Graphisoft has been promising a significant release of ArchiCAD for over a year. Today it delivered a raft of new technologies aiming to revolutionise broken BIM workflows
Graphisoft, a Nemetschek company, has launched the latest release of its flagship BIM tool, ArchiCAD. Version 24 sees major updates across the board, fleshing out its multi-disciplinary capabilities, adding an all new analytical model, and beefing up its cloud collaboration toolset. Its BIMx presentation tool also gets a complete rework, goes freemium and can handle large datasets.
As is usual from Graphisoft, each year brings new features, complete ‘AI-enabled’ rewrites of old features and a sprinkling of enhancements for your subscription money. But this isn’t just any year and there are literally three years’ worth of development work under the bonnet of ArchiCAD 24. It’s not just a design tool, but a whole seamless collaborative design ecosystem for multi-disciplinary work.
For many years, ArchiCAD has suffered from being pigeonholed as a product that’s just for architects – after all, it is in the name. ArchiCAD 24 looks to change this with a new enhanced multi-disciplinary capability with MEP and links to structural analysis complete with a whole new underlying analytical model and connections.
Formerly called Everest, the new underling collaboration layer in ArchiCAD 24 and BIMcloud enables seamless integration of data between all disciplines. It’s the first real attempt at delivering on the Single Building Model concept that originally came with the early theories about how BIM should work.
On functional terms, ArchiCAD 24 features enhanced MEP, BIM track changes, Revit RVT/RFA import, updated OpenBIM with the introduction of IFC 4/ BCF 2.1, as well as support for Bentley Systems’ MicroStation’s DGN v8.
Graphisoft’s partnership with Unreal continues to blossom with a deep integration for Twinmotion 2020, enabling amazing real time visualisation and VR capabilities and is free to those on plans. ArchiCAD 24 has 500+ new surface materials along with a renewed residential library.
While ArchiCAD offers its own programming environment, GDL, and hooks into McNeel Rhino like no other BIM tool, Graphisoft is now adding support for Python API and the exciting looking PARAM-O for custom parametric content (currently only available in the Windows version). ArchiCAD 24 also now delivers Dark Mode for Mac users (it has been available for Windows for a while).
BIMcloud
Graphisoft BIMcloud, the real-time collaboration platform, was originally an extension to ArchiCAD’s Teamwork, enabling synchronised working between individuals across geographies or in an office.
It works on a server or can be hosted in the cloud and enables permissions from the project to the element level, and only sends the data that has changed, not the whole model. This release brings a new BIMcloud API and global availability for the SaaS variant.
The new multi-disciplinary capabilities added to BIMcloud allow expanded integrated design opportunities, sharing one common model between teams – architectural, structural and MEP elements, together with the integrated analytical model.
BIMcloud now integrates Nemetschek’s SCIA Engineer (multi-material structural analysis), RISA-3D (structural design) and Frillo (structural analysis and structural design) into the workflow, with data flowing forwards and backwards from each application. One team, one building, one model delivered through a single technology backbone.
Visualisation
In addition to the Twinmotion news, Graphisoft’s BIMx visualisation and presentation tool gets a major overhaul with the creation of a single BIMx app. BIMx is now ‘freemium’ in that it’s free to create and share models, allowing the viewing, measuring and sharing of models, although you will need ArchiCAD to create them. For a fee, BIMx will be enabled to stream huge models, access API tools and Save favourites.
There’s so much to this launch that Graphisoft has split it over two days. Today was just announcements and features. Tomorrow we get to see the collaborative BIM capabilities in action. Register here to see it live buildingtogether.graphisoft.com
