ArchiCAD Tips & Tricks: Using Favorites

AECBytes has just posted an informative tutorial penned by Eric Bobrow on the use of the Favorites Palette.

The Printer Friendly Version can be found here.

Nemetschek to Acquire Graphisoft

without embellishment or emphasis from me:

Budapest, 2006 December 21st

Nemetschek AG was granted a call option by Graphisoft’s major shareholders

Major shareholders of Graphisoft SE, holding the majority of the issued shares of Graphisoft SE, and Gerhard Weiss, CEO of Nemetschek AG signed today a call option enabling Nemetschek AG to acquire the majority of Graphisoft SE on an acquisition price of €9/share.

Following the expected exercise of the call option, Nemetschek AG will have majority control of Graphisoft SE and, in line with the effective regulations of the Budapest Stock Exchange, it will make a public tender offer for all shares of Graphisoft SE at €9/share.

“This is a very important strategic financial acquisition and we believe this will substantially increase our shareholder value”, said Mr. Gerhard Weiss, CEO of Nemetschek AG. “It is our intention that Graphisoft will retain its own identity and continue its strong corporate culture and distributor network which is driving its success.”

“There is a consolidation in the software industry and joining the forces of the two leading European AEC (Architecture, Engineering & Construction) software vendors will solidify our global position in the worldwide market. We believe, that this move will serve the interests of our shareholders, customers, partners and employees as well.” said Gabor Bojar, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Graphisoft SE.

Free Software For Students - The Integrated Design Suite

ArchiCAD 10 has been a free download for students since this past August. The procedure is simple. Better still the product is not a sub-set of the commercial version so it moves along with the regular cycle of maintenance releases. Students don't need bugs either.

While this is, in-and-of-itself, a great thing; wait, it gets better.

Imagine ArchiCAD as the information hub or documentation centre on all your projects. What about the modeling of complex geometry, organic forms, etc.? form*Z might be the answer. But, how do you turn a complex form*Z model into a set of live model section drawings? Generally speaking it can't be done.

Enter MaxonForm. This is the modeling engine from Cinema 4D adapted for use as a) a standalone complex modeler; and b) a tool integrated with ArchiCAD to produce sectionable accurate views of any complex geometry created in MaxonForm and integrated into an ArchiCAD model. Better yet, the object remains editable throughout its life by taking it back to the MaxonForm modeler.

So, now we have integrated tools with bi-directional links rather than tools that can't effectively talk to one another. Who needs a disjointed linear workflow?

What about rendering and animation? Abvent's Artlantis Studio is now also a free download for students. Radiosity shading with a link back to the ArchiCAD model database. Continuity. The days of a-model-for-this, a-model-for-that are over.

Lets go back to the beginning - the pre-design, schematic phase. SketchUp can offer structure and massing tools, but what if you're looking for something a little more precise? Something that remains linked to a BIM model. ArchiCAD can be used to create massing models its true, but the translation of relationship diagrams - the stuff you work on as you develop a design from a functional program or a set of design criteria. A new tool that works with ArchiCAD might be just the answer. Affinity, from Trelligence Software creates a pre-design database that once linked to an ArchiCAD model stays linked and allows you to weigh the design against both quantitative and qualitative criteria.

All of these products are available in student versions - all but Affinity are free to students and Institutions. And all, but MaxonForm are available online.

All we need now is a tool for Building Simulation. Ecotect might just fit the bill. Its not free for students, and we are still waiting for the translators to arrive, but a student could buy Ecotect and Affinity take all of the freebies listed above and assemble an integrated design suite for about $149CDN.

That is sweet.

Here's where here to obtain them:

• ArchiCAD 10 & ArtLantis Studio
• MaxonForm
• Affinity
  
• Ecotect

BTW ArchiCAD is able to import files from SketchUp and import/export files to/from Revit, Google Earth, 3D Studio - well just about anything you can think of.

Syllabus Program Goes the Distance

A Memorandum of Understanding has been released outlining Athabasca University's role in the delivery of a revived Syllabus Program for Architects.

Syllabus, a non-academic path to a professional career in architectural practise started in 1978. The program was largely shut down by provincial architectural associations by 2001, but has been revived by the RAIC who now offer a Profession Diploma of Architecture.

The full Press Release is here.

ArchiCAD 10 - 2006 Cadalyst All-Star Winner

ArchiCAD 10 - the only Building Information Modeling (BIM) software recognized by Cadalyst editors in the December issue.

ArchiCAD 10 has won a highly coveted spot on Cadalyst’s 2006 All-Star Award roster. The award seeks to recognize products reviewed by the Cadalyst Lab Reviews Editors in the second half of 2006 that truly standout as exceptional products among those that earned Highly Recommended ratings. These products offer the best-of-the-best when it comes to sleek and sophisticated functionality and powerful and measurable benefits for users.

Ron Lafon, Cadalyst reviewer, characterized ArchiCAD 10 as “fresh, innovative and solid.” Lafon praised the enhanced user interface and found the software to be easier and quicker to navigate. In addition, LaFon commented that, “ArchiCAD 10 is on the cutting edge of interoperability,” allowing users to save files in multiple file formats. LaFon was also impressed with the substantial advances made in the software’s ability to handle vast amounts of information while at the same time, minimizing file size when saved.

The complete review of ArchiCAD 10, published in the December issue of Cadalyst, by Ron LaFon, can be found here.

Virtual Construction Webinars This Week!

Graphisoft's Second Generation Suite of Constructor Products is now released. Two webinars this week will showcase the technology inside Graphisoft Estimator and Graphisoft Control.

I'll post a more comprehensive piece on this later, but if you haven't had a look at Constructor, these would be very good opportunities to see what it does.

Visualization might have been the hallmark of 3D CAD, but the road to BIM will be paved with strides towards integration of disciplines and the management of real projects.

For more information and registration for these events, go here.

Update - Cinema 4D Exchange for ArchiCAD 10

The long awaited update of Maxon's Exchange Plug-In for ArchiCAD 10 to Cinema 4D is now available here.

Quotable: Photorealistic Renderings

Dwight Atkinson bills himself as Canada's Funniest Architect. Like fine wine Atkinson is maturing with age and while his career keens toward Art in the Public Realm, he is still a prescient observer of issues that relate to the Art of Architectural Delineation. A post this morning on ArchiCAD-Talk offers the some of his typically astute advice:

".... Like any machine that requires operator skills, it is that Archicad lets you make an impossible situation by putting up bad textures and asking the rendering engine to solve it with antialiasing.

With all due respect, people making renderings often cause themselves grief by making renderings that are too fine - too many pixels. It is a viscious circle, mainly caused by oversizing texture maps in the rendering. You feel that the rendering lacks sharpness and definition, so you create more pixels. And the rendering takes longer, and it still looks blurry. So you make the rendering even larger, and now the textures fail and your elements reveal themselves as crude blocks rather than finely edged architecture.

The scenario is that Graphisoft gave us small textures to minimise RAM use when creating images. When you try to make a large rendering, the textures get smeary - videoed. Chromatic abberations and blurriness happen when the antialising function is employed on an undersized texture.

My suggestions to rendering success are:

1: make smaller renderings and use a Photoshop trick called "Sharpening." This make edges have more contrast and imples way more detail in an image than that created by making additional pixels. Quicker, too.

2: Study the aspect of your presentation. How close will viewers approach? For instance, billboards, the largest imags we make, are very small files (20DPI or less) because they resolve a block away, not at arms length. We often make images with top resolution for distant viewing and this makes them less visible at that distance. Smaller file - better resolution at a distance, quicker, too.

3: A rendering shouldn't exceed the resolution of what I call its "completion level." A high resolution rendering of a crudely-modelled structure makes it look like a cartoon. Many forum members successfully use sketch techniques to disguise this, but I prefer to add visual noise in Photoshop. It softens edges, disguising crudeness, while maintaining the luminosity and shadows of a photo-rendering. Very real, but remains tentative.

4: Make better, larger textures for your texture library.Use TIFF, not JPEG. JPEG tends to have little crumby artifacts along edges that show up when they reach their size limit.Textures antialiased in Photoshop will look richer than those antialiased in Archicad. Uses more RAM in the rendering, but is faster than asking for antialising calculations.

5: Understand the context limit. Most renderings are made in a context photo. This photo needs to be highly resolved and taken from a tripod for maximum sharpness. So many high-resolution renderings are made against blurry backgrounds. Don't waste your time making a rendering that exceeds the resolution or sharpness of the background. "

ArchiCAD Resources - CADD Magic

Tom Waltz has been an enthusiastic contributor to ArchiCAD-Talk (have you joined yet?), a faithful beta tester, an ArchiCAD manager and integrator for an architectural practise in Philadelphia.

Tom recently launched CADD Magic and has several interesting products on offer. These include GDL objects for the real world, and chapter based training modules delivered as PDFs and video.

Have a look at SuperZone to see what I mean about his real world resourcefulness. The Zone Tool is by far the most powerful reporting tool in the ArchiCAD toolset. Tom takes an existing intelligent label and extends its functionality in a number of ways. Residential designers and large scale firms will find something useful in this tool. $20USD and available online.

Terrain Modeling for ArchiCAD: ArchiTerrra 3

Terrain Modeling in ArchiCAD has been around for some time, but most products have been unable to overcome the problem of how to define existing terrain from man-made interventions. Human intervention prior to design is a given whether you're working in urban areas or trying to develop a new ski resort in the Rockies.

As a consequence the process of modeling terrain has been daunting: first one might model what they imagine the site to be without interventions, add existing roads, buildings, earthworks, etc. and then readjust the model so as they appear to be existing. All this before any new work is done.

The adoption of Boolean operations - the definition of dynamic relationships between objects in a model - or Solid Element Operations as they are referred to in ArchiCAD have changed all that. SEOs have been available in the last three versions of ArchiCAD, but it is only now that a 3rd Party Developer has been able to exploit them in a terrain modeler.

CIGRAPH have today released version 3 of their renowned terrain modeling add-on for ArchiCAD and it would appear to rewrite the way that we can interact with landscapes.

Some of New Features:

• Human interventions are modelled with SEO modifiers and so they can assume irregular shapes more easily;
• Cut and Fill Calculations can be better utilized because the terrain is altered dynamically and the volume calculations are readily updated;
• Terrain can be realistically shaded with gradient colours established by the user;
• Specific terrain features can be mapped to portions of the terrain model using a 2D Fill;
  
• Plateaus can be sloped reducing the number of model element required to define non-level earthworks;
• Road and pavement tools offer more realist treatment of paths, trails, roads, etc. These can be generated from polylines or 2D fills. Shopping Mall designers rejoice!
• Trees, rocks, fences, guardrails are easily inserted and modified in the model. Again, CIGRAPH is exploiting new capabilities in ArchiCAD.

CIGRAPH have always provided first rate tech support and respond enthusiastically to user feedback. Fabrizio Diodati is a frequent contributor to ArchiCAD-TALK. He is usually very happy to work with users - one-to-one - on specific projects. Even more remarkable is that they offer versions of their plug-ins for ArchiCAD versions 8.1 through version 10. For all platforms.

More product information, a working demo and a downloadable user manual can be found here.

Some other recent releases from CIGRAPH include:
ArchiMAP which offers Bluetooth integration of data collected by a Leica DISTO and an ArchiCAD model; as well as
ArchiPANEL - a tool for creating raised floor systems and lay in ceilings.

Roles & Responsibilities in The New CAD

Building Information Modeling is a process. It relies on brains and vision more than any one piece of software. A firm engaged in the transition to BIM will find a transformation of roles and responsibilities as a consequence. CAD operators will evolve into technologists; or knowledge capture specialists or object creators. The IT specialist will not look at the network in the same way any more.

Have a look at the following link: On Land Environment Info

James Murray is a long time ArchiCAD user and an architect who supports the BIM systems at Rill & Decker, Architects PC, an architectural firm in Bethesda, Maryland. At Rill and Decker the pace of change appears to have required a new strategy replacing both the traditional notion of the CAD Standards Manual and the traditional (?) notion of the office intranet.

If you are an ArchiCAD user you are certain to find useful information at On Land. I dare say, if you're engaged in the practise of residential architecture you're likely to find something here, too.

This is the virtual NORTH web log

Using a web site to communicate timely information is beyond the scope of this agieing mortal. While virtual-north.com continues to be a work in progress, the volume of information that might be useful to clients and prospective clients alike is too daunting a task to remain relevant.

Enter the web log. I've called this space a moveable feast. Ever changing, and ecumenical in its offerings. I remain a partisan of the ArchiCAD camp, but the subject of Building Information Modeling is one that must needs be expanded upon for the entire community - the design and construction community - or dare I say The Construction Economy of Western Canada and the Arctic.

On this page you are certain to find something of interest. Over time and the vast distance of subject matter. In a format that we can maintain and keep updated easily.