A product born on the Macintosh platform in the 80’s has jetted into the forefront of Building Information Modeling (BIM) with the AEC world today, as Graphisoft Inc, now a subsidiary of German software giant Nemetschek AG, has introduced ArchiCAD 12. The Virtual Building™ modeling solution will ship on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms in July (2008).
ArchiCAD 12
“Beyond delivering powerful new 3D design tools, we are also introducing an innovative 3D documentation capability, which has the potential to revolutionize communication in the building industry,” said Miklos Szövenyi-Lux, Director of Product Management, Graphisoft. “And on multi-core computers, operations such as view generation of sections and elevations from the Virtual Building Model experience a dramatic performance increase!”
With ArchiCAD 12 Graphisoft has concentrated its programming talent on industry-innovating speed, a powerful new curtain wall design system, and an innovative 3D documentation functionality that allows for dimensions and annotations to work in 3D views.
In the area of speed improvements, Graphisoft is leading the industry in the aggressive utilization of multiple processors or multi-core chips. Architosh has an exclusive report on how the BIM innovator has jumped out ahead of the industry in the area of multi-threading and algorithmic optimization.
In the area of design the sexiest new feature is the new Curtain Wall tool, based upon ArchiCAD 12’s new “System Technology” which will serve as the foundation for future system oriented building component design. This system, based on a flexible hiearchical structure of schemes, physical members and accessories, allows the user to easily develop and control (edit) an entire curtain wall system from the macro level down to the smallest detail.
Another rich feature addition is the new Partial Structure Display system which allows the user to see rich composite structures down to the slab and back out to the entire wall, floor, roof assemblt, but with logical steps in the middle.
In the area of documentation it is now possible to use any 3D view of the model as the basis for creating a document where dimensions, annotations and even 2D drawing elements may be added.
These are the major changes in ArchiCAD 12. There are several levels of new features that we will cover in a future product review and which you can read about on Graphisoft’s website here.
More info: www.graphisoft.com