I fully understand DGSketcher's frustration and that he made such an ironic post. I am the same way. I have rewritten this post three times so as not to be too inflammatory. This is how our continued frustration over the last 5-6 years manifests itself. Before I continue I want to make it clear that it is not my fun to make negative criticisms where I can. I have been working with this software for 25 years (since version 5.0) so I think I have experience of the evolution of ArchiCAD and my commitment is evident. I have stuck with this software for a reason. I have learned GDL programming. I've written thousands of elements over the years because, especially in the early versions, it was necessary to do so to get the right end result. Yet my colleagues and I did not experience this as a reflection of how bad this software is. It had its shortcomings, but we could see that it was moving forward, if not quickly, not always in the direction we would have liked, but it was moving forward. Based on what we have seen in recent years, that confidence is starting to wane, as many colleagues have said in this forum. Over the last few years there have been a succession of developments that have little or no relevance to the day to day work of many architects (that I know). This is not to say that they are completely unnecessary, but the balance has gone very much in their direction. Of course, it is more convenient to organize attributes and layers into folders, I am happy to use them, but if this was three years later and instead some other more important, time and effort saving improvement was implemented, I would smile. As a concrete example, I can give you the issue of door windows, for example, which I recently read in a post. Windows and doors have remained virtually unchanged for 20 years. We made many of our own doors and window elements because we had to. But this is also true for the complete ArchiCAD element set, it is quite outdated and very few. I could go on with the list, but I think it's understandable. Let's not forget the fact that we are paying for this, according to the recent letter, more and more, and that we would like to get substantial improvements. It is particularly infuriating when it also means a step backwards. What Graphisoft has now done with the MEP add-on is beyond outrageous. In version AC 27 they replaced it with a completely useless version. I'm not exaggerating, it is unsuitable for modeling engineering designs. Of course the old version can no longer be run in AC 27. You can search back in the forum, the answer to this is that maybe it will be usable in AC 28, until then let's work in AC 26.... Therefore, our company cannot switch to AC 27, even though we paid the upgrade price for more licenses. Dear Mr Laszlo, I do not think that you would take it with complete peace of mind that if you pay for something and end up hearing, sorry, use the old one because we have ruined the new one, try again next year, but do don't forget to pay the price in the meantime.
Of course, you can say, if you don't like it, switch to another software, don't cry here. As a business manager it is not that simple, I have to make a responsible decision, I am not only responsible for myself. It doesn't happen overnight, but we have come to the point where we are looking at the possibility.
Dear Laszlo, I don't know if this post crosses any boundaries, but as I see little chance of meeting any Graphisoft managers in person to give my opinion, feel free to send this post to them.
I realize that it was a waste of time to write this post and that I could have accomplished as much as shouting it out the window (which elements would need improvement, of course), but I had to write it down.
I apologize for the length and for the fact that English is not very good, it's not my first language.
Keep up the good work, everyone.
