We have a copy of ArchiStair but couldn't use it. Why? because it insisted on having a gap between the flights in a Ú'shaped stair.' It only needed to be 1mm - but it had to be there. Plays havoc with dimensioning! Is the latest version any better?

Stairbuilder handlers winders a lot easier in my opinion than Archistair. The method is different though, and it takes some getting used to defining stairs on the plan and on the fly instead of trying to trip around a dialog box and hoping on each trial (as with Archistair) that you get it right this last time.....

The downside of Stairbuilder is that there are a lot of parametric parts that need to be defined before you start drawing the stairs and it can be frustrating trying to find where they went. I also haven't been able to figure out how to get the travel arrow to be storey sensitive since it always seems to point up even if it is traveling down from the current storey. One great thing is that Stairbuilder includes a railing tool that can put railings on the stairs or the landings around stairs, or on any balcony or deck you want.

I figure with this being my last term with Archistair I have a bit of time yet to master Stairbuilder.

BTW we don't do teepees. We are Longhouse people, Kayenke'haka.

Yet one more reason to not use plug-ins... Every single plug-in I did use in the past was deprecated one or two ArchiCAD updates later. So I stopped using them.

The fact that an r11 plugin does not work in r12 is not the fault of Cigraph, though. This is a development issue with ArchiCAD. Each new release breaks binary compatibility (wether justified or not by the internal changes).

But adding a dongle for a plugin seems a bad decisions. If they would allow you to "add" the license to the ArchiCAD dongle as an option, then they would have a better solution.

oreopoulos wrote:

stefan wrote:
The fact that an r11 plugin does not work in r12 is not the fault of Cigraph, though. This is a development issue with ArchiCAD. Each new release breaks binary compatibility (wether justified or not by the internal changes).

Well, when i shouted about those compatibility issues, i was a bad guy

You were always critical. And in most cases for the right reasons. Rest assured that most people who are active here are positive about ArchiCAD but very critical about its features and future(s).

stefan wrote:
But adding a dongle for a plugin seems a bad decisions. If they would allow you to "add" the license to the ArchiCAD dongle as an option, then they would have a better solution.

... as is the case with the MEP Modeler. The functionality is the same - it works where the dongle is.

Then again ... 15 plugins and counting. The WIBU probably has a limit of the licenses it can carry.

Things are not looking good for Cigraph. We use Architerra ( and a few others) and have repeated asked them when the AC12 upgrages are being released. They just ignore the question.

The dongle situation is even worse. We have two licenses for all of their add-ons and received ONE complimentary dongle. Upon asking them for a second so that we can run our other copies, we have been told that Cigraph's policy is to offer only one free dongle and that the others have to be bought. This is unacceptable. The use of dongles is their decision, not that of the users. We will presumably (eventually) be able to buy two upgrades but won't be able to use the second until we also pay for another dongle.

Are there any alternatives to Architerra?