but you don't need that) and max 4GB RAM. Above that it's still overkill for AC.
I think AC12 will be able to use my FOUR cores... not just TWO.
Anonymous
Not applicable
LINZ wrote:
I think AC12 will be able to use my FOUR cores... not just TWO.
It depends. The OS will split the task on the four cores. But we do not know yet (or maybe someone already does?) if AC can tage advantage of "all & full 4 cores"/ if multithreading within AC is optimized for dual cores only, no quadro, octo. I.e., if multithreading within AC is optimized only for dual cores- then graphical represenation would be [100]+[100]=200. 200 is FULL capacity. The maximum load AC will give on your 4 cores will still be 200, because it does not "recognize" your quadro processor. You will have only half-load on each core available capacity- [50]+[50]+[50]+[50]=200. I'm not That knowing about this techical staff, also it probly depends on what OS You're using. Maybe someone else could comment on this. Just wait first actual reviews on AC12 performance. 😉
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Yes, you will see 12 take full advantage of all cores at certain peak periods.

Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.7, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB