ArchiCAD 12 - Accelerating the Design Experience

Unprecedented Speed, innovation in design & transforming documentation Graphisoft announced today that ArchiCAD(R) 12, the next version of its award-winning Virtual Building(TM) modeling solution, will ship on both Windows(R) and Macintosh(R) platforms in July. ArchiCAD's annual release cycle continues to focus on providing enhancements to help users win more business, design more creatively and be more productive.

"Beyond delivering powerful new 3D design tools, we are also introducing an innovative 3D documentation capability, which has the potential to revolutionize communication in the building industry," said Miklos Szovenyi-Lux, Director of Product Management, Graphisoft. "And on multi-core computers, operations such as view generation of sections and elevations from the Virtual Building Model experience a dramatic performance increase."

ArchiCAD 12 reinforces its position as the most complete and flexible design solution in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) category. Enhancements to ArchiCAD 12 are focused on speed, design, and documentation with capabilities including:

• Speed
  • Multi-core processor support - With ArchiCAD 12, multi-core processors become the recommended and standard platform for higher performance computing. Areas that will see noticeable improvement include 2D and 3D navigation and 3D model generation including sections and shadow casting. In addition, the raw speed improvements which can contribute to a user's bottom line and improved responsiveness will contribute to an overall better design environment in which to work.
  • Image and fill handling - New technology allows for significant increases in performance in working with bitmap images and large fills in the design phase and during the generation of the document set layouts. PDF generation is also improved.
  • Layout book - Working on large layouts is now significantly faster.
• Design
  • Curtain Wall - This capability enables users to easily design and document curtain wall systems. The Curtain Wall tool is based upon the new ArchiCAD "System Technology" which will serve as a foundation for future system oriented building components. Based upon a flexible hierarchical structure of schemes, physical members and additional accessories, users can easily control and change both the entire system and the smallest detail throughout the entire project.
  • Partial Structure Display - Enables users to work in the rich composite structure environment of walls and slabs while being able to easily coordinate the load-bearing structure with engineers.
  • Hotlink Module Management - Management and visualization of the whole Hotlink structure and recursive updates of nested Hotlinks provide reduced file size and increased update speeds. Users will benefit from greater productivity and better coordination when using Hotlink Modules, especially on large projects.
• Documentation
  • 3D Document - This innovative capability allows users to use any 3D view of the model as the basis for creating a document where dimensions, annotations and even additional 2D drawing elements may be added. This helps designers more easily communicate their design intent to owners, consultants, contractors and subcontractors. This new level of clarity in communication helps users spend less time on design iteration with owners and reduces the construction issues which can increase cost and extend project schedules.
  • Fills - ArchiCAD 12 introduces a new system of Fill Management and new Fill capabilities including translucent solid, image fills, and transparent gradient fills. These capabilities allow architects to remain in the ArchiCAD environment when preparing documents for competitions and client presentations.
  • Interaction enhancements - Users may now select any object in 2D or 3D and nudge, align and distribute in a manner similar to popular office applications. These familiar interactions will speed the design and document generation experience.

The International, German, US, Australian, New Zealand, French, Polish, Hungarian and Austrian editions will be available starting in mid-July. Other localized versions will be shipped shortly after. For information regarding the availability of ArchiCAD 12, please contact your nearest authorized reseller.

Graphisoft is the pioneer and leader in developing Virtual Building(TM) solutions. For 25 years, Graphisoft has been empowering the broadest community of architects to deliver model based projects that are better designed, more predictable to construct and less expensive to operate.

Source: Graphisoft