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

Books / manuals for archicad.

Anonymous
Not applicable
After doing research it seems that there are very few books about AC available. I teach BIM at the university and have been using AC for the last years. I am really being pushed lately to switch to Revit partially because there is an abundance of information/books out there.

I understand that in this day and age most materials can be on-line but it is really hard to find information or a comprehensive book that describes the inner workings of AC in clear lingo and that provides strategies how to build your model. The basic tutorials on line add very little to explaining in depth things such as : Layers, Navigator/map views, strategies and structure, schedules and extracting information > pretty much what makes AC so valuable...

I would like to wish for a "missing manual" type of book that I can recommend to my colleagues and students and other professionals
11 REPLIES 11
TomWaltz
Participant
I pitched such a book to a couple publishers last year and there was no interest for "a product with such a small user base". I'm assuming that's why all the Archicad books out there are either published by Graphisoft or by the authors. (not to mention, most books are a version behind by the time they see print)

I didn't have Dwight's constitution for self-publishing.
Tom Waltz
Dwight
Newcomer
You are absolutely right about the hideous book situation. There are many impediments to such a massive, but useful project - insurmountable ones, in my opinion:

1: Knowledge: this project can't be done by one person, and the people who could collaborate on such a project are busy professionals. This isn't a job for the usual suspect dilettantes - we need guys who have in-depth knowledge, not guys like me who make our mile-wide-and-inch-deep knowledge look like something a codfish could swim in. I know who these deep guys are and they have real jobs - they are in the situations of really making complex things happen with Archicad, not fakeittillyoumakeit trainers or oleaginous sales reps who rely on the dismissive phrase "You can do this…"
2: Time: A book like this would take over six months to assemble working full time, and, by gar, here comes version 13 as we go to press. This is partly why published material is so fragmented.

3: Ongoing Commitment: Doing it once is one thing, but it means accepting being the Archicad author of that topic forever. Constant updates mean constant research. I AM CURRENTLY FRUSTRATED IN MY EFFORTS TO KEEP MY READERS UP-TO-DATE ON UPCOMING ARCHICAD RENDERING CHANGES BECAUSE GRAPHISOFT DOESN'T CONSIDER IT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO PROVIDE AN ADVANCE COPY OF ARCHICAD 12 SO THAT I CAN COORDINATE MY BOOK UPDATE WITH THE OFFICIAL SOFTWARE RELEASE. HOW'S THAT FOR SUPPORTING YOUR AUTHORS?

AND ALL OF THIS DESPITE MY BEING TOLD THAT THERE WERE NO RENDERING IMPROVEMENTS IN ARCHICAD 11 WHEN MY VISITING THE SOFTWARE FOR THE FIRST TIME UNCOVERED SEVERAL PAGES WORTH OF UNANNOUNCED CHANGES.


No one can earn enough from a book in just one software release cycle, so regular updating is inevitable to extend its useful life. You might notice that many books get done once and then they are never updated. Why do you think this is?

4: Intellectual Property Risk: I won't say who it is, but an author friend of mine had the thunder of a technical book stolen by the software subject of that book when its maker issued and promoted its own similar book product.

5: Also Business Risk: Software functions can change radically to make entire chapters obsolete. Too bad.

6: Marketing: You'd think that writing a book for an exclusive software like Archicad would lead to targeted marketing to an elite professional group. But no! My priceless book suffers from resentment chill - not to mention that your more serious users get Artlantis. Typical whinging e-mail received here "Why isn't this basic information provided with the $$$$ expensive software??? Why should I pay for your book? [cuss words redacted]" And even so, the market for Archicad books is tiny. I have sold only 3000 of my "LightWorks in Archicad." This returned reasonable compensation, but to try and make that book commercial - sold to a larger audience through conventional retailers [with their returns policy and outrageous markup] - needs an anticipated 15000 minimum to carry the project. No Archicad book will do this.
Dwight Atkinson
Anonymous
Not applicable
So, we've established publishing that a reference book of any weight and authority is fairly impractical for a fairly limited-number user base and a constantly updating software.

How about a community project? Are there enough 'expert' volunteers on here to flesh out the missing guides bit-by-bit on to ArchiCADWiki.com perhaps.

How about establishing a list of subjects and areas that need covering, and work through them as and when people get around to them.

I know Karl, Gergly and others are busy adding bits and bobs (and deleting the spam!) but it could be a whole lot more comprehensive if more were involved and had some kind of direction. (I'm in no way criticising the effort that has been made so far by the way, guys! There a lot of useful stuff on there already! )

What are peoples thoughts? Would it be feasible? Would it get the interest? Could it fill the missing gap?
Anonymous
Not applicable
I have followed the growth of this open source modeling software called blender ( http://www.blender.org ) and they have constantly amazed me with the dedication of this package. they have published at least 2 books ( http://www.blender.org/education-help/ ) that are pretty good.
I am convinced that a community based project could fly.

also:
I am not sure what the market penetration/share of AC is but I would imagine that it will only grow by bringing the product out there in print format. Supposedly Ac is a very small fish in the world of BIM but somehow each time I open a CAD magazine or other magazine about Arch/Eng they are always mentioned.

are there any stats on market share that AC has ( in US, EU and rest of world ) ?. Would GS be willing to spend $$ ( seedmoney ) to have people write a paid book about AC and then make it back ( partially or profit ) by publishing it. > they would need to team up with "missing manual" or "for dummies" or something like that to look more important and serious. that way you don;t need continuity for authors but sell under a "brand name"

I think that with the edu versions out there now is the time to take action and publish a series of GOOD thorough and insightful manuals. I agree with Dwight that they should be forthcoming with new releases but I also think there is a huge amount of information missing right now that doesn't change much with new versions but that has never been properly documented. I guarantee 2x18 purchases a year here in colorado for my classes.
Laura Yanoviak
Advocate
web_wallace wrote:
… things such as : Layers, Navigator/map views, strategies and structure, schedules and extracting information > pretty much what makes AC so valuable...
The best I ever came across was Project Framework, which was last published for AC8.1 (and a small addenda issued for AC9); however, so much has changed since then. It's still useful, but would be confusing for a new user.
Peter wrote:
What are peoples thoughts? Would it be feasible? Would it get the interest? Could it fill the missing gap?
The group at ACE have been embarking on such an endeavor (in blog format); however, they also have real jobs like the rest of us, so progress has been slow (no offense, Andy ).
MacBook Pro Apple M2 Max, 96 GB of RAM
AC26 US (5002) on Mac OS Ventura 13.5
Anonymous
Not applicable
web_wallace wrote:
Supposedly Ac is a very small fish in the world of BIM
It's probably only second in number to Revit. Don't forget it's been around for a Loooong time!
Laura wrote:
The group at ACE have been embarking on such an endeavor (in blog format); however, they also have real jobs like the rest of us, so progress has been slow (no offense, Andy ).
I've just noticed that in their download section (you should register to access) there is the 2008-ACE-TRAINING.pdf guide that covers a lot of basic setup, usage and best practices for AC11. It's a fairly comprehensive 333 pages and it's well worth a read. I noticed though there is a problem on mine in that a lot of the text is hidden and I can't see it so maybe a fix is in order.
Laura Yanoviak
Advocate
Peter wrote:
... there is the 2008-ACE-TRAINING.pdf guide that covers a lot of basic setup, usage and best practices for AC11. It's a fairly comprehensive 333 pages and it's well worth a read.
Yes, I'm sure that's Tom Waltz's doing (as he did the same last year) -- why go through the hassles of publishing when you can give it away for free?
MacBook Pro Apple M2 Max, 96 GB of RAM
AC26 US (5002) on Mac OS Ventura 13.5
Chazz
Enthusiast
web_wallace wrote:
I am not sure what the market penetration/share of AC is but I would imagine that it will only grow by bringing the product out there in print format.
Miniscule and shrinking. More on that here:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=16330&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=craigsl...

ArchiCAD hardly even shows up on Craigslist San Francisco anymore. When it does, it's frequently just used as a keyword for firms that actually want AutoCAD/Revit experience. This is a night-and-day change from even a few years ago.

Revit is the only way forward at this point and I think you would be doing your students a tremendous disservice teaching ArchiCAD over Revit.
Nattering nabob of negativism
2023 MBP M2 Max 32GM. MaxOS-Current
Dominic Gallello
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Look for several things “available” and coming up. The Basic Interactive Training Guide http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/ac11/itg/ will get a beginner started. Next month, we will publish an Advanced Modeling ITG that gives you strategies on how to solve more complex modeling tasks such as modeling terrains, using the structural grid, modeling with slanted and composite structures or modeling with the solid element operations. Finally, we have some other things in the works that will provide you with more “implementation” type guidance that will come later this year.
We were also a bit frustrated by the lack of books a few years back. I personally called university professors to ask them what they really needed. The clear message was that kids don’t learn with books anymore. Make it interactive in a very learn by doing style. So we set off to create something that no author could afford to fund on his/her own – a series of Voice Led Interactive Training Guides. Also, as was pointed out in the thread, it takes at team effort. We have had up to 10 people working on the ITGs. We offer them at no charge and we have had a massive amount of downloads. A partial listing of the numbers can be found at www.download.com Users have told us they really like them and it has helped them to get over the hurdle of making the move to 3D. Let me know if you are able to introduce them into your program.

Dwight, you will hear from one of my team shortly…

DG