ArchiCAD 16

AEC Magazine looks at the new modelling enhancements, improved component database and drive towards open standards in Graphisoft’s popular Building Information Modelling (BIM) platform, ArchiCAD.

by Martyn Day

Astep change in the use of design be used to create new geome- components and premiumtools is coming. Alongside try from sketches using com- Graphisoft paid content, Graphisoft hopes the mandating of Building mands such as rotational gen- ArchiCAD 16 that a community of users will Information Modelling (BIM) eration or from existing com- build up around the site. by the UK Government, a drive for ponents, which can be selected Price £3,000 plus subscription of £540 improved efficiency in difficult times, and edited through the Morph ■ graphisoft.com Sustainability Graphisoft has means that implementing BIM is now a dialogue. Morph objects can be tried a number of approaches cross industry issue. merged and subtracted with to sustainability. At first a tight

While many architects assume that BIM Boolean tools and then classified as integration with the then independent equals Revit, due to systematic marketing ArchiCAD components, stating if it is load Ecotect linked the two packages well but from Autodesk to its huge AutoCAD cus- bearing or an interior or exterior element, Autodesk’s acquisition nixed that. tomer base, other players are now being which can play a role in analysis later in the EcoDesigner was an additional plug-in that recognised as offering decent alternatives. design process. was developed to offer basic energy analysis Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD is the longest BIM and documentation. product in development, with its first BIM Components The promise of decent In release 16, EcoDesigner and the release in 1987 for both the Mac and BIM drag and drop content has yet to be VIPcore analysis engine have been inteWindows platforms. realised and users can spend a lot of time grated into the core platform and rewritten

While the name implies its architectural building families of parts for projects. to work seamlessly within the design profocus, the software also offers structural Those independent sites that do have BIM cess. The company is actively encouraging elements, as well as models vary greatly in their depth and rich- its customers to start using design analysis an MEP (Mechanical Electrical tools at the conceptual phase. Plumbing) to incorporate ductwork and piping into the architectural design. This is slightly There is no ‘‘ other BIM product The integration makes great use of the fact that the geometry created already has many of the attributes different to the approach that includes such a complex suite required for running energy calcuAutodesk and Bentley have pur sued, mainly ‘siloing’ the disci of IFC filters, reference tools and lations thus speeding up the process. Physical properties of the plines, but both have recently schema editing functions ArchiCAD elements can be edited combined their BIM verticals into the one environment. ArchiCAD has a BIM server for ’’ for experimentation and the application can access online, accurate hour-by-hour online weather data of teamwork and collaboration that allows ness. One site might offer a pure geometry the building’s planned location. simultaneous development of a project representation of a door with no data, EcoDesigner’s clear report formatting model, both inside and outside of a compa- another might have so many variables and has been kept, providing graphical and ny’s firewall. This BIM server is probably associated metadata that they inflate the numeric results. The annual energy conthe best implementation of teamwork in the model size to dangerous proportions. sumption is assessed, including CO2 emispopular BIM products we have seen to date. In release 16, Graphisoft has introduced a sions and monthly energy balance. new online BIM component database, New features BIMcomponents.com, which allows users Open BIM IFC read, write and edit capabiliModelling ArchiCAD 16 introduces to create, search, upload, and download ties within ArchiCAD continue to outpace ‘Morph’ technology, which further expands custom BIM components of their choice in the market and release 16 ArchiCAD continthe geometric capability of the product and the company’s GDL format (Geometric ues that trend. Too many people think savwhich has been an ongoing area of develop- Description Language). ing an IFC file is all that is needed. In reality ment through the last few releases. Morph One of the benefits of GDL is that para- files need to be targeted for what the IFC allows the freeform creation of complex metric families of parts that are easily model is going to be used for and what sysgeometry using a direct modelling method- defined as one object can be defined to be tem it will be opened in. ology — making edges, faces, points and many different variants, taking up only a To do this, users need control over IFC surfaces open to manipulation. Morph can small amount of memory. With both free definitions and filters. Release 16 is faster

at working with IFCs and now supports multiple IFC standard outputs, new data types, IFC site data, and adds Morph objects to the file (geometry that has no normal classification). Conclusion ArchiCAD 16 is now a very hot BIM tool for architects. This release sees it catch up on modelling capabilities compared with its competitors and take the lead in direct modelling ‘shape creation’. ArchiCAD is fun to model with and is as easy to use as SketchUp.

Graphisoft has had to play catch-up with green and energy evaluation, specifically with Autodesk’s acquisition of Ecotect and Green Building Studio (GBS). Release 16 sees Graphisoft enhance its built-in capability and offer a compelling suite of tools without having to leave the familiar ArchiCAD environment.

In the CAD market the term ‘open’ is pretty much a falsehood and while 2D DWG has been solved by most vendors, the move to BIM introduces new data exchange problems that only have partial fixes. When data is added into a BIM model, the only way to extract it for other uses seems to be in many different data formats with broken links and plenty of scope for conversion errors.

Graphisoft has always been one of the major proponents of IFCs and it continues to include richer tools to assist in IFC model creation. There is no other BIM product on the market that includes such a complex suite of IFC filters, reference tools and schema editing functions.

The most obvious difference between ArchiCAD and Autodesk/Bentley is the move to bundle functionality. Graphisoft’s owner, Nemetscheck, has failed so far to integrate its CAD and design brands. Nemetscheck owns a popular German BIM product called Allplan, as well as Vectorworks and Maxon (Cinema 4D) and it seems as though the brands have very little, if anything, to do with each other.

This structure does not help feature development and integration and the strategy does not play to the strengths of the group, especially when in competition with the likes of Autodesk and Bentley. It is perhaps just as well that ArchiCAD is the least expensive BIM modeller on the market.

1 BIMcomponents.com supports the upload and download of custom BIM components 2 Morph elements can be complex shapes made up from multiple Boolean operations and edits, they can then be turned into proper BIM components that have area, volume and load or non-load bearing status 3 The power of Morph technology enables quick editing of standard components and volumes, making this generation of 3D models much quicker

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