Graphisoft Envisions May 2004

Design imagery by Graphisoft Design Showcase Award Winner, Bruce Nichol,
IDPartnership Northern, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.

Welcome to the May edition of Graphisoft Envisions! This issue features some big names; the prestigious UK design firm, IDPartnership and MOL - Hungary's largest corporation. They all have one thing in common; they are using Graphisoft products to make their business activities smoother, easier and more cost-effective.

As usual, we are featuring a combination of Graphisoft news, user tips and a high-profile ArchiCAD user. We announce the latest winner of our Design Showcase Award, Bruce Nichol, and are pleased to award him a FujiFilm digital camera.

Lachmi Khemlani has made the seemingly impossible possible!  She has opened up IFCs to the lay person in her article, The IFC Model: A Look Under the Hood. Read more below.

David Nicholson-Cole has released details of this year's ArchiCAD University to be held in Nottingham in England in September. The programme is aimed at every ArchiCAD user, from beginners to expert, power users. What better way to wrap up the summer? On another ACU note, Cadalyst reviews the recent ACU-West event, held in California. Our users are showing what great buildings can be designed in ArchiCAD!

Andy Harvey

Editor

On the Road with Dominic Gallello, CEO, Graphisoft

It is no longer if, just when...

In the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of visiting many large architectural practices in both Europe and across the United States. The trends in both parts of the world are remarkably similar. Companies are moving to model-based design and production at a speed never witnessed before in the architectural profession.

For existing ArchiCAD users, you are probably wondering what all the fuss is about and why are people just starting to learn what you all had the courage to do, some of you as much as 20 years ago! In Mestre, Italy, I recently met one of the very first users of ArchiCAD in the world. He still fondly, and with a deep sense of ownership, calls ArchiCAD "Radar"; its original name.

There are three things to consider in looking at this trend toward modeling: History; Why Now and the Blockers. In my article, I'll analyze this situation. Read the full article here.

The IFC Model: A Look Under the Hood, AECbytes

Most AEC professionals have heard of the IFCs, at least; some might even be able to tell you what IFC stands for, but few know just how this way of making CAD programs communicate with each other really works. AEC Analyst, Lachmi Khemlani examines the IFC model in detail and opens up this complex topic in a clear and accessible way in AECbytes magazine.

Graphisoft has been at the forefront of the IFC movement and ArchiCAD offers its users unrivalled CAD interoperability. Now you can check out exactly how the IFCs work. Read the full AECbytes article here.

Graphisoft Design Showcase Award

Our congratulations go to Bruce Nichol of IDPartnership Northern, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, winner of the latest Graphisoft Design Showcase Award.

Project: Cannon Kirk Housing Development at Highfield Farm, Littleport, UK

Click on an image for a full-size version

Bruce Nichol of IDPartnership Northern, UK.

Bruce's entry won a very high class competition in the latest round of our Design Award. Bruce was the clear winner and his work received this praise from our judges:

• 'Beautifully made, realistic pictures - full of life'
• 'Extra points for the sketch renderings. They really look like hand made drawings from the 19^th Century'
• 'The photographic inserts and the rendered images are seamlessly combined together'

In addition to the great exposure on our website, Bruce's prize is a FujiFilm S3000 digital camera.

As mentioned in previous editions, the award-winning entry will take a very prominent place on the Graphisoft website in addition to the large slot it will be given in Envisions. The award-winner's work and her/his firm will be fully credited. Click here for details.

We want you to send in your high quality renderings and images. To see if your work is of the desired quality, check out Bruce's images and the past winners in our showcase. If you think you can do as well as - or even better than these great designs, we'd love to hear from you!

MOL, Hungary, Implements ArchiFM Maintenance

MOL is a big company by any international standards and is Hungary's largest corporation in terms of revenue and profit generation. It is in the oil and gas exploration/exploitation business, so has a huge and sprawling property portfolio - with a value of 250 Billion Hungarian Forints/1 Billion Euros.

Keeping track of this large portfolio used to be a massively complicated undertaking for MOL. It had 250 individual contracts with firms to keep track of its network.

Following the implementation of ArchiFM and ArchiFM Maintenance, the company now has just 2 contracts with outside firms to track its portfolio. Additionally, MOL's building facility management and maintenance costs were slashed by 20-22% and headcount in the department responsible reduced from 50 to just 14. The company is planning to introduce the system throughout the rest of its operations in the near future. Read the whole story here.

Niclas Annerstedt, Sweden - User Profile & Showcase

"ArchiCAD meets my expectations 100%!"
Niclas Annerstedt

Niclas Annerstedt is one of the leading lights in Swedish architectural design and works for the renowned Gerhard Herkommer Arkitekter AB design firm.

Niclas has worked on many projects in Sweden, some of which are outlined in his profile, where you will see that his speciality is residential assignments. An ArchiCAD devotee, it is fair to say that Niclas is a very inquisitive user. Never one to be complacent, Niclas admits that he is constantly seeking new ways to exploit the power and versatility offered by ArchiCAD. See Niclas' profile here.

Contact us if you'd like to see your work to date profiled here.

Abvent PhotoCAD® 1.0 - The Panoramic World

Abvent's PhotoCAD bridges CAD and digital photography. Thanks to PhotoCAD's unique technology, you can easily and seamlessly build 360° panoramas from simple digital photos, or create high resolution posters out of standard resolution images. The resulting panoramas or images can be printed at high resolution or shared via the Internet.

In addition, with its perspective correction (or façade straightening) capabilities, it is possible to use digital photos to dimensionally visualize a project: simply take one of more photos of a façade with any digital camera, stitch them, identify the escape lines and PhotoCAD will then transform the perspective view into a parallel projection. Now, with only one dimension of the facade, you can scale it in ArchiCAD and deduct all the other dimensions.

    

Thanks to its Artlantis and QuickTime export formats, PhotoCAD allows you to integrate panoramas into your 3D scenes. That means you can easily capture the entire real environment of a project with a simple camera, and use it as a background for the Virtual Building, thereby merging reality and virtuality.

Architects, town planners, interior decorators and theater set, landscape and exhibition booth designers can all take advantage of the new horizons opened up by the advanced functionality offered by PhotoCAD: you can now capture any 3D environment with ease in the form of a panoramic picture. To see how easy it is to create a 3D panorama for an ArchiCAD project, go to the tutorial, specially prepared by Abvent's Ildikó Szabó.

ArchiCAD Best Practices Competition

Graphisoft invites you to participate in our "HOW-TO" Best Practices Series. We are looking for innovative solutions from the ArchiCAD User Community which document the way you meet professional challenges efficiently.

Winning entries will be published on the Internet. Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second and third-place winners. Graphisoft maintains worldwide publication rights to all entries.

Entry in the competition is free and open to all ArchiCAD users. See the full entry details here.

ArchiCAD University, Nottingham, England, September 9 - 11, 2004

ArchiCAD University 2004 is an international summer school for ArchiCAD users, combining learning and pleasure - celebrating the whole culture of the use of ArchiCAD in architectural practices and in education. The dates for your diary are September 9, 10 & 11, 2004 .

ArchiCAD University brings Graphisoft together with architects, interior designers, builders, dealers, consultants and students for what is now the world's largest annual festival of ArchiCAD, truly a memorable occasion, socially, educationally and professionally.

Newcomers to ArchiCAD will have their eyes opened to techniques that they may not have dared to tackle alone. Intermediates will have their skills polished, and experts will be able to meet like-minded ArchiCAD devotees and further hone their skills. Power users will have the opportunity to present their custom solutions to fellow delegates. Above all, ACU is a great venue to meet people who are so strongly committed to the ArchiCAD culture, and many lasting friendships and working relationships result. For more details go to the ACU website.

A Review of ArchiCAD University West

Thanks to Karl Ottenstein for the photos

The recent ArchiCAD University West event held in Pomona, California, on March 25-27 focused on ArchiCAD's long-established building modeling capabilities. The event showcased innovative ways in which architects and other AEC professionals have been using Graphisoft ArchiCAD to create building models. Also highlighted were new add-ons and other programs that interact with ArchiCAD to allow comprehensive solutions to traditional building documentation and communication issues. Read organizer Duane Valencia's official review of the entire event here.

Graphisoft TechTip of the Month

Our Congratulations go to Erika Epstein (above), whose tip, Printing using the Amyuni PDF driver, was the March winner of the TechTip of the Month competition. Read Erika's tip here.

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Our congratulations also go to Roberto Corona (above), whose tip: Using the 'funnel' button in the Layer Settings Dialog, won him the February award. Read Roberto's tip here.

Renowned Australian Architect, David Sutherland, Evangelizes the Virtual Building in the U.S.

David Sutherland, of Fender Katsalidis Australia, was the subject of a recent seminar tour held in prominent cities in the U.S. at the beginning of May. Mr. Sutherland was showcasing his Company's Eureka Tower project - the world's tallest residential building - currently under construction in Melbourne, Australia.

More than 400 key professionals from the U.S. architectural community attended the seminars and heard how the Graphisoft Virtual Building was instrumental in designing and constructing such a massive and prestigious project. Read Anthony Frausto-Robledo's review of the seminar he attended in architosh™.

Apple Pro Day - June 2

Experience live demonstrations of the great combination of Apple and ArchiCAD! The most sophisticated and easy-to-learn 3D Virtual Building design solution - and the original building information model - in tandem with Mac hardware. Learn how you can use these powerful tools to increase creativity, design great buildings and increase both your productivity and profitability!

All attendees will be eligible to participate in a drawing to win 300 free hours of ArchiCAD software. After the 300 hours are used you will receive a free copy of ArchiCAD, valued at approximately $4000!

On June 2nd , this special event will be held in 6 stores nationwide:

Atlanta, GA	12 pm & 6 pm	Contact Organizer
Cambridge, MA	9 am & 2 pm	Contact Organizer
Chicago, IL	12 pm & 4 pm	Contact Organizer
San Francisco, CA	11 am & 6 pm	Contact Organizer
Santa Monica, CA	5 pm & 6 pm	Contact Organizer
New York, NY	10 am & 4 pm	Contact Organizer

Upcoming Events

Country	Event	Date	Location	Info
Germany	Facility Management 2004	June 15-17	Messegelände Düsseldorf	Details
Japan	Architectural 3D CAD Forum	May 21	Tepia Hall, Tokyo	Details
Norway	Nordnorsk bygg- og anlegmesse	June 25-27	Tromsø	Details (follow link to event name)
Spain	ArchiCAD & Artlantis Render Presentations	May/June	Various northern cities	Details
UK	ArchiCAD University 2004	September 9-11	Nottingham University	Details
U.S.	AIA 2004	June 10 - 12	Chicago, IL	Details

Do you know of any ArchiCAD-related events happening in your part of the world? If so, send us the details, giving plenty of advance notice, and we'll do our best to promote the event an issue or two before the actual date.

ArchiPUB - Yahoo Groups

Maybe you've had a long day and need to relax after staring at those designs for so long... ArchiPUB might just be the venue for you! Virtually imbibe your favorite beer, wine or other measure whilst engaging in off-topic conversation.

Topics range from ACU West to - well, almost anything! Anyone welcome!

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Thanks for reading this month's Graphisoft Envisions!

Disclaimer

Most of the content in Envisions is created by Graphisoft's Researchers, who are employees of the company. The views expressed by external contributors are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of Graphisoft. Graphisoft is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced.