I’m not much for press releases on Shoegnome anymore, but these two are important: ARCHICAD 20 was announced today and last week the Rhino – Grasshopper – ARCHICAD Connection was officially released. I want to highlight the Rhino – Grasshopper connection as part of my sharing of ARCHICAD 20 because moving forward the Rhino ecosystem is going to get more and more important to ARCHICAD users. The Grasshopper connection is amazing (and available for ARCHICAD 19), but unfortunately is only for PC. However as of ARCHICAD 20, we will be able to import geometry directly from Rhino. This means fluency with Rhino (and Grasshopper) will be increasingly important and useful. Also while the Grasshopper connection is not available for Mac users (yet?), Grasshopper is. So it seems reasonable that an ARCHICAD 20 workflow for Mac users can be Grasshopper->Rhino->ARCHICAD Objects. That route is not as beautiful and bidirectional as the Grasshopper Connection, but I’m a firm believer that this is a workflow that will continue to develop and grow. As such, we all have an opportunity to get ahead of the curve and start building this into our design methods. Personally, it’s something I need to make happen for myself in 2016.

I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about Rhino, Grasshopper, and ARCHICAD 20 in the coming months. But for now, enjoy the press release and links to videos.

• ARCHICAD 20 Videos
• Grasshopper – ARCHICAD Live Connection Videos

ARCHICAD 20 — A fresh look at BIM

BUDAPEST, May 3, 2016 — GRAPHISOFT®, the leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software developer for architects and designers, announced today the latest version of its industry-leading BIM software solution. ARCHICAD 20 features a number of important functional improvements that put the emphasis on the “I” in BIM, increasing the value for both ARCHICAD users and external stakeholders alike. Its brand new, “flat-design” graphical UI sets the new version apart from run-of-the-mill BIM tools.

“The true potential of BIM is that it can hold all the necessary information for designing, constructing and operating buildings,” said Peter Temesvari, Director of Product Management at GRAPHISOFT. “A significant part of this information is non-geometrical data. ARCHICAD 20 offers powerful workflows to manage, visualize and exchange such information with any stakeholder participating in the design and construction process.”

What’s new in ARCHICAD 20

Enhanced Information Management

Store the Information: Information is the most valuable part of BIM and ARCHICAD 20 helps architects and designers get the most of it! ARCHICAD 20 allows users to utilize their Building Information Model as the central storage place for all related information. They can even easily store and maintain design information that was not created using CAD or BIM tools, like Excel spreadsheets.

Display the Information: ARCHICAD 20 leverages well-structured information resulting in informative design visualization, which ensures enormous efficiencies throughout design and construction. With the help of smart filters and brand new graphical override, designers can freely change the representation of any 2D and 3D views of elements with similar properties. This feature allows a number of workflows that make communication, coordination and model checking much more efficient.

Share the Information: ARCHICAD 20 is among the first BIM applications to fully support the IFC 4 open-source standard. IFC 4 supports new coordination workflows (Design Transfer View and Reference View) and provides great help when coordinating with other disciplines. Information sharing via purpose-made tools such as BIMx or generic tools such as Excel enables a much wider target group to get involved and use the wealth of information stored in BIM.

Graphical Favorites

Brand new Graphical Favorites provide excellent visual feedback about saved element settings with automatically-generated, colored 2D or 3D thumbnail previews — available instantly for every Tool. This not only helps BIM managers in setting up and enforcing office project templates, but also speeds up everyday design development work.

Renewed Graphical User Interface

ARCHICAD 20 features a completely revamped graphical user interface, making it the most modern-looking BIM application available on the market today. The design language used on the renewed GUI gives ARCHICAD a look and feel much closer to mobile apps than to traditional desktop software, making it especially appealing to the younger generation.

For more information about ARCHICAD 20, visit www.archicad.com.

GRAPHISOFT ARCHICAD 20 will start shipping in June, 2016, with an impressive list of 27 local versions rolled out by the end of Q3 2016.

About GRAPHISOFT

GRAPHISOFT® ignited the BIM revolution in 1984 with ARCHICAD®, the industry first BIM software for architects. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the industry with innovative solutions such as its revolutionary BIMcloud®, the world’s first real-time BIM collaboration environment; EcoDesigner™, the world’s first fully BIM-integrated “GREEN” design solution; and BIMx®, the world’s leading mobile app for BIM visualization. GRAPHISOFT is part of the Nemetschek Group.

GRAPHISOFT Releases Grasshopper – ARCHICAD Live Connection

BUDAPEST, April 28, 2016 – Following a 6-month public beta phase involving over a thousand architects and designers worldwide, GRAPHISOFT^® has released its intelligent Grasshopper—ARCHICAD Live Connection. This industry-first, bi-directional “live” connection allows Rhino/Grasshopper users to connect to a professional BIM software (ARCHICAD).

Developed by GRAPHISOFT, Rhino-Grasshopper-ARCHICAD connections allow architects to leverage the strengths of the three design environments — Rhino, Grasshopper and ARCHICAD — filling a gap in the design process between early stage design and Building Information Modeling (BIM). This unique connection offers tools beyond seamless bi-directional geometry transfer, allowing basic geometrical shapes to be translated into full BIM elements while maintaining algorithmic editing functionality.

According to Robert McNeel, CEO, McNeel & Associates, “Algorithmic design represents a global trend in architecture. Using this new, real-time connection, architects can unleash their creativity and create forms and shapes that otherwise would be nearly impossible. Rhino and Grasshopper are the best tools on the market for these tasks.”

“The Grasshopper-ARCHICAD Live Connection offers a unique design workflow, helping to explore a large number of design variations, and create and fine-tune building details and structures using algorithms without exchanging files,” said Peter Temesvari, Director of Product Management, GRAPHISOFT. “This connection offers users the best of both worlds, by pairing a leading BIM tool with the industry’s leading algorithmic design tool. The result is a smooth, professional workflow.”

For more information, please visit http://www.graphisoft.com/rhino-grasshopper/.

About Rhinoceros and Grasshopper

Rhinoceros^® 5.0, developed by Robert McNeel & Associates, is the market leader in industrial design modeling software. Highly complicated shapes can be directly modeled or acquired through 3D digitizers. With its powerful NURBS based engine, Rhinoceros^® 5.0 can create, edit, analyze, and translate curves, surfaces, and solids. There are no limits on complexity, degree, or size. For designers who are exploring new shapes using generative algorithms, Grasshopper^®Â is a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with Rhino’s 3D modeling tools. Grasshopper requires no knowledge of programming or scripting, but still allows designers to build form generators from the simple to the awe-inspiring.