Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Archicad Future, 27 Poll

bouhmidage
Advisor

Archicad 26 was released yesterday, personnally i'm disappointed of how Archicad is slowly developped in the last 4 years, the pandemic has it' effects on business for sure, but we expected more since earlier versions used to bring nice and cool features, 

 

I created this tread for users who have ideas, suggestions, propositions for the next release, we may express our thoughts, and give guidelines for development team, Graphisoft is listening, i'm sure, 

 

For me, the most important thing to in an urgent way is to stop this multilingual installers strategy, 

Archicad 26 is released, all the world can download it with a multilangual installer,  : 

1 - download and install in a preferred langue, 

2 - open Archicad using your template, or download a template from the website, almost of us migrate tempaltes from older versions, resellers template  are useful for new users, 

3 - libraries also can be dowloaded from website, this will help in 2 things : lignter installers, and libraries are accessible for everyone especially when user works for foreign companies, .

 

this way, development and bug fixes will be focused on 1 installer, not 10, 

 

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Archicad strategy is to implement several disciplines, let's admit this, 

For users , Architects, engeneers, drafters, commands and disciplines should be seperated and organized in different way, so we don't feel abused with unecessary command, 

yes Archicad offer possibility to organise commands in the work environnment, but the saved commands layout will be a mess when upgrading to newt version wich contain new commands, 

why not,  from a buttons menu you can activate ad desactivate disciplines commands.

 

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You said in the webinar, Focus on design, Archicad tools are really good and that's why we stick to Archicad , BUT aren't fully baked, workarounds and illogic solutions are always there to disturb the workflow, think about new users, workarounds make them feel uncomftable, saying, " this simple situation needs a workaround, whatabout complex ones ?? " 

 

each tool have major / minor things to update, tweak , to get a good design toolbox for daily work, 

to attract users, Archicad should easily be able to help designing a residentiel or midscale projects without workarounds, this kind of project is where users start exploring the software, if it fails, users will start searching around for alternatives, 

make the product a complete solution for architects, 

 

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i think , Archicad 27 should be the " NO workarounds version "   ,make architects life easier, to focus on design , then you can go ahead for structural and MEP workflows, 

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM, RTX 3080 10 GB
Archicad 25
Windows 10 professional
https://www.behance.net/Nuance-Architects
227 REPLIES 227

It used to be a badge of honor. Our saying was, "CAD software for architects, by architects!" Now they're ignoring the very input and requests from the base they are supposed to be marketing to.

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
mthd
Mentor

Rex Maximilian wrote: It used to be a badge of honor. Our saying was, "CAD software for architects, by architects!" Now they're ignoring the very input and requests from the base they are supposed to be marketing to.”

 

Lets make this our first wish, for them to kindly go back to living up to this motto once again.

 

 

AC8.1 - AC27 ARM AUS + CI Tools
Apple Mac Studio M1 Max Chip 10C CPU
24C GPU 7.8TF 32GB RAM OS Ventura

When I look back at what GS have done with AC in the past few years, I get the feeling they are working on something big enough, to make them so busy, they seem to ignore user's requests. For example - vectorworks, allplan and AC belong to Nemetschek, but only first two are powered by parasolid (I have no idea whether ac will be powered by parasolid as well). I have read few threads about AC developers reaching the ceilling, which makes it more and more difficult to compete with e.g. revit. I hope, I am not naive now.

I think not just Graphisoft, but most all matured software companies are no longer headed or driven by the values of the original founders or programmers who were part of the industry. Now it's people with business degrees and standard or multi-disciplinary programmers running the show, and it's all about $$$. We just have to accept it.

Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
Apple Vision Pro w/ BIMx
Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
mthd
Mentor

True and things can change very quickly. The US CAD software market is definitely going in a subscription only basis direction for new users.

 

The good thing is that those with a perpetual license are able to keep it for a time, if they choose to do so that is. Time will eventually run out for us with a so called “perpetual license”and it will all be on a subscription basis only for future users. When we retire and we no longer need to be on SSA that will be the version that we will be left with. ACxx will still keep working but we will not be able to upgrade it any longer. If we want to use the latest version we have to pay for a subscription.

 

I have a working version of Chief Architect X10 and if I want to use X15, I have to buy a subscription now. At least they are giving me 50% off for the first year or $1000.00 USD or nearly $1600.00 AUD not worth it for me in Australia if I can get Revit Lt for $665.00 per year for 3 years but I will also need a rendering application as well that will work with it.

 

Graphisoft haven’t ruled subscriptions out and change will definitely come in time. So we better get used to it now. They probably will not stop us from using our older version that we retire at but it will soon be obsolete and out of date.

 

”Perpetual Licensing” is just a myth. Send out a virus and stop it from working maybe so that we are forced into a subscription model ? Or like MS, just say support ends for W7 if you don’t get the free upgrade to W10 ? 

 

Software retailing is a very different ball game these days with the constant upgrading cycle and the marketing spin. I use AC24 for my work and it gets the job done well for me. I don’t really need the latest and greatest in my line of work to get by on but some will.

AC8.1 - AC27 ARM AUS + CI Tools
Apple Mac Studio M1 Max Chip 10C CPU
24C GPU 7.8TF 32GB RAM OS Ventura

GS IS a subscription service as far as i'm concerned. It costs me CAD $1200 per year for the privilege of getting upgrades and support, as well as a bunch of fluff. i rarely use tech support, because i just can't afford to sit and wait for days to get a result. unless i'm really stuck, i just accept the bug or issue and try to work around it or put up with it. like all the bugs i'm dealing with now in AC26 Arm. i just can't be bothered to put together a support package and  twiddle my thumbs while they twiddle theirs. i'm sure the techies are working hard, GS is clearly not employing enough people and i don't think they really care. each new version has some useful new feature to be sure, but a woeful lack of effort to fix exiting issues, or addressing the wish list. so i've had enough. are you listening GS? i will not be renewing my SSA next year. pay and pay and pay and for a very frustrating experience. i don't need to be paying to pul my hair out, it's falling out fast enough on it's own. i will continue to put up with the stupid problems and bugs. i can't be bothered to learn a new application at this point in my career. unfortunately i have no faith at all that 27 will be any different. why would it be? give GS credit though, they are consistent. 

MAC Studio 2022 M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 10 cores, AC26 5003 Apple Silicon USA
Ilijatadic
Booster

I join the discussion. I switched to AC only a year ago, until then I was using other 3d programs (3ds max, arcon, autocad) and at the beginning I was delighted with AC. After a year of use, I can see that AC has beginner's problems, it has not developed the basic tools to the level I would like to see. Alts for walls, columns, beams and stairs are good. The roof tool is very bad, 17 years ago I was deciding between arcon or AC and I decided on arcon, it had better tools then, the arcon roof tool was better 17 years ago than AC today. AC has made a lot of progress in the fields of BIM, BIMX and other areas, but has fallen behind in the entry-level ones. My opinion is that these basic things should be solved, the tool for the roof annoys me terribly and what is the wooden construction, there is a lot of room for improvement, if they don't know, let them look at Arcon for the basic things (that program was made by former employees of Graphisoft). Let them go back from the beginning and solve the initial diseases.

Less is more and efficient! With few tools, but well developed, the customer experience would be at the top, and you would still be an ArchiCAD user.

Martin Luther Jules
AC 10-27 (Full)
Asus | 64 GB RAM | Windows 11

You are right, missing a few basic well developed tools like walls or stairs they are great and then it would be perfect. BIMX has also developed MEP tools well, but we designers lack good basic tools. If they fix it I will be a lifetime user of AC

Retaining existing clients costs less than acquiring new ones. That's why I vote for the development of existing tools in ArchiCAD like the Morph for example.

Martin Luther Jules
AC 10-27 (Full)
Asus | 64 GB RAM | Windows 11