by Ralph Grabowski with Eniko Pauko
|
|
| Every year, Graphisoft focuses on a specific area of ArchiCAD. For release 22, the company's programmers concentrated on making unlimited curtain wall designs, extending parametric modeling to elements like beams and columns, and adding to the "I" [information] in BIM. Graphisoft's senior BIM consultant Eniko Pauko talked me through the changes in ArchiCAD 22.
- - -
Facades (Curtain Walls)
Curtain walls are not just the exterior that separates the inside and outside of the building, but expresses the personality of the building and the designer. (See figure 1.)
 Figure 1: Curtain wall shown as a series of leaf patterns
Curtain walls are called facades, because they are additions that are physically unnecessary to buildings, but ones that define the look of the businesses operating inside. Banks, for instance, used to favor heavy-looking blocks (your cash is safe with us), but now light-and-airy is the desire (invite the customers in). One curtain wall designer told me that a bank in the UAE asked for a glass exterior strong enough to withstand bomb blasts. Whereas black-glass obelisks were the 1970s rage in skyscrapers, today's fashion in facades dictates complex exterior designs.
Curtain walls are made of panels (glass or opaque), held in place by frames. The design of the frame determines the shape of the panel. ArchiCAD had been able to design curtain walls since release 12, but it was focused on modeling, not design. In release 22, the design of panels and frames is interactive in the Curtain Wall dialog box. (See figure 2.)
 Figure 2: Designing a curtain wall in ArchiCAD 22
Here is some of what can be done with facade design in ArchiCAD 22:
- Generate an unlimited number of panel and frame types to create repeating patterns
- Define frames and panels in the Pattern Editor using shapes like undulating ones, honeycombs, random stone patterns, and leaves
- Trace over hand sketches to convert lines into frame element patterns; can easily change the size and repetition of the pattern (see Figure 3)
- Set priorities for frames, so that some appear above the others (panels always infill spaces between frames)
- Use the Magic Wand to place the curtain wall design on the building model
- Make the curtain width match the sides of the building with the Best Division feature
 Figure 3: Tracing over a hand-sketch to arrive at the new curtain wall design
While double-curved curtain walls are not possible in ArchiCAD, the workaround is to define them in Grasshopper and Rhino, to which ArchiCAD has a strong link. Curtain walls can have accessories, in which additional frames or panels deviate from the pattern. ArchiCAD 22 lets you edit panels, usually windows, as different as you want. All this is controlled by GDL, Graphisoft's programming language.
Curtain wall intersections are not a problem with rectangular buildings but ones with angled exterior walls need special handling. A parametric connector can be applied to non-orthogonal corners, no matter whether the corners are inward or outward facing. ArchiCAD 22 lets you set up Favorites for any aspect of the curtain wall, then reuse it for other curtain walls.
ArchiCAD 22 changes the way documentation (2D drawings) are generated for curtain walls. "Are all details needed at the highest LOD [level of detail]?" asked Ms Pauko. Probably not, and so release 22 creates combined views to reduce clutter. These are defined in the Model View Options dialog box to limit what is displayed.
Parametric Modeling
Partition walls don't necessarily have to have the same material over their full height or width, and so ArchiCAD 22 controls this through profile modifiers so that you can have varying widths and heights of portions, such as setting a tiled portion to zero to remove it or to 33% of the wall's height. When set to zero, it will not be dimensioned, shown, or listed in schedules, but is it is still a part of the definition.
This is possible because parametrics in ArchiCAD have been expanded to elements like beams, columns, and walls. In brief, any thing can have any shape. You use visual editing in the Profile Editor to define the parametric profile. It is smart enough to know that while concrete and other materials can be any reasonable size, items like steel beams come in fixed sizes. Higher level materials cut holes into lower level materials automatically,
Ms Pauko said, "There is no limit to the complexity of the parametric cross sections, or the number of building materials, as desired."
Information Management
This isn't my favorite subject, but as Ms Pauko said, "Data without logic or workflows is static."
ArchiCAD 22 balances modeling with data, and so there can now be expressions in properties, such as multiplying one property by another; it takes units into account, and suggests the kind of calculations and corrections that can be made.
Performance
Graphisoft says that the average ArchiCAD project in 2017 holds 900,000 elements. ArchiCAD 22 gets adaptive technology that caches the views that you tend to access, making view changes instant -- even for the demo drawing, a map of London, made from two million lines. (See Figure 4.)
 Figure 4. Two-million line map of London
Graphisoft also updated its mobile software, BIMX 2, but we'll have to talk about that another time. https://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/
|
|
MOBILE CAD for Android and iOS ARES Touch offers 150+ CAD features to read, modify, and annotate DWG drawings on tablets and smartphones. Visit www.graebert.com/arestouch to learn more.Viewing and measuring features of ARES Touch are FREE for all users. ARES subscribers gain premium features like editing and photo annotation. Get a free 30-day trial of ARES Touch's premium features when you activate your free trial of ARES Commander at www.graebert.com/arescommander |
|
| Some of the most recent posts on my WorldCAD Access blog:
- - -
AEC Magazine turned NXT BLD into an annual event,and you don't even have to go to hear the speakers. Watch them at at https://nxtbld.com/
- - -
@Xi Computer (yes, the @ is part of the name) are spiffed to announce that they have workstations running Intel's new Core i7-8086K CPU in stock. That's the one that runs at 5.3GHz overclocked with 6 cores, only to be eclipsed by AMD.
- - -
- - -
Meshes-to-solids (b-rep) is all the rage these days, what with Convergent Modeling from Siemens PLM and Polyhedra from Spatial. Now C3D Labsplans to ship its C3D Mesh2Brep module this fall. Beta testing starts in July, so write [email protected] to join.
In related news, C3D Labs adds the free Linux-based FreeBSD operating system to the ones its C3D Geometric Kernel already supports. (See figure above; I never pass up the chance to run a picture involving trains.) Versions for Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, and Android were released earlier. c3dlabs.com/en
- - -
During the TCL/Blackberry launch event for its new Key2 phone, the emphasis was on security, 'natch. Blackberry always was about security, but then fell into irrelevance with the convenience of Android and iOS. Now, security matters again. Best quote from the event: "I've owned a lot of flashlights, but I've never owned one that needed access to a microphone." (Blackberry DTEK warns you when "free" apps harvest your data.)
- - -
- - -
- - -
Apple, Disney Pixar, and Adobe hope that their new USDZ [Universal Scene Description Zip] file format will become the standard for AR. (It didn't work out so well for U3D in PDF.) USDZ displays 3D AR objects stored in a zero-compression unencrypted zip archive file.
In related news, the forecasted 2016 combined sales of VR hardware and software was $5.1billion. Actual sales in 2016: $1.8 billion. Change in actual sales for 2017: flat.
- - -
One downside to owning a cell phone with a removable battery. One day you might end up charging it -- all night long -- with no battery installed.
- - -
Nemetschek's Allplan software is best-known in Germany, and now is expanding internationally. It opened an office in England last year, and now is opening one in the USA for all of North America. So Nemetschek now has three BIM packages selling in the USA:
- Allplan
- ArchiCAD
- Vectorworks
Allplan says it has 240,000 users and 400 employees, and is headquartered in Munich. Its software is available in 20 languages, and it has been around for 50 years, www.allplan.com
In related news, the Nemetschek Group adds its first non-European member to the supervisory board that runs the company's operations. Financial advisor Bill Krouch from the USA is the fourth member, purpose-added to build marketshare in the US.
- - -
Hydro Quebec is to limit power to all digital currency miners at 500 megawatts, about 3% of the 17,000MW requested by miners. The restriction keeps electricity rates from skyrocketing to other consumers. 500MW is enough to power an entire aluminum smelter.
- - -
- - -
For late-breaking CAD news, be sure to follow upFront.eZine on Twitter at @upfrontezine. |
|
Have you ever heard of AutoQ3d Cad? Is it any good?
- Bill Fane
The editor replies: It is brand new to me. It looks to be open source, as it is available on Source Force: sourceforge.net/p/autoq3d/wiki/Home/
2,000 participants doesn't sound like very many considering that Solid Edge customers were also included with the NX and Teamcenter customers. How many people attended the last SolidWorks and CATIA user meetings?
I've never trusted Siemens numbers when it comes to customer counts, revenues, or users. They are not very open (and there is no legal reason why they should be).
- Steve Wolfe, director
Pioneer Recruitment, GAIL Earth
The editor responds: The number seemed low given that Solid Edge University was melded in (500 typically showed up to SEU in the past) and that Mentor was newly added. But perhaps this is why Siemens is taking over the running of the show.
Soildworks World tends to have about 5,000, while Adesk U has 10,000; I don't know about Catia.
- - -
I read your report in one swoop, because it was so interestingly written, in spite of 108F and three blocks walking back and forth.
- Herb Grabowski
On the reader comments, where the topic was about Autodesk IP and lock-in: It's interesting that nobody seems to care about the same model being used for Internet and cable TV subscription, access and discontinuation rights. When that grows into other business sectors it's very disruptive to the human mind, but technically not really different at all: No pay, no play. When the subscription model gets into self-driving cars it'll be fun to watch the same panic process play-out all over again.
-David Stein
The editor replies: Corporations and bureaucracies tend to be rent-seeking: regular income without needing to provide much service.
As long as open data formats and open access to your own design/production/management information are not at the core of their approach, you have to "trust" them to play nice with the data you create. I hope that their renewed interest in supporting IFC is at least hinting to being more open to play nice with everybody else.
No project is made with one software package in one format by one team. So far, it seems that the current crop of Autodesk solutions involves paying the monthly fee for the tools (e.g. AEC Collection or whatever it gets called this year) and paying additional fees per project to have everything running in the cloud -- with fees per user per month per project adding to the running costs.
- Stefan Boeykens (via WorldCAD Access)
- - -
I hope that when Autodesk invests to help BIM become the record of everything, that they find a way to hold the BIM data in a file format that will be relevant for more than just a few years. I feel that the promise of Complete BIM in the future is dependent upon the file systems being viable for more than the year or two that the software that created it is available from the vendor.
- Eric Quinn (via WorldCAD Access)
And that assumes Autodesk will still be there and assumes they will not kill parts of the software you needed. With 13 down income quarters in a row now and Anagnost firing 23% of the work force in the last year or so, who is going to make this brave new world happen?
- Dave Ault (via WorldCAD Access)
You wrote, "'We don't focus on architecture,' says Mr Freeman. 'There are, however, add-on partners who make these functions available'."
Well, a quick peruse of their site didn't turn up anything about buildings, architecture, construction management, MEP structural engineering, site planning, or civil-site grading. I really liked Alibre's open communication about their products. They seem like a company that I could form a relationship with.
To get into the architecture/building design market, their product needs to read-write Revit files. I'd probably try Vectorworks or Bricsys (per your upfront issue #913). I assume that's what you're recommending. I'm desperate to get out of Autosad's force-field.
- Jon Sommers A1A Architect
ARCHISSANCE DESIGN GROUP
The editor replies: 'I recommend you download the 30-day demo and then attempt to draw a project in the software. With most CAD software offering each other's functions, often it comes down to the UI, and whether you like it." |
|
Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine:
- Holly Stratford
- Solid Modeling Solutions (small company donation)
Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these:
Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected].
Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.
|
|
"Well, if you read our terms and conditions, which you clicked 'Agree' to, you will find that we are allowed to sell your kidneys. We will see you on Monday, bring an overnight bag."
- Management Speak on Twitter (@managerspeak)
|
|
|
|
Comments