Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD 15 won Construction Computing Magazine’s BIM Product of the Year in 2011 and now the company has released a white paper titled, “Get There Faster with ArchiCAD.” The white paper examines five critical areas to explore before making final BIM software selection. The sole purpose of the white paper is to provide accurate, reliable information about critical issues related to BIM and how ArchiCAD technology addresses these issues.

The key issue areas are:

• Improve profitability
• Enable agile and competitive workflow
• Provide real-time collaboration
• Easy-to-learn and simplfied 3D workflow
• Optimizes use of computer hardware power
• Keeps IT costs low
• Is a secure and proven BIM product

The white paper shares expertise from six design leaders. The company says, “we want to teach and educate in an effort to help architects make informed technology decisions.”

You can download the BIM white-paper here.

LumenRT 2 for SketchUp on Mac and Windows has an entirely new, state-of-the-art real-time rendering engine. The program boasts a complete physical simulation of light, physical and accurate reflections, time-of-day (TOD) real-time rendering adjustability, precise anti-aliasing and motion-blur, software shadows, superb water and underwater effects, realistic skies and advanced material rendering.

01 - LumenRT 2 has stunning real-time lighting rendering capability. (image courtesy of e-on Software)

Some specific new features in version 2 include:

• Standard quality mode generates fast lighting using global illumination
• Accelerated processing of scenes with visual feedback
• Export SketchUp time-lapse animations support
• LumenRT material editor lets you adjust materials directly inside SketchUp
• Create animations of unlimited length
• Low-quality real-time rendering mode for slower graphics boards

e-on Software said the product, currently compatible with SketchUp, is being ported to other 3D platforms, but did not announce which ones. For this major release the company is publishing a free trial version or LumenRT 2 for Mac and Windows, immediately available for download at: try.lumenrt.com

LumenRT is the only solution that combines real-time rendering with a full, physical simulation of light, letting architects and their clients accurately experience the true volume and lighting of their designs.

LumenRT 2 is a plugin application for SketchUp and works on both the free and Pro versions of SketchUp. The product retails for 295.USD with an introductory price of 195.USD. It is supported on SketchUp on Mac OS X platforms (10.6+) and Widnows XP, Vista and 7. Users of LumenRT are eligible for a free upgrade to LumenRT 2 until February 29, 2012. The free trial version is fully functional for up to 15 days. Output for the trial version is watermarked.

To learn more visit LumenRT here.

This week the company previewed Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac. As part of the Inventor product family, Inventor Fusion is primarily a 3D mechanical CAD modeler application designed to engage emerging young engineers and designers.

Kevin Schneider, Sr. Product Line Manager for Autodesk Design, Lifecycle and Simulation Product Group, noted that Inventor Fusion is the first dedicated mechanical CAD product from Autodesk that is a Mac product.

01 - Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac. A new Mac-native ground-up mCAD modeling program for emerging mechanical engineers and design professionals.

“When we look at the next generation of designers and engineers,” says Schneider “we see their expectations of choice and software is very different than the current generation.” Autodesk told Architosh that the company is adapting to trends that show that the future generation of engineers and designers are increasingly coming both to and out of college with an affinity for Apple’s platforms.

While Autodesk Inventor is the company’s Windows-only full-fledged professional mechanical CAD product, Inventor Fusion for Mac is a simplified entry-level product that has been written from the ground-up on Mac OS X. It has a ’state-of-the-art’ modern user-interface and advanced modeling functionality.

The formal release of the product is aimed for the first quarter of 2012. Professionals and students interested in the Mac-based Inventor Fusion can learn more at a special page on Facebook setup by Autodesk (http://www.facebook.com/InventorFusion)

Final pricing has also not been set but those who engage in the public technology preview can try out Fusion for the Mac for free. You can sign up here.

The company is touting its latest integrative rendering technologies and strategies for architectural designers to allow them to create world-class visualizations for their designs using a range of tools options within the Vectorworks – CINEMA 4D family. Because your Vectorworks and Class structures are preserved with you send your files to Maxon’s award-winning CINEMA 4D Visualize product suite, you will enjoy a level of design control that is impossible to match with competing products.

Focus on Getting Vectorworks Models Into CINEMA 4D Visualize

The webinar focuses on the fundamentals of getting your Vectorworks models into CINEMA 4D. Key items covered include:

• Exportation of Vectorworks and Renderworks files into CINEMA 4D Visualize using the Send to CINEMA 4D menu command
• Fine-tune your CINEMA 4D settings to create “unique” presentations
• Quickly create very sophisticated animations, walkthroughs and flyovers

This is a must event for Vectorworks based architects who either use Renderworks now or another tool for this kind of work. Today’s Vectorworks not only utilizes the Maxon CINEMA 4D rendering engine internally but has round-trip fidelity with the professional 3D package.

To sign up click on the banner ad for the event on Architosh or go here.

Under communist law, it was actually illegal to own a personal computer, according to Gabor Bojar, the company’s founder, who remarked: “A real entrepreneur is never afraid to take a risk.” Gabor risked a prison sentence by taking a strictly embargoed product (the Mac) onboard a plane from the West to Budapest, so that six months later they could unveil ArchiCAD for the Mac.

Gabor’s remarks during the unveiling are partly included in the blog post here. They are a wonderful testament (to Jobs and Graphisoft itself) and an illuminating story for people of the West in particular to read.

Read the blog post here.

Architosh received word this morning from T-Splines leader Matthew Sederberg. No terms were disclosed in the deal. Sederberg reports in his email that he will be taking up the position of Product Manager at Autodesk in charge of T-Splines technology.

To read the brief press release visit here.

Architosh Analysis: We were a little surprised by this move on the part of T-Splines. This is a tiny software company compared to Autodesk, located a considerable distance up in Utah. T-Splines makes a plugin product for McNeel’s Rhino modeling software platform. Now that Autodesk has purchased this technology we are left wondering if the CAD giant will continue to develop and market this key plugin for a rival’s modeling software. Sederber writes, “Autodesk is currently investigating an approach to continued selling the T-Splines plugins.”

T-Splines actually makes two plugins, one for Rhino and one for SolidWorks. Our guess is that if anything provoked Autodesk to purchase this technology it was tsElements for Solidworks, a major rival to Autodesk in the product development markets.

A webpage dedicated to the planned event states: “Graphisoft considers Steve Jobs the greatest hero of the information age. We believe such superlatives are warranted: indeed, we cannot be entirely objective with respect to Steve Jobs, because to a large extent, Graphisoft ArchiCAD owes its global success to him. In 1984, Apple was willing to give Graphisoft a chance.”

BIM Begins on Apple Lisa

ArchiCAD is largely considered the very first true BIM (Building Information Modeling) software program, inventing and coining the term “virtual building” in the process of developing 3D CAD for architects which enabled them to literally build the building, completely, in 3D on the computer. “The first version of ArchiCAD ran on a Lisa computer, the immediate predecessor to the Macintosh,” reports the company. “We exhibited this program at the 1984 CEBIT in Hannover, where Steve Jobs saw it and decided to give Apple’s full support to its development and distribution. Apple gave us cash and computers at a time when Graphisoft was a young company with very limited resources; the technology represented by those computers was not even available in our part of the world.”

01 - Ark-Coca-Cola skyscraper wins fifth design excellence award. The project is a BIM achievement in Australia and was designed using Graphisoft ArchiCAD.

ArchiCAD quickly became available on the Mac and remained an exclusive on the Mac well into the 1990’s. Apple introduced the young Hungarian company to its global distribution network, which the company relies on to this day, helping sell and represent ArchiCAD in countries around the world.

“In 1985, after Steve Jobs left Apple, the company lost its soul,” states Graphisoft on this webpage. “At the time, many of our partners said that Graphisoft was the guardian of Apple’s spirit and soul. Some even said that we were the ‘real Apple’ at that time. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple 12 years later, the company again began to create miracles.”

“The working environment at Graphisoft Park embodies the spirit of Steve Jobs, which strives for excellence in every detail. Our built environment aims to inspire and promote this passion for quality in the talented people who work here. Graphisoft Park is indeed a fitting location for a statue commemorating Steve Jobs and his legacy.”

To learn more about Graphisoft’s thoughts on Steve Jobs and its view on Apple and the Graphisoft connection, click here. The event takes place in front of the Graphisoft building, 1031 Budapest, Zahony u, 7, G Building, at 3:00PM CET.

Those who wish to attend can RSVP by contacting Julianna Gulden, Graphisoft PR at: jgulden@graphisoft.com

Graphisoft also took home the award for Environmental Project of the Year for Rural Regeneration Centre at Hadlow College, the UK’s first certified Passivhaus educational building.

To learn more about Graphisoft’s BIM solution ArchiCAD 15 go here.

Lightwave 3D 11 features tons of new features. Instancing enables you to create mass duplicates of objects in a scene with very little overhead. These “virtual” polygon counts will not cause your machine to run out of memory. Instances are not mere clones they can be randomly different via scaling, position, rotation and even surface complexity.

Flocking enhances natural motions with such things as schools of fish, birds, et cetera. Fracture is a new modeler tool and was designed specifically to compliment Bullet dynamics in the Lightwave Layout. It allows the 3D artist to “pre-fracture” an object ready for destruction. Bullet is a fast, production-proven, open-source physics engine that does what you think it does. Lightwave 3D 11 features the Bullet engine directly in Layout.

Lightwave 3D 11 now has a much enhanced Virtual Studio Tools, allowing the user to configure various third-party device controllers (e.g.: SpaceNavigator, Playstation Move). GoZ is a new interchange technology in this version that enables users to send model and texture data to and from Pixologic’s ZBrush.

Rendering is improved thanks to new improvements in the Render Buffer. Saving and viewing various buffers produced by the render engine to make up an image is now more powerful and easier to use. This improves renders out for compositing.

Version 11 now includes Python scripting. Python is an industry standard for scripting and further allows the customization of Lightwave 3D. FiberFX has a new volume rendering mode called Stroke. Version 11 allows you to now make very realistic fibers. FiberFX now uses the new instancing technology as well.

Other Improvements

The user interface has been enhanced, especially in the area of the node editor. There are IK rigs improvements, huge speed boosts in areas such as loading scenes, many modeler optimizations and enhancements. Items can now be modeled off axis. There are OBJ file format support improvements, shader improvements and a whole lot more.

Lightwave 3D 11 is offered today for registered current users as a pre-release advanced beta. The full final release is scheduled for end of year.

To learn more about the new Newtek Lightwave 3D 11 visit them online here.

NCME and Graphisoft agree to establish a NCME-Graphisoft Strategic Partnership with objective to promote and implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) to strengthen the design capabilities of NCME, the brand and influence of NCME, to support the growth of BIM in China and the creation of specifications for municipal design, as well as BIM standards for China based upon Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD and related software.

North China Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute (NCME) is a nationally recognized, professional organization. A design and research organization integrating urban planning, cost consulting, environmental assessment, project design, contract engineering, project supervision, research and technology development.

During the course of the next three years, Graphisoft will assist NCME with implementing BIM on design, collaboration, sustainability, and create BIM specifications.

To learn more about ArchiCAD visit them online here: www.graphisoft.com

Architosh Analysis

Graphisoft continues to make substantial progress in China with several related agreements like this one in the past few years. Recently Architosh reported on Graphisoft’s team-up with United Design Group of Shanghai, China. And just this early Fall the BIM innovator signed a MOU with China Academy of Building Research Architecture Design Institute.

With China’s recent construction boom BIM is exploding in the growing country. Large-scale agreements like this one can form a very positive momentum for the BIM innovator, growing its market share and attraction in one of the largest markets in the world.

The current beta version supports the conversion of up to five rooms with full functionality from drawings made using the Apple iPad version of OrthoGraph. This limitation of the five rooms can be turned off in the final release by purchasing a full license, which the company says will be a fraction of the cost OrthoGraph Survey.

01 - OrthoGraph ArchiCAD Import Module enables you to bring in measured rooms from OrthoGraph on your iPad into ArchiCAD for Mac and Windows.

OrthoGraph ArchiCAD is available for both Mac and Windows and runs with ArchiCAD 14 and 15, plus ArchiCAD Start Edition 2011. For more information visit this product page on the web.

KeyShot 3 includes a new, patent-pending animation system, major improvements to the UI and workflow and over 400 new materials and new importers for NX, Parasolid, JT, Solid Edge and SolidWorks for PC and Mac.

KeyShot 3 Features

KeyShot features a brand new realtime 3D animation system that is geared towards designers, engineers and marketing professionals, not animation and rendering studio professionals. This makes it easy for users to quickly produce high-quality results. KeyShot 3 breaks down the complexity when creating part and camera animations from 3D models.

Rather than rely on keyframes, a traditional approach to animation, KeyShot 3 introduces a new and patent-pending system based on offset transforms. These transforms can be combined to create complex part and camera animations. Animations can be output to AVI, Apple QuickTime and Adobe Flash.

The user interface has been greatly improved. New areas include improved model interaction, redesigned library section, better material editing, texture mapping and general dialog cleanup.

KeyShot 3 now has more pipeline options for both Mac and PC. All formats are now supported on both Mac or PC as well, so Mac-based users can grab and import file formats associated with traditionally Windows-only based CAD programs. Some highlights include new support for NX 8 and prior with ability to control tessellation. Same goes for Parasolid, making KeyShot an option for Vectorworks users since that program is based on the Parasolid kernel. FBX importer now supports part animation that can be imported and played back.

To see all the features in detail visit them online at: www.keyshot.com

formZ 7 News

formZ 7.0 has what the company is calling a “game-changing” ‘intuitive interface. All model building is dynamic, intentionally tentative, and continuously changeable, which allows you to explore and experiment with no restrictions during the design process.

Back in October the company showcased the new formZ 7 at the ACADIA Conference, referring to the newly updated program as outfitted for the new parametrics of digital design. That day the new Reshape tool was covered to explain how to sculpt and conceptual design ideas with ease. New parametric controls allow for endless experimentation and iterative design.

This new game-changing interface gains on what the company learned from creating bonzai 3D, its powerful NURBS program that is as easy to use as SketchUp but with true class-A NURBS. New intelligent smart interface guides help you model in formZ 7 more efficiently. New parametric, numeric and free-from modeling choices can be dynamically changed during design. There are powerful new digital fabrication tools, plus easier NURBS modeling.

Get Your Copy

You can donwload a free beta 5 version of the new formZ 7 here by just filling out a form. There are also webinars covering the new formZ 7. Unfortunately, the company often gives very little notice with such webinars and the first one passed yesterday. Part 2 of the new webinar series covers Visualization, Rendering, Fabrication and Presentation and will give potential users a good view of the new formZ 7 and its new interface.

That webinar is scheduled for 17 November 2011. To register click here.

Autodesk sees the maker movement as a key step in the next industrial revolution, whereby local manufacturing and product making becomes a growing industry. A Young and Rubicon study puts the DIY (do it yourself) market at $700 billion.

Autodesk 123D Make is Mac OS X only at the moment and allows you to slice up a 3D model into flat plates or sheets which can easily be cut out by hand or via a laser cutter or similar device. These flat plates are then assembled together to create a physical 3D model. Autodesk 123D Catch is the new name for the old Autodesk Labs Photofly technology and is only for Windows at the moment. With 123D Catch you capture photographs of an object you are interested in from various angles and create a 3D model from the photographic data. This is photogrammetry and we’ve written about such products here at Architosh in the past.

01 - Autodesk 123D Make for Mac. Allows you to produce cut-out flat-section physical models from your 3D model data.

All these new 123D tools are essentially quite young and Autodesk is pushing them out into the wild while they are still in Labs. The goal is to get people to use them and give them key feedback for their evolution.

You can download these tools for free today. Go here to get Autodesk 123D Catch (Windows) and here to get Autodesk 123D Make (Mac).

Autodesk has been acquiring many smaller software firms and so the inconsistent platform coverage is a reflection of where the tools have emerged from–which software teams and players working on such and such platforms–and not a reflection of the company’s OS coverage or organization. The goal is to make them work across multiple and even platforms as best suited to markets.

In the past Chris has spoken to Architosh about the detailed relationship between Apple hardware engineering and AMD/ATi, and the various details that shape the decision-making process in hardware design and the resultant performance realities for users. Our “state of the union” style series wouldn’t be complete without a serious fireside chat with Chris Bentley. He has been on the extreme inside tract of Apple’s Mac hardware engineering like no other outside Apple for many years.

So let’s get in real close and talk about Mac graphics!

AFR: (Anthony Frausto-Robledo): In your role you are on the inside track of hardware development. Can you describe to me briefly the importance AMD/ATi plays in supporting Apple’s Mac graphics hardware advances? To what degree is AMD/ATi an influence on Apple’s decisions?

CB: (Chris Bentley): Apple is relentlessly innovative both in software and hardware, and especially in the combination of the two.  I looked back over the interview we did in January 2007;  apart from being a good read, I am struck by the fact that it came out just on the cusp of Apple introducing the first iPhone.  Since then Apple has shipped multiple generations of the iPhone, the iPod Touch, the iPad, the iPad 2, the MacBook Air, and numerous laptop and desktop systems.  All of these devices are powered by OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics.  I think it’s fairly well accepted that Apple has shipped more OpenGL accelerated devices than any one else on the planet.

AMD works closely with Apple on both the software and hardware sides.  The software we write for Apple is entirely customized for Mac OS X.  Since 2007 we have added support for the Radeon HD 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx, 5xxx, 6xxx chip families, and added support for OpenGL 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, encompassing over 30 new features and extensions, as well as OpenCL 1.0, 1.1, and hardware accelerated H.264 decode support in Lion.  Delivering OpenGL 3.2 and the other features in Lion required Apple and AMD engineers to work hand-in-glove for months.  On the hardware side, Apple receives regular presentations on our hardware roadmap, and for every Apple program using AMD GPUs, our hardware engineers work closely with Apple throughout the bringup and production phases.

So, I would say that we are deeply invested in supporting Apple’s innovation in graphics software and hardware.  I think the relationship is more about working together, and less about our influencing them.

AFR: For years many Mac pros have lamented the lack of GPU options and specific pro-level cards. But over the past several years Apple has done much better. What do you feel are some of the decisive factors affecting Apple’s decisions in what GPU cards to support? And how much better would you describe the situation today than say seven or ten years ago?

next page: Pro Apps and OpenGL Performance

Scheduled for October 19, 2011, at 2pm EDT, the webinar will help architects working with BIM in Vectorworks Architect 2012, discover powerful new additions and BIM capabilities in the latest version of Vectorworks Architect (version 2012). Understand how editing story elevations updates all linked design layers and objects. And understand how walls, columns, slabs and stairs respond to elevation changes when “bound” to story layers.

01 - Vectorworks Architect 2012 webinar on BIM.

The webinar is going to be presented by Wes Gardner, Assoc. AIA, of Nemetschek. To register for the webinar go here now.

To learn more about Vectorworks Architect 2012, visit Nemetschek Vectorworks Inc, online.

Steve Jobs, who died on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56, was well versed in architecture and design and according to the article a very inspiring client. The article makes mention of Jobs’ connection to the architectural office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ). Jobs approached architect Peter Bohlin, FAIA, shortly after starting NeXT to commission him to design a small sales office in Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania-based firm–which now has offices around the country–took that commission and later designed Pixar’s Emeryville headquarters in California.

The article makes mention of Bohlin’s first impression of Steve Jobs and later comments that Steve was “a great client. He drove us hard to get it right. He always knew when things weren’t good enough…”

Peter Bohlin talks about Jobs’ vision for the Apple stores and even mentions his new home–which sadly Bohlin notes will likely never be built. Apparently, Jobs wife, Laurene Powell Jobs and his family may not follow through on Steve’s many year quests to demolish a regarded George Washington Smith house and build a modest modern home in its stead.

01 - An image capture of the PDF files for Apple's Apple 2 Campus as filed with town of Cupertino. The complete set of drawings and renderings is available for view.

Lastly, the article makes mention of the revealed plans for Apple’s new headquarters in Cupertino, which Jobs pushed through the city council in June of this year. That building is not designed by Peter Bohlin’s firm and renderings of it have been viewed and harshly criticized by architectural critics. The Norman Foster designed structure looks like a giant spaceship slash donut. It is 2.8 million square feet and contains parking for 4,000 plus cars in its basement.

The master plan for the Apple 2 campus is interesting and concentrates building structure, thereby saving on open space. Research facilities and a very large parking structure adjoin the main structure. You can view PDF drawings on the Cupertino town website here. To read the full article on Record go here.

So What’s In Autodesk Cloud?

Autodesk Cloud will consists of a suite of web-based software products and services, enabling customer-subscribers to perform design optimization, visualization and collaboration with peers and clients from anywhere in the world.

01 - Autodesk Design Review software for Apple iOS provides the mobility tie-in solution for accessing documents and services at Autodesk Cloud.

The cloud service offering includes 3 GB of online storage for each software license on Subscription for greater access to design and engineering documents, around the clock from anyplace with Net access.

At the core of Autodesk Cloud are key mobile and desktop apps like Autodesk Cloud documents, AutoCAD WS and the new Autodesk Design Review mobile app for Apple iOS.

Rendering and Optimization

Additional cloud services exclusive to Autodesk Subscription customers give designers access to following cloud services:

• Autodesk Cloud Rendering – customers with Premium or Ultimate editions of Autodesk Design Suite or Autodesk Building Design Suite will have access to powerful rendering capabilities
• Autodesk Inventor Optimization – Similar to above, those same customers will have access to intuitive cloud-based simulation tools, enabling them to test multiple design options in the cloud
• Autodesk Revit Conceptual Energy Analysis – Revit subscription customers can extend beyond the desktop to cloud-based energy analysis capabilities, helping them to quickly gain insight into the energy consumption of building energy costs at early design stages
• Autodesk Green Building Studio – Building Design Suite customers can tap into this cloud-based solution for energy analysis
• Autodesk Buzzsaw SaaS – Customers with subscriptions to Autodesk Vault Collaboration AEC software now have access to cloud-based document, data and design management solutions for AEC.

Amazon and Citrix Backed

Autodesk’s new cloud services are backed by its partners, including Amazon and Citrix, to provide scalable cloud computing infrastructure. Autodesk has been working with Amazon Web Services for more than three years in order to securely host high-demand, scalable applications such as Autodesk HomeStyler software and Autodesk Seek web service.

02 - Autodesk continues to push Apple iOS for its mobility play in relationship to the cloud, further supporting the consensus view by leading CAD CEOs that the iPad is a cloud-computing device.

Amazon Web Services provide Autodesk with the flexibility to scale computing around the world with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and resilient storage capacity with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Store (EBS). Autodesk also teams with Citrix to provide customers more flexibility to their Autodesk applications. Delivering solutions to end users with Citrix XenApp can help reduce workstation costs while still providing the software performance they need.

To learn more visit Autodesk Cloud here on the Web.

The Advanced and Pro versions build on the base Studio 4 version released earlier in the year. With Advanced the user gains new features such as the Auto-Fit technology. With Auto-Fit you never run out of clothing for your custom characters as clothing auto-sizes to fit any Genesis figure in a matter of seconds. Studio 4 Advanced also gains Progressive Rendering for quick, high-quality draft image views and test rendering for lighting for example. There is also the Multi-Layered Image Editor that enables you to add decals and tattoos to your models.

01 - DAZ 3D has introduced new DAZ Studio 4 Advanced and Pro versions of its 3D figure software suites.

64-bit support is now standard with Advanced on both Mac and Windows platforms, including 64-bit for dynamic clothing support.

Studio 4 Pro features the FBX Exporter, 3D Bridge to Photoshop and the GoZ Bridge to send your models over to Zbrush for further editing and creation work. The Content Creator Tools are for advanced professional users and will save the pro user man-years of development tim. The toolset includes:

• Weight-Map Brush (new)
• Transfer Utility (new)
• Polygon Group Editor (new)
• Figure Setup (Skelton Setup) updated
• Joint Editor (updated)
• Property Editor (updated)
• ExP Exporter (updated)
• Morph Loader Pro (updated)
• Poser Format Exporter (updated)

There are more features included in the Pro version but these are the highlights. To learn more about DAZ Studio 4 Advanced and Pro visit them online. Advanced retails for 229.USD and Pro is 449.USD.

To recap this announcement, Graphisoft has announced a new mobile application for Apple’s iPad and iPhone for viewing BIM models using a powerful but easy to navigate user interface, fully controllable with Apple’s Multi-touch gesture technology. Additionally, the company announced a new website with deep Facebook and cloud storage integration.

Graphisoft BIMx – Beginnings

One of the more ironic developments since Apple developed the iPad is that its two largest Mac CAD developers, sister companies Graphisoft and Nemetschek Vectorworks, were apparently late to the iOS development game. But late is a relative term in this specific sense and is measured against their rival Autodesk, which developed an iOS version of AutoCAD at the same time it introduced AutoCAD back on the Mac.

For Graphisoft the decision to development an application for the iOS platform was never a question in itself but rather a series of questions about how to do it specific to the needs of its ArchiCAD users utilizing BIM (Building Information Modeling) around the world.

“As you know Anthony we have had Virtual Building Explorer around for a few years now,” said Akos Pfemeter, Director of Global Marketing, Graphisoft, “and it is a self-running environment enabling anybody to explore a full BIM model anywhere on any desktop.” “It works like a first person shooter game…easy and simple navigation.”

01 - Graphisoft's new BIMx application for Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch offers a visually stunning and responsive way to explore BIM models saved in the .bimx file format.

What Graphisoft has done with its BIMx application is essentially port over that code base to Apple’s iOS platform and optimize it for a touch-based user interface. It has also been tuned for performance, making it a very powerful complex BIM model viewer or, in another sense, a powerful 3D model viewer on iOS.

“The Apple iPad is very impressive,” said Tibor Szolnoki, “it is very capable of pushing around quite big models.”

Graphisoft BIMx – Details

Graphisoft’s BIMx application for iPad and iPhone is based on the same code base as its Virtual Building Explorer for the desktop. That application was originally developed in Sweden and acquired by Graphisoft for integration into ArchiCAD in 2010. BIMx is actually a suite of three applications. A desktop (BIMx) application is available for Windows and OS X which enables you to publish BIMx models from within ArchiCAD. And there is the BIMx desktop viewer application, for Windows and OS X, which can be freely downloaded to view BIMx models. Finally, there is BIMx for iOS, a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store after September 20, 2011.

BIMx for iOS is compatible with iPad (1 and 2), iPhone (3GS or 4) and iPod touch 4th generation. Most users will enjoy this application on an iPad the most.

02 - BIMx on iPad in this image. The "joystick" is a dot on the lower right of the iPad's screen. With one finger you move it up, down, left or right to navigate just like in a first-person shooter (FPS) video game.

03 - BIMx has a simple and efficient user-interface with standard iOS options like drop-down menus. In this view the user has rendering setting options. In future versions features will expand.

Graphisoft created BIMx for iOS to extend BIM further noting that many users are now carrying iPads around as their primary mobility computing device. Akos Pfemeter noted that not all of the features on the desktop version of BIMx viewer are on the iOS version of it. But as both applications advance those features should emerge as one unified set relative to each platform’s capabilities.

Today you cannot turn on and off layers with BIMx for iOS. Data extraction from model elements is not yet supported. Some features on BIMx for iOS are unique to that platform. For example, based on the touch interface, double tap on any point in the model and the BIMx app will fly you there. Also there is an icon that appears on doors and a click on it will take you through the door.

next page: Graphisoft BIMx on iPad