Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

a "massing" tool !

Anonymous
Not applicable
Like in Revit, where you can create slabs and walls, and make area calculations from linked volumes, even imported geometries from other modellers.
A bit like the Sketchup import but for all geometries, with dynamic link and with calculation possibilities.
12 REPLIES 12
Anonymous
Not applicable
That would be great! I don't know how it works in revit, but the ability to convert the edges of a geometry to beams/columns,the faces to walls/slabs its just fantastic! I imagine the productivity would rise up 200%! If only we had some descent modeling tools (like rhino,sketchup maybe..) to create geometries..or good imports...ESSENTIAL._
Anonymous
Not applicable
Rather depressing to realize increasingly most**wishes** are found in a competitors product....think
- rendering engine
- complex shape modeling incl. nurbs etc.
- 'visual gdl'
- ability to create relationships between elements (no code required!)
- the oft promised but never delivered product libraries available for drag and drop into projects (admittedly some manufacturers have made parts but nothing like the numbers who are making parts for revit)
-etc etc.
This wish of the massing tool is yet another...


a very sobering thought for GS marketers and forward planners.....
after all we are no longer seeing innovation, rather a me-too approach. The powerful simplicity of Sketchup* revealed there is still room for some fresh thinking in the CAD world.

and given the stony silence from GS HQ & their track record, we cannot hope for much change anytime soon either.....

*-Watch out; with add-ons to Sketchup it is becoming quite a competent platform. Include some 2D documentation tools and GS should be worried....
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
rwallis wrote:
Rather depressing to realize increasingly most**wishes** are found in a competitors product....
As Wes, or someone else, noted in a Revit v. ArchiCAD thread ... many of our wishlist items may be in Revit ... but many of their wishlist items are in ArchiCAD. So, if one wants to get unhappy about a half-full glass, one will be unhappy anywhere.

Back to this wish: I really have no idea what the wish is wishing for, Olivier. Could you be more detailed?

Thanks,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello Karl!
massing means that you could model volumes and then convert it to Cad elements both for continuing the project and for making quick calculations.
For example if you are planning a block in a city and would like to see how many sq. meters you would have in your different volumetric options.
Here it is a link that shows how it works between Rhino and Revit:
http://designreform.net/2008/07/17/rhino-autocad-revit-linking-complex-form-to-drive-massing/

My point is not to make adv for Revit, but GS should keep up the competition and dare take ideas from the other, like the others took from GS.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Olivier wrote:
For example if you are planning a block in a city and would like to see how many sq. meters you would have in your different volumetric options.
Here it is a link that shows how it works between Rhino and Revit:
http://designreform.net/2008/07/17/rhino-autocad-revit-linking-complex-form-to-drive-massing/
That's pretty impressive. Hope we'll have something like that in AC in the future.
vistasp
Advisor
Since sketchup is so widely used (and does an excellent job of massing), it might be preferable to ask for a more powerful sketchup importer. If GS is to concentrate its resources on core BIM/architectural functions they need not duplicate something that's already available. Just my Rs. 0.02
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Anonymous
Not applicable
vistasp wrote:
Since sketchup is so widely used (and does an excellent job of massing), it might be preferable to ask for a more powerful sketchup importer. If GS is to concentrate its resources on core BIM/architectural functions they need not duplicate something that's already available. Just my Rs. 0.02
Yep... working sketchup-import...released with Archicad 😉
NandoMogollon
Advocate
A massing tool as called by Revit users, is basically a free 3D from volume, "sketchUp-like" where you can Start the design process.

AC doesn't need to create a new tool for it.

Indeed it would be a Great Improvement for the Zone Tool.

Just imagine an improved new Zone Tool where you could:
- Model a Free mass Zone, in a SketchUp style. (push & pull) to start the creative process.
- Automatically create walls and slabs or roofs with the magic wand (3D window) on the faces of that Zone.
- Split the Big zone into several smaller zones or spaces. Think about zones belonging to another zones, this would improve also the relations between elements.
- Keep the relationships between Zones and construction elements (i.e walls), so if you move/push/pull one side of the Zone, the wall/slab follows the change.

To me it sounds like a BIG Improvement (not a new tool, but the improvement of a known old one) with little effort from GS.

Best Regards.

Nando
Nando Mogollon
Director @ BuilDigital
nando@buildigital.com.au
Using, Archicad Latest AU and INT. Revit Latest (have to keep comparing notes)
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Anonymous
Not applicable
NandoMogollon wrote:
A massing tool as called by Revit users, is basically a free 3D from volume, "sketchUp-like" where you can Start the design process.

AC doesn't need to create a new tool for it.

Indeed it would be a Great Improvement for the Zone Tool.

Just imagine an improved new Zone Tool where you could:
- Model a Free mass Zone, in a SketchUp style. (push & pull) to start the creative process.
- Automatically create walls and slabs or roofs with the magic wand (3D window) on the faces of that Zone.
- Split the Big zone into several smaller zones or spaces. Think about zones belonging to another zones, this would improve also the relations between elements.
- Keep the relationships between Zones and construction elements (i.e walls), so if you move/push/pull one side of the Zone, the wall/slab follows the change.

To me it sounds like a BIG Improvement (not a new tool, but the improvement of a known old one) with little effort from GS.

Best Regards.

Nando
Such improvements to the zone tool have been suggested before and would be GREAT. Truly a BIG improvement but not a trivial effort I think. The zone tool already has numerous relationships and functions within the program and maintaining these while expanding the geometry definition of the tool could be quite a challenge. Nevertheless very much worth doing IMHO.