Graphisoft Spins Off Constructor to a New Company

A new company based in the United States will assume control of the software and services provided heretofore by Graphisoft's Constructor division.

The company as yet to be given a formal name, is backed by Borealis Ventures, venture capital firm. Mark Sawyer, formerly a VP at Graphisoft and most recently the CEO of @Last software (the creators of SketchUp) serves as this group's Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

Until then, the Construction Division remains part of Graphisoft and will be continuing to drive business and support customers. The spin out will be headquartered in the United States with subsidiaries in Finland, UK and Hungary. Graphisoft will have a minority interest in the new company and will share in the future upside potential of the business.

The reason that Graphisoft has taken this action is “time horizon” according to Dominic Gallello, CEO of Graphisoft.

“We have proven that the market is real and that we can win. The only challenge is the time that it will take for Virtual Construction to go mainstream in large construction companies on a global basis. This will take several more years. We believe that the financing of the losses required until the market moves more to the mainstream would be best be done outside of Graphisoft.

Financiers who make a business of funding such opportunities were eager to provide additional funding for this effort. Further, the Construction Management teams’ belief in the business was so strong, they were happy to participate in the Management Buy Out.”

There will be no change in the Construction Division’s strategy and Graphisoft and the new company will work closely together in the future. ArchiCAD will continue to serve as the foundation for the new company’s construction offering.

Details about the product suite can be found here.

Graphisoft Young Architects Program

In August 2006 Graphisoft launched a program to provide the best software tools for integrated design to Architecture Students at no charge. This month, we are launching the second phase of this initiative with a program intended to carry this support forward to intern members of the RAIC and the Provincial Architectural Associations.

The Young Architect Program is intended to assist recent grads and interns with the acquisition of state of the art tools to pursue their ambitions. Today's BIM applications are expensive and not always accessible to those starting down the apprenticeship road, often carrying the burden of student loans, etc. We recognize the accomplishments these people have made in completing the academic portion of their training and want to be engaged in the practical aspect of their professional formation.

The Young Architects Program is intended to offer recent graduates and Intern Architects the most established BIM application available today - Graphisoft ArchiCAD - at a 30% discount. We are making this offer to both Interns and firms who support architectural apprentices.

Simply put the program is described as follows:

Recent Graduates and Intern Architects may purchase Graphisoft BIM Design & Documentation products at a 30% discount.

The Products on Offer:

• ArchiCAD Current Commercial Version - $2,975USD (regularly $4,250)
• First Year Technical Support & Upgrades by Annual Subscription - $486USD (regularly $695 - 1st year only)
• MaxonForm NURBS based Modeling inside ArchiCAD - $415USD (regularly $595)
• ArchiCAD StarT Edition - $1,395USD (regularly $1,995)

Who Qualifies:

Students, who are registered and approved on the GS educational website, are eligible one semester after their registration. This extends to three years after their graduation. They are identified based on their EDU registration data.

For students not approved on the GS educational website, this offer is valid for one year after graduation. They have to prove their identity and status by sending a copy of their diploma to virtual NORTH. A copy of the diploma will be sent to Graphisoft with the order.

Young architects, who graduated not more than a year before the launch of this program, will also be eligible for the offer until December 31, 2007. They have to prove their status by sending a copy of their diploma to the virtual NORTH. Again, a copy of the diploma must be sent to Graphisoft with the order.

Rules & Conditions:

Young Architects are able to purchase as individuals, or through their Employer. In this case, the Employer will be the owner of the license. Company sponsored purchases are restricted to one license per Intern.

Additional ArchiCAD licenses purchased by the Employer will be discounted at 10% of SRP. These must be purchased at the same time as the Young Architect licenses.

Transferring these rights is not allowed to a third person.

There is only one opportunity per person to take advantage of this offer.

Graphisoft for Education in Philadelphia

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture are meeting in Philadelphia this year.

Meet representatives of Graphisoft's Education Team and find out what we have to offer your design program. Some of the tools on offer were described in an earlier post.

More information here.

ArchiCARD Testers Wanted

image - Dan Brady, Saatchi Gallery

A number of Templates and Working and environments have been created for ArchiCAD users. These are built with the view to creating efficient environments for working drawings. or contract document sets. One example is the Get Standardized Template developed by Eric Batte, a principal at McLeary German Architects.

But what of the design team attempting to put the first draft of the project into a building model? A simpler interface, with fewer layers, well-defined but schematic textures, and a very small list of building elements - e.g. a fat wall and a skinny wall - will actually make the process simpler. Simpler at the beginning because the palette of materials is smaller and more responsive and simpler as the project is articulated because the elements can be more readily assigned to a more complex list of layers.

Another approach might be to simply do the initial work in something like SketchUp. This approach is attractive because the results are, well, sketchy. Transferring the information to a team assigned the task of design development may well have to start over. The efficacy of SketchUp could in fact disrupt the workflow through the simple disconnect between team members. In the long run I would argue that this form of media transfer is bound to be the cause of a loss of design intent, productivity and even data loss.

ArchiCARD is intended to aid firms in the implementation stage of bIm by providing a simple template that keeps the team using a single tool and a single file for the whole job.

ArchiCARD is inspired by Wes Sims of StantecArchitecture in Edmonton who has never shied away from building simple, elegant physical models of his projects, but found the interface of a bIm application to complex to be fully engaged with.

We're getting ready to start the alpha testing phase for the template and are looking for individuals and firms to assist with its refinement for final release this Spring. If you would like to help, please contact us.

Help Wanted: BIM Modeler to Assist Calgary Architect

A Calgary based architect is looking for assistance and training with a custom residential project. If you are interested or know someone who is please send an inquiry to info@virtual-north.com. The project is being prepared in ArchiCAD version 9. Migration assistance to version 10 would also be requested.

ArchiCAD Drafting Services Required - Calgary

An ArchiCAD draftsman is required to assist with the creation of permit drawings for a house in Calgary. For more information please contact us.

Parametric Electrical Symbols for ArchiCAD 10

A useful electrical symbol library for ArchiCAD is something that has not been readily here in North America. The Graphisoft offering is a weak link in the otherwise well produced library of parametric objects included with ArchiCAD.

Electrigon is the result of a collaboration between users who found a good starting point in custom objects created by David Larrew at Kirksey Architecture.

James Murray with the assistance of Andy Thomson have packaged it for us all to use.

Download the Library here.

Thanks guys!

LightWorks Textures and Rendering Environment

Dwight Atkinson put the Lightworks rendering engine under the microscope in his book Lightworks in ArchiCAD. The book is written in what is almost lab notes fashion, an exposition of experimentation with every facet of the tool. This material was developed and refined in a one day seminar that has been delivered in cities around the World.

Written originally for ArchiCAD version 9, the content of What You Need to Know is still germane to ArchiCAD 10. Supplementary material released online to his readers has been reorganized by Andy Thomson, an ArchiCAD user in Toronto.

ACE Lightworks Materials 1.1 is the result and is available as an Atkinson-sanctioned download with content reorganized for usability. It is available here.

The Book is a reference resource primarily for ArchiCAD users, but Atkinson's approach to rendering and composition in the digital age should be read by anyone trying to create digital visualizations. Get it directly from the author here. $95USD

New GDL Object Information Portal

Congratulations to the Architekturbuero and Joachim Suehlo for the creation of a well organized and readable information portal for all things GDL.

Welcome gotoGDL.net

GDL (Geometric Description Language) is the core of intelligent parametric objects inside ArchiCAD - ArchiCAD speak for what Revit refers to as 'Families".

This site is well-categorized, written in English and will point you to free objects, object vendors, object makers, tutorials for making your own, building products and manufacturer sites that provide native ArchiCAD models, etc.

Other GDL links can be found along the right hand side of this page.

Lightworks Texture Archives Online

Lightworks - the Ray Tracing rendering engine inside ArchiCAD - has a support site for its users. Lightworks-User hosts additional texture libraries - or LWAs - to use with ArchiCAD projects. Most of these are free. To browse the list of available libraries go here.

Not all of these libraries work with ArchiCAD - LWA Enabled: Architectural Functionality labeled files should work. Download thes files and place here: Graphisoft/ArchiCAD 10/Add-Ons/Visualization/smdata/archives

When editing Materials, the LWAs will be visible in the list of Lightworks Shader Settings.

Innovation in Practise - AIA TAP Award Case Study

The RAIC has conferred only one Award of Excellence for practice innovation since it introduced the Archtectural Innovation category in 2001.

• 2003 - Dunlop Architects Inc. (now Stantec) - Dunlop Project Information of Best Practices Database. No documentation about the submission was published - if it was, nothing is currently online.

The AIA established a TAP Award for innovation using bIm in 2005. Among the firms awarded recognition for innovative practise is Kirksey Architecture of Houston Texas. They received an award last year for inspriational product delivery on a design/build project. The design team used bIm to collaborate with the builder/owner and all members of the project team.

A presentation by the architects describing this project was broadcast live over the web two weeks ago and is now viewable on-line the Graphisoft web site.

While you are there, be sure to have a look at the Orcutt/Winslow Partnership Presentation as well. The presentation outlines their working methods and highlights how this firm manages to achieve a company wide buy-in to the process.

Both these firms claim to have as much as 75% of working drawings in place coming out of design development. No small boast.

MaxonForm for ArchiCAD 10 - Mac-Intel Version

The Mac-Intel version of the MaxonForm plug-in is now available.

The download link is here.

virtual NORTH Customer Referral Incentive Program

Our success is based in part on the strength of our strategic user partnership. Working together, we do more to help our customers to achieve meaningful business results and further leverage their investment in ArchiCAD.

To really put our partnership into gear, virtual NORTH has created a user Partner Incentive Program that allows you to personally earn credits toward future purchases for referrals to virtual NORTH.

How the Program Works

If you refer a prospect to virtual NORTH, we will award you vN Credits for each prospect referred that we have not already contacted. If that prospect buys ArchiCAD, then you will receive additional credits.

Prospect Referred = 50 vN credits
Prospect Referred & Closed (ArchiCAD) = 200 vN credits
Prospect Referred & Closed (Start Edition) = 100 vN credits

vN Credits are equal to one dollar that you can use to apply towards any of your BIM-related needs, including ArchiCAD libraries, add-ons, training sessions, upgrades, or even additional sites. Alternatively, credits can be redeemed for cash at 50cents per credit. We maintain a running total spreadsheet to keep track of your referral credits.

For additional information on the incentive program please contact:

Aaron Bourgoin
(780) 628-2750 or aaron@virtual-north.com

Thank you for your partnership and we look forward to your participation in this exciting program.

To send us your referrals, please download and fill out this form.

Lower Mainland ArchiCAD User Group Meeting

The next user group meeting in the Lower Mainland is scheduled for Thursday, March 1. Thomas Palmer of Oberto Oberti Architecture will host the event at their offices.

Thomas will present examples of their ongoing template development with an emphasis on the Layout Book.

For more details and to register go here.

Wanted: ArchiCAD Model Manager

Graphisoft is seeking mid to senior level designers and project managers for involvement in large scale projects which would be delivered as building information models.

Responsibilities include management of client relationships, and daily project team management including work planning, status of project deliverables, and quality control of project documents. Applicants must have at least 7 years of experience in every project phase, and strong 3D modeling skills.

The successful candidate will have a portfolio that demonstrates management of past projects of various sizes and complexity. In addition, candidates must have good mentoring and delegation skills, strong organizational skills, and show an emphasis on motivating the project team and maintaining client relationships. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, extensive knowledge of ArchiCAD 10 are required. Understanding how to successfully establish and maintain remote relationships, and experience with AutoCAD, Revit and MS Project are desirable. A bachelors or masters degree in architecture and 7-10 years experience is expected, and professional registration is desirable.

Please send a cover letter, resume, and 1 -2 work samples as Acrobat PDFs to: RBrouwers@graphisoft.com or mail/fax to: Graphisoft c/o Robin Brouwers, One Gateway Center, Suite 302, Newton, Massachusetts 02458-2802 USA, Phone: 617-485-4203, Fax: 615-216-5542