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| Architosh News Reports | |
| Architosh Staff ([email protected]) |
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| OS History: ArchiCAD was onboard with Copland, OS X?
Architosh staff had the chance to attend an Apple-sponsored seminar on Graphisoft's award-winning CAD software ArchiCAD 6, earlier this summer. What follows is our notes from that presentation, including some interesting facts about the Hungarian-based software provider and ArchiCAD use in the New England area. Copland and ArchiCAD Back in the days when Apple was not yet fully aware of their internal problems and the external reality of the computer and software markets, most Mac users were waiting anxiously for what was then code named Copland, the next fully modern Macintosh operating system. In the wake of the roaring success of Microsoft's Windows 95 upgrade, Mac users waited with a smug confidence that within a year's time they would have their own "Next Big Thing" and their Mac computing future would be bright indeed. Of course, that didn't happen as planned. And yet, some developers were pretty much on the Copland bandwagon.
According to the representative from Graphisoft, ArchiCAD was developed for Copland. When asked to what degree Graphisoft was committed, he said very. The representative continued to explain Graphisoft's commitment to the Macintosh platform, despite the recent pushes into the Wintel world. He said, Graphisoft is "at heart a Macintosh company." And that the Macintosh is a big part of their operations. What led to this conversation was our interest in finding out how soon they would be ready for Mac OS X Consumer. He said Graphisoft had Carbon tested the application but he did not know much more on that. He also said Graphisoft was involved with NeXTSTEP and TopCAD, a product for NeXTSTEP. Their involvement with the NeXT environment is a bonus for developing for Mac OS X.
If Graphisoft did push far with a Copland version of ArchiCAD in the past, that may well mean they are "aggressive" in pushing toward more modern features in their CAD product via a more modern Mac OS. However, they could have been burned by the Copland push. This time they may wait around before going ahead with a native version of ArchiCAD for Mac OS X. The representative could not speak to this but did reiterate how important the Macintosh is to their users worldwide and that they are committed to the Macintosh. How committed they are may be a subject of debate, but if their past record is any sign of their love for the platform, then that should be taken as a good sign. ArchiCAD is strong in New England, other facts According to the ArchiCAD representative, Graphisoft is the No. 3 AEC CAD company in the world (presumably behind AutoDesk and Bentley). The company has over 300 employees in eight offices worldwide. This worldwide establishment allows the company to understand how architectural practice is conducted differently in divergent markets, and allows them to respond to the influences of different practices. In New England there are over 300 ArchiCAD firms, consisting of architects, engineers, contractors, and other designers. The New England area ArchiCAD user group meets every other month at the Apple Business Center in downtown Boston.
Some interesting statistics about ArchiCAD adoption were also given in this presentation. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 percent of those PC AutoCAD or other PC CAD users who move over to ArchiCAD eventually move over to the Macintosh as well. The ArchiCAD VAR, Integrated CADD Services, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was also on hand and delivered some of these stats as well. Integrated CADD Services is an Apple VAR as well. Graphisoft has been developing for the Mac since its beginnings in Budapest in 1985. The company has delivered nine major upgrades in the past eleven years. The most recent is ArchiCAD 6.0, which includes a TeamWork team collaboration feature. We asked if any offices were using Teamwork over TCP/IP networks and if you could work over the Internet using TCP/IP. Well, they didn't know of a particular office working over the Internet, they felt that since Teamwork works over TCP/IP, it could theoretically work over the Internet presuming the connected offices had a fast enough connection. Imagine two company offices in remote locations working collaboratively on the same project. That's the kind of cool stuff that can be critically useful. OpenDWG Org Lastly we asked if Graphisoft was a member of the OpenDWG Organization. The rep said yes, but that they had their own DWG technologies that allowed them to do what no other OpenDWG member could do in their applications. ArchiCAD supports advanced issues in round-trip translations between AutoCAD and ArchiCAD like the preservation of X-Refs in AutoCAD and the preservation of font translations, all things no other OpenDWG member can do yet. For more info on ArchiCAD go to their Web site at: http://www.graphisoft.com.
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