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Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » GRAPHISOFT Delivers BIMcloud as a Service, Archicad 24 Plus Other Major Product UpdatesJuly 9th, 2020 by Susan Smith
This week GRAPHISOFT held a press briefing on the expanded availability of their BIMcloud as a Service worldwide which will be instrumental in helping architects and designers collaborate during the work-from-home shift we are currently experiencing.
GRAPHISOFT has also developed some new logos to express their new look and provide a platform for growth as they expand their services going forward. The route to that expansion is through product support, services, know-how and relationship with customers, according to Huw Roberts, CEO of GRAPHISOFT. Along with this announcement is the announcement that GRAPHISOFT teamed up with Nemetschek Group brands RISA and SCIA to eliminate one of the AEC industry’s greatest bottlenecks – disciplines operating within their own silos. The product release included Archicad 24, the latest release of the BIM software, the latest release of BIMcloud, the cloud-based team collaboration solution and BIMx the popular mobile and web BIM app. The architects and engineers using Archicad 24 will be using a shared BIMcloud environment to deliver integrated design. This environment allows a shared model that will eliminate model duplication and redundant work between architects and structural engineers, and aims to increase the level of trust between team members. No up-front IT investment, quick and easy deployment, and scalability make BIMcloud as a Service a powerful tool for remote collaboration, especially at a time when many architects may not have access to their office hardware. BIMcloud as a Service is a cloud solution provided by GRAPHISOFT that offers all the benefits of Archicad Teamwork. Fast, easy, international access to BIMcloud as a Service means design teams can work together in real-time regardless of the size of the project, the location of the team members, or the speed of the Internet connection. (From the press release) “To help our users adjust to working together while at home, we are offering free 60-day emergency access to BIMcloud as a Service to all commercial Archicad users worldwide,” said Roberts. “Previously available only in a limited number of markets, we are glad to have been able to quickly expand availability through a network of regional data centers around the world — to assure high performance while meeting the needs of our users everywhere. This reliable and secure solution to empower remote team collaboration is helping our user community maintain business continuity in the current environment.” According to Francisco Behr, Principal, Behr Browers Architects, “BIMcloud as a Service is exactly what architects need to transition to working from home without missing a beat. The IT setup was fast and easy. We’re currently working on several large projects and the collaboration among our colleagues and partners has been very smooth across the board.” Akos Pfemeter, vice president of Product Success at GRAPHISOFT spoke about the set of products they are releasing. Their signature project for this launch is: Merdeka 118 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Architect: FKA Melbourne, Australia “All our technologies needed to be updated so products could work together seamlessly for integrated design,” said Pfemeter. “One building, one team, one model – everybody working on the same stuff.” This paradigm includes
Benefits include: Modeling +Enhanced MEP Modeler Workflow + BIM “Track Changes” Interoperability + RVT/RFA support + IFC 4/BCF 2.1 support +DGNv8 support Visualization +Twinmotion 2020 integration +500+ New Surface Materials + Renewed Residential library Extras +Python API for Automation +PARAM-O for Custom Content +Dark Mode on the Mac The features of the new BIMx include:
BIMcloud features:
GRAPHISOFT LEARN is a program allowing users to enhance their Archicad knowledge by downloading sample projects and taking online tests. Viktor Várkonyi, Chief Division Officer, Planning & Design Division, Member of the Executive Board, Nemetschek spoke on integrated design and how it is driving the construction industry. “The last three years has been heavy in realizing our vision,” said Várkonyi. “Construction is the biggest industry in the world, yet it is not performing well. It’s productivity growth is 1%.” If people are not willing to challenge paradigms for growth, we have to go back to our roots and question why you are working in that way. What is behind the design initiative is illustrated by these examples. Today’s inefficiencies are taken for granted. “While we spend a lot of time in collision detection, I hear a lot of thoughts, while we have this tool and this process for collision detection we have little talk about why we need it, and what processes could we have to not need it and spend time on quality work?” The two types of teams are bureaucratic and agile teams. The bureaucratic team is siloed design team, with detached workflow, clash detection and fixing, and coordination of designs. The agile design team is one with synchronous workflow, clash avoidance, and designing together. “How could we help you all to work as one agile design team?” Várkonyi asks. “We want to provide technology to make all players confident they can open the books and respect a high level of open standards. And bring work down to the parameter level. We want to drive stakeholders to work together, finding solutions with clients. Also at the parameter level is BIMcloud, where an element in a model is being used by different people for different purposes. Integrating the structural analytical model within the BIM model in working with a column, for example, so the architect may be looking at cladding, structural wants to make sure it can manage loads, and MEP wants to make sure it isn’t involving a duct, an analysis can be done in RISA or SCIA using your normal tools. Yet it is integrated with the same model that the architect is using to do that work, and BIMcloud is holding that together. PARAM-O is an easy-to-use object creator tool utilizes node-based editing, but the result is a fully Archicad-compatible parametric library object. Inside Archicad and GDL, you need programming skills if you need a new building component that you’re using for building design or company standards and you want highly parametric objects, then PARAM-O gives you a way to create custom libraries and materials in a very fast and fluid way that still works with everything else Archicad has allowed you to do with BIM. The Nemetschek group is dedicated to delivering on overall lifecycle experience. The advantage we have in Graphisoft is a family so OpenBIM and the extent of OpenBIM means to connect to anyone in any process and handoff whether between whatever phase in the building lifecycle. This includes things that are documentation and things that stay live, things that remain frozen, the publishing, the transaction, the sharing in a workflow between Archicad and BIMcloud is really flexible at extending any step along the way. “You can build on it with entire Nemetschek portfolio and it’s even better,” said Várkonyi. “As architect myself there are a million ways to design, driven by codes, or clients, aesthetic, social drivers,” said Roberts. “They will continue to make their own tools, that is a component of our making sure we have really robust APIs – Python style APIs so that kind of custom development will interface with BIMx mostly. That’s the dilemma that process has for firms like that – making a custom tool that’s not just another dead-end. Having something that integrates to the real workflow that speaks to the real project. We strongly support that workflow. That will be part of industry for years to come. With Archicad or Graphisoft, the technology is fully capable for conceptual design, but Archicad is considered to be a BIM tool, too much production oriented for the concept process. For that reason, we are partnering with Rhino or Sketchup and this is driving traffic to our business section.” Graphisoft is using the OpenDesignAlliance’s libraries and customizing them for a true seamless workflow. Várkonyi said that the Common Data Environment is the Connected Data Environment – it challenges the idea that you need one big robust system to include all data. “Different tasks are probably using their own environment, but they should be fluent in data exchange,” he said. For more information, please visit BIMcloud as a Service in the Help Center. Tags: 3D, 3D cities, AEC, Archicad, architects, architecture, BIM, building design, building information modeling, Cloud, collaboration, construction, covid-19, design, digital twin, Graphisoft, infrastructure, mobile, Open BIM, SketchUp Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AECCafe, apps, Archicad, architecture, BIM, building information modeling, collaboration, construction, engineering, field, field solutions, file sharing, IES, IFC, infrastructure, integrated project delivery, IoT, mobile, openBIM, project management, simulation, sustainable design, terrain |
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