2022-07-15 04:59 PM - edited 2022-07-15 05:01 PM
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,
2023-04-14 04:18 AM - edited 2023-04-14 04:19 AM
Unfortunately it’s getting too hard just pull out and get too far behind these days and SSA or GS forward or Select force you to keep on paying with its included extras like RedShift etc and support. Who wants to pay for a 3 step upgrade ? Certainly not me.
2023-04-14 04:24 AM - edited 2023-04-14 04:25 AM
What gets me is that I've asked here "twice" about justifying their SSA price increase and the possibility of adding features like BIMx Pro features or even BIMcloud SaaS for full Forward (SSA) subscribers.
When I asked this during the Collaboration event, they said it was all bundled available for nearly that price in the "Collaborate" subscription. I thought, hmmm, OK. Then to find out later in the event that Collaborate is INDEPENDENT of our perpetual licenses. So we'd have to buy it separately, and still buy SSA if we want our perpetual licenses kept up to date.
Total greed move on GS.
I still want to know WHAT makes the ArchiCAD updates worth the upcoming $975 when the architectural features have been lacking in the last few updates for MEP/S tools.
2023-04-14 04:28 AM - edited 2023-04-14 04:47 AM
I understand and I have an old copy of Arcon from the late 90’s. Yes drawing manual roof plains has too many steps in Archicad and same goes for manual wall drawing.
I was a Chief Architect user for a long time as well and that is very user friendly in comparison to Archicad but you cannot achieve the same level of complexity of design in Chief Architect.
2023-04-14 04:42 AM
$975 USD is reasonable from my perspective, down here we have to pay the equivalent of about $1310 USD for SSA right now before we get another price rise soon.
2023-04-14 05:02 AM
Hey GS, conspicuously quite out there. Are you hearing this? Seems lots of people are quite disenchanted with your business approach. I think it would be wise to take heed. You’ve lost me already, how many more? Natural abhors a vacuum. Your inaction will leave a hole in the market that will be filled and not by you.
2023-04-14 05:17 AM
I'd say that neither is reasonable. That's too bad the price is so high there. But really, if we get one or two useful features a year only, it's not worth the grand we pay. It's basically extortion... pay this fee or you'll be sorry if you want to upgrade later. If only they'd make it worth the price by "fixing" the long overdue tools that are in need of it, and introducing architectural features and tools. Instead, as someone else suggested, we architects are subsidizing GS's MEP/S development.
2023-04-14 05:18 AM
We only get moderator interaction here, and it's few and far between. Actual GS developers stay away from this forum, for obvious reasons. I feel they are oblivious to our wants and needs.
2023-04-14 05:28 AM - edited 2023-04-14 06:42 AM
Probably the best way to fix Archicad so it works properly for all of us doing design work, is for all the users to combine resources and purchase it ? Or Architects that project manage the development of Archicad maybe ? Or the Architects purchase a CAD product and develop it for all the users around the world ? Or you could create RexCAD 😊 for us all to use ? That’s how new CAD/BIM products are formed in the industry.
It’s definitely not good when it turns into a few products controlling the market and price fixing enters the picture. I can’t believe that Chief Architect are now asking a yearly subscription price of $1995.00 USD per year, that’s ridiculous and I don’t think they will get many new users with new pricing like that ? Especially when current Chief Architect customers who are still on a SSA model and only paying $595.00 per year. So I am glad that I opted for Archicad over them right now. And yes inflation is pretty bad ATM after recent world developments.
2023-04-14 06:28 AM
I like your thinking. In addition to your wish, I would add a better tool for roof and wood construction and a paving planner (a great tool for walls, ceilings and floors that Arcon has) If only they would read this and take it seriously
2023-04-14 01:38 PM - edited 2023-04-15 03:56 AM
There are lots of possibilities. Graphisoft could buy and integrate the ArchiFrame add-on in the ArchiCAD package for more user-friendly structural design in wood; add "Reflected Ceiling Plan," "Ceilings," "Early-stage Design," "Early-stage Design to BIM," "Consistency: Roof Reference Plane position," etc. from the Idea pool to make up for a significant backlog in the software's development. As existing users, we've already paid for the price to get this minimum amount of flexibility in ArchiCAD.
If users like engineers want structural and MEP features most urgently in ArchiCAD, may them pay the price for that, but it's not up to the existing architectural users to pay for that. We have primary needs related to the design process in architecture that must be met first.