< Previous Page

CB. You know, there is very little migration off the Mac. What you have is the remaining folks coming from Autocad and Microstation [Editor's note: both produced Mac versions which are no longer supported]. The people that were using the Mac and not getting the support anymore are migrating to ArchiCAD because they don't want to give up the value of the Macintosh.

There are some cases where a firm has not really made a commitment to any one platform and they have done an evaluation and and some cases they go with the Mac and sometimes they go with the Windows platform. But generally, if someone has been using the Mac they stay with the Mac, they are quite loyal to that platform.

The reason why people would migrate off the Mac is because they can't get a software solution that they need. And our customers [on the Mac] are finding solutions they need and want.

AFR. So the kind of peripheral solutions for ArchiCAD architectural users are out there...they are available?

CB. Yes. They are out there. There are probably fewer of the heavy engineering solutions for Macs, so if a firm is doing heavy engineering work in addition to architecture then they want to be on the Windows platform.

I read somewhere on your site that in 1991 ArchiCAD was the top architectural CAD product in Europe on the Macintosh. Do you still know if that is the case today?

CB. Well...I don't think that anyone else has come along and changed that, so yea. And some of the other architectural packages that were on the Mac have gone away over the years and, of course, VectorWorks is a package that has some presence in the European market. But we are actually quite strong there...we (Graphisoft) have a bigger marketshare there than we do in the US.

AFR. Your marketshare percentage is bigger in Europe than in the US?

CB. Yes.

AFR. What is your worldwide userbase?

CB. Just over 100,000 users.

AFR. And what percentage of the overall market does that constitute?

CB. Well, on a worldwide basis it's probably—if we look at just the architectural CAD market—it is probably just under ten percent. But in certain markets—like Germany, which is the third largest CAD market—we have about a 30 percent market share. And understandably, in Hungary we have about a 75 percent market share.

AFR. Right. So on a European basis then your numbers are actually quite high?

CB. Yes. In the US we are probably about ten percent.

AFR. What percentage of your total customers are on the Mac versus Windows?

CB. Right now its pretty much evenly split, 50-50. I would say among new customers it's probably a 65 to 35 percent in favor of Windows.

Well that ratio makes sense given that you are going after and grabbing Autocad users [which can only be on Windows for the most part].

CB. Yea.

AFR. What percentage of ArchiCAD users are non-architects, do you have a lot of downstream users like builders, contractors and subcontractors?

CB. You know we do have a lot builders and contractors, home builders for a number of reasons. One, they can use the model to get very good quantity takeoffs, because of the parametric objects they can change the materials of say, facades from brick to wood and so forth and automatically see the cost implications. That kind of flexibility with object technology is very attractive to home builders.

Facilities management is a big target for us too. For a couple of reasons. One if you look at the overall demographics of the building industry something like 80 percent of the buildings in our life time would have been built already. For a lot of these buildings, the industry is really focused on maintenance and management of these existing buildings. And the other reason for this is that as we start to build a virtual model of the building that information has a useful life beyond construction and it's only natural to bring that into the facilities management market.

AFR. Now does the ArchiFM product have its own internal database or can it interoperate with databases products like FileMaker, Access or Oracle?

CB. It works with Oracle and SQL.

AFR. It doesn't work with FileMaker?

CB. No, I don't believe it does yet.

AFR. Is it also true that ArchiFM is not available for the Macintosh?

CB. The main ArchiFM software runs on Windows only. A Mac on the network can be a client and view the ArchiCAD data, but the program has to be run from a Windows machine.

AFR. Now your GDL technology is really crucial to ArchiCAD. Is that GDL technology crucial to ArchiFM as well?

CB. Yes, because ArchiFM is using the same objects as ArchiCAD. Basically ArchiFM is an add-on to ArchiCAD.

AFR. Now in the objects technology, are you guys getting a good rate of adoption from building manufactures?

CB. Most of the focus in targeting that has been in Europe first, for a couple of reasons. First, in some ways the European manufactures have been more embracing of new technology. They see the value of having something more than just 2D information. Some of the areas where we have had the most interesting adoption is in Japan...where they are really looking at more than just placing symbols in a drawing. They are really looking at using the parametric capabilities of GDL objects as a 'configuration tool'.

For instance, there is a division of a large Japanese modular kitchen manufacture that basically uses GDL objects to configure almost a million different configurations of this modular kitchen system. And then from the model data they can derive product drawings and a bill of materials down to the screws for the cost for it.

AFR. Right. That's powerful stuff.

CB. We expect to see more and more of that. In fact, in the US, Office Depot has gone with GDL [3D objects] and they are using it for their online catalog. You can literally rotate their office furniture online and even open up the drawers and look inside, all from the Web as a potential customer. ArchiCAD GDL technology has a wide array of industry applications.

AFR. Why is Graphisoft investing in company's like ObjectsOnline and Expression Tools?

CB. Well, in terms of ExpressionTools—that's been a couple of years now—it's a great technology and used very widely in the Japanese market. It was also to work with them to get them to support GDL technology in their rendering technology.

AFR. I see. Does that functionality of GDL exist now?

CB. Yes. ETShade supports GDL now.

AFR. Do you know if a lot of ArchiCAD users are using ETShade as a highend rendering tool?

CB. Not sure about how that has taken off. In respect to ObjectsOnline, one problem with GDL objects is how do you get that technology out to people and ObjectsOnline is one example of how you do that.

There are about 100,000 objects in different categories online at ObjectsOnline. It's valuable stuff. I will give you an example. You may have an architect doing a health club and instead of creating all the models for all the gym equipment he can utilize these pre-made objects and incorporate them into the model. In fact, the new iMac 2 by Apple is already a GDL object.

Mac OS X, Linux and Tech Talk

AFR. Let's talks a little bit about Mac OS X. You guys were the first CAD platform to be on Apple's new UNIX operating system. Was that push driven by your customers or was it a strategic marketing move?

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |