AI Assistant and AI Visualizer not showing up

[Llian]

Hello....just got ac 29 and not sure where to start with the AI Assistant prompt window.

Click a few times and not seeing any prompts. 

Please provide me the tutorial. 

Thank you

Operating system used: Windows 11

[Llian]

Hello Mohamed.

First, IT managed to find the URL to allow for the connectivity to work between the cloud-based and our enterprise system network. It looked like it was a firewall issue. 

Second, opened 3D image and AI Visualizer. Nothing on Canvas. Imported a jpg and it shows up on the canvas.

Thirdly, after 30 mins of exploring the above second, the canvas image finally is responding to what is on the 3D. 

Now, I am having trouble understanding "positive prompts" and "negative prompts". I tried many prompts and results look odd. Please send me a tutorial showing the functionality of the AI Visualizer. Thanks

[Paul King]

Hi Mohamed

An example prompt is "How do I get the materials priority of placed elements to cut my site mesh?"

The reply (pasted below) is wrong, and positively misleading, because of course materials priority in ArchiCAD, after 40 years of development, still has no effect on site meshes. AI Assistant should have lead with that, rather than sending the user down a time-consuming step by step process with no possibility of success until finally mentioning use of SEO as a fallback - when in fact it is the only available option.

To ensure the material priorities of placed elements correctly cut your site mesh in Archicad, follow these steps:

1. Assign Building Materials: Ensure that both the placed elements (e.g., walls, slabs, meshes) and the site mesh have appropriate Building Materials assigned. You can typically find this setting in the element's settings dialog, under the "Model" panel or a similar section dealing with the element's appearance and structure .
2. Adjust Intersection Priorities:
   • Go to Options > Element Attributes > Building Materials to open the Building Materials dialog.
   • Locate the Building Materials assigned to the site mesh and the placed elements that you want to act as cutters.
   • Modify the Intersection Priority for each material. The Building Material of the placed elements should have a higher priority number than the Building Material of the site mesh. You can adjust this using the slider or by entering a numerical value. A higher number signifies a higher priority in intersections .
3. Ensure Physical Intersection: Make sure that the placed elements physically intersect the site mesh in the 3D model. The areas where you want the cuts to occur must have overlapping geometry. If the elements are only adjacent or slightly offset, the intersection based on material priorities might not occur .
4. Check Layer Settings: Verify that the layers of the placed elements and the site mesh are set to allow intersections. This is usually managed in the Layer Settings dialog (Options > Element Attributes > Layer Settings), where you can define which layers intersect with each other.
5. Solid Element Operations (SEO) - If Necessary: If the material priorities are not automatically causing the cut as desired, you can use Solid Element Operations (SEO) to manually enforce the cut.
   • Select the placed element(s) that you want to use as the cutter(s).
   • Go to Design > Solid Element Operations to open the SEO palette .
   • In the SEO palette, designate the selected element(s) as the "Operator(s)."
   • Select the site mesh and set it as the "Target."
   • Choose the appropriate operation, such as "Subtraction" (to remove the overlapping volume of the operator from the target) or "Subtraction with upward extrusion," depending on the specific result you want to achieve.
   • Click "Execute" to perform the operation.
6. Review in 3D: After adjusting the material priorities and/or using SEO, review the model in the 3D view to ensure that the site mesh is being cut as expected by the placed elements.

---

Now contrast this with the results from Copilot

Prompt: "In ArchiCAD how do I get the materials priority of placed elements to cut my site mesh?"

Response: "In ArchiCAD, building material priority does not apply to meshes—so placed elements like slabs or walls won’t auto-cut a site mesh based on material strength. Here’s how to make it work: ..." (goes on to describe the SEO cutting procedure)

[Paul King]

And of course AI Visualizer also adds no value compared with free alternatives (including Copilot), where you can already just submit a basic 3D image of the model as an image prompt & get a result that is as good or better, without tying up your machine  in the mean time - assuming you look past the profound shortcomings around use of AI visualization as a design tool in the first place; such as the extreme superficiality of outcomes that don't withstand much scrutiny as functional buildings that need to work as physical artifacts, and that that might convince/mislead the uninformed about what can work, the 2D-only output in a 3D iterative design process - meaning there is no way to iterate the AI design simply by moving model elements around, etc.

Architectural design processes have very little in common with interior decoration processes, being fundamentally 3D in nature and based deeply on spatial, physical & technical constraints and opportunities - superficial 'mood board' imagery is not particularly useful to the design process, and arguably cheapens it, and erodes the credibility and status of the designer if undertaken without significant human control and understanding of implications at a detailed level.

I no longer have access to AI visualizer as a Studio subscriber, so can't post a recent example, but when testing it last year, that was my experience.