On the 29th August, Graphicsoft organised an ARCHICAD 22 Launch Event, BIM Inside and Out. In the event, Graphicsoft announced some of the newly released ARCHICAD 22 new features. There were three takeaways from the new features, which is quite useful. The modelling of curtain walling has become highly adaptive, ease of interoperability from Grasshopper to Rhino to ARCHICAD and BIMx is a powerful viewing tool that can overlay plans and sections over the ARCHICAD Model.
Before we dive into the takeaways, there are some worthy mentions of the event. Firstly, Graphicsoft has contributed much to the ‘Local Know-How’, where they have written on Contractor’s Essential Guides, BCA AC Native Submission Template, BCA ARCHICAD Template Guide for Architecture, Structural and MEP, ARCHICAD BIM implementation Guide, Case Studies, Revit to ARCHICAD and BIMx Guide, and so much more. It is impressive that they have invested so much of their time to write these literature for the Singapore’s Built Environment. As a BIM enthusiast, we are truly blessed with the guides, because it helps save us time from writing our own.
Secondly, Graphicsoft is very responsive to user’s feedback. They have a lot of user empathy, where users will feedback to them how modelling can be done in a more productive manner through their UX. To close the loop, at every launch they will resolve those issues feedback to them by launching them as new features. Thus enabling ARCHICAD to be more user friendly with every new launch.
There were many Curtain Wall tool improvements and input enhancements. There was this leaves image imported into the model for tracing. The trace was via the Curtain Walling System Frames. Once the trace is complete and applied onto the façade, the Curtain Wall of the Modelling will reflect as per trace.
If the Curtain Wall patterns are proportionately oversize, they could be re-sized to fit the Façade canvas in a proportion that is aesthetically more pleasing. Infills could then be removed as openings to give the façade porosity.
The other striking Curtain Walling Modelling improvement is when they demonstrated the parametric adaptability of the Hexagonal Pattern Curtain Wall. A pre-made Hexagonal Pattern Curtain Wall was shown. A window panel is assigned to one of the infill panels, and when some of the frames of the Curtain Wall is removed, the Window Panel will adapt accordingly to fit within the confines of the newly adjusted frames.
We all know with proper scripting, computational design can be achieved with ease. The next demonstration showed an office tower, with rhombus and trapezium curtain walling patterns, where the panel distribution is govern by the Grasshopper scripting. This looks simple enough at first glance, well this not does mean the script is easy to compute though. However, in the context of what followed, were the frames, populating throughout the tower’s curtain wall panels with the next run of the script. Eventually, the complexity of script further illustrated with the simple adjustment of the single attractor slider, the frames width varied with a thicker thickness on the lower floors and as the frames ascend, and the thinner they became. It was incredibly seamless; the inter-operability from Grasshopper to Rhino to Archicad is indeed smooth. The only complain one might have is one monitor screen is insufficient.
Finally, the last takeaway is the BIMx showcase. BIMx is the water-downed version of ARCHICAD’s complex BIM authoring environment UI. Basically, BIMx cannot execute any authoring functions, it does however has the 3D cutting planes function similar to ARCHICAD. When activated, 2D documented pdfs are overlaid onto the cut planes of the 3D model. BIMx also serve as a viewer of the 3D model and 2D documentation can be viewed similar to how viewing of plans, sections and elevations can be viewed in ARCHICAD’s project map. BIMx is available as both a desktop app or a mobile app.
There were many more exciting features that were demonstrated and we are truly grateful to Graphicsoft for such an Event. As a conclusion to the event, I would like to borrow some ‘Final Conclusion’ from the Event’s guest speaker, ENZYME, Jorge Beneitez, ‘the current market trend is constantly introducing new challenges and with the use of technology it can help us improve productivity and project impact’. ‘Data is the new value now’ and so much of it is captured it has become a science and thus to stay competitive in current climate, Innovation and Research is key. So what say you then? Are you ready for a time of lifelong learning?