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AEC Newsletter archive:
Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 39 (December 1, 2000)
AEC Tech News 12/1/2000
In This Issue:
ArchiCAD
Graphisoft Expands Virtual Building Concept
ArchiCAD Add-ons and Companion Products
This week we were invited to see for ourselves just how committed Graphisoft is to being the primary provider of software for the building construction industry. We found that they are well set indeed as we could see not only in the features of ArchiCAD, and in the impressive Graphisoft Technology Park (where Microsoft pays rent to Graphisoft) but also in their technology developers who exhibit the quiet confidence and humor of experts who know they create the best architectural software on the market and have enough new ideas to go even further.
Graphisoft has been aggressively buying and making partnership deals with dozens of other companies, all in an effort to bring together a total design environment for virtual buildings, ranging from site design, space planning, urban design and architecture, through building engineering, structural, HVAC mechanical, lighting, and interior design, to phased construction scheduling, facilities management, client review, and even solar energy analysis. All of this possible because of the intelligent architectural object technology (called GDL) they pioneered 18 years ago and the fact that we finally have a critical mass of architects realizing that 3D parametrics are the best way to go.
They start with architectural design, visualization, and building construction drawings as the key to all other related areas of architectural CADD. Thus ArchiCAD remains the core product, supported by ArchiFM, CADLink (structural, HVAC, lighting), Prisma, ArchiSite/ArchiTerra, Bauphysic, and many other add on products, libraries, and companion products. (To get a better feel for where all this industry is going you should take another look at our predictions in the May 1, 2000 AEC Tech News.)
They feel that their only real competitor is AutoCAD ArchitecturalDesktop but that Autodesk is doing almost everything wrong and is now very vulnerable in the architectural market. In ArchiCAD, third party add-on modules for other professions do not result in "proxy objects", floor/stories are kept in the same single building drawing file (not xrefs) with a better collaboration technique called Teamwork, and they do NOT plan to launch an extranet service as they feel that would inherently create a conflict of interest. They sell ONLY through advocate users of ArchiCAD, and help them offer localized versions and special deals. They encourage the rapidly growing number of 3rd party developers, even marketing several alternate solutions that partially overlap. Both ArchiSite and ArchiTerra are add-ons that automatically generate land forms to help with site design, both CADLink and Bauphysic include different types of building energy analysis, and there are several custom door/window creators such as Real Doors + Windows, DoorBuilder /WindowBuilder, and WindowMaker.
In the Aug. 1, 2000 AEC Tech article we mentioned that the freeform 3D modeler add-on called ArchiForma is the most important new development in years, as it gives ArchiCAD designers an important freedom to add sculptural elements. Now there are two more options - GDL Toolbox, and Zoom GDL, which also offer 3D rotate, revolve, sweep/extrude along a path, and slice, which designers are using to make detailed custom arches, railings, moldings, furniture, and ornament. ArchiForma and GDL Toolbox run as quick modelers within ArchiCAD, whereas Zoom GDL is a separate application but it includes boolean operations (subtract, union, intersection of solids) and the results are still parametric ArchiCAD GDL objects.
GDL objects are 3D CADD depictions of real world things, from roof dormers and windows to chairs and tables, which can intelligently modify with parameters that keep track of materials, textures, cost, specifications and other data all very efficiently. Graphisoft and the GDL Alliance have launched an aggressive campaign to encourage all manufacturers of building products to publish their catalog items in GDL to make their products easier to specify and more useful to architects and builders. One single 50k GDL file can contain all the different specs for over 200 different door styles and the free Web viewer plug-in can dynamically show these changes in 3D fully rendered with accurate materials. The closest competitor, then, is probably o2c (see the June 1, 2000 AEC Tech article). Thus it is interesting to see certain manufacturers, such as Velux, putting both the GDL and o2c versions on their websites.
Graphisoft is clearly leading the ongoing AEC IT revolution from 2D CADD to 3D intelligent architectural objects. Thousands of intelligent 3D parametric objects are currently available from ObjectsOnline and dozens of other sources. It will be interesting to see if alternative web drag and drop formats like o2c, AutoCAD's iDrop, and others, can catch up.
Perhaps it is nostalgia or humor that the lobby of Graphisoft's headquarters keeps a tiny original Macintosh SE/30 running the first version of ArchiCAD on display. In that lobby, which has windows facing a Roman ruins, Microsoft, and the Danube river, I took 5 minutes on that 1983 version to leave behind in Budapest a 3D model of my house back in Boston. ArchiCAD was extraordinary even then, it is even more astounding now.
Links :
ArchiCAD = http://www.graphisoft.com
GDL Alliance = http://www.gdlalliance.org
GDL Object Viewer for Web = www.graphisoft.com/products/gdl_plugin
CADLink = http://www.cymap.com
ArchiForma / ArchiTerra = http://www.cigraph.it
GDL Toolbox = http://www.archidata.hu
Zoom GDL = http://www.abvent.com
ObjectsOnline = http://www.objectsonline.com
Real Doors + Windows = http://www.www.ddgi.com
DoorBuilder /WindowBuilder = http://www.theometric.co.nz
About Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Prof. Langdon is a registered architect and is the principal of Architectural CADD Consultants, a firm that specializes in helping architectural firms with computing and CADD. He has taught Design, Solar Energy, and Architectural CADD at a number of colleges in the Boston area. He is the author of Architectural CADD: A Resource Guide to Design and Production Software Appropriate for Architects, a guest speaker at many AIA events, and the founder and organizer of the Designers 3D CAD Shootout competition. contact him at aectechnews@architecturalcadd.com, or through his website: http://www.architecturalcadd.com
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