Graphisoft Envisions February 2005

Design imagery from February's Graphisoft Design Showcase award winner
Lars Erik Guy, of CAD Drafting Systems Inc. in Idaho, U.S.

It was an exciting year that passed here at Graphisoft with global markets embracing the Virtual Building™ solution philosophy, and our worldwide community growing steadily. The ArchiCAD® 9 version seamlessly landed on countless PCs and MACs to much acclaim across the world, and to remarkable feedback from users who appreciate how the tool is supporting their creativity and, ultimately, winning them more business.

2005 will be the year for our industry to begin gearing up to new energy efficiency legislation that, for Europe, will be put into place in 2006. With ArchiCAD's involvement in providing a rich model to allow Lawrence Berkley Laboratories to conduct energy analysis on the Freedom Tower site in New York, Dominic Gallello explores the next big trend in architecture - designing sustainable buildings. A host of factors are driving customers to take note of building operating costs. Energy awareness is going to make the difference between being awarded projects or losing them at an ever increasing rate.

In this issue, we also look how the future of drawing within the design process is due a shake up according to architect Miguel Krippahl, who opens the Pandora's Box of "smart" simulation technolgy - it seems IT has a great deal more to contribute in our perception of design and space. More to follow in the next Envisions. We feature another IT exponent who trots the globe consulting on ArchiCAD - Lincoln Ellis - revealing his motivation, his CAD roots, and why he's adamant that, "if you're not currently using ArchiCAD, you're already losing money!"

We take a look at a new design tool that will transform the often grueling challenge of stair design and installation within your model, and highlight the power and characteristics of leading ArchiCAD-friendly rendering engines. With the hottest IRON insights into how IFC open standards can extend the value of ArchiCAD beyond design, we wish you a productive and creative 2005.

Enjoy this month's edition!

Dominic Turnbull
Editor

On the Road with Dominic Gallello, CEO, Graphisoft

The big trend in architecture today is designing sustainable buildings. There are a number of practices where sustainable design is part of the very soul of the firm. Michael Hopkins' firm in the U.K. is an excellent example of this. They win large projects in the U.S. from their London office because their customers really care about building operating costs. For many other firms however, designers are simply not equipped with a true understanding of sustainability, how to really design energy efficient buildings and what their real role should be in the supply chain between themselves, the engineers and the building product manufacturers. My prediction is that for an architectural practice, being "energy-aware" is going to make the difference between being awarded projects or losing them at an ever increasing rate. I hope that this article will provide some insight into the whole subject.

Graphisoft Design Showcase Award

Graphisoft is delighted to announce Lars Erik Guy of CAD Drafting Systems, Idaho, U.S., as our latest Design Showcase Award winner. Click here to see why. Keep sending us you entries - but from now on we will place a higher emphasis on larger projects when judging - but this will certainly not exclude smaller models from the judging panel line-up!

The end of drawing - a new dimension?

In the next issue of Envisions we will release a visionary article assessing the future of drawing, drafting and the whole notion of 3D within building design. It will outline a new approach to the current process of mentally sketching, then physically, a design before booting up your CAD platform to develop it. The ‘wand' may soon become an everyday design necessity and herald a totally novel design environment of total immersion. Here is a preview.

A community linked

A familiar name to many and long-time ArchiCAD-Talker, "LINK" is one of the most passionate 3D modeling exponents. Lincoln Ellis has become a solid benchmark from which to measure ArchiCAD professionalism and humor to all who know him. Here he gives a revealing insight into the world of the globe-trotting consultant.

The graceful stairway

Eternally the bane of every architect, designing stairs has become notably simpler thanks to a new ArchiCAD extension. We take you step-by-step through this stair modelling tool which sweeps aside the old frustrations and allows you to painlessly reach a new level in design simplicity. Click here for the story.

IRON insights

While the Virtual Building lends itself to great presentation, many architects fail to utilize the full intelligence behind the visual model says JT Burk. Many applications are capable of reading the model's rich data, so in his regular "IRON insights" piece he looks at securing the IFC data exchange that can bridge the software language gap between applications.

Rendering by taste

Do you remember what the killer new feature of ArchiCAD 4.0 was? Photo rendering! Much has changed since then. With the latest release Graphisoft introduced the state-of-the-art LightWorks® rendering engine built into ArchiCAD. Now with a full range of rendering engines available in ArchiCAD 9, each with different characteristics, you are better positioned than ever to find one that matches your requirements. Andras Fabian of Graphisoft Product Design looks at the vast range of possibilities, with a few pointers to help you decide which way to go from here. Read more here.

Submit crash reports on-line!

It is a fact of life that software products crash once in a while. To eliminate these crashes, software vendors need specific information about them. The new online submission system introduced in ArchiCAD 9 helps you convey this information right to the hands of developers in the most convenient way.

Submitted reports are automatically processed then checked for similar incidents in our database and fixed if the crash was caused by a program error. This mechanism was designed to reveal every potential source of errors. So please don't quit the bug reporter when it starts, submit all your reports for the benefit of the entire user community of ArchiCAD. Read more about how you can submit them here.

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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.