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Archicad on the ipad PRO?

Thomas Holm
Booster
I just heard that Autocad is coming to the Ipad Pro.
When is Archicad?
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
10 REPLIES 10
DGSketcher
Legend
The iPAD Pro looks incredibly powerful and in light of the ongoing silence on iMac updates I'm wondering what the future holds...
Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)
Ralph Wessel
Mentor
Current pro Macs are fine. The biggest problem in the desktop space is any progress from Intel on processors. Apple can't change much if Intel doesn't give them something juicier to put under the bonnet. In the meantime, Apple is leaping way beyond Intel in the mobile space – the fact that they make their own processors in that context means they can take bigger strides forward. I do wonder if they'll abandon Intel in future.

There's no way Apple will diminish pro Mac lineup – they'd by cut off at the legs if developers didn't have cutting edge equipment to build applications on. And they've made it abundantly clear that iOS and macOS aren't merging.
Ralph Wessel BArch
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
As far as I know, Apple has already decided to move away from Intel processors and use their own processors very soon:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-02/apple-is-said-to-plan-move-from-intel-to-own-mac-...
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Thomas Holm
Booster
Now, I’m pretty much aware of the current apple rumors. My question was really aimed at Graphisoft’s plans.
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Ralph Wessel
Mentor
I was also taken aback by the speed at which the iPad handled complex Photoshop documents, and seeing AutoCAD running on it was about the last thing I expected. It does change my view of what the iPad is capable of, i.e. I can see a lot of scope for architectural application.
Ralph Wessel BArch
izo
Contributor
As an owner of ipad pro and ac, i would welcome this as nice addition, but in reality ipads and such are really just blown up (overpriced) smartphones. They're nice for sofa browsing, sketching (this is where they're rally good) etc, but for true pc/work usability, they really lacks good os (ios is really not good, since it doesn't have open file management), they doesn't have open inputs (last version of ipad pro have usb c, but it's not universal in/out, since you need additional dongles and hardware to really use it) etc. In this area, android is maybe little better, but they of coarse they "locked up" (aka aren't developing their apps for android) apps, that architects/designers mainly use (and which also sells ipads), to be aplle (ios) exclusive.
Thomas Holm
Booster
Izo, while I don’t agree to everything you say, I agree that ios today isn’t up to our needs. I bought a 2016 iPad Pro to test and found that it was fully equipped for a number of tasks, but we would have to change our workflow too much to make it worthwhile.
As we’re not programmers, we don’t really need an “open” file system. But we work in projects and have found that we get the simplest and most productive workflow by just storing everything related to a project - cad files, texts, photos, spreadsheets, whatever, regardless of apps of origin - in common project folders, often shared through Dropbox.
We need to be able to use that way of working on an iPad too, to make the most of it. I don’t care how it’s implemented, “open” or not, but the current workarounds (“files app” etc) are just too clumsy.
I hope Apple will do something about it in coming iterations of ios.
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Andy Thomson
Advisor
fwiw, I run archicad on an iPad, sort of. I have a Mac mini that connects to my iPad Pro via a hardware device called Luna display, but interestingly, both OSX operation of ArchiCad and iOS features of the touch screen are available on screen. However, BIMx type navigation in the 3D window is not possible, only point-clicking to select objects,etc. Apple Pencil also works to draw elements in 2D views. There is huge potential here if we could pinch zoom, single tap to select and white space tap to release,etc.
Andy Thomson, M.Arch, OAA, MRAIC
Director
Thomson Architecture, Inc.
Instructor/Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science
AC26/iMacPro/MPB Silicon M2Pro
I'm not really sure how or why anyone would want or be able to use ArchiCAD on an iPad (or any tablet for that matter).
It just seems to me to be two completely separate functions or set of tasks (designing, drafting and working on ArchiCAD on a desktop on the one hand, and the type of BIMx-type tablet presentation or minimal redlining documentation that you would do on a tablet on the other).

The closest I could imagine is the kind of digital hand sketching design function that one would do on a Wacom pad or tab screen that digital artists do which lines up with conceptual sketching that architects do (and is in fact available and even standard on most high level tablets nowadays from iPads to Surface Pro's), but as it stands the desktop version of ArchiCAD isn't even geared or engineered to either handle or facilitate that kind of workflow or functionality and until that point it almost seems like Graphisoft could be jumping or skipping a step in developing an ArchiCAD-lite for iPads or tablets (not to mention a questionable use of resources better spent elsewhere).
Not that long ago people where wondering if ArchiCAD was ever going to be able to take advantage of workflows and interfaces such as that afforded by Microsoft's surface Studio - which, despite the high price point, clearly seems geared towards artists and digital designers and painters, with some promising potential for architects and architectural designers, but I don't see GS even spending the resources to allow ArchiCAD to ever take advantage of that kind of setup for the offices that can afford those kinds of workstation before we even get into porting it to a tablet set-up.

But that's just my impression of how the development of the program seems to be going.

But hey, they do seem to be big Apple/Mac fanboys over there at GS HQ so perhaps it really is a possibility somewhere down the line.
It (the current ArchiCAD workflow) just seems too unwieldy for a tablet setup IMHO at the moment (I'm just trying to imagine porting or translating the number of hotkey shortcuts I currently use to a buttonless tablet workflow), unless the functions can be pared down considerably.
I'm not even sure how the AutoCAD version works since AutoCAD is even less design-oriented and therefore less tablet-friendly in terms of its workflow to me.

Maybe it's just me.
And I'm not trying to pour cold water on anyone's wishes or hopes. If Graphisoft can find a way to do this then more power to the people who can take advantage of it.