I saw a demo of Maxonform. The demo was done by an architect, with no relation to the dealer, who was familiar with the modeling tools in Cinema 4D but was opening Maxonform for the first at the demo itself.
You can have walls/roofs/meshes/etc. modeled in ArchiCAD and then edit them with the Maxonform modeling tools, but they will then become ArchiCAD objects. Relative to the typical ArchiCAD autoscripted object, one big advantage is that the Maxonform-created object allows you to set the floor plan cut height relative to story elevation. So that if you have a multistory column or bulging wall or whatever, it will show a correct 'floor plan' outline for each story. Since they are now objects and not walls or columns etc. this is generally good only as a geometry underlay for construction documents work, but is good enough as-is for probably most schematic design work.
The funny-shaped object remains editable in Maxonform, as will happen with all plug-ins. The Maxonform modeling tools are very impressive and seemed quite intuitive and straightforward, once you know the interface.
I was very impressed and think it is a great tool for AC 9. I have not bought it yet because I haven't been doing extremely funny shaped stuff, but it must pay for itself with the first real-life use (I would probably buy it straightaway anyway if I were somehow familiar with C4D, thus eliminating the learning curve). One other personal thought is that I figure either it will be incorporated into AC 10, or largely similar functionality will somehow be built into AC 10 if AC won't go down in history, so I am figuring that for the move to make sense both the purchase cost and the learning curve costs need to produce pretty much immediate returns --say six months at most. Which I think is very easily doable, I figure the added functionality and man-hour savings must be paying off with the first small job, actually.
Noemi Balogh
ciao from Sarajevo
