GRAPHISOFT has introduced the new ARCHICAD 22 and the annual update features significant improvements in all areas of BIM, including construction modeling, information management, and 2D performance.
Importantly, ARCHICAD 22 improves the architectural design and documentation of building facades, one of architecture’s most sophisticated and complex tasks.
New in ARCHICAD 22
GRAPHISOFT has remastered Facade Design workflows with a completely rewritten Curtain Wall tool. Useable on both external and internal building facades, architects can use modular structures with hierarchy and repeatable and custom patterns to rapidly produce complex and sophisticated facades. Importantly, the newly revamped Curtain Wall tool features integration with algorithmic design workflows utilizing GRAPHISOFT’S industry-leading ARCHICAD-Grasshopper-Connection (AGC). The new Curtain Wall tool also works with traditional (non-algorithmic) methods as well.
01 – GRAPHISOFT’s new ARCHICAD 22 features a revamped Curtain Wall workflow that is also connected to its Grasshopper-driven algorithmic modeling connection.
“Design is what architects love most about their work. ARCHICAD 22’s revamped Curtain Wall tool makes designing building façades a true graphical experience for architects with its modular pattern editor,” said Peter Temesvari, Director of Product Management at GRAPHISOFT. “The most powerful thing about our new Façade Design workflow is that it covers the entire design workflow from concept through design development to documentation supporting local standards – all 100% BIM.”
An enhanced Profile Editor makes it simple to create intelligent profiles for the elements of architecture—columns, beams, and walls—controlling their shapes and sizes and their cross-section via BIM parameters.
Patent-Pending Machine Learning at GRAPHISOFT
Machine Learning is a branch of computer science that utilizes statistical methods to learn with “data” without being directly told (explicit instructions) what to do through programming. In GRAPHISOFT’s patent-pending case, it appears the company has developed an ML algorithm that statistically optimizes how to intelligently utilize multiple cores of a computer’s CPU. These cores are smartly anticipating the needs of the user when panning, zooming, and navigation.
This new Machine Learning (ML) technique builds on GRAPHISOFT’s prior work in the area of Predictive Background Processing by trying to guess intelligently what the user is going to do next and preparing them in the background. A video shown below explains these technologies in a side-by-side comparison of AC 21 and AC 22.
The video above discusses the Patent-Pending Machine Learning techniques used to speed up AC 22.
Other New Features
ARCHICAD 22 features a brand new Expression Defined Properties capability. By using mathematical expressions in interrogating data (or information) in BIM, ARCHICAD 22 powers up the meaning of “I” in BIM by allowing users to solve for information in new ways across the BIM. For example, it’s possible to solve for the actual number of bricks in a building. It is possible to solve for items not just in counts, lineal dimensions, areas, and volumes but also by angular units.
02 – Mathematical expressions can now be custom created in a new Expression Defined Properties panel thereby giving the user the custom ability to interrogate the BIM’s “data” for answers like “how many literal bricks are in this building?”
ARCHICAD 22 also utilizes the latest CineRender engine from sister company Maxon (R19) for improved rendering qualities and faster render output, but also for creating stereoscopic or 360-degree spherical renderings.
Teamwork experiences are improved due to a faster element reservation, and an improvement has been made to exporting building component information from composite skins and complex profiles using OPEN BIM standards. These are the highlight new features in ARCHICAD 22 but there are many more.