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

list of AC sugestions

hampden
Booster
Sorry these suggestions span a couple of categories but just wanted to get them all out i'm currently using AC 9.0 on a mac:

Archicad suggestions:

1. wait for tab or return for all user input from text edit boxes! I can’t tell you how many times I pause halfway through a dimension and archicad enters the input incorrectly, if this is a feature for some folks maybe there could be a toggle in the preferences.

2. allow tab to maneuver to different edit fields in the parameters and custom settings fields of the settings dialogue boxes (especially necessary as gdl objects gain more and more parameters.

3. implement the windows method of pallet docking for the mac, having multiple floating windows wastes space and takes to much time to organize, one almost always wants to form a row or a column with them, so they should be a part of the same row or column not each indecently resizable. If floating windows is really important see how sketchup dealt with the organization dilemma, tough I would think making the interface closer between the two platforms would be a good direction for AC in general.

4. items selected in the 3d window don’t affect the content of a calculate window (eg you select specific windows for a schedule in 3d but all are calculated.

5. allow for different layer settings in different windows. It seems rather inefficient at times, when traversing between a plan and a section/elevation, to have to switch layers each time the focus changes from window to window . I understand that sometimes one wants the layers to be consistent between all windows, however for most work it seems there should be some mechanism to override this on a window by window basis (maybe a toggle at the bottom left with the other window centric controls?).

6. BIG REQUEST: non exclusive / free-range teamwork access. We have found it extremely difficult to use teamwork on smaller projects where there are just two or three people working on a project. By forcing exclusive access both areas of drawings, as well as layers, it makes it difficult to have multiple people work on a project of limited size. We find ourselves avoiding using teamwork because it becomes to difficult to share the project due to sign in restrictions. In the best scenario there would be no distinction between a teamwork project and a regular project, and one could have the ability to allow sharing, and have multiple people working on the same file, without exclusive access to areas, drawings, or layers. As one person edits the the results would live update to the others accessing the file. I understand on larger projects the need to administer rights and privileges, however it is really a hindrance at the single family residential scale that we are working at. Database applications allow for multiple users without exclusive access, and a cad file is just a big database right?...either having a dedicated server application which would coordinate between the sharing parties, or allowing a client to to serve the file once open could be potential methods of implementing something like this. To put this in context, I am writing this request right now because I can’t access the file which I should be working on since someone else is working on it, and we are to close to finishing to start messing with setting it up for teamwork.

7. little request: the the protection key not found dialogue when launching archicad should give you the option of putting a key in rather than only quit or demo mode.

8. would like to see the navigator pallet gain a be able to display just the publisher column and not the project navigator I don’t think I’ve ever used the project map area of the publisher but often have to access the publisher which would then not have to take up additional screen real-estate (the full publisher window could still be available for those who need it).

9. toolbars and pallets are confusing, not sure I understand what the difference is, and would like the pallets to be able to behave/dock like the toolbar elements quick layers for example would fit perfectly along the bottom of the screen next to the horizontal control box, or at the bottom of a vertical toolbox layout. but will not interact with this type of element.


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Stefan Hampden
Stefan Hampden
CAST architecture - Seattle architect
15 REPLIES 15
Aussie John
Newcomer
hampden wrote:

7. little request: the the protection key not found dialogue when launching archicad should give you the option of putting a key in rather than only quit or demo mode.

Stefan Hampden
You will be pleased to know if do put the key with this dialogue open, the display goes away.
Cheers John
John Hyland : ARINA : www.arina.biz
User ver 4 to 12 - Jumped to v22 - so many options and settings!!!
OSX 10.15.6 [Catalina] : Archicad 22 : 15" MacBook Pro 2019
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Rob
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Stefan,

1.You can adjust the auto-update delay in Work Environment-->Dialog Boxes & Palettes Tab -->auto-update delay (in seconds) - that could solve you problem.

6. mate, how would you solve sharing violation problems? like if you clicked on the same wall as your team mate and tried to modified that at the same time.
your suggested approach would require being on-line (team mate-server-team mate) all the time which would require extreme networking data-flow bandwidth, so basically you would be waiting for updates 90% of your time there (assuming that you're using standard networking, unless you live in the comp lab somewhere in Silicon Valley)

9.
toolbars and pallets are confusing, not sure I understand what the difference is
could you be more specific?
Sorry these suggestions span a couple of categories but just wanted to get them all out I'm currently using AC 9.0 on a mac:
it's fine that you apologised but how are we supposed to vote now? Some of your wishes are already implemented, I do not agree with some of them.... next time hold your horses, slow down and post it one by one.
Don't get me wrong some of your ideas are worth of voting but how???
::rk
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
hampden wrote:
2. allow tab to maneuver to different edit fields in the parameters and custom settings fields of the settings dialogue boxes (especially necessary as gdl objects gain more and more parameters.


Stefan:

In the parameters section of the dialog box, the up and down arrow keys will highlight the previous and next parameter edit fields. The tab key works in the custom settings section of the dialog box.

HTH.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Bruce
Expert
hampden wrote:
5. allow for different layer settings in different windows. It seems rather inefficient at times, when traversing between a plan and a section/elevation, to have to switch layers each time the focus changes from window to window . I understand that sometimes one wants the layers to be consistent between all windows, however for most work it seems there should be some mechanism to override this on a window by window basis (maybe a toggle at the bottom left with the other window centric controls?).
This is what you use your Views for - they have four settings, the first one of which is Layer Combination.
Bruce Walker
www.brucepwalker.com
Barking Dog BIM YouTube
Mindmeister Mindmap
-- since v8.1 --
AC26 5002 INT Full | Windows 11 64 Pro | 12th Gen Intel i7-12700H 2.30 GHz | 64 Gb RAM | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 32 Gb
Anonymous
Not applicable
Bruce wrote:
This is what you use your Views for - they have four settings, the first one of which is Layer Combination.
Yes, but if you are in a Section window, then go to your Floor Plan view (likely with different layer combination), when you go back to Section it has to rebuild, even if you haven't changed anything. Slightly annoying.
Bruce
Expert
If you change your section/elevation to Manual rebuild you can postpone this and choose to rebuild when you want. Does this help?
Bruce Walker
www.brucepwalker.com
Barking Dog BIM YouTube
Mindmeister Mindmap
-- since v8.1 --
AC26 5002 INT Full | Windows 11 64 Pro | 12th Gen Intel i7-12700H 2.30 GHz | 64 Gb RAM | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 32 Gb
hampden
Booster
All,

thanks so much for everyone's replies i really did not expect feedback from users, and am very appreciative of folks responses and some answers! i was thinking of this more as direct feedback to graphisoft but i certainly see the value in posting individually so everyone can vote and make it easier to see what popular, and in the future will break out comments to individual postings.

-Stefan
Stefan Hampden
CAST architecture - Seattle architect
hampden
Booster
Bruce wrote:
If you change your section/elevation to Manual rebuild you can postpone this and choose to rebuild when you want. Does this help?
Bruce,

it does help, at some times (especially once in cd's since i tend to turn the final drawings into 2d to better control line-work) however as you mentioned elsewhere said it's the redraws that kill ones productivity when switching between drawings. if i were to expand this request to the next level, the real desire is to have switching between drawings to be as fluid as possible -getting rid of the regeneration is the most immediate part of that, but often i'll find myself wanting to have the structural plan and an elevation (for example) to switch between, and every time i do that i have to make sure i use the views pallet, and wait for the redraw, or suffer the consequences of having another drawings layers applied to the elevation.

-Stefan

-Stefan
Stefan Hampden
CAST architecture - Seattle architect
hampden
Booster
s2art wrote:
Bruce wrote:
This is what you use your Views for - they have four settings, the first one of which is Layer Combination.
Yes, but if you are in a Section window, then go to your Floor Plan view (likely with different layer combination), when you go back to Section it has to rebuild, even if you haven't changed anything. Slightly annoying.
Exactly! and it's not such a big deal if you just switch between views and work only in that view, when coordinating a set I often end up switching between views frequently, and there is a real lack of fluidity when you have to wait for things to regenerate or have the wrong layers applied to the drawing you are moving to.

-Stefan
Stefan Hampden
CAST architecture - Seattle architect