Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

whats the deal with the new version?

Anonymous
Not applicable
This is just a general comment on the new version.


I just do not get Graphisoft. It seems they release a new version every 9 months or as soon as I get used to the last one. Instead of releasing a new version with new features (with bugs) and the older features from the last version now fixed, wouldn't it be better to release a new version with features that work properly?

Also the new interface is too complicated. Too many menus and such. Many of the menu commands have been moved to different places and there are too many "options/preferences" commands in the menus. Objects now have too many drop down command boxes as well. Everything seems poorly laid out and organized as well. This eats into my time when I am working, because I have to find commands AGAIN when I knew where they were before. But now because some of them are in different places, it is much more of a pain and time consuming.

I would have sent this direct to Graphisoft product development instead of bothering the people on this message board, but I couldn't find a feedback form (either there is not one or there website is a mess like their program)

Thanks.
21 REPLIES 21
TomWaltz
Participant
Personally, I saw a HUGE improvement in both productivity and user ability to learn in Archicad 10.

Of course, I cheated.

I re-made almost the entire workspace. I took the best of what GS had to offer with their default AC10 and combined it with what worked well in AC9.

I thought it was a shame GS tried to redesign the entire workspace in one shot because the upgrade was mostly good otherwise.
Tom Waltz
Anonymous
Not applicable
Tom Waltz wrote:
I re-made almost the entire workspace. I took the best of what GS had to offer with their default AC10 and combined it with what worked well in AC9.


Sory for maybe asking a stupid question. Could personal preferences be exported? If yes could you post it?. Im afraid to jump to 10 because of these horror stories. If I can preserve the workspsace Im used to in 9 in 10, I might make the jump.
TomWaltz
Participant
You could, but it's not a good idea. The Archicad 9 workspace would have absolutely none of the new commands in Archicad 10. You would manually have to hunt them down and add them.

I took the long and painful route, modifying an AC10 Workspace that i found tolerable into what I wanted. I say "long and painful", but it was probably only an afternoon....
Tom Waltz
KeesW wrote:
Come on, guys, give the new interface a go! They can't keep everything the same to please those who got used to version 4.5! I initially felt the same as you and used the version 9 interface. In the last few weeks, since attending an upgrade training course, I've started to use the new interface and I think that I'm starting to like it. Still can't find a few thing though but that wiill change.


I agree. Migration has been a bit dicey, and I've definitely lost sleep over it, but overall I believe it has been worth it. AC10 is a significant upgrade, and I can only assume that the more powerful the new features, the greater likelihood for bugs (not that I'm happy about it, still holding my breath waiting for the next hotfix). We've got more control than ever, so of course the interface has gotten a bit more complex -- such is the price of progress...
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
Rod Jurich
Contributor
Wendy wrote:
What's "WE"

Wendy
Ckeck your PM.
Picture 2.png
Rod Jurich
AC4.55 - AC14 INT (4204) |  | OBJECTiVE |
Anonymous
Not applicable
I can't afford to upgrade to 10... not the cost of the program... it's just i'm too flat out and busy for anything to go wrong now...

Last thing i need is to learn the Program Again weather it's a large or small learning curve... why couldn't they keep it the same and just add new features and bug fixes. They should just have attempted to fix plotmaker so that i matched commands with archicad.

i will upgrade later when the program has been bug fixed etc and i have time to learn it.
stefan
Advisor
Well, I'm pretty satisfied with the new interface. It's been cleaned up tremendously since release 8.x

It has finally become consistent and GS took the painful route of revising the whole interface, instead of glueing on some additional tools in a non-adapted GUI.

It takes a while, but when you do this 24/7 (I'm not) I assume you should be productive in less then a week. Seriously.

There were times I was working in VectorWorks throughout the day, on a Mac, and with ArchiCAD at home, on a PC. Switching GUI's and shortcuts all the time and it all went smooth.
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad28/Revit2024/Rhino8/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sequoia+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book
Anonymous
Not applicable
i agree stefan, but its annoying changing it again and again. Just when you are used to where smthg is, they change it.

v10 is a must upgrade (although i have complained for a myriad of missing stuff and i still insist on everything i said.)

I hope we will see a giant step soon.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Q: Consider a network.

What is the speed of regenerating a layout book in 10 when the layour is on a served compared to publishing pmks from a plc in 9.

I mean the time it takes to sent and receive changes from a plc pluss the time of updating the ppl in the server. Consider a 50 drawing project a 2 story comercial building 30.000 sq ft 100 MB plp. In 9 this takes 5 minutes with a 2GHZ dual G5.
Anonymous
Not applicable
after some time and effort.. now almost 7 wks since i posted my initial comment. i must say that the menus are still a pain. I am trying to find a door that meets to my senior designers specs (ie looks the same as his sketch). well since this firm is a "subscriber" we have every library back to 5 or so.. each one is just a hair different.. i play with the parameters but nothing matches. every one i try has at least one parameter missing that I need. the main problem is that it is still this stupid interface. for example: sometimes two places where materials are found in addition to the 3D drop down, what is up with that? and the separate box for plan and section, in ADDITION to the 2d presentation box in parameters. and because every library is a hair different, therefore the parameters and drop down menus can be different also. GOSH. i just love how ADOBE does a great job on their updates, not messing with the classic feel of the program only adding new features.

however. i liked that feature in library 8 where you had a picture of the door, handle, etc but that now seems to have disappeared in favor of the old method of a drop down with styles 1-8 (and is some cases up to 20 or more). little things like that hamper productivity as well as nativegating through the new improved interface.

the main problem is things are so scattered around it takes afew extra moments to locate. or at least in my version i have set up, the new library has something like 5 folders to click through to get to the objects. this may or may not be something that is avoidable but i have tons of stuff to do and spending an afternoon to configure my interface like that guy below is not something i want to do. i have work and a family and at the end of the day i am at home not a the office trying to fix things GS should have taken care of before shipping. here is a bit of interesting info-i believe the technical drawers here at my firm are still using 9, even though we had the "big update course" a few months ago and they know ALOT more about archicad than I do.

and some of you may have adapted easier than me, it certainly isnt because of lack of whatever you might think.. i am able to use all sorts of programs like AUTOCAD from R14 to now, 3Dviz, maya, as well as modular audio programs like MAXmsp, LogicAUDIO, Reaktor, and pureDATA. some of which the learning curve is VERY high. so in my opinion , this is more a matter of gs releasing new versions quicker to get more money, before the version is fully 100% ready for the public. it is like they have a bunch of sucker beta testers shelling out big money (as I am not the one who pays the bills here, I dont have much of an idea as to the cost of archicad only that it used to be in the ball park of a few thousand euros and mulitply that by how many licenses) for an inferior product and something people used to get for free (as beta testers). GIVE a BIG hurrah for capitalism!