Graphisoft has launched Archicad Studio, a subscription plan tailored to solo practitioners working independently or with local teams.

Archicad Studio includes Archicad on macOS and Windows, local teamwork with BIMcloud Basic, Graphisoft AI Visualizer, BIMx mobile app for iOS and Android, BIMx Pro features.

It also incorporates Archicad extensions, like Python API, PARAM-O, Maxon Redshift, Library Part Maker, and additional Surface Catalog, plus training, support, and services.

“With AEC technology evolving at such a rapid pace, we want solo practitioners to have access to cutting-edge BIM software innovations as soon as they hit the market,” said Gábor Kovács-Palkó, senior director of product portfolio strategy at Graphisoft.

“Archicad Studio achieves exactly that — affordable access to Archicad’s powerful BIM workflow at a competitive price point scaled to the solo practitioner’s needs.”

Archicad Studio costs £159 per month.

Find this article plus many more in the March / April 2025 Edition of AEC Magazine

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The Nemetschek Group has previewed AI Assistant, an AI-agent-based technology for Archicad that builds on the AI layer the Group announced in October 2024. The AI Assistant will be embedded directly into Archicad as an integrated AI chatbot, and there are plans to expand the integration to other Group brands.

According to Nemetschek, AI Assistant will streamline creative exploration while saving time and ensuring quality and compli-ance. It will feature product knowledge, industry insights, BIM model queries, and the integration of AI Visualizer, a text-to-image generator powered by Stable Diffusion.

The AI Assistant will also be available in BIMx, Graphisoft’s presentation and coordination app for desktops, mobile devices, and the internet.

“The AI Assistant delivers a consistent and cohesive user experience across our brands, empowering users to enhance creativity and productivity with smarter tools while seamlessly transition-ing between brands through a familiar interface,” said Julian Geiger, VP, head of AI product and transformation at the Nemetschek Group.

The AI Assistant will be available for trial as part of Graphisoft’s public Technology Preview later this year. An official launch is scheduled for the fall. The Nemetschek Group will expand the AI Assistant to other Group brands in 2025 and beyond.

Meanwhile, learn more about the Nemetschek Group’s plans for AI in this AEC Magazine article

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Snaptrude is working on enhanced interoperability between its web-based BIM authoring tool and Nemetschek Group BIM solutions, including Graphisoft Archicad, Allplan, and Vectorworks.

The aim is to enable architects to more easily transition between a range of BIM tools, harnessing the strengths of each tool at different project stages.

Interoperability with Nemetschek Group software will start with the ability to export Snaptrude projects into Archicad, ‘preserving all the parametric properties’ of BIM elements.

Project teams on Snaptrude have shared workspaces that also include a centrally managed library of standard doors, windows, and staircases. Upon import, Snaptrude objects will be automatically converted into editable families in Archicad.

In the future, the integration extend to a bi-directional link between Snaptrude and Archicad for synchronisation of model data and changes. According to Snaptrude, this will further enhance collaboration and efficiency in the design process, as users will be able to switch back and forth between the programs.

Snaptrude already offers bi-directional support for Autodesk Revit (a workflow that is explored in this AEC Magazine article).

“We want architects and designers to use the best tools for their needs without any hassles,” said Altaf, Founder at Snaptrude. “Snaptrude supports bi-directional interoperability with several BIM tools and is extending this capability to Nemetschek Group BIM design solutions. This is a move towards enhancing the way architects and designers work by incorporating industry-leading tools seamlessly into the workflow.”

Snaptrude is a web-based 3D BIM tool designed for real-time, multi-user collaboration. The software recently added an AI renderer to its feature set. According to the developers, the AI renderer recognises the geometry of models, understands scale, and is trained to understand context, foreground, background and material, so users have control over their renders.

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Graphisoft is part of the Nemetschek Group, which comprises thirteen AEC related brands, three of which are BIM modellers.

While the brands are individually strong, it’s taken a while for Nemetschek to realise that together they can represent a connected ecosystem solution for the whole AEC industry. This has resulted in a change of strategy, with growing interconnected workflows and now brand separated teams working together on company-wide technology innovation.

Graphisoft, which has Archicad as its flagship BIM platform, is set to become a major beneficiary of Nemetschek’s new pan-brand accelerated development.

I’ve always felt it was in Graphisoft’s DNA to be a ‘secret squirrel’ when it came to talking about new technology, beyond the current release. On this trip to the HQ in Budapest, I finally realised why.

Jump to section on AI / ML and legacy code

Unlike most other developers in the industry, which have already transitioned to subscription-based sales, Graphisoft has been some way behind the curve into moving into that business model. This has meant that every release needed to perform and appeal to customers. The company’s marketing and focus needed to be on the latest release and the benefits of that yearly update, not on features that were still years away. The net result was we only got only vague insight into the future roadmap.

In 2023, Graphisoft took a significant step forward by beginning to circulate comprehensive product roadmaps for Archicad, BIMcloud, BIMx, and DDScad (MEP – mechanical, electrical, plumbing). These roadmaps categorised the status of various features as ‘under research’, ‘in progress’, ‘coming soon’, and ‘delivered’.

Graphisoft also introduced a Technology Preview Program, to share and experiment with forthcoming features, so users can have input on the development and evolution of Archicad.

This year, we were invited to play with a range of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are still in the experimental phase, sparking discussions about the transformative potential of AI within the AEC sector.

The transition to a subscription model has evidently fostered a more open dialogue from Graphisoft’s product managers, who now appear more inclined to speculate on the future trajectory and capabilities of BIM 2.0, as well as the broader applications of technology across the AEC market.

This is indeed an opportune moment for AEC technology developers, as the landscape is ripe with possibilities for the creation of innovative solutions. The shift towards a subscription model potentially enhances customer engagement, and also allows for a more agile response to market demands and technological advancements. As Graphisoft continues to evolve and adapt to the changing dynamics of the industry, the potential for collaboration and integration among the various Nemetschek brands will likely yield significant benefits for architects and other professionals within the AEC sector.

The strategic realignment within the Nemetschek Group, coupled with Graphisoft’s newfound transparency regarding its product roadmap, heralds an exciting chapter for the company. Graphisoft is fostering a future where technology not only enhances customer’s design capabilities but also fosters a more interconnected and collaborative approach to building and construction. The journey ahead promises to be filled with opportunities for growth, innovation, and the advancement of our profession.

Graphisoft 2024 lineup

Graphisoft’s core product, Archicad, is now in its 28^th revision. For an opener, this year’s update offers a substantial 30% improvement in performance and the development team is impressed with Apple’s new ‘system on a chip’ silicon-based systems. Asked if Graphisoft would support the ARM version of Windows, it seemed the company had the software compilers and were working towards future support for Archicad on ARM.

There are the usual UI tweaks, like a new home page start point on launch. Improved model exchange support through IFC, RFA and RVT for Revit. New support for Information Delivery Specification (IDS) format – a protocol for enabling the construction sector to establish and validate BIM specifications, leading to the automation of quality assurance checks and categorisation. Graphisoft has also added support for BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) 3.0.

Advanced distance arrows / guides give excellent measurement feedback when moving and positioning to relative geometry. Roof openings can be created quicker and more consistently in an expanded Opening Tool. There’s a flexible global library,

‘Keynotes’ debut in Archicad 28, to enable a database-driven documentation system that integrates specifications and legends. This is streamlined by automating annotations, eliminating the manual workarounds that were previously required for maintaining consistency across project documentation sets.

Architects face a common challenge when presenting multiple design concepts to clients. The process typically requires many hours to manually create different versions of the same project. Archicad’s new Design Options delivers a new workflow within a single project file. Users can create variations for a whole building or focus just on specific areas. Different façade treatments or interior layouts are good examples. These alternatives work independently, allowing for smooth 2D and 3D views and are compatible with annotations, sections, and elevations. It’s possible to merge, duplicate, or rearrange options within the workflow. This is a very powerful technique, and one that is used in the more advanced mechanical CAD tools. It reduces the need to start multiple project files to develop different options.

Archicad has improved Rhino-Grasshopper connection which supports the latest version of Rhino. It offers increased speed with a built-in parametric hotlink capability, where Archicad geometry becomes hotlinks in Grasshopper – enabling capabilities such as laying out of buildings. Beam and column support has also been extended.

The Archicad AI Visualizer, which was originally desktop-based, now runs in the cloud, which means it doesn’t have to be installed, and users don’t need powerful local GPUs. The software takes Archicad designs and uses AI to generate photorealistic images based on text prompts. To change a material, the user simply alters the text prompt and the image is regenerated.

Graphisoft still has strong links with Chaos Group and its Enscape renderer too for more traditional viz output. The new Chaos AI Enhancer is also accessible to Archicad users, delivering exceptionally smooth daylight shadows. In fact, there are no shortages of rendering tech, as there is also Graphisoft’s stablemate, Maxon, which offers Redshift and Cinema 4D too.

There’s a new LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis capability provided by third party developer One Click, to give fast feedback on lifecycle assessments and life cycle costing of their various design options.

Point cloud has been improved with the inclusion of a ‘Lite’ layer of functionality from third-party developer, BIMmTool, aimed at assisting renovation and refurbishment projects within Archicad. It means Archicad can now handle larger data sets, leading to faster workflow. To maintain speed while handling dense point clouds, the software displays distant point clouds at lower resolution.

Users that want even more power can upgrade to the full version from BIMmTool, which supports the direct import of common point cloud formats, such as Leica, Faro, Riegl and others. Thanks to multiprocessing support and sampling, BIMmTool supports large scan projects easily, while the Pointcloud switcher allows precise control over point cloud display in Archicad views. The full version also provides a suite of tools for modelling off point clouds, as well as analysis for deviation of reality vs BIM.

Archicad also offers improved integration with its sister Nemetschek brands, including Solibri for design checking / validation and Bluebeam for PDF-based collaboration.

DDScad for MEP

In June 2022, Graphisoft merged with its sister company, DDScad, adding the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) expertise of DDS to its BIM platform. This was a major step forward to producing a like for like multi-disciplinary BIM system to compete with Revit. Unfortunately, the Archicad brand obfuscates the fact that the BIM tool is more than just about architecture. It now offers MEP, as well as structural, through other Nemetschek brands. The integration work is significant and Graphisoft maintains DDScad as a standalone product for its significant European installed base.

DDScad is an advanced MEP solution which designs ductwork specifications with flow rate optimisation, with an easy-to-use browser-based system to visualise routes. It also delivers streamlined cable tray and piping workflows and real-time size optimisation, based on flow requirements.

Customers want to buy into a technology firm that has a vision and can show velocity of innovation. BIM software needs to deliver considerably more productivity to users and I don’t get the feeling Graphisoft is resting on its laurels

New for this year, there are enhancements to photovoltaic system design, busbar trunking design and modelling and generic workflow improvements, specifically allowing electrical engineers and architects to exchange models easily. Lighting design also gets updated with an improved DIAlux-evo electrical connection, for planning, calculation and visualisation of lighting. Dial is the company which develops DIAlux-evo in Germany and is available free of charge in 26 languages.

BIMcloud for collaboration

Graphisoft’s cloud-based data platform, BIMcloud, for architects, engineers, and constructors enables real-time collaboration on projects. BIMcloud has 13 regional data centres worldwide through Graphisoft’s partnership with Google Cloud Platform.

While BIMcloud was slow to gain adoption, like all cloud collaboration tools it has started to get traction post COVID, with remote working and distributed teams growing and fears of cloud subsiding. This year, multi-factor authentication is being added to build in more security and Graphisoft is offering it as a turnkey service.

BIMx for presentations

Graphisoft’s collaboration and presentation tool, BIMx, now supports antialiasing, leading to better quality model edge definition. The new release also provides feature unification across all supported platforms, mobile, web and desktop – macOS, Safari, Windows, Firefox, IOS, Android, Chrome and others.

There are more controls to filter visibility options to enable the viewing of design options, renovations and structure. This is easy to use and an incredibly effective visual aid when showing clients.

BIMx now supports the Apple Vision Pro, although since the announcement Apple has paused production of the high-resolution headset, and rumours are that work on the second generation has been suspended. We hope this work progresses once Apple figures out the way ahead.

Autodesk Nemetschek API deal

In April this year, Nemetschek and Autodesk signed an agreement to advance and open interoperable workflows between their products. This was great news and included the exchange of software, API developer access and for Nemetschek to access Autodesk Platform Services APS (formerly Forge). This lowered the bar of entry for Nemetschek to connect Bluebeam, BIMcloud and BIMplus to Autodesk Forma, Autodesk Fusion, Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) and design products.

While it’s still early days, it was interesting to discuss the opportunities this might present to Graphisoft. It’s possible that Graphisoft could develop tools that rely on APS, which essentially is Autodesk’s modularised services, like viewing tools, file translation, design automation, and even access to the new granular data and geometry feeds from Autodesk Docs, which were launched this year.

Co-opetition is a strange new world as AEC firms open up, but it was encouraging to hear that Graphisoft’s team were aiming to make use of this agreement in building connected AEC workflows, trying to remove the historic silos.

Architecture tour

During the CAD conference in Budapest, Graphisoft organised a notable architectural excursion to refresh our minds away from BIM software discussions. The destination was Napraforgó utca (Sunflower Street), situated near the intriguingly named ‘Devil’s Trench’, a significant modernist development. The estate comprises 22 structures commissioned for the 1930 International Architecture Congress.

The project featured 18 distinguished architects, including Henrik Böhm, József Fischer, Alfréd Hajós, Ármin Hegedűs, Lajos Kozma, and Farkas Molnár. This remarkable collection of Bauhaus-style modernist villas remains predominantly residential, with one property, formerly the house of an opera singer, on Bajza utca functioning as a public museum.

From seeing the original photographs, the estate was clearly built near the northern outskirts of the Buda side of the city, but since then the urban sprawl of a nation’s capital city has somewhat swallowed it up.  If you are in Budapest, and a fan of modernism, it’s well worth the trip.

Conclusion

It’s incredible how broad the Graphisoft software and services portfolio has grown – now catering to architects, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, sustainability experts, construction specialists, and arch viz experts, extending out to surveyors, and then customers with BIMx. With each release, the span of software development grows.

This release also sees Graphisoft do something else it has not been so good at in the past – working with third parties. Bringing in BIMmTool and One Click LCA, this enables ‘lite’ layers of functionality to be integrated, exposing their customers to third party tools which build on the functionality provided, adding extra levels and layers to Archicad’s capabilities.

Graphisoft will convert to selling only new subscription licences from 2026 which is a sure-fire way to rile up the base as inevitably the cost of ownership goes up. This can be assuaged to a degree by offering more value and much longer low-cost subscription deals. The messy bit with subscription is time and price inflation – compound inflation eventually adds up to make an expensive solution and software providers fall foul with even their in-house product champions. However, maybe in ten years, AI will mean that eventual seat sales of software may have to make way for a new value-based pricing model.

It’s interesting how attitudes are changing in the software development community. While I am not a massive fan of subscription for many reasons, there is one positive thing that is coming from it and that is open product development. It’s no longer about selling the next release and trying to get as much of the base to buy in to this year’s features. We have moved decisively to open development, where customers get a much longer view of where software development teams have been going.

Customers want to buy into a technology firm that has a vision and can show velocity of innovation. BIM software needs to deliver considerably more productivity to users and for the first time in 20 plus years there are some new kids on the block. I don’t get the feeling Graphisoft is resting on its laurels, and that sentiment now spans the whole Nemetschek Group.

AI / ML and legacy code

In a CAD world full of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), it will be obvious to see that there is not a lot of innovative AI shipping with Archicad currently. The most notable component was this year’s inclusion of the AI Visualiser tool, but this was released in a world of exploding AI visualisation tools, which basically all do the same thing – harness ChatGPT with and AI renderer (Stable Diffusion), using BIM geometry as the seed. EvolveLab was first to market with Veras in December 2022.

AI Visualiser was a rapidly developed tool, which started off as an in-house AI experiment that progressed rapidly and gave impressive results so the decision was made to release it.

I talked with Màrton Kiss, Graphisoft CPO and Sylwester Pawluk, senior director of product management about AI, pre-Archicad 28 launch, back in September 2024. At the event we had plenty more time to further our conversations and talk about the future application of AI.

Both Nemetschek and its brands are all active in developing AI features and new products and this is being managed centrally by an AI group at Nemetschek. We will see discreet AI applied within Nemetschek’s brands, jointly developed technology between different brand developers and possibly new products emerge in their own right from Nemetsheck.

The Graphisoft product team is certainly not short on ideas. Our conversations ranged from automated detail modelling, 2D to 3D BIM, 3D BIM to 2D drawings, mass transcription of architectural catalogues to 3D BIM components, scan a room direct to AR, auto routing of MEP, auto modelling of MEP, automatic structural design based on architectural BIM modelling, modelling with intelligent massing rooms which automatically generate Level 300 detail models.

All of these topics are being considered or are in some form of being actively researched. Depending on how well they go, they could end up on the Archicad roadmap or be taken up within the Nemetschek Group as they could benefit all brands.

It is of course possible that the AI technology is deemed so game changing that it is kept in stealth until unleashed. With the industry seeing so many cloud-based ‘wannaBIM’ start-ups and the future battle for the AEC design authoring tool for the next decade.

Talking with Pawluk, who was previously at GE Healthcare / GE Avionics and Google, you can’t help but get excited about the potential applications for AI within the whole product suite. But with this new change of pace in development, it’s important not to break the existing product and still deliver reliable code.

We know internally the company has engaged in a multi-year project to rewrite and modernise Archicad’s core underlying code, removing the legacy. Called the Adaptive-Hybrid Framework (AHF), that program is being led by Zsolt Kerecsen, Graphisoft’s CTO. Essentially Archicad’s core has to become modular, extensible, support cloud and desktop as native, and be ready to deliver quarterly feature updates and AI, ML / neural net-based capabilities.  In fact, some of this work has already been done as two of this year’s features utilised the AHF – Design Options and Keynotes.

The BIM competitive landscape

With so much happening in the world of BIM, with all the upstarts and new developers, it’s worth spending a little time understanding the competitive landscape.

Autodesk is the 800 lb industry gorilla and Revit is its global leading BIM tool for others to beat. However, since the ‘Open letters to Autodesk’ (A tale of two open letters), Autodesk was pressed to go on record to say that there will be no new ‘next generation’ desktop version of Revit. The company has since launched Autodesk Forma, a next generation cloud-based AEC platform, on which it plans to develop industry tools, spanning design, simulation and fabrication workflows.

Autodesk is currently still developing new features for Revit but these seem to be ones which don’t need the developers to go into the guts of the programme for major software architectural rewrites.

The challenge is to somehow build a bridge between Revit and Forma and eventually deliver next generation BIM with a cloud-based datacentric workflow, incorporating desktop Revit and somehow reversing it into cloud-centric workflows and tools. This process could take anywhere from 5 to 10 years to complete.

Nemetschek has three core BIM brands – Archicad, Allplan and Vectorworks. None of these tools are cloud-first, all are desktop with cloud extensions, but increasingly cloud-connected. With Autodesk choosing a difficult path of spinning multiple plates, maintaining the old version and workflow while fleshing out the new, there is an opportunity for Archicad, with focused development, to become a real multidisciplinary competitor for Revit. However, legacy software is sticky and proprietary formats and hard-earned skillsets inhibit momentum to change.

But looking ahead, in 2027 / 2028 Autodesk’s two-for-one perpetual to subscription deal runs out. Many firms will be facing paying around £10,000 per seat for their next 3-year deal for half their seats (which they have enjoyed for gratis for the last eight years) to be renewed as an AEC collections. Added to this, their current deals on historic seats, which were heavily discounted through dealers will also need renewing. And now Autodesk has taken over the sales process, customers won’t have access to dealers who previously cut their own margins for a sale.

The net result will be a potential combined double whammy – buying 50% new licences together with the cost increase to existing licences. This is, of course, assuming that Autodesk won’t try and do something to soften the blow, which it may well do as there are three years to go.

Of course, all of this may present a huge opportunity for competitive AEC software firms like Graphisoft that can provide an alternative means to model and document their projects with significant budget savings. Customers will face some tough budgetary and tech stack decisions over the next five years. It’s safe to say that even with so many start-ups aiming for a slice of the BIM market, Revit and Archicad will still offer the deepest, most mature BIM feature sets.

Archicad Collaborate

In March 2023, Graphisoft offered the Archicad Collaborate subscription-based, value bundle for power users. This combined Archicad, BIMcloud as a service (no IT overhead), Graphisoft Learn courses and materials, Redshift renderer by Maxon, PARAM-O object design tool, Library Part Maker and Python API for a single discount subscription fee.

The 2024 Collaborate offering is intended to replace its Software Service Agreement (SSA) / Forward (FWD) subscription program, and includes Archicad, BIMx Pro, BIMx model transfers (private storage, password protection, embedding), Redshift, Surface Catalogue (500+), Pythion API, PARAM-O, Library Part Maker, Technical support, Graphisoft Learn, Emergency licences (replace lost or stolen keys), and Archicad Design Checker (powered by Solibri).

Collaborate is essentially the full Graphisoft tech stack and enables centralised project management with real time synchronisation across all connected devices and team members. There’s built in version control, logging and tracking all iterations, and there are quality checking and conflict resolution tools. Designs can be shared with team members and clients, sent for markup and annotation. Tasks can be assigned and tracked. Access is controlled based on roles.

BIM data is stored securely in the cloud and distributed across multiple platforms. The cloud server provides automatic back-up and utilises the power of the cloud, freeing up local machines for other tasks.

From 2026 Archicad will be available for purchase only via subscription. The bundle options appear to be Archicad Collaborate now or Archicad Studio in 2025. We suspect the individual products will remain as subscription items on the menu.

Main image: Archicad’s new Design Options allows users to create variations of a building within a single file

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Adobe led the way with Creative Suite transitioning to monthly Creative Cloud, closely followed by Autodesk, which perfected the subscription model in the AEC space, driving increases in revenue and new licensing options. Pretty much every publicly listed software firm in BIM has now shifted from perpetual to subscription, irrespective of customer sentiment.

Graphisoft describes the move, as ‘part of its strategic shift to a sustainable subscription software delivery model’. New purchases of Archicad perpetual licences will be gradually phased out by the end of 2025 but will not affect the delivery of Software Service Agreement (SSA)/Forward customers – Graphisoft’s first subscription service, which provides with access to exclusive tools (network licensing, Twinmotion), training, support, and extra services such as licence key insurance. Archicad perpetual and SSA/Forward licences will still be available for new customers through December 31, 2024, and to existing customers through December 31, 2025.

New subscription licences are branded ‘Archicad Collaborate’, as they come bundled with software and services BIMx Pro, BIMCloud, and Redshift Renderer.

If SSA/Forward subscription customers wish they can immediately convert to the new Archicad Collaborate subscriptions for the same price as SSA/Forward. This offer is designed to help existing SSA/Forward subscribers take full advantage of the Archicad Collaborate subscription, which increases access to Graphisoft’s collaboration tools.

A cloud-based subscription extends the inherent desktop perpetual version of Archicad, which has local saves, maintenance subscription and gets a yearly updates to a model which provides cloud-based back-up, file history, collaboration, continuous updates and flexible cloud licences. In fact we see the flexible licensing as the jewel in Graphisoft’s subscription transition. Graphisoft’s subscription products run using modern cloud technology, so licences can be assigned to individuals as “named licences” and can also be assigned to a group of users as a “network licence” pool where users can get a licence on a first-come-first-served basis. Users can also go offline with cloud licences for up to 7 days. Floating licence support will come in Q3, 2024 and will be made available to all Archicad Collaborate subscription customers retrospectively.

Graphisoft recently hot-swapped CEOs, from Huw Roberts to Daniel Csillag. This move to transition from perpetual to subscription comes as Csillag’s first major business impact.  “Technology in the AEC industry is evolving at lightning speed,” commented Csillag. “Shifting our product delivery model to subscription allows users to take advantage of agile, responsive, and up-to-date software solutions — as soon as they hit the market,” he explained.

Archicad Collaborate is available at its standard price to new customers in the online Graphisoft Store. SSA/Forward customers can take advantage of Graphisoft’s unique conversion offer at the time of their SSA/Forward term renewal, starting in April in select markets (US, Canada, and the UK), with other markets joining during the course of 2024.

Monitoring the Graphisoft support forum, the reaction has been as expected, with the majority of long-term perpetual customers expressing their angst. Archicad perpetual licences can be used indefinitely and deals for conversion are available for 3 to 6 years.

For SSA/Forward customers, who are already on a form of subscription, the issues are not so much on the business model but the year-on-year cost increases which SSA/Forward seats have endured and the nuances in differences between the new subscription offering.

Graphisoft guarantees price parity with SSA/Forward for the initial subscription term and same discount percentage at the first renewal for 3-year upfront paid subscriptions. Yearly payment options are also available for a 10% markup on the 3-year upfront paid option. SSA/Forward licence pools maybe converted only “all or nothing” at this point. There appears to be a fall back position to return to perpetual as a fallback option, as well as access to Archicad V13.

Transitioning multiple business models to subscription was always going to be a bit messy and will take many years for the base to get used to. It’s pretty much always the case that subscription bundles offer more in terms of features and services but in our experience it inevitably comes with an increase in the cost of ownership. I’ve yet to see any software firm successfully weigh-up, portion and stream in-subscription contract features, especially in a collaborative profession that has major issues of being, not only on the on the same version but also the same build of an application.  At the end of the day, it boils down to value- value delivered – and that can only be perceived by the customer. If business models and shareholder dividends become more obvious to customers than innovation and productivity delivery, coming back yearly to demand the next year’s subscription becomes a new point of customer friction.

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Graphisoft has published Archicad benchmark scores comparing the new Apple Macbook Pro with Apple M3 Max silicon to older generation Apple computers, including a Mac Studio with an Apple M1 Max, Mac mini with Apple M1 and iMac with Intel Core i7 .

According to the company, compared to an Intel Core i7-based iMac, the new M3 Max chip is up to 2.5x faster at opening files, up to 3x faster in section generation and display, up to 3x faster in documentation layout update and display, up to 2x faster at rendering with Cineware and Redshift engines.

For the Archicad benchmark tests, the company used three different model sizes: a 343 MB residential project model with 1,014 3D elements, a 530 MB commercial project model with 19,965 3D elements and a 2.26 GB stadium model with 94,944 3D elements.

As one would expect, the performance leap from Apple M1 and Apple M1 Max silicon is not as large, but still significant. No comparison is made with Apple M2 silicon. The full benchmark results can be seen here.

“I upgraded from the best possible 2019 16″ MacBook Pro to the latest and greatest 2023 16″ M3 MacBook Pro. The M3 is amazing,” said Jared Banks, AIA, principal, Shoegnome Architects.

“I love how fast Archicad 27 runs on it, and the battery life is incredible. I measure houses and build Archicad models at the same time.

“With my old laptop, I couldn’t go long on-site in Archicad with the computer unplugged. Now, with my M3, I can go for hours. It’s incredible.”

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Graphisoft has introduced Archicad AI Visualizer, an AI-driven image generation tool powered by Stable Diffusion. The software is designed to create detailed 3D visualisations during the early design stages via a simple user interface optimised for architecture and interior design.

To get started with Archicad AI Visualizer, users need a valid Archicad 27 license and Nvidia GPUs or Apple Silicon chips.

Users create a simple concept model in Archicad, then, using text prompts or a few descriptive words, like ‘a modern office with wood surfaces,’ generate any number of refined design variations — without creating detailed models for each. The tool produces design alternatives in the early design phase by adding details, context, and ideas to the original concept.

Prompts and results are optimized for architectural and interior design workflows. According to Graphisoft, Intellectual Property rights are fully protected thanks to the local storage of source images on users’ computers. Users can specify image sizes, vary the number of iterations to speed up image generation, edit the prompt strength for more precise results, and much more.

“The buzz around AI breakthroughs has shaken up the tech industry as a whole, with the promise of enabling increased creativity,” said Márton Kiss, vice president of product success at Graphisoft. “We want this tool to be tested in the real world by real users where they need it most — early in the design process when exploring designs and communicating with clients.”

The AI Visualizer will also be available for other Nemetschek Group brands Allplan and Vectorworks in the coming months.

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Graphisoft enjoys a solid reputation for delivering consistent value with every annual release. This year is no exception, with the Hungary-based developer of BIM software (part of the Nemetschek group) unveiling useful enhancements to its core Archicad, BIMcloud and BIMx programmes for design, collaboration and project management, respectively.

Let’s start with design. Archicad is a tool that has historically done well with architecture firms, having successfully carved out a dual Apple/Windows niche for itself. Since last year’s release, Graphisoft has been on a mission to significantly expand the programme’s feature set, adding a raft of MEP capabilities enabled by integration with fellow Nemetschek stablemate, DDScad.

With this year’s Archicad 27, the company continues its journey to empower architects with better tools and deliver strong capabilities for multidisciplinary teams, both in MEP and structural workflows.

This presents a direct challenge to competitor Autodesk Revit, the market’s 800-pound gorilla, which has always benefited from offering a broad, multidisciplinary feature set.

Graphisoft’s decision to fold in DDScad functionality and build strong links to Nemetschek’s Frilo, Risa and Scia brands will broaden Archicad’s appeal and enable the package to compete feature by feature with Revit. It’s a significant industry play.

With each new release, Archicad is becoming more than just ‘Archi’, and will be better able to compete with Revit as a desktop BIM tool with cloud capabilities.

Meanwhile, Autodesk appears to be slowing development of Revit as it transitions to a new cloud-based platform called Forma.

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As it stands, DDScad now lives a dual existence, both as a standalone product and as a part of Archicad. Graphisoft executives say that they are committed to DDScad’s existing customer base and its product development roadmap, even as they work to broaden its appeal for a more BIM-focused audience.

The latest version of DDScad introduces access to out-of-the-box manufacturer data, intended to simplify the MEP design process. New product data technology enhances the openBIM capabilities of the product, giving engineers greater freedom and flexibility when it comes to design. And DDScad in Archicad brings new intelligence as MEP piping is laid out and size changes are required.

There have also been updates to Archicad’s Structural Analytical Model, designed to enable seamless collaboration between different disciplines for efficient project execution and more successful outcomes. A new manual adjustment feature helps users to achieve a continuous structural-analytical model on complex projects.

As a design progresses, there are critical points in the process where important decisions need to be made and, often, some variances need to be trialled. Typically, Archicad users would respond to these needs by creating new layers, using hotlinks, or requiring a current copy of the model to be created, on which experiments could be carried out. That’s not very efficient and, frankly, highlights the fact that the software hasn’t been built to address these critical points.

In response, Archicad 27 now offers a Design Options feature. This enables architects and multidisciplinary teams to efficiently evaluate and communicate a range of design options to clients, hopefully reducing the time required to find the best alternatives. In the mechanical CAD (MCAD) world, this Design Options approach is known as branching and merging, and it’s really powerful. As an example, take a look at PTC Onshape, where branching and merging supports the quick iteration of ideas and brings the best of these back into the design.

For now, Design Options represents Archicad’s first take on this capability, and it’s got some way to go yet. But what’s offered here is a solid foundation for further refinement of the idea. Graphisoft executives, incidentally, claim that Archicad is the first BIM tool to offer this kind of capability. In fact, it’s been included in Revit since version 6 (which dates back to 2003), although not many users may be aware of it.

AI visualisation

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in this marketplace for a few years now and Graphisoft is one of the first to add sprinkles of AI to its core design tool. My feeling is that these were added late in the day, bearing in mind the lack of product information available beyond a quick demo. But essentially, what the company has developed is its own version of Veras (read this AEC Magazine article), an AI-based renderer for BIM models created in Revit – but, of course, Graphisoft’s version is aimed specifically at Archicad users.

The problem with bare-bones conceptual image generators and ChatGPT text descriptions is that they are hard to control and don’t always deliver consistency. But by using a BIM model as a constraint, you can focus the power of an AI renderer to automatically generate all sorts of architectural treatments to a proposed building. And without having to become a rendering nerd, a user can harness AI to get new inspiration when it comes to environments, materials and styles, delivered in the form of photorealistic output.

AI visualisation is part of the product roadmap that Graphisoft released last year. Historically, the company has tended towards a secret squirrel approach, revealing new features only on a year-to-year basis. But with the trend towards subscription-based licensing, and in order to satisfy a customer base that increasingly demands open dialogue with vendors, the company has outlined some broad ‘buckets’ into which it will pour its development efforts.

AI is clearly going to be one of the biggest of these buckets. The company’s product roadmap clearly states that it will look at, “the use of AI and machine learning to assist designers, allowing them to focus on the creative and value-adding aspects of their profession.” The examples the company gives of AI-assisted tasks include “design optimisation, sustainability, documentation, and automation of other time-consuming tasks.”

It is also worth noting that Graphisoft has doubled down on its work with Enscape, the real-time visualisation software, to build a more streamlined connector. It’s now possible to map any Archicad object to any high-poly Enscape asset, giving users the best of both worlds. Enscape is also now available for the Mac OS platform and is available for Subscription, Forward and SSA users.
There is also new native support in Archicad for the import/export of industry-standard FBX files to augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, with smart meshing on hand to generate models that deliver the best performance.

Other enhancements in Archicad 27 focus on project manageability, with additions to the attribute management workflow. Architects can now organise more attributes by folders to improve design team efficiency. The upgrade also includes new productivity tools, such as distance guides for placing elements. This aims to make the design process more enjoyable and intuitive for architects who might be transitioning from other platforms. Version 27 now supports RFA and RVT Geometry Exchange with Revit 2024 and is equipped with the IFC4 file import and export certification.

There’s also the new, intelligent Archicad Tracker, which includes its own calculator, allowing users to multiply, divide, add or subtract functions directly from the Tracker.

The new GDL Editor, meanwhile, delivers easier navigation, thanks to syntax highlights, which are shortcuts for editing commands. These improvements make it harder to create poorly written GDL. GDL Editor also supports dark mode.

BIMcloud and BIMx

Moving on to collaboration, let’s look at BIMcloud. This cloud-based solution enables real-time collaboration between team members, which comes in handy on large projects or for teams whose members work in different locations, which these days, is most teams.

The latest updates focus on enhancing security, a crucial concern for design firms in a digital age. Multi-factor authentication has been introduced to ensure data protection and secure access to shared projects. It’s also great that BIMcloud is available for both private and public cloud configurations.

In project management, the latest updates to presentation and coordination app BIMx bridge the gaps that often exist between design studios, client offices and construction sites. There are some new issue reporting capabilities, which aim to reduce the time it takes to resolve problems discovered on construction sites or during project coordination meetings.

Architects, clients, and construction teams can now communicate and address issues more effectively, leading to smoother project execution and improved overall quality.

Here, it’s worth mentioning that Graphisoft now offers a subscription-based bundle for small firms, Archicad Collaborate. This includes Archicad, BIMx and also BIMcloud SaaS, with BIMcloud SaaS included as part of the Archicad subscription price. That’s an unusual step in this market, where Autodesk and others charge additional fees for cloud services, but one that lowers the barrier to entry for small firms. From a look at the price list, it seems that Archicad Collaborate costs pretty much the same as a standard Archicad subscription licence, making the former a no-brainer for firms that opt for a subscription approach.

Conclusion

It’s clear that Graphisoft is doing a lot of reconfiguring, rearchitecting and remodelling when it comes to its most popular products. That may have been the case before – perhaps the company was just more covert about it. But I suspect it’s a proactive response by Nemetschek and Graphisoft to a rapidly changing market, one in which opportunities are opening up. In order to make the most of them, Archicad needs capabilities, cloud extensions and bundles that give it more appeal in an uncertain BIM landscape.
When it comes to AI, Graphisoft presents a timely reminder that it’s not necessarily going to be third-party developers or miracle start-ups that will disrupt the market, but perhaps established incumbents. Graphisoft, Autodesk, Bentley and others are all looking for ways to incorporate AI features in ways that complement their existing toolsets, often with a view to delivering productivity benefits, or new ways to experiment with ideas.

It will be interesting to see if, in the future, they choose to disrupt themselves, as AI becomes increasingly capable of delivering true automated drawings. After all, that’s one of the core tenets of BIM; but it might also result in fewer seats of BIM and CAD software being needed by customers.

While Autodesk is clearly going down the ‘cloud is everything’ route and will take time to cross that chasm, Graphisoft is wedded to a more flexible vision of the future, in which users can access their data in whatever way makes sense: desktop, cloud, on-premise, off-premise, Windows Intel, Apple Mac and even Windows ARM in the future. In other words, it’s all about giving customers options. That’s clearly going to involve a lot of code-juggling for the vendor, but it’s also a clear differentiator for Graphisoft.

Looking ahead with Márton Kiss of Graphisoft

In Budapest, AEC Magazine got the opportunity to sit down with Márton Kiss, vice president of product success at Graphisoft, to discuss aspects of this latest release and the company’s future product development plans.

As we pointed out to him, it seems as if Graphisoft has moved away from delivering ‘big theme’ releases (for example, focusing on retrofit), in favour of more iterative development of software features. But is that actually the case, from his perspective?

“Last year, we unveiled our public roadmap. This has been super useful for us, because whenever we visit a client, right away they have the roadmap there, and they can tell us this feature is irrelevant for them or not,” he said.

That process brings with it a lot of customer intelligence regarding what the user base considers important or not. Take, for example, search capabilities: “Putting the right search in the right place can be a huge productivity benefit for daily users,” he said.

“Once you have a major solution, these ‘big bang’ features that we cook internally might take us off track compared to where the industry is going. It’s far better to have a dialogue, because everybody utilises new innovations in different ways, and we really need to see that pattern. While we, and most software companies, have the means to collect that usage, human conversations always give us qualitative input for our development story,” he continued.

“From a Graphisoft side, I think we will do more of these micro roadmaps of functionality with close iteration, because that’s really solving the problems of our users. In the background, obviously, as new technology comes in, then the big bang approach to adding functionality has a role.”

For example, the AI trend is about looking for a silver capability out there, he said. “In this release, we have AI rendering, and the focus was to first of all get this framework into Archicad, so that we can connect an AI conceptual rendering engine. In our case, we opted for Stable Diffusion, but there are many. Once we get it out there, we will see where people take this.”

With AI under discussion everywhere, one of the main concerns often raised is where the technology could cross over, going from simply being an aid to taking control of complete portions of the workflow. The most obvious area in which this could happen is AI drawings.

While BIM’s initial reason for existence was to automate drawings production, it seems that most people in the industry were dissatisfied with the quality of automated output. So, while BIM increased the speed of documentation, it also increased the number of documents and the amount of editing needed for manual drawings, which kind of broke the link with the model.

AI promises to fix drawing layout and production in the not-too-distant future, with many firms working on it, and some attempting to include modelling as well, such as Swapp.

But how does Kiss envisage AI documentation redefining industry workflows? “I’m with you that it’s going to reshape roles. Modelling, documentation — for any mundane task or any repetitive task, technologically, you can build an AI to do that, so long as there is proper training data,” he responded.

“But while you may have AI-generated outputs, how do you control the quality? After all, you are liable for this! So maybe the architecture and the designer roles will shift focus to early modelling concepts, steering decisions that are inputted to the AI tools. While lots will be generated automatically, then the role will be proofing and checking quality, to make sure everything is right. I think this is going to also apply to construction, because it’s the weakest point in the whole building industry and you need to quality-check the real world against the design documents.”

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Opening out onto the city’s imposing and historic Piazza Garibaldi, there has been a rail way station on the site occupied by Naples Central Station (Napoli Centrale) since the mid-nineteenth century. The current station was designed and built in the 1950s and today handles around 400 trains per day and 150,000 passengers, making it the sixth largest train station in Italy for passenger flow.

It is also the site of a pioneering BIM pilot project, exploring the use of BIM for facility management on a massive scale. The BIM manager for this project was Minnucci Associates, an engineering company based in Rome, Anguillara Sabazia and Milan, working on behalf of the station owner, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), which is responsible for the management and safety of railway traffic on the entire national network, including tracks, stations and installations.

Faced with the need to develop new buildings while simultaneously keeping existing buildings and equipment in good condition, RFI initiated the project with a view to capturing the station’s assets. Through surveying and modelling, a digital twin would be created and then converted to an open and collaborative format, supporting integration with RFI’s facilities management system in order to improve the whole-life value of assets.

A heavyweight pilot

For the team at Minnucci Associates, this challenge represented one of the most data-heavy projects it had ever worked on. To give an idea of the complexity involved, Naples Central Station is spread across five buildings, covering around 400,000 square feet and containing some 12,500 components subject to maintenance. These components include electrical, HVAC, hydraulics and vital safety equipment.

The main challenge was the vast size of the model. Graphisoft BIMcloud came to our aid, as we were able to divide the survey data and the resulting model into federated files, then remerge later either within Archicad, or using the exported IFC models Daniele Piccirillo, BIM Manager

The work began with a survey of the site, using laser scanners and orbital pictures, resulting in a massive point cloud of 380 GB in size. From there, the team at Minnucci Associates developed a digital twin of the station, including equipment needing maintenance.

The station was modelled by comparing and combining survey data, existing drawings and census outcome, with all the input data and output models organised in a common data environment (CDE).

Graphisoft’s Archicad was the chosen BIM authoring tool. In total, 44 models were federated and then imported into Solibri in IFC format. By mapping the BIM authoring tool with IFC open standards, Minnucci Associates was able to create automated workflows and instant asset recognition.

sing Graphisoft’s BIMcloud, the team organised survey data and models into a single, catalogued database. Formalised as an BIM execution plan, the RFI team was able to approve changes and request information remotely throughout the entire process. This system also allowed them to reincorporate individual files, both in Archicad’s authoring model and later in IFC models. Today, on-site tasks are supported through the use of a mobile app directly connected to the CDE.

Scale and complexity

“The main challenge was the vast size of the model,” says Daniele Piccirillo, BIM Manager at Mannucci Associates. “Graphisoft BIMcloud came to our aid, as we were able to divide the survey data and the resulting model into federated files, then remerge later either within Archicad, or using the exported IFC model.”

Given the scale of the site, the complexity of the models and the numerous processes supported, this is a pioneer project for the use of BIM for asset and maintenance management. It also offers a compelling glimpse of how improved facilities management might look for organisations across a wide range of industries. A digital twin approach could work for many.

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Keeping a successful product alive over decades is a big task. Customers want new features, enhancements and improved performance — but they don’t want major user interface changes or the accidental bugs that sometimes creep in. Doing anything new with a much-loved brand is risky. It’s like changing a tyre on a car moving at 90mph.

Graphisoft’s Archicad product is 40 years old, but has continued to develop over its four decades: from 16-bit to 32-bit to 64-bit, the addition of Windows, its support for multi-threading, and for artificial intelligence, Apple Metal and Silicon, other capabilities.

At Graphisoft’s recent 40th birthday party, VP of product development Zsolt Kerecsen gave attendees some insight into the major software architecture changes yet to come. Many are already underway, designed to radically expand the way that Archicad works with the cloud and with future data workflows. These workflows might involve links to disruptive technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, augmented reality, algorithmic design, generative design and robotic fabrication. In short, Archicad’s code is under continuous review.

One of the most interesting aspects of all this is how Graphisoft plans to use cloud computing, giving users the option to run cloud services locally, either on their desktop or on remote servers in what the company terms the ‘Adaptive Hybrid Framework’. While Autodesk is increasingly cloud-centric, Graphisoft prefers not to force users to always be hooked up to the cloud and be able to perform processing locally on their own machines.

With this in mind, I recently spoke to Zsolt Kerecsen, along with his colleague Sylwester Pawluk, Director Product Management, about the changes coming down the line.

Martyn Day for AEC Magazine (MD): Looking back through history, how has Graphisoft looked after the code of Archicad?

Zsolt Kerecsen for Graphisoft (ZK): That’s a really good question. We have to take into consideration that the Archicad is 40 years old. At that time, the architecture, the thinking of how to build an application, was completely different to how it is today. You had to create layers: database layer, data layer, presentation layer etcetera. The hardware technology, the operating system technology were completely different. And the maturity of the programming languages was different. Forty years ago, there wasn’t real multi-threading, and if you chose to innovate your new technology, there was no JS. You had to write your own! To add a new technology would require you to take into consideration many, many things, before you introduced it. Even then, it was also quite dangerous, because rewriting something is always a tricky thing. So we have had to be extremely conscientious. If we went through the process of introducing some new capability, where was the value?

One value, from a software engineering perspective, is that we like to create maintainable code, because someone else will have to continue the programming, or do the maintenance. It’s much easier, of course, from an engineering perspective to maintain code when you maintain good housekeeping, always tidying things up as you go along.

But what happened 20, 30 years ago? All companies wanted to get to market as quickly as possible, and they didn’t really care about how ‘nice’ the code was. Investors were interested in how quickly you could get the product on to the street and recoup the investment. This meant that many different software architectures were created and we had to maintain those.

At that time, the most important code was written as monolithic applications. We had so many really big applications like SAP or Oracle, and software companies realised that this monolithic code, after 20 years of development, became huge mountains — not easy to manage, to modify, to find bugs, to re-architect or rewrite. It was a never-ending story. About 20 years ago, the industry started breaking down applications into smaller, more manageable parts.

It’s a very similar journey to what Graphisoft did, creating monolithic code. There was tons of engineering, architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing knowledge inside. As software engineers, we had to sit down, think and calculate where the real value was. In some cases, we would identify a capability that was a small service and rewrite it. In other cases, we found that there were one million lines of code and we didn’t want to rewrite it again, because it took many years to create.

If we can define a functionality border, then we can make the code a service, by adding an interface. Then we can set the right API (Application Programming Interface) on how to connect to that. We have tons of APIs to let third-party developers create content on top of Archicad and we also use them internally.

With respect to your question, what have we done already is we started this separation. But in parallel to this work, we also reflowed and started to renew the APIs, not just in a programmatic way, but also in a philosophical way. We are going to create a robust layer for APIs, because of security, speed and to more easily support scripting languages or new languages, because the basis of Archicad is C++, which is a very robust, very fast and secure implementation. But now we can add additional languages like Python or other scripting languages, if needed.

Speed is super important. BIM cannot be super slow, of course, and younger users will not wait long for a function to react. We have to consider the overall user experience of performance, from functionality to workflow, and how easily they can use the UI

It’s work that is all happening in parallel. We are also renewing the entire test automation system, too. After checking every test solution on the market, we decided to write our own, because none of them were good enough from a speed and functionality perspective to be able to check the desktop code with many other applications. With the new test automation framework, and with welldefined APIs, we have dramatically sped up our testing time, whilst dramatically decreasing the number of test cases we have to run again and again.

MD: And am I right in thinking it must be even more complex for Graphisoft to programme, test and maintain Archicad, because you support multiple operating systems: Windows and MacOS?

ZK: Exactly. And it’s even worse than that, in fact, because when we started, there was just Windows, and then Apple, but now Apple has two different types: Intel and Apple Silicon. And it was just recently announced that Microsoft is coming out with an ARM version of Windows as well. So that’s actually four platforms that we will have to support in our portfolio. It’s another reason why we have to completely rethink how we are going to organise our development and deployment.

Stepping back a little bit, everything is about user experience. And user experience has three main aspects. One is the security and stability — we call this quality. We have to ensure that for customers who are using Archicad, the data will be 100%, 200% safe, whether it’s on the cloud or on the desktop. We need to guarantee that there will be no data loss. Without that assurance, any kind of nice functionality you offer will not be appreciated. Stability, too, is important. The software should run properly, and I’m not just talking here about functionality, but about ensuring that what the user sees, they get. So together, this is quality.

Second is performance. Speed is super important. BIM cannot be super slow, of course, and younger users will not wait long for a function to react. We have to consider the overall user experience of performance, from functionality to workflow, and how easily they can use the UI.

Finally, go-to-market speed is also super important. This concerns how quickly we react to anything, how quickly we can deploy to a customer and how quickly we react to customer needs. This applies to fixing or adding something. On the engineering side, with what we are building with this new architecture, the underlying philosophy inside of everything is the continuous integration and continuous delivery [CI/CD] concept. When code is a monolithic and full-desktop application, it’s hard to do that, as the customer has to reinstall the desktop application when new functionality drops. That was another reason why we are creating a new framework.

When you install Archicad, you install the frame, where you login, access security and so on. The content’s origin can be hybrid. If you run a desktop application, you have the benefit of deeper access to the operating system and the hardware. Browser-based solutions are limited. The content inside is what we call ‘hybrid’, because at that point, we are going to combine the cloud and desktop parts. You can download locally to utilise your hardware, if that makes you feel better. Alternatively, you can make use of the power of cloud computing, and store lots of data in the cloud, enabling you to work from anywhere. It’s just another possibility and totally down to the user.

A big benefit of this separation will be plug-ins or services. Now it’s much easier to create and define the smaller plug-ins. We deliberately call it a plug-in, because as a function, it’s a service that can run locally or in the cloud. Plug-ins work like Lego. You can plug in the elements you need and define what you would like to do, wherever you want to do it.

I mentioned before how quickly we can develop. Decreasing testing time decreases development time and also makes code cleaner. It also makes it much easier to manage legacy code. Legacy code can absolutely still be good, and if we can create a new border around that legacy code and put it in a plug-in, we can decide to rewrite it later, when we have a brand-new technology or idea.

Another very important aspect of this plug-in technology is the flexibility it brings when it comes to using different programming methodologies. As I said, the majority of our code is C++ for 3D modelling, when we really rely on the power of the operating system or the hardware. I still think it’s a good choice, and we don’t want to introduce a new technology for that. But for UI or mobile, we can bring in something new without having to reskin the entire software.

MD: In the human body, it takes a full 7 years for every single cell to be replaced. How much of your code is being rewritten in this current re-architecting?

ZK: It’s not too big. The good news is that we already have three plug-ins completed; for example, an analytical model was carved out from the big code, somewhere around 15 million lines of code. The next version of Archicad will already contain some of this new technology.

Sylwester Pawluk for Graphisoft (SP): If you think about Archicad in terms of that human body analogy, then at the right time, it’s critical to be able to recreate certain parts, when it makes sense. But at the same time, going back to our roadmap and how we build that roadmap, we also create new things. So we have made a strategic decision to actually make sure that the new things that we create are created in a way that allows that type of follow-on strategy, that allows you to plug it in. From the technology perspective, the code that we are building is really modularised. So it’s much easier to maintain, much easier to integrate with other parts of our systems.

MD: From talking with Autodesk, Bentley and hearing the ideas that Greg Schlusener discussed at NXT BLD, it seems there is a lot of discussion around moving from files to data lakes — a fundamental change in outlook. Is this something that Graphisoft has a plan for, a BIM cloud?

ZK: User experience is our priority. If the user can update frictionlessly, they don’t really care where the data is. If it’s in a file format, or a data lake, or a database — whatever. We just have to ensure that they can record the data at any time they want.

We are absolutely thinking about renewing this part. But here, we are not talking about the focus being where we store the data. The most important part for us is how smoothly we can provide an update for our customers. So we call it a ‘frictionless update’. They just press a button and a new version is there.

With the concept of the data lake, I have a fear that if you store your data in the cloud, it’s a little bit harder to support offline work. We still have to support offline work, even if a user is offline for a couple of weeks or months. We have to take into consideration that one of the key benefits of Archicad was that it can run offline mode for quite a long time. In many places, there is no internet or it’s very hard to reliably connect to any kind of services.

It’s worth mentioning that Graphisoft is one of the few companies that supports older, unsupported operating systems as well! We are still supporting Archicad 17! [the current version is 26.] We try to be quite customer-centric and userfocused, of course.

SP: Let me give you an example of how we think about technology trends: a couple of days ago, Microsoft quietly announced its Windows ARM development kit. From our perspective, we are already looking at that, and we are already thinking seriously about it. We have actually already purchased that development kit, because we want to be among the first ones to support the new platform. If Microsoft comes out with an ARMcompatible operating system, manufacturers will jump on it.

MD: And what can you tell me about how you plan to deploy artificial intelligence in Archicad?

ZK: I’ve been working with AI for around a decade now. And what I have seen is that many companies use an algorithm and claim it’s AI, when it isn’t. I think where to apply AI is a million dollar question. Where is the right place in the business to be able to utilise AI from a technology perspective?

I’m working together with my team with universities in Hungary that are researching AI. Big data is the mandatory part, but how it’s applied, with probability theory and so on, means it’s not just the data. I think with our new approach, we will try to implement AI in the cloud first, and then somehow move it to the desktop path. But the first step is definitely that big data component.

Main image: Graphisoft’s ‘Adaptive Hybrid Framework’ helps the company bring new technology to market faster

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