Yes, it's a little late for a New in 9 post, but that's what happens when I pretend I'm going to tell you, briefly, anything meaningful about something as gigantic as a rendering engine. After all, it's the sort of thing people write books about.
Said book, by Dwight Atkinson, Canada's funniest Lightworks in Archicad expert, is in the possession of Rill & Decker, or maybe me personally. So if you want to have a look, be my guest.
I just realized I never mentioned this. I don't use it very often, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
In all of the library part settings dialogs, you can search for library parts by keyword.
At the upper left click 'Folder View' and choose 'Find Library Parts'.
Enter the keyword(s) and click 'Find'. Resist the temptation to strike return; that will close the dialog. You can also refine how the keywords are searched for and limit the search to certain libraries.
The matching objects are shown. If you highlight an object and then switch back to 'Folder View', you will get the folder of that object.
When selecting objects this way, be careful to use the most current version. The find function will show objects in the 'xOld RND' folder the same as any other. Make sure not to choose them by accident.
The question is, when you change the height of a door or window, does the head or the sill move. In real life, we want the head of the door to change, but the sill of the window. In olden days the sill would control no matter what. In AC8, they offered a preference, but it applied to both openings, so either the door or the window still behaved wrong, which if you think about it is no improvement at all.
Now, in AC9, they have it straightened out:
Well, there's not much to it. While moving from 7 to 8 was so awkward we had to decide if it was worth it, moving from 8 to 9 is so simple it's hardly worth writing down. The only extra step is to import the Work Environment.
You should be able to simply open your 8.1 project in AC9. You should be able to open your PM 3.1 layout book in PM9. If you don't change the name of the project file, the views should update in PM without fanfare.
That said, I wouldn't make the jump the day before the construction set is due. Use common sense.
Just in case, put a copy of the project in your Old Files folder with a modified name. Don't change the name of the working version of the file. If you do, you'll have to relink in PM.
Libraries: Switch your libraries so the following are loaded:
• From the carrot, within Master Library 9, '1 Rill & Decker LIB9' and '2 Project LIB9'.
• 'Archicad Library 9' from your local Applications : Graphisoft : Archicad 9 : Archicad Library 9. (We load the Archicad Library locally because it's faster and it never changes, so there's so synchronization issue.)
Stop using the Master Library 8 entirely. If you are working with a AC7 project that has been brought forward, continue to use the 7 library as you have been.
On the subject of the cache library, there are intermittent issues with it. If it works for you, use it. If not, don't. If you have weirdly missing parts, this is the first thing to check.
For the new Master Library 9, I copied the whole Master Library 8 to start, and I have been updating and replacing some parts along the way. As version 8 parts get superseded, I move them to the 'xOld Objects' folder. This folder loads, so you can keep using the placed parts indefinitely. For new placements, you should use the newer objects in the normal folders. To remind you, the 'xOld Objects' folder is a jumbled mess, making it very hard to find anything. Don't try.
If you have missing or misbehaving Library Parts, it's probably a change that was made in the 8 library that didn't get copied to the 9 library. You should immediately let me know of any issues so we can dispatch them right away.
This post ties together all the AC9 posts.
Overall AC9 is very much like AC8. Superficially it is almost identical. The changes primarily concern interface and performance.
Performance means it runs faster and better. Interface means:
• Selection is improved. Quick Selection lets you select virtually any element without finding a detectable edge or node. Escape deselects. (Without a deselect function, that QS thing would be a very mixed blessing.) Cmd-Shift restores the old caps lock functionality, letting you 'scroll' through a pile of coincident elements. Objects can have detectable edges. Select with a box under any tool by holding down Shift. To select with a box over a QS-able element, hold down Shift and the spacebar.
• Less switching between tools. The unified pet palettes mean it doesn't matter which tool is active, and the palette commands work better. There are also polyline/polygon editing improvements
• You can switch objects without all the settings reverting to default. There's a search field in the Object (etc.) Settings dialog.
• The Work Environment is much easier to customize, save, distribute, restore. We have toolbars, yay.
Interface changes may seem superficial, but together the whole working experience has been smoothed out and is much more efficient.
There are a few welcome tool improvements. We finally have cover fills on model polygons. The Text tool is utterly transformed. Optional section rebuild is nice, but be careful. Dimension settings is one of those things that's deadly boring until it bites you, so it's good that views now take them into account.
PlotMaker is still PlotMaker, poor thing.
That's all the big stuff. You should peruse the New Features Guide, which is in PDF format on the installation CD, and at 3 Resources : Documentation.
I would have called it 3.2. Others have suggested 3.5. A few very charitable souls say 4.0 would be OK.
9 it's not. To me having the version number the same implies functional parity with Archicad, which makes me laugh, but only to keep from crying.
There are precious few interface improvements. One I do appreciate: In Drawing Usage, drawings on the active layout are shown bold. It also has toolbars, and I use the one with Print and Plot on it so I don't have to keep the various interpretations of Cmd+P straight.
The performance of importing drawings is noticeably better, and that is always welcome.
Other than that, it's still a hillbilly. Dragging a copy is still different, the marquee is still different, no split, no adjust, no Info Box, bla bla !@#$% bla.
So let me be the first to dash your hopes that the '9' signifies anything at all. Sorry.
PS, that hotspot glitch, where the hotspots go dumb after you stretch a frame? Not fixed. You can't believe it either!
AC9 gives the option of Windows-style toolbars. I am among the least excited about this feature, since I think mousing around clicking on things is a waste of time when you can use the keyboard, which unfortunately isn't always.
It is my responsibility to point the feature out, and you may do with it what you wish. It is possible to build a toolbar from scratch for just the things you really need, which sounds like good idea, but not good enough to actually do it yet.
I use the Attributes toolbar,
...but only because they broke my keyboard scheme for Attributes.
I also have the Window Switcher in my palette scheme,
... which sort of gives you access to all the windows in the project, except it has crippled detail and section lists, and I haven't really developed the habit of using it.
Toolbars can be turned on and off at Window Menu -> Toolbar Display. You can customize toolbars in the Work Environment. The display and position of toolbars is saved with the Palettes scheme.
Like the new Text tool, the Work Environment is too complex for me to give an exhaustive treatment here. Refer to page 147 of the manual, or page 80 of the New Features Guide, for the full story. Briefly:
All of the user-related options in Archicad and PlotMaker have been gathered together under the Work Environment, accessible on the Options menu. (Shift+Ctrl+~) This includes the keyboard shortcuts, the palette shapes and positions, the toolbox layout, the toolbars, the info box, even the menus themselves.
In addition to having these settings organized, and having more interface elements customizable, all of the environment settings can be saved and imported, making it very easy to set up the environment when a new version comes out, or if you have to delete the preferences.
I have set up a work environment which represents my best efforts at customization through the beta period. You should import this environment when you begin to work in AC9.
(Everything about importing the Work Environment also applies to beginning in PlotMaker.)
To import the environment:
1. Go to Options -> Work Environment. Click 'Import'. Click 'Browse' and navigate to 3 Resources (the Onion) -> Work Environment -> RND Profile.
2. Back in the Import dialog, select the profile and click 'Import'. You should now see 'RND Profile' in the Stored Profiles list.
3. Double-click the 'RND Profile' profile. This applies the schemes of the profile.
4. With the 'RND Profile' profile highlighted, click 'Set as Default'.
You can customize any of the environment components you like. A few thoughts:
� The palette arrangement is for a 23" Cinema Display. It will be a few more days until everybody has one, so some palette experimentation is probably in order. Palette layout is also a very subjective area where reasonable people may disagree. My only tip is that it is better to make an arrangement and stick with it rather than constantly push things around. After you arrange palettes, click the green button on the 2D and 3D windows to get them to conform to the palette positions. Then resize the windows how you like.
� Please refrain from deleting keyboard shortcuts. AC9 has the option of having multiple shortcuts for a single command, so if you want to try something new, just add it rather than replacing.
� More on keyboard shortcuts (Yes, it is one of my favorite topics.): AC9 finally allows the use of the F1-F15 keys on the Mac. We've lived without them for so long that it's hard to know how to react. I have the group switch on F1 and the ghost story display on F2, in addition (see above) to the old Opt+G and Cmd+8. Beyond that I don't know.
� Customizing menus looks like a massive time sink. It does give me another opportunity to say, don't waste your time going to menus, use the keyboard. I have not customized my menus at all, because by and large I don't know or care where on a menu a command is, because I rarely get them that way.
� Don't mess with the Info Box. I have invested a fair amount of time in refining it, and the result is the definitive optimization, probably in the world. Serious! Ask to see the spreadsheet. It is designed to be vertical, one tile wide, long enough to show all the tiles on the most complex tool. (You have to guess.) If/when pushing palettes around, keep the Info Box in this shape.
If you make changes in a scheme: In order to get the changes to stick you have to highlight the top level of that scheme, then highlight your scheme name on the right and click 'Redefine'. Example: You modify shortcuts under 'Keyboard Shortcuts', but to save the changes you have to highlight 'Shortcut Schemes'.
Cover fills are the long, long, long-awaited ability of model polygons (slabs, roofs, meshes, zones) to display fills in plan.
This going to mean a lot less drawing over things to show fills and to get elements to hide one another.
Cover fills have all of the features of regular fills, including background pen, local origin, and rotation. Roofs can automatically rotate the fill pattern to align with the roof slope. You can set the cover fill to be the same as the vectorial hatching on the 3D material.
Display of cover fills is controlled by a new display option.
Selecting 'No Fills' puts the model polygons the way they were in AC8.1.
Notice that there are now a total of three fill display options. Further, 'Polygon Fills' has become 'Drafting Fills' and 'Construction Fills' has become 'Cut Fills'.
The distinction between Cover, Cut, and Drafting fills is called the Fill Category. You need to be aware of this because you can actually draft a cut or cover fill, which will display according to the relevant display option.
In Options -> Fill Types, you can limit the categories a fill can be used for. For example, shingles can't be used for cut fills.
Since you can set the category in the fill settings, and not all fills can be used for every category, you may find in a certain case that some fills are "missing". If so, check that the fill category in the settings is "drafting".
AC9 brings the ability to save views with different dimension settings. The most prominent example would be the desire to dimension plans with feet & fractional inches, and site plans with decimal feet. Now you don't have to switch dimension settings back and forth, or explode dimensions, or other such tedium.
To make it easier to maintain the dimension settings, we use the long-standing, little-noticed Dimension Standards.
There are two standards which we use in our views. "Site" is used for site plans. "Plan" is used for everything else. You could also set a standard for details if you wanted to display smaller fractions.
The view sets in the templates are configured to use the appropriate standard. For running projects, you will have to redefine your site plan views. Set the "Site" standard in the dimension settings, then redefine the view. (It's just like changing the scale or the layers.) Your plans should be OK, but it never hurts to check.
So now, views save scale, layers, display options, zoom, and dimension standard.
The GDL implementation in AC9 adds the option for the object designer to make edges detectable in plan for the purpose of selection.
This ability can be added to any line or arc. I'm working it into the libraries gradually, going for maximum convenience and minimum nuisance. In addition the cutline above, all the JAM9 trim tools are detectable by the front edge. This should make easier to select trims, which tend to coincide a lot. I am listening for suggestions.
Look closely at the image above and you will see that the special snap points (midpoint, etc.) show up on these edges.
Remember that this is only for detection. There's no polyline editing ability. You can use such edges for splitting and adjusting, but not Cmd+clicking. (Yes, I reported that.)
Text editing in AC9 is completely overhauled, one of the few features that is.
The changes to the text tool are too great for me to cover here. Generally, it is more like editing in Word. All of the typical variations in text are available, and the shortcuts for bold (Cmd+B), etc., work as they should. You can mix any text effects within a single text element. Cmd+A works to select all the text when editing a block. Text can be stretched and expanded. Text can be copied and pasted from Word, with complex formatting preserved.
Text blocks can also have an outline box, and a background color, and you can control the offset of the text to the block edge.
It's a lot of stuff. If they had styles they would be done.
You should look over the section in the manual about the new Text, which starts on page 306, and/or the section in the New Features Guide, page 74.
Here's a couple of minor improvements to the polygon and polyline editing palettes.
At a polygon edge, there is one new button that always appears, and another that appears in a particular situation.
The third button turns an edge into a curve, using a tangent instead a point on the curve.
The fifth button turns a chamfered corner into a pointed corner. It will only appear when you click on an edge between two other edges that would converge at a point outside the polygon. Example: turning an octagon into a square.
If you select a polyline and click on the end node, you get a palette with the third button shown here.
If you click on this button, you can add nodes to the polyline. Good feature, half-implemented: You can only add straight segments. Sigh.
In AC9, the pet palettes for the arrow tool transformation functions and the element-specific editing functions have been combined. This is awesome.
Here's the Mesh palette:
In past versions, there was one palette which came up under the arrow tool, which had the dragging, mirroring, etc. buttons. Then for each tool there was a different palette which had the buttons for moving a node, curving an edge, filleting, etc. Now, regardless of whether you have the the arrow tool on, an expanded palette appears which has all the buttons of both groups.
This smoothes out the whole editing process because there's a lot less switching to the arrow tool and back.
They also improved the transformation (rotate, etc.) functions of the palette. Now you might actually use them. If you select rotate or mirror, you can select the base point for the transformation, like with the regular command. In 8.1, these palette functions would take as the base point the point where the palette came up, making them IMHO useless.
Shift-click accumulates selection. (I know shift-click accumulates selection! I know that!)
Prior to Archicad 8.0, the shift-click functionality could be modified by activating Caps Lock. With Caps Lock active, shift-clicking on unselected elements would select the clicked-on element and deselect all others. This was invaluable in getting a particular element out of a pile. But it made newbies cry so they got rid of it. (I was typing, notes, with all caps, an-and, then I went to uh, uh, uh, select, something, an-and, caps lock was still on, an-and, uh, uh, uh, the selection didn't accumulate, an-and, I had to move my left hand a quarter inch, to, to, to, turn caps lock off!!! MMMWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!)
In AC9, they have restored the functionality, while throwing the newbies a bone by not using the caps lock key to do it.
If you hold down Command along with shift, the selection will rotate through the elements at that point. With a particular tool active, it will rotate through the elements of that type. Don't forget Quick Select!
AC9 grants one of my longest-standing wishes: You can set section windows to rebuild only when you say so. Unfortunately, the implementation of the feature isn't perfect. Fortunately, the performance improvements of AC9 make the feature less critical than it was. Now that we have it, we can live without it, and the workflow issues mean we probably should.
In AC8.1 and earlier, the sections would rebuild if there was any change in the model, even if the change didn't effect the section in question.
They also rolled the drawing (unlinked) section functionality in with the other rebuilding options, so that process is slightly different.
The rebuilding options are contained in the settings of each section independently. In the section settings you see this:
Autorebuild Model is the old way, and the default. You open the window, it rebuilds.
Manual-rebuild Model means the window won't rebuild until you say so. Note: The command to rebuild a manual-rebuild section is different from an ordinary 'Rebuild'. The command is Display -> Section/Elevations -> Rebuild from Model. It has a different shortcut, Cmd+Opt+R. Even more confusing, for an autorebuild section, the standard rebuild works as always.
Drawing is the same as the old 'unlink'. To turn a section into a drawing, select this option. The Unlink command is gone. The advice about dragging a copy in a section drawing window still applies. You can turn a drawing section back into a model, but Archicad will delete all the 2D elements that it initially drew. You can update the drawing, keeping it a drawing, with the Rebuild from Model command, Cmd+Opt+R, as with the manual-rebuild model.
So the manual-rebuild model should save a lot of time, let's do it. Not so fast. We hit the wall when we go to PlotMaker. As of now there is no facility to tell PM to update a manual-rebuild section window. That means you have to, well, manually rebuild the section before updating the view in PM. That means you have to remember. That means sometimes you'll forget. That means you'll have drawings you think are updated but aren't. The word for this is 'bad'.
Another option is to turn the section back into autorebuild before going to PM, but you'd have to remember that too.
As it stands, manual-rebuilding will save you time in Archicad at the risk of de-automating part of the layout book. As such, I can't recommend the manual-rebuild section functionality until the PM problem is solved.
Quick Selection is the ability to select elements in the plan and the 3D window without finding a detectable edge or node. (The 3D window has had this feature for while, it just didn't have a name.)
With Quick Selection active (it is technically optional), you can click anywhere on on element to select it, either with the arrow tool or by holding down shift. It works for all elements, including objects. (Assuming the object contains polygons.) Example: Rather than finding the corner of the bathtub and then scrolling the pile of elements occupying the corner, just click in the middle of the tub.
Successive clicks will scroll through the elements in a given area. Successive shift-clicks will accumulate the selection.
The QS status is shown by the button at the top of the info box:
While QS is active, if the cursor is over a selectable element, the pointer will have a magnet attached to it, like the magnet on the status button.
You can temporarily suspend QS by holding down the spacebar. You'll need to do this to select with a box where the cursor is a magnet.
I have never deactivated QS, and I don't recommend doing so. Following this advice means some habit-changing.
In practice, especially in section or model layer combinations, the magnet cursor will almost always be on, because you will almost always be over something selectable. If not a fill, a slab, if not a slab, then the site mesh. This means: You will find it nearly impossible to deselect by clicking in "empty space", because there isn't any. In fact, it's worse than that. As you casually click on you floor slab, not realizing it, you also begin to drag it. Eek.
Quickly develop the habit of using esc to deselect. As you develop the habit, pay attention and watch for unintended drags. Don't give up! QS saves lots of aggravation once you get the hang of it. Resist the evil voice in your head telling you to turn QS off and go back to the old way. If I was training a new user today, I wouldn't even tell them about deselecting by clicking nowhere.
AC8 brought esc-to-cancel, a standard functionality in most software. In AC9, esc is way more useful.
Esc will activate the arrow tool. Unless...
There's a marquee present. If so, esc removes the marquee. Unless...
Elements are selected. If so, esc deselects. Unless...
There's a command in process. If so, the command is canceled.
In other words, with a command in process, a marquee present, and a non-arrow tool active:
The first escape cancels the command. The second deselects. The third removes the marquee. The fourth activates the arrow tool.
Former autocad users will want to redevelop their "esc-esc to cancel-deselect" habit.
Further strikings of esc in future releases of Archicad will close the project, quit Archicad, shut down the machine, and drive you home. Maybe.
You wish you could turn (e.g.) a solid door into a french door while maintaining the other settings (trim etc.). Well wish for something else!
Select an object and open the settings. Navigate to the object you want. Hold down Command and Option and click on the new object. Any parameters the two objects have in common will hold their values. Parameters in the new object that aren't in the old one will keep their default values.
In our door example, all of the settings related to trim, materials, open angles, etc. will be saved. The divisions of the french door will be the default divisions.
Very exciting.
Archicad 9 was officially announced at ACUE in Nottingham last week. It is expected to ship around September 27. We will be deploying the upgrade soon, but not immediately. More on this later.
As you may know, I had the privilege of participating in the beta test program for the new release. Graphisoft also had the privilege of having me participate. ;-) This is good for us since I have had a long head start in preparing for the update, so we will be able to hit the ground running.
We all remember, try as we might to forget, the transition to AC8. It was extremely difficult on a number of levels, and honestly you don't know the half of it. The difficulties had two main causes. First, the program had been radically redesigned and rewritten under the hood. Second, it sucked. The latter in particular was a big problem.
I can tell you with complete honesty that AC9 doesn't have either of these problems. There are no radical changes to the program, though there are several valuable new features. (Many argue, and I might be one of them, that the version should be called 8.5. Whatever.) More important, the quality, speed, and stability (non-crashing) of this release are far greater than the early releases of AC8. In Nottingham, Graphisoft showed us benchmarks which indicate that AC9 is the first version since AC7 to be faster overall than AC7. The performance improvement is noticeable.
Further, while this may not interest you, it certainly affects you, Graphisoft's internal procedures have made a 180 degree turn for the better, making another AC8 disaster very unlikely. Mainly because everyone involved with AC8 has been fired. Really. In the beta testing I observed first-hand a much improved quality-control policy, and a real interest in hearing from users and addressing their concerns.
Since AC9 isn't much different in the nuts and bolts, we will be able to transition quickly without undue disruption to workflow. Unlike with the AC8 transition, we will not meditate on whether to move a project over. It will be moved over. Assuming Salamander Farm goes the way of all flesh, we will soon be running only one version of Archicad.
I am working on polishing the new templates, library parts, and the upgrade procedure itself. Once this stuff is to-a-point, we will set a date to do the move. I will be posting here on some of the new features for reference, and I envision about two tech meetings on the essentials. Graphisoft has done well in releasing an easily-deployable update, and I don't want to be the one to mess it up!