Archicad Future, 27 Poll

[bouhmidage]

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, 

[Mlm082]

Just a few things I would like to see that would improve my day-to-day workflow.

1.    Plan regions that change visibility/cut plane height for portions of a plan view for split level buildings. Right now, we are piecing drawings together on layouts and it is a QAQC nightmare. We do several buildings on stepped sites and other BIM programs like Revit already have this capability.
2.    Enlarged plan tool that lets you create enlarged plan source views. Similar to how the section and elevation tools create source views. This would greatly reduce the number of layers, layer combos, and favorites needed just to annotate drawings at different scales. 
3.     The ability to group things to doors/windows. This would allow groups of windows as well as windows and control joints/trim/etc. that are meant to be aligned to be moved together. Would greatly increase modelling efficiency.  
4.  The ability to split a wall horizontally. (Without intersecting the reference line) 
5.  A way to toggle “Ortho” on and off. Similar to F8 in AutoCAD. 
6. Internal hotlinks with an edit in place function (similar to components in SketchUp or Revit groups). External Hotlinks are great, but it would be nice if you could right click a hotlink, select edit it place, make a change, then push a button to complete the edit and have it update every instance of that hotlink.
7. Edit in place function for drawings placed on layouts. A lot of my time is spent opening source views and waiting on Archicad to load when I am in the construction documents phase. Revit has the ability to double click into a view make a change, then click out to finalize the change and you never have to leave the layout. This seems like a small thing, but when you do 50+ times a day it adds up to a lot of time. 
8. Faster drawing updates. I work on fairly large projects, and I have to turn auto update off because it is so slow. I currently just update all of the drawings on layouts in my current book settings every time I issue a set/revision.
9. A way to link attributes from one file to another, similar to a shared library.
10. Instantaneous spell check. We all know architects spell things wrong. Why can't Archicad give us live feedback like Microsoft Wors and point out when things are spelled wrong.
11. Add sill/masonry arch settings to storefront library parts.

[David Shorter]

Sorry Laszlo. You are correct. It just seems longer as a use hanging out for a final Apple Silicon version. 

Do you have a final date for the release of the localised version?

[Laszlo Nagy]

During the Building Together event, Graphisoft guys said that the Apple Silicon-native version will be released in Q4 2022 so it is supposed to come out within ~2 months.

[Jim Allen]

This just sounds like a list of things you want because they are what you had in other software.

You haven't paid much attention to broad appeal or technical difficulty in implementation. Some of these points seem to demonstrate a lack of understanding about how Archicad works, or whether there is an Archicad way of doing it.

1. You haven't explained exactly what you want to achieve, and why. It might be that the people you are working with don't have enough Archicad expertise to do things the optimal way. I've been using Archicad since release 19 and I'm far from an expert!

2. See point 1.

3. You are perhaps missing the Archicad way of doing things. You can't come straight from Revit, miss the tools you used to have and make an Archicad wishlist based on Revit features you would like without fully understanding how Archicad works.

4. Why?

5. Why? Open an ortho view, and switch to it when you need it. What you are requesting is based on a Revit workflow. In Archicad, it's easier to work in a 3D perspective window, a bit like SketchUp, but if you want to pretend Archicad is Revit, have at it...

6. This is already in the wishlist, but in a different form.

7. Why? Archicad isn't Revit or SketchUp. You can use hotlinks and edit those, they behave as you describe.

8. Update speed in Archicad is great, but if you add too much detail unnecessarily, it will be slow. This is most likely a you problem, not an Archicad problem. Been there, done that...

9. Why?

10. Not worth the development time to implement. I don't think any BIM application has this feature, because it simply isn't important enough to justify the effort. If you learn to spell better and pay more attention, you'll achieve the same thing.

11. You have these options for most of the windows, I only do commercial work, but almost never use the storefront options.

[mthd]

Excellent suggestions and yes it’s true Archicad is not Revit but they can both learn how to do things better from each other.

I have used Chief Architect since 1999 and Archicad since 2002 for houses mainly.

I have had to learn that both programs I use do things differently and some things are better in one than in the other.

For example I find cabinets are much better in Chief Architect but Archicad is getting there in 25 & 26. Timber framing is much better in Chief Architect than Archicad or Archiframe I find.

I find Archicad is more accurate and you can model more complex designs in it than Chief Architect. The construction documents are more professional in Archicad as well. Archicad has many more good things about it as you will find out in time.

These are just my opinions and they don’t really matter that much.

Archicad is all about BIM model sharing with other apps and I like that flexibility.

Graphisoft recognises the help of many other CAD apps.

I like Vectorworks Architect and Revit, all very good professional CAD BIM systems.

[David Shorter]

@Mlm082

2. This has been a wish for a long time. To have a Worksheet which is a view of the model rather than a snapshot.

4 I don't understand this request can you explain? Especially the reference line issue

5 I don't understand when you toggle "Ortho" where do you toggle to? And are you doing this in the 3D window?

6 this is possible, one method is to place the original module on a negative story and update there. Avoids opening another file.

7 Again I don't understand your workflow. Why not edit the saved view in the first place. Please clarify.

[Jim Allen]

I still don't understand number 2. It's not on the Google Sheet AFAIR.

What am I missing?

[DGSketcher]

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@Mlm082 wrote:

Just a few things I would like to see that would improve my day-to-day workflow...

2. Enlarged plan tool that lets you create enlarged plan source views. Similar to how the section and elevation tools create source views. This would greatly reduce the number of layers, layer combos, and favorites needed just to annotate drawings at different scales.

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@Mlm082 I agree completely, but GS need to update their View creation process. There could be a lot of consolidation through the use of source view folders. As an example the Section and Elevation tools are effectively the same in all but minor setting differences, even the graphic markers can look the same. Basically give us one familiar interface for vertical cut / views.

Your request for an enlarged plan tool would be a duplication of the Detail tool. The same as Section/Elevations, Details need merged with Worksheets but they also need to operate the same as Sections, not the current mess we have now. They both do basically the same job but lack the "Live" update that we have with Sections. Again these things could be managed through source view folders that allow users to group the views created by these tools. So under the Detail source view you could have folders for Details-Components, Details-Construction, Details-Stairs, Plans-Rooms. These sub-folders could then be individually Cloned into your View List and avoid the long lists of duplicated and unused views that we currently have to endure with Sections.

Don't hold your breath for a quick solution though, I am sure GS will advise that there are a lot of technical issues to over come even though it is just rearranging the UI and adapting existing view generation code.

[Jim Allen]

Is this referring to horizontal detail sections?

Can't we create sheets with the relevant GO/MVO and scale that do the same thing?

Isn't it the case that AC Details are intended to use the model as the basis for tracing 2D details over the top that allows you to do things like this?

[David Shorter]

@Jim Allen It should be. Its been a request for years, The worksheet tool should be a live view of the model not a detail like snapshot