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ArchiCAD 15
1 Dec, 2011 By: Scott MacKenzieFirst Look Review: New Shell tool and renovation workflow support aim to improve the 3D modeling experience for architects.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 issue of Cadalyst magazine.
I will tell you now that if you use ArchiCAD 14 or earlier, you'll really want to upgrade to ArchiCAD 15. If you enjoy modeling architecture in 3D, you'll want to get ArchiCAD 15. And, if you want to be able to edit in a 3D interface, you'll want to get ArchiCAD 15.
Design Freedom
ArchiCAD has been in the market since 1987. ArchiCAD 15 is a mature solution for building information modeling (BIM), and Graphisoft's main focus for the latest version was to expand and improve the modeling interface for architects. The 3D user interface offers new and improved modeling tools in the form of the Shell tool, improvements to the Roof tool, and the new 3D editing plane.
Shell and Roof tools. ArchiCAD 15 includes Shell, a brand-new design tool for modeling a variety of forms. Shell has three different modeling (or geometry) methods: extruded, revolved, and ruled.
The new Shell tool in ArchiCAD 15 offers three different geometry methods.
The extruded method works similarly to creating tubes. The revolved method creates a shape around the axis. The ruled method lets you create twisted planes.
Using the Shell tool's Ruled method (shown in green), you can create twisted plane shapes.
Use Shell to create non-perpendicular structures and classify them as walls, roofs, or slabs for correct export to structural applications. You can assign a wall type composite to a shell's structure. You can stretch an edge of a revolved shell, and it distorts as if it were rubber. These new methods should let you create any shape; however, I'd like to see something more like a push-pull concept for modeling forms.
The Roof tool has been improved. In previous releases, designing a multiplane roof meant you had to create a bunch of separate roof plane objects that fit together. Now a multiplane roof behaves like a single, coordinated roof system. After you define the perimeter and create the roof, you can easily click on the edges, peaks, and corners to change shapes and contours, turn hips into gables, and more. You can do all of this in a 3D window — a very nice improvement.
In ArchiCAD 15, it's easy to edit a roof in 3D, such as stretching a hip into a gable.
3D editing plane. When you work inside a 3D view, it's easy to become disoriented. ArchiCAD 15 has added the 3D editing plane to help. You can easily conform this plane to the plane of any element in your view, as well as the universal xyz-planes. Guidelines are now under editing planes, and you can move them around to help you snap to the planes of other elements in your view.
Renovation. ArchiCAD 15 adds workflow support for renovation and refurbishment projects — a long-time wish from users and a timely addition for today's building market, where upgrades and additions can be more common than new construction.
Renovation filters let you control how you want new, existing, and demolition linework to display. Put very simply, a demolition element could be dashed; existing linework could be a thin solid line; and new work could be a bold solid line. And it's now easy to create your own renovation plan types or styles using custom renovation filters. Before this new feature, it was difficult to show certain situations — such as a door that needs to be demolished — as solid lines in the existing work plan, as dashed lines in the demolition plan, and as a solid rectangle in the new work plan to show that the object was removed and filled in.
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About the Author: Scott MacKenzie
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