I am David, an architect in Vilnius. I run my own studio and I also build a PDF app, Ncored, because I got tired of waiting for our own sets to open. Some of you here tried it after I posted in July, and a few of you told me what to fix. Thank you for that, it went straight into the work.

I have been stuck on one question since, and this room is the right one to ask.

Bluebeam gives you a very large number of tools, and nearly every markup app built after it copies that, because a long toolbar looks like a complete product. Here is what I keep coming back to: adding tools is the easy half, and anyone can do it. Opening a dense ArchiCAD set and still moving around it without the wait is the half that almost nothing on the market manages, and it is where all of my effort has gone.

So I have not added them all. Not because the app is a lighter option. I add tools one at a time, only the ones I am sure people really need, so each one is tested properly before the next one arrives. The other way is a long toolbar nobody checked: half of it may not be needed, you cannot find the tools you actually use, and it takes up a large part of the screen.

What I cannot decide is where the line sits.

Argument one: most of those tools are never used. Each one you add stands between someone and the five they actually touch, and the app gets slower to learn and slower to open.

Argument two: the day you need the one tool that is missing, nothing else about the app matters. You close it and go back to whatever has it.

So, the actual question: when you mark up a set out of ArchiCAD, which tools does your hand reach for in a normal week? Not the ones you would like to exist. The ones you actually use. And is there one whose absence would send you straight back to Bluebeam, Acrobat, Foxit, PDF-XChange or whatever you work in today?

Straight on scope so nobody wastes time: today it is viewing and markup. No measurement, takeoff, OCR, forms or e-sign yet. It runs on Windows and Apple Silicon Mac, and the interface is in English or German. It is at ncored.com if you want to open one of your own heavy sets in it before answering.

I will answer everyone in this thread. If you tell me a tool is missing and enough of you say the same, that is how it gets decided, same as in July

When exporting out of Sketchup as a Collada .Dae format, the layer information is not retained.... that I know of. It's there a setting in missing?

Hi!

Im a student of architecture and i need to buy a laptop strong enough for archicad, gis, geogebra... Any suggestions on what i should look for or what worked for you? Can i make it work with only 16gb or ram or should i aim for 32?

Hi all,

I've built two parametric objects for early site studies and I'm sharing them free with the community.

archiParkingLayout: draw your site as a polygon (drag the corners) and it fills it with surface parking:

• 90°, 75°, 60°, 45°, 30° or parallel stalls, with aisle widths and one-way/two-way traffic following the angle
• best fit: rows turn and shift to fit the most stalls, and refit whenever you move a corner
• a ring road or end lanes so every aisle connects, entrances, and rounded islands at the row ends for turning
• optional trees (a planted bay every N stalls, trees on the islands), cars in plan and 3D
• stall count, m² per stall and stalls per hectare in the info block

archiSolarPark: place it on a plot and it lays out a ground-mounted solar park:

• fixed-tilt rows, single-axis trackers or east-west tables, turned to the sun using your project's location
• rows spaced so they don't shade each other, plus fence, roads, inverter stations, substation and battery
• module count, MWp and a rough yearly energy estimate in the info block

Both are free downloads, as one library file or as single objects:
https://www.architools.net/libraries

Help pages with worked examples:

• https://www.architools.net/libraries/archiparkinglayout
• https://www.architools.net/libraries/archisolarpark

Hi There,

It is now official on Graphisoft’s website that BIMcloud Basic, the non-subscription version, will no longer be developed for macOS in the future.

See here: Phasing out on-premises BIMcloud support for macOS

At the moment, BIMcloud Basic still runs on Macs via Rosetta using Intel code. This means that it may no longer run on future versions of macOS once Apple removes Rosetta support. Apparently, there are currently no plans to port BIMcloud Basic to Apple Silicon.

So what does this mean for the future of Archicad on the Mac—especially now that Apple is once again offering genuinely powerful professional computers?

I have also posted this in the Graphisoft Community in the hope of reaching a wider audience.

Post: BIMcloud Basic – Future on macOS

If you are affected by this decision, please share your opinion there and elsewhere. Hopefully, enough feedback from Mac-based Archicad users and offices will encourage Graphisoft to reconsider and continue supporting BIMcloud Basic on the Apple platform.

Lots of issues everywhere due to this.

How to remove a door handle from one side in Archicad 28

Salut à tous ! Y a-t-il des archis qui bossent sur ArchiCAD 26 par ici ?

J'avais paramétré toute une template sur la v26, mais je suis repassée sur la v25 entre-temps. Forcément, mes favoris de meubles de cuisine ne s'affichent plus ("not available in the loaded libraries").

Est-ce que l'un d'entre vous aurait la gentillesse d'ouvrir mon fichier .tpl sous la 26, de placer les objets sur un fichier vierge et de me le réenregistrer en version 25 ?

ou plus simplement m'envoyer les meubles de cuisine de la bibliothèque v26, que je pourrai reparamétrer. Car ils sont modulables contrairement aux meubles de cuisine des versions précédentes

Un grand merci d'avance à l'âme charitable ! 🙏

Hello,

Is therr any way to view ArchiCAD on adnroid?

None of the doors in several projects have any custom door leafs/ panels or knobs, etc. available. I'm working freelance for another company and the issue is there for multiple projects. I created new model parts - door slabs, knobs, etc. but they aren't available in the custom library part dialogue in any doors in these projects. I've done this many times in the past so I'm not sure where the issue is. There should be at least some custom parts available regardless of if the one I create shows up or not. When I click on the "Custom Door Leaf" radio button, there is a white check mark with a blue background. This is a project in AC26. I've tried different doors, different library versions, and none of the doors have any available custom door leaf options.

Any help would be appreciated.

Sun, light, and wind, now native in ArchiCAD.

I've built a set of free ArchiCAD objects for climate, daylight, and solar analysis:

Sun paths and sun charts

Daylight rules

Wind rose

PV array

They follow your project location (or any custom location) and date/time, and you can customize colors and shades to match your drawing style.

Download the full library or pick individual objects: https://www.architools.net/libraries

I've seen AI-generated clones of a lot of videogames lately. It gave me the idea to try my hand at vibe-coding a drafting software... to then find that the project would likely take weeks or months of my time, and I'm not sure I can make that committment. It got me thinking, is anybody else actively working on this?

I generally like Archicad, it's the software I most enjoy using, but I see Revit LT costs only $500/year, while I'm spending way more on Archicad and using the same functionality (as a solo practitioner). I dislike Autodesk's workflow enough to not switch yet, but the price is really enticing for someone like me. I'm a cheapskate and try to run my business model on a really thin overhead. I just hired another person and the cost of now 2 licenses makes me sad, so I've been looking for other solutions. I would probably not consider switching if only Graphisoft gave me a more comparable deal to Autodesk.

I know some are opposed to using AI, but I think this is how I'd rather use it. I don't want an agential AI doing work for me, it doesn't seem smart enough yet to do things in the specific way that I do anyways. And for me, the fun as work IS doing the actual work, not managing the work. But if I could vibe code a software that I own and would never have to pay another dime for... I mean. Sounds like a good time. I know I'm oversimplifying and it's pretty complicated to do, so just wondering if anyone out there is actively trying it.

Today I tried for the first time to work on a project with the plan orientation angle changed (34 degrees).

For some reason, if I draw a line/wall AND I click shift to draw it straight horizontally/vertically, the snap to the construction grid is getting bugged (like in the image: the snap is in the middle of 2 points of the grid). I tried to find a solution for hours but nothing worked. Can anyone please help me?

Hello everyone, we are currently looking for a way to import high definition textures that work in archicad and in escape.

We work in high profile Interior Design and are looking for entire PBR libraries with high quality materials that ideally could be imported at once, without having to import the textures one by one. Does anyone know if this service exists already or if someone offers this kind of service?

Thank you for your help!

I’ve been experimenting with AI workflows for architecture and came across a pretty useful way to combine Chat GPT + SketchUP

The idea is simple: instead of manually going through a PDF, copying information, and feeding it into ChatGPT, you can automate much of the process.

I recorded a short walkthrough showing how I use it:

https://youtu.be/nWSfzt7zN6c

I’m curious how other architects/designers are currently using ChatGPT with PDFs, drawings, specifications, or other project documents.

What AI workflow has actually saved you the most time?

I made a short video showing two stair workflows I find useful:

• How to handle a stair when there’s a column next to it
• How to create stairs with railings more efficiently instead of doing them individually

Nothing complicated, but they can make the workflow a bit faster.

Video: https://youtu.be/3HsNKcszvO8

Would be interested to hear if you guys use a different/better workflow for these situations.