Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

ArchiCAD 12 - Sneak Preview

Anonymous
Not applicable
I saw a movie about ArchiCAD 12 on YouTube. The comments say there is a hidden message. I think I know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_6Dxkkjr80
46 REPLIES 46
Thomas Holm
Booster
Bricklyne wrote:
...Will 12 be up to the challenge?
I've read the review. I find Lachmi either heavily biased, or just uninformed. She also reviews Archicad. She shouldn't do that if she's impressed with this. The rendering seems improved but not beyond Lightworks in Archicad. And I like hte capability to accurately measure irregular volumes (something I've never needed)

But judging from this review, this Revit release really seems like a me-too, compared to Archicad 11. No need for a 12 to beat that. Of course, she might have missed the point, like she obviously has regarding Archicad.

I find it amazing that reviewers always focus on some details in modeling features, but almos always miss the real advantage with Archicad: The workflow. The smoothness of producing, fast, what you need to design and document buildings (not necessarily free-formed).

The design-save view-place in layout-publish layout book smooth, fast and extremely productive workflow of Archicad is still unchallenged, it seems! Correct me if I'm wrong!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Chadwick
Newcomer
Thomas wrote:
The rendering seems improved but not beyond Lightworks in Archicad.
Wait, has Lightworks changed since the last time I used it? (Version 10) Maybe...MAYBE...after lots of tweaking and trial and error you could get Lightworks to do what the MR engine in Revit can do with much ease. You are right, it is about work flow - and Lightworks is terrible when it comes to just that. That is unless something has changed since v10 that I am unaware of...

I'm writing this in fairness of being informed having used Lightworks, albeit in v10.
RA 2012 x64, Piranesi 6 Pro, Sketchup 8, Windows 7 Pro x64, Intel Core i7, 10GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobile 5870
Thomas wrote:
Bricklyne wrote:
...Will 12 be up to the challenge?
I've read the review. I find Lachmi either heavily biased, or just uninformed. She also reviews Archicad. She shouldn't do that if she's impressed with this. The rendering seems improved but not beyond Lightworks in Archicad.
Obviously nobody is going to argue the point that Lachmi is ridiculously biased to the point of parody or to the point of comical levels. Not to mention the fact that AECbytes are so deep inside AutoTable's pockets that you're more likely to find the Lochness monster in their articles than you are to find objectivity in their reviews.

But she still raised some valid points in that "review". For one thing not many people are going to argue that Lightworks, as it is implemented in ArchiCAD (sans radiosity or a decent material/texture mapping interface, or extensive texture library in general) doesn't even begin to enter into an conversation where Mentalray is involved. For one thing Mentalray is a professional render engine, meaning it's employed by everybody serious about visualizations from professional CGartists and Archvizer's to Hollywood's VFXers. It's not even a competition.
But as I've always argued, all that Graphisoft need to do to counter that effectively is to license ASGVis to write a Vray bridge for ArchiCAD and even have them develop it as a separate module that can be purchased from ASGvis directly themselves as they've done with Sketchup, and Rhino's bridges. ArchiCAD 12 with the option of a Vray bridge to go with the existing Maxwell renderer bridge. Job done.

Thomas wrote:
But judging from this review, this Revit release really seems like a me-too, compared to Archicad 11. No need for a 12 to beat that. Of course, she might have missed the point, like she obviously has regarding Archicad.
Well, that's true, and she also did kind of allude to this by pointing out how the new so-called Swept-blend freeform tool still handles clunkily compared to ArchiCAD's Complex profile manager and wall modification tools when it comes to placing construction elements such as windows and doors onto the created profiled wall, and having them align right.

It's obvious that in certain aspects and features, ArchiCAD still holds the standard, by virtue of its intuitive workflow and interface, but the point would be that this Revit release has still made considerable strides in closing some of those gaps. And basically they are doing so by addressing their own seriously lacking capabilities (such as replacing the vastly outdated Accurender rendering engine with a flavour of Mentalray). My question however was can we as ArchiCAD users also hope that GS will sooner rather than later address some of the long-standing weaknesses of the program (Stairmaker, improved custom door/window maker-designer interface, graphical interface to replace GDL manipulation and creation of parametric library objects and so on and so on......) rather than just releasing a version to play a kind of "Keeping up with the Jones'..." game with Revit?


In any event I wouldn't expect that whatever they release they will be getting any love or positive review from AECbytes or any of the now horribly Autodesk-contaminated Stateside Architectural journals, periodicals or reviews. Last year AC v11 didn't get reviewd in Architectural record until close to 6 months after it had been released, and even then they did a shoddy job of it. I don't expect this to improve any time soon as long as AutoTable keeps lining their pockets with advertising dollar$$.
stefan
Expert
Considering the rendering engine:

LightWorks is used in other (mostly CAD) applications where it can get to very good results. It even has the technology to apply realtime shaders, which would seriously boost the 3D Window look, limiting the need for rendering in many cases. Although I have doubts about the scalability of this in the large and polygon-heavy ArchiCAD models.

That said, Mental Ray is available in many high-end 3D applications, including most Autodesk programs and Softimage|XSI. It is used in movies and is a close competitor to Photorealistic RenderMan (from Pixar). Chances are that the majority of what you see in Cinema Effect is created in either Mental Ray or RenderMan.

While you can have comments on the AecBytes postings, I still find them to be on a quite high level. The attention to Revit is logic, as it is heavily visible in any BIM-related discussion (just look through this ArchiCAD-Talk forum).
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
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Thomas Holm
Booster
stefan wrote:
Considering the rendering engine:
I just like to add that I'm aware that Lightworks is a bit crippled in Archicad, and that I have no personal experience of Mental Ray. But the fact that this method is used in some high-end apps doesn't warrant what you can get out of it in Revit. The same applies to Lightworks.

Just as I wrote yesterday, I made my judgement solely from the images posted in the review. They are, as I see it, by no means superior to what can be achieved with Lightworks in Archicad. On the contrary, they seem to show somewhat similar problems!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Chadwick
Newcomer
See images posted below. These took little time to set up as far as materials, set a setting to medium and hit render. I could take more time to tweak them and get a better result, but these are with very little time put into them.

No long work-arounds to rid myself of 'black soffit disease'...
RA 2012 x64, Piranesi 6 Pro, Sketchup 8, Windows 7 Pro x64, Intel Core i7, 10GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobile 5870
Rakela Raul
Participant
I would like to see those pics Chad, but im not allowed to go in..can you maybe show one or 2 here? when a chance .. thx
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Chadwick
Newcomer
Sure... here you go
RA 2012 x64, Piranesi 6 Pro, Sketchup 8, Windows 7 Pro x64, Intel Core i7, 10GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobile 5870
Chadwick
Newcomer
Another...
RA 2012 x64, Piranesi 6 Pro, Sketchup 8, Windows 7 Pro x64, Intel Core i7, 10GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobile 5870
Chadwick
Newcomer
Exterior...
RA 2012 x64, Piranesi 6 Pro, Sketchup 8, Windows 7 Pro x64, Intel Core i7, 10GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobile 5870