• ArchiCAD 11

Welcome to ArchiCAD 11

ArchiCAD versions: List of previous ArchiCAD releases

Concepts in ArchiCAD 11

Coordination

ArchiCAD 11 lets users coordinate the project through any views of the Virtual Building. Migrating 2D users or those who are not familiar with 3D modeling will not have to jump right into the middle of the 3D space to be able to work on the Virtual Building model. They can continue working in their traditional 2D environment and they can use the “virtual tracing paper” to help coordinate the drawings. All users can enjoy the possibility to choose the extent to which they detail the 3D model and above which they use the new 2D features. This offers a gradual transition to BIM modeling for 2D CAD based firm.

Control

ArchiCAD 11 gives the users control over the 2D representation of the views of the project within the virtual building context. As opposed to ArchiCAD 10 where users had to break the link between the 2D view and the model in order to refine the drawings, in ArchiCAD 11 the model and the 2D drawings can be developed in parallel and there can be a continuous bidirectional interaction established between the model and the drawings.

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New Features in ArchiCAD 11

Virtual Trace

• Virtual Trace

This feature greatly expands the availability and versatility of the Ghost Story feature of previous versions. Virtual Trace allows tracing among all model views (floor plans, sections/elevations), drawing views, and layouts.

Visual Compare

• Visual Compare

This tool helps the user identify the differences between two views: open one view as the Active Content; then bring up the second view as a Reference; then compare the two.

Worksheet Tool

• Worksheet Tool

The new Worksheet window provides a dedicated environment for 2D model-based drawings, such as partial floor plans and partial sections, and for drawings created entirely in 2D. It will improve the workflow of users who prefer to finish their drawings using 2D tools, and/or who work with draftsmen limited to 2D methods.

Improved Marker Management

• Improved Marker Management

It provides a unified logic for all the ArchiCAD tools which involve placing a marker into the project.

Curved Complex Elements

• Curved Complex Elements

The Complex Element Geometry provides the possibility of designing complex profiles ( Curved Slanted, Double Slanted and Curved Complex Walls) and the possibility of placing openings in these complex profiled walls.

New Interior Elevation tool

• Interior Elevation Tool

The tool eliminates the awkward usability problems of the old Interior Elevation add-on. It places Interior Elevations on a whole new model-based footing that is consistent with existing ArchiCAD features (like Sections and Elevations). The new IE concept fits into the existing Virtual Building workflow (dedicated IE tool and markers; own project map item; IE views; bidirectional model-based update; associative dimensions).

Link Construction Elements to Stories

• Link Construction Elements to Stories

The Home Story and Show on Story settings are separate option sets

Separate Section and Elevation Tools

Sections and Elevations now have now their own default settings and Favorites, their own Markers and they are now separated entities on the whole UI (Navigator, Find and Select, TW Sign in)

Enhanced Project Navigator

Enable faster navigation and better control over project documentation by separating all new view types.

Enhanced Selection/Editing Feedback

• DirectX

The new feature improved visual feedback with pre-selected and selected elements, and allows moving elements in worksheets and pasted contents.

DirectX is a set of Microsoft APIs to enhance graphic quality and performance with the use of high speed graphic routines on DirectX compatible graphic cards.

Line and Fill Normalization

• Line and Fill Normalization

Several ArchiCAD features involve the creation of “exploded” elements. Model-based Details, Worksheets and Drawing Sections create 2D elements (lines, fills) out of the model construction elements. Also, imported DWG drawings appear in ArchiCAD in 2D form, as a large collection of lines and fills.

Quantities of individual element components

Highly accurate calculations, even for the most complex projects, are now available in the Interactive Schedules.

Uncut Line Types

This new feature offers better control of the appearance of your documents with higher quality deliverables.

PDF output with PDFNet

Significantly enhanced output quality and direct interface makes PDF creation process smoother.

Long File names

With this feature you can feel free to choose your naming convention with no limitation on the number of characters used.

Multistory Hotlinked Modules

• Multistory Hotlinked Modules

ArchiCAD 11 allows you to save Multistory modules, and then place these as Hotlinked Modules into an ArchiCAD project in one step. So, you can easily divide multistory buildings into smaller parts.

Support for 3DConnexion Space navigator

The Space Navigator adds the feature of being able to simultaneously pan, zoom and rotate the 3D model.

Simple Install package creation

With a Commercial and certain Educational licenses, it is possible to create a custom installation package that contains all the company standard environment settings, such as:

• Work environment settings
• DXF/DWG Translators used by default
• Project templates

Distributing this installation package in the office makes it possible for all associates to have a copy of ArchiCAD customized according to the company standards determined by the CAD Manager.

XREF Layer Separation

Better control and management of Xref files and easier layer navigation.

Pen Sets in Views

You can now assign pen sets to views. This way by opening a view the assigned pen set will be applied.

Better List Control

• resizable and re-orderable columns in lists
• In-place editing of multiple selection in lists

Unicode GDL

GDL scripts became Unicode. This means that you can develop totally codepage-independent library parts on any platform using any national character in the string constants.

Google Earth connection

Google Earth Connections enables seamless integration between ArchiCAD, Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse. This capability moves users past the Virtual Building to the virtual world. With this intuitive interface, ArchiCAD users can not only download 3D information from Google for use in their projects: they can also publish their designs to the world.

Single, unified Undo Queue for the whole Project

All model and drafting operations can be undone step by step, chronologically, regardless of the model or drawing view they were performed in.

Transparency in OpenGL

This new feature provides you the freedom of the transparent view in 3D without rendering.

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Hardware/Software Requirements

Operating System:

• Windows® XP Pro
• Windows XP Pro X64 edition
• Window Vista® Business, Executive and Ultimate Edition
• Macintosh OS X 10.4 or higher

Note: Macintosh® OS X 10.3 is no longer supported

CPU:

Windows:

• Intel® Pentium 4, or compatible processors with equal or higher performance

Macintosh:

• PowerPC: Power Macintosh G5 series
• Intel: Any Intel Mac

RAM:

• 1 GB of RAM required

• 2 GB or more is recommended for complex models Read more about this

Hard Drive:

• Minimum of 500 MB free hard-disk space is required for a full installation.
• additional 2 GB free disk space is required for work with complex projects and 3D visualization.

Display:

• Minimum resolution: 1024x768.
• Recommended resolution: 1280x1024 or higher.

Video card:

PC:

• Open GL and DirectX 9 compatible graphic card with on-board video memory of 64 MB is required.

Mac:

• Open GL compatible graphic card with on-board video memory of 64 MB is required.

On-board video memory of 128 MB or more is recommended.

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The visual theme of ArchiCAD 11

The “Massaro” house on Petra Island based upon Frank Lloyd Wright’s original design:

“On mornings when the fog hangs low over the lake, the island home that Frank Lloyd Wright designed looks like a sleek yacht at harbor, its prow pointed to the horizon.”

Though Wright designed the home in 1950 — when he was in his eighties — it took 50-odd years after his death for it to get built. And it might never have been built if Joe and Barbara Massaro hadn’t discovered a perk that came with the 11-acre island on Lake Mahopac in New York that they bought in 1995: Frank Lloyd Wright had created preliminary drawings for a house to be built on the island for one of its previous owners. Approaching Chicago architect and renowned Wright scholar Thomas A. Heinz, AIA, the Massaros asked: Could he help them bring Wright’s vision to life? Heinz had just one problem in taking on the project. Wright’s one-eighth-inch-scale pencil drawings included a floor plan, a section, and three elevations. There were no notes, no material indications, no structural details. To create the working drawings for the 5000-square-foot residence — built of concrete, glass, stone, mahogany, and a massive, 60-foot long whale-shaped boulder — Heinz visited, photographed, and studied the building site. He examined how the “Whale Rock” would form some of the interior and exterior walls. Then, using ArchiCAD, Heinz reverse-engineered Wright’s design.