Modeling Freedom

Slanted walls, columns and beams

Walls can be slanted and double-slanted (battered), columns and beams can be inclined.

Cross-section profiles for walls, beams and columns

Custom profiles can be defined with the help of the "Profile Manager". It is possible to create any profile shape with the fill tool. Components of the profile can have different attributes (material, priority).

Enhanced intersection in 3D on solid basis

Walls intersections now affect the 3D wall shape only in the common vertical range of the two walls. Complex walls and beams intersect with each other properly, on a solid 3D basis.

Door and window vertical anchor

Doors and windows can be anchored in various ways: to wall or story, by sill height or header.

Door and window fit to slanted and complex wall surfaces

Doors and windows can be vertical or aligned, with the opening geometry of a complex wall.

Doors and windows in polygonal walls

Doors/windows can be placed and freely dragged, mirrored and rotated within polygonal walls.

3D zones fit to complex element geometry

3D zones fit to slanted and profiled wall surfaces. Trimming 3D zones by slabs and roofs is now based on solid element operation technology.

Complex, multi-story elements

Walls, columns, beams, and roofs are automatically shown on all stories they intersect.

New floor-plan display options for construction elements

The following display options have been added: Projected, Projected with overhead, and Cut only.

Priority-based dynamic wall–wall intersection on floor-plan

Intersection priority can be assigned to wall elements or individual wall skins/ components. Wall skins and wall elements intersect with each other, based on their intersection priority.

Reshaping elements in any view

All basic editing commands and new commands specific to complex elements uniformly work in floor-plan, section/elevation and 3D views.

Moving wall openings

Doors and windows can be dragged from one wall into another on the same plane, and they can be edited with other element types.

Integrated design and documentation workflow

Integrated layouting

Layouting functions of PlotMaker are now integrated into Archicad 10.

Identical editing methods and environment

Identical interface and feature set for design and documentation: infobox, pet palette, area-based selection, parametric GDL, etc.

Extended navigator

Two new Navigator Panels: Layout Book and Publisher sets. Navigator also includes structure of linked external Project files.

Project organizer

An organizing tool to easily set up View Sets, Layout books and Publisher-sets by moving elements between Navigator-like panels.

Drag and drop Navigator items

Move or duplicate Navigator items in the tree and between Navigator panels.

Drawing manager

Updated drawing management with customizable content, interface and drawing-level status-checking.

Drawing tool

New tool box tool dedicated to placing and modifying drawings. Drawing settings also appear in the Infobox.

Parametric drawing titles

Parametric (GDL) associative titles can be placed with drawings automatically in Archicad 10.

Direct drawing referencing from S/E and detail markers

Section and detail markers can now be linked directly to views/drawings.

PDF drawings in Archicad projects

Import pages from PDF documents as drawings into layout sheets, or even into the model.

Interactive element schedule

Fully integrated Interactive schedules have become WYSIWYG tabular model views. New schedule drawings can be placed to layout as any other model drawings. Any change in the values is immediate and irreversible.

Project indices

View, drawing and layout indices can be defined and placed in a similar manner to Interactive Element Schedules. Alphanumeric values - like drawing names - can be changed from within the index.

Teamworked documenting

Teamworking mechanism is extended to the documentation process. Layouts are now part of one's workspace, similar to stories or layers.

Scalable project setup

Multiple project files can be managed in the Navigator/ Organizer. Views of other project files can be placed as drawings on the current file's layout, or whole layouts/masters can be imported.

Named pen sets

Any number of pen sets can be defined. Model views and layouts use two separate pen sets, while drawings can each use separate pen sets.

Autotext features

Autotext entries indicate global project, system, layout book information in an automated way.

Separate on-screen and model view options

View options that concern on-screen interactions are separated from model view options that pertain directly to a specific view or layout.

Distorted and gradient fills

Distorted instances of a vectorial fill can be applied to individual elements. Roofs automatically appear with appropriately distorted fills on the Floor Plan; bi-color linear and radial gradient fill.

Consistent printing and plotting

Header/footer; marquee area printing, hi-res large format printing, hairline printing.

Publishing enhancements

Concurrent publishing of complete Layouts and individual Model Views; Dynamic Indexes – generated on-the-fly.

Interactions

XP style

Every button, pop-up menu or control will look and behave according to Windows XP standards.

Enhanced pop-ups

Improved fill-selection and pen-selection pop-up menus. Fills and pens appear with names. A scroll-bar and a preview are included inside the pop-up menu.

Integrated context-sensitive help system

Press the right mouse button at any location on your Archicad screen and choose “What’s this?” or “Help” to jump to the relevant section of the Help option.

Reveal hidden features

Eyedropper, Syringe, Trim and Adjust tools are accessible from the menu; they can be placed on any toolbar.

Work environment re-design

The primary default work environment - including palette layout, menu structure and toolbars - has been re-organized.

Company standard scheme

The work environment separates company standards from individual user preferences.

Floor-plan and section attributes on the UI

The redesigned floor-plan and section display attributes of construction elements are available from one panel on the info box or the tool settings dialog, using a single interface.

Pre-selection

As the mouse moves over an element, the element will be highlighted, and an info tag will show relevant information to ease the identification of that element.

Highlight selected elements

The selected element's color changes temporarily to a user-defined uniform highlight color.

Guide-lines

Guide-lines will appear automatically when the user pauses the mouse over an element’s edge or point, to help find directions, angles and special geometry locations.

Element snap

Any point or edge of the dragged element(s) snap to any other points or edges of the project’s elements.

Tracker

During any graphical operation, the Tracker follows the cursor and provides information about its position. The Tracker also provides an in-place numeric input option.

3D navigation

"Orbit mode" for concurrent navigation and editing. "Explore mode" for game-like walk-arounds.

Shaded section/elevations

Shaded section/elevation with surfaces using material's colors.

Story levels in section

Story levels can be graphically edited in section windows through story level markers.

Miscellaneous

Project file compression

Option for compressing Archicad files when they are saved.

Library container files

New, optimized file format (.lcf) for library part storage.

Archicad – DWG translation

Model views and the layouts are converted into real model space and paper space in a single operation; BYLAYER-compliant export method.