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CB. It was more strategic. Part of it was wanting to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Apple's Mac OS platform. And when one out of every two customers is a Mac user it's kind of important to be early.

Our principal motivation was to show our commitment, that the Mac is an important platform and that we would be there for our customers.

AFR. Did Graphisoft feel that with OS X being a UNIX-based system that perhaps there was even more of a reason to support Mac OS X?

CB. Well, I think that it will make it an easier support, a more robust operating system and as OS X continues to develop there will be some noticeable performance reasons. The development process was pretty straight forward for us and was not a horrendous effort.

AFR. I think there has been a lot of comments about Linux, especially in the last week, with the Linux conferences, about Pixar and Dreamworks switching to the Linux platform...and just the highend 3D market's interest in Linux over proprietary UNIX OS's. So it seems that it is only a matter of time before Linux lands on the architect's desktop. Is there any discussion at Graphisoft about that?

CB. Yeah. I don't necessarily think that it is part of our product plans-though we are always looking at product trends-I mean any more than UNIX has been a major factor on the architectural desktop. It is one thing for Pixar where they are really doing highend stuff and they have never really been involved [users of] with the mass operating systems like Mac or Windows.

We will look at what our customers want. We won't do it just to do it.

AFR. With new 3D architectural CAD products like Revit and BOA coming on the scene, they seem to be validating Graphisoft's original CAD thesis about the "virtual building" paradigm. But how is Graphisoft going to compete with these newcomers in the future since they seem to be offering the same CAD promises and paradigm as ArchiCAD but at a much lower price point?

CB. Well, I'm not really familiar with BOA yet, but with Revit's pricing model I don't think it has been one that is very successful. There is a real problem with an architect operating a mission critical piece of software like CAD and if they can't make their payment their tools go away. That's just bad-it doesn't work.

The architectural business is very cyclical, can go very up and down, so it is important for architects to own their software tools.

AFR. No, you raise a very good point. The AEC business can be very uneven even in the middle of an economic cycle.

CB. I think for some customers the price is the overarching issue. But for most because this is the tool of their trade, they don't want to buy a cut-rate tool. My challenge is to provide enough benefit and value so it is worth the cost.

AFR. I guess one of the things I continue to think about is that with sophisticated CAD products like yours where there is a continuous increase in new functionality, isn't that pushing your product more up-market? And if so doesn't that require a larger revenue base or more margin thus driving the price up?

CB. No. I think the market is moving upmarket anyway. People are becoming more sophisticated in their use of computers and expecting more for it. And we are not raising the price of ArchiCAD...in fact we just lowered the price of the first seat.

AFR. How has the Mac Graphisoft userbase reacted to the new OS X version of ArchiCAD?

CB. I would say that it is a little early to say. They really like the implementation in terms of the user interface (UI). We had to wait to 10.1 because there were some issues in respect to printing and so forth. And also because architects don't rush out and upgrade to new software generally. Especially with an upgrade to a new operating system and then to put on top of that a new CAD system.

There tends to be a slower adoption. But the initial reports have tended to be positive. And we will continue to improve it and take advantage of some of the performance features there.

AFR. How as Apple been as a developer to work with?

CB. You know I can't say directly because the development takes place in Budapest, but as you know we came out virtually simultaneously with OS X and Windows XP and I would say Apple must have done a pretty good job to support us, to make that happen.

AFR. In terms of that peripheral of software products built around ArchiCAD, have you seen a lot of support there with OS X so that ArchiCAD users on the Mac can come over to OS X?

CB. Umm...That's a good question. Those products that have always enjoyed a substantial part of their userbase on Macintosh—like Art-lantis—you can be pretty sure they will be on OS X soon. And for those products, since they run inside of Graphisoft or are connected, they had to wait until we were over on OS X. It's a two step process.

AFR. Sure.

CB. You know from a user perspective, I think people are really looking forward to the type of performance and user stability that OS X promises.

AFR. Right, well certainly from the point of view stability the operating system (OS X) is....(laughter) light-years ahead of where the old Mac was -- and even ahead of where Windows is today in my opinion. But we'll just have to see how that plays itself out.

AFR. You mentioned Artlantis and I wanted to ask you a little bit about modeling and 3D because a lot of action in the studios in architecture schools, both here and around the world, is taking place with more advanced tools, like Alias's Maya, Lightwave 3D and others...students are obviously encouraged to be inventive and they have their heroes like Frank Gehry and so forth and they are trying to do some really cutting edge stuff.

Are more advanced 3D modeling functions planned for ArchiCAD to get beyond the normal box-functions that make up traditional buildings?

CB. Yes they are. And some of these things will be incorporated into the next version which will probably come out towards the end of the year. There is a difference between completely free-form design...and Frank Gehry is certainly at the cutting edge. I think he actually uses CATIA and can go straight from model to manufacturing...but certainly...in architectural design today there is much more interest in being able to do a more freeform And where we try to be is to maintain the balance between predefining certain types of objects and giving the architect the tools he needs to easily construct custom ones.

Some of the tools you just mentioned tend to be a little too expensive for most architects...and that is the other problem we are trying to work with: looking at the tools which most architects want to use and can afford and try to respond to that.

AFR. Is Graphisoft still motivated to partner with companies that provide advanced rendering technology or is Graphisoft thinking of providing those technologies inside ArchiCAD?

CB. Well...we want to focus on what we do best. And we have had a long and very good relationship with Artlantis and of course some others—you mentioned ExpressionTools (ETShade)—so, yes, we would like to focus on our area of expertise and while we have some rendering technology built into ArchiCAD, we really want to focus on building the model and getting the drawings out.

AFR. Well Chris I want thank you for talking to Architosh about ArchiCAD and Graphisoft's future with architectural CAD and facilities management products. It's been a very interesting discussion and I wish Graphisoft the best.

Chris. Sure. Thank you.

Christopher L. Barron, AIA, is the Vice President of Architecture for Graphisoft US, Inc., the makers of ArchiCAD, a 3D architectural CAD solution. He received his Masters of Architecture degree from Harvard University, and was a building architect for The Architects Collaborative (TAC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Barron has been involved in the field of architectural CAD for 18 years and had worked for Intergraph, Softdesk, and Autodesk before joining Graphisoft in 2001. He is a Fellow of the Design Futures Council and has published several articles on the topic of architectural CAD.

Anthony Frausto-Robledo, B.Arch., is the founder and editor of the award-winning Architosh.com Web site. Educated as an architect, he has been an architectural professional for over 17 years and was a senior designer with the distinguished Boston architectural firm Koetter Kim & Associates prior to launching his web consultancy, BritasMedia. As president of BritasMedia, Anthony consults AEC firms on strategic Web initiatives, animation, databases, and IT-related issues in addition to publishing the Architosh site daily. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Thesis Studio and History & Theory faculty at the Boston Architectural Center College of Architecture and Interior Design and a Thesis Advisor.

BritasMedia's publishing mission with the Architosh Website is to serve a worldwide audience of Macintosh-based CAD/3D and AEC professionals with market-leading information technology (IT) resources, news and editorial products. Architosh currently serves over 25,000 readers monthly in more than 70 countries around the world.

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