Wishlist

In Archicad 28, managing layer visibility typically requires navigating through the Layer Settings dialog and manually toggling the visibility icons using the mouse. This process can be time-consuming, especially when working with projects that contain numerous layers.

Feature Request:

Introduce a keyboard shortcut functionality within the Layer Settings dialog that allows users to:

• Quickly focus on the layer name input field.

• Type the desired layer name to search and highlight it.

• Use a specific key (e.g., Enter or Spacebar) to toggle the visibility (show/hide) of the selected layer.

This enhancement would streamline the workflow by reducing reliance on the mouse.

Use Case:

When working on detailed components, it's often necessary to temporarily display surrounding elements or specific layers for a particular construction step. Currently, this requires multiple mouse interactions to locate and toggle the desired layers, which can be time-consuming. Implementing a keyboard shortcut for this function would significantly expedite the process, enhancing productivity during detailed design tasks.

Apart from picking the left, center or right positioning option an additional parameter which would allow checking and adjusting (if needed) the distance of the closest point of a door opening to the closest adjacent wall would be handy. Allowing the property to be modified via a Property Value exchange would be great, as mentioned in a different wish. 

Change/Exchange GDL parameters via Property Values... - Graphisoft Community

Enhancement of the Arc drawing tool to enable users to specify two tangent points and a radius.

While existing commands like Fillet/Chamfer partially address certain design scenarios, they fall short when constructing more complex elements such as parking ramps or vehicle turning curves. An intuitive "Tangent, Tangent, Radius" arc definition would significantly streamline these detailed geometric tasks, improving accuracy and efficiency in architectural and infrastructural design workflows.

It would be great if 'Empty Door Opening' could have a property to determine if it acts as a property boundary or not. When placing an Empty Opening (Door) in to an existing wall to create an opening between two existing spaces it would be great if the zone could spill through the opening if it were determined not to be a one Boundary so the two existing spaces become one new space.

Other CAD software has the ability to directly import the Topo information from a surveyor (e.g. DWG format). 
The current arrangement requires us to painstakingly redraw a site model, introducing a huge amount of risk, when the actual survey model, provided by the consultant is available, but unusable. 

It would be great to have a parametric extrusion object.

A few notes:

• The object could behave like a hybrid between the beam too and the Railing Tool.
• The railing tool is much too complicated for most simple extrusions, and the Column / Beam tools are artificially "limited".
• The tool should be parametric and allow you to select an complex profile, or draw a custom shape.
• The extrude path should allow multiple control points such as the railing tool, and allow you to "double back"
• The tool should allow curves
• Allow "SketchUp Style" Creation: Draw or select profile, select or trace path.
• The tool could be brought into the Morph tool (like the revolve construction morph) but should keep the control point history.

This was sparked by my need to create custom wall frames and the difficulty to doing so simply with reliable results.

In 3D we can already request the viewing angle so that billboards can be rotated into the right view towards the user.

We need the same thing for sections and elevations.

What do we need that for:

• billboards that work everywhere
• hiding/showing details depending on the view direction (e.g. think of doorframes which look horrible in sections > 1:50 where the door is not perpendicular to the viewing direction)
• etc.

Problem: "Toilet ADA" object has only floor mounting and "Cistern" Flush Types available; no option for Wall Mounting, or any of the other Flush Types that are available to the "WC" object.

Scenarios / Use Cases: The "Toilet ADA" object allows USA users to save a typical ADA water closet favorite, but only if the toilet is floor mounted and has a cistern. If the toilet has any other configuration, users can't use the "Toilet ADA" object, so instead have to manually place the "WC" object and three (3) grab bars, and make sure they are placed in the correct location to meet building and accessibility codes.

Wish: That the "Toilet ADA" object would have all of the same bowl options that the "WC" object does.

Archicad needs real NURBS-based modeling — not just faceted approximations.
Bring true curves and smooth surfaces to Meshes, Shells, Curved Walls, Slabs, Roofs, and beyond.

Why?

• True Curves: No more fake polygonal curves — get mathematically clean surfaces.

• Better Performance: Smooth, editable surfaces without needing thousands of facets.

• More Design Freedom: Create organic, fluid forms natively inside Archicad (no Rhino detours).

• Future-Proof BIM: Support the next wave of architectural forms and workflows.

Notes:
Of course, this would be a big change, but even starting with a few tools (Meshes, Shells) would be a huge step forward.
Let's bring true surface control to BIM — it's time.

Right now, we have two different tools for modelling floors and roofs. Everything works fine as long as the floor is completely flat and horizontal, and the roof is simple and regular — which, obviously, isn’t always the case. Here is my proposal: one unified tool for everything. This tool should be able to:

- Work with composite structures, allowing each layer to have either variable or constant thickness.

- Allow us to freely rotate objects in any section and in any direction, just as we do with Morphs (how this is still not possible is beyond my understanding).

- Provide the possibility to add ridges, similar to how we do with Meshes, and to edit Z-coordinates to create complex geometries, as is often needed for flat or irregular roofs.

By doing this, we could specialize the Mesh tool exclusively for terrain modeling, which is something we are clearly lacking at the moment.

There’s currently no option to directly create a stepped site mesh. We often use this in the early stages of a project for concept visualizations or 3D printing. Would it be possible to add a “stepped” option under visualizations? Perhaps something like this?

Often, we need to visualize only the terrain with the section line, without projection lines. Or we might want to display only the contours in a floor plan. Sometimes, we just need a few specific ridges. Currently, it's not possible to achieve this directly, and we always have to rely on complicated workarounds. My proposal:

- Add a checkbox to deactivate outline visualization

- Add a context menu option to hide/show individual ridges of a mesh

Drawing a flat roof in Archicad can be tedious, often requiring numerous coping elements and solid operations. In contrast, Revit offers a more elegant and straightforward approach. This process could be significantly improved by:

- Allowing mesh elements to support composite structures

-Enabling the definition of composite layers with either variable or constant thickness

These enhancements would allow any flat roof to be modeled using a single mesh element, with subsequent modifications reduced to a matter of seconds. The same applies to inclined garage floors and other complex geometries, where current workflows demand excessive manual adjustments. Introducing these improvements would streamline the design process and significantly increase modeling efficiency.

Description:

In the early stages of a project, you often don't know the exact relationship between Story 0 and Sea Level — it's common to start with an assumed value and adjust it later once accurate survey data comes in.

The problem is, when that Sea Level value changes, all your elements stay where they are, and you’re forced to manually adjust their elevation to match the updated project base. This is time-consuming and easy to get wrong, especially in large or multi-phase projects.

The idea:

Make it possible for elements to reference Sea Level directly, instead of being fixed to their current elevation — that way, any later adjustment to Sea Level wouldn't break the model.

What this could look like:

• On the "Home Story" (Geometry and Position) dropdown in element settings: "Elevate relative to Sea Level" (instead of just Story Level).

• Elements that use this setting would automatically move up or down when the Sea Level is updated via Project Location or Survey Point.

• Could be used for any element with a height or elevation setting — slabs, roofs, meshes, objects, etc.

• Ideally, the same logic could apply to custom elevation references too (benchmarks, structural datums, etc.).

Why it matters:

• Saves a ton of rework in early-stage design, where site data often changes.

• Keeps the model better coordinated with civil/landscape engineers and surveyors who use absolute heights.

• Helps maintain model accuracy without relying on workarounds or mass selection + elevation adjustments.

• Encourages better data integrity and smarter elevation control overall.

From a plan view, it would be nice to be able to open the tab of a section or facade directly by double-clicking on its line.

Making a staircase should automatically open up the horizontal planes above it. A bit like a window piercing a wall. Perhaps use the existing minimum volume to make it “perforating”, or have a 3D operation automatically generated...

I recently learned that it is possible to do this with ‘Connect/Create a hole with selection’. But it is not automatic. You have to make the staircase safety space visible, select it and then connect it... Whereas in most cases, a staircase pierces a slab above.
You could add the option in the staircase properties with a checkbox labelled ‘perforate the upper and/or lower slab’.

Let’s rethink how we work with modules. Right now, modules always reference the drawing’s origin point, but how often is that actually helpful?

What if you could define your own anchor point when creating a module? Snap it to something meaningful, like the intersection of two gridlines, and that spot becomes the module’s reference. Placement becomes intuitive and precise, no more offset tweaking, flipping or endless adjustments. Just click, place and move on.

It gets even better. You can edit any placed module directly, right where it is. Save those changes under the same module name, and all instances across your project update instantly, no position shifts, just smarter updates. Everything stays where it should, but reflects the latest design.

The best part? It’s not just cleaner, it’s faster. No more repetitive work, no unnecessary re-placements, and no need to hunt down every instance manually. It’s a huge boost in efficiency, especially in larger, complex projects.

The result?

✔ Smarter, faster workflows
✔ Fully editable, in-place modules
✔ Seamless updates across the board
✔ Clean, consistent designs
✔ And no more origin-point drama

Design with freedom, edit with confidence, and work way more efficiently.
It’s time to anchor your modules where they actually matter.

When rotating the grid, the handle points of some elements do not rotate together with the grid. So working in a rotated environment is not so smooth.

Please add the ability to create model in the real geodetic coordinate system.

The current system, where you need to work with the Geodetic point tool, move all the data manually to a "fake" origin near 0,0,0 is very annoying and it is a huge room for creating fatal errors in project coordination. Also, the eternal bug of ArchiCAD in case of saving a project with a model far from the origin causes destruction of the geometry should be fixed.

I understand that it is good to optimize the coordinates for computing performance reasons, but in my opinion, ArchiCAD itself should do this instead of user.