Yes, it’s that time of year. The announcement was officially posted on May 15, 2019, and claims to have increased responsiveness dubbed “BIM in an Instant”. Time will tell. While I’m a big fan of ArchiCAD and have been using it since version 7.0, I always take claims of “increased responsiveness, speed improvements, performance optimization”, and other popular marketing terms with a grain of salt. In reality, as software progresses, so does the demand for computing power. Seldom do we see a perfect symphony between the two – but they can come close and I’ll believe it when I experience it. With that in mind, I am more interested in system requirements and features.
ArchiCAD 23 enhancements are as follows:
- Reduced file sizes.
- Re-engineered Column and Beam Tools which can be displayed using various projected and symbolic views and cover fills.
- A new Opening tool dedicated to model and coordinate project design voids, recesses and niches.
- Renewed Solibri connection.
- Enhanced dRofus connection.
- Rhino-Grasshopper-ARCHICAD live connection.
- New CineRender Engine (R20) with renewed, built-in Surface Catalog.
- Surfaces with missing textures are indicated with a red texture icon.
- Renaming the Layer Combinations, MVOs, Pen Sets, Renovation Filters, Graphic Override Combinations or 3D Styles no longer go missing.
- A Text Label pointer line can now be attached exactly where it is needed.
- The new Curtain Wall enhancements include various options for a fixed window or louver sash.
- Automatic Software Key Activation and Manual Deactivation are now seamlessly integrated. If ARCHICAD can’t find the right software key locally or on the network at startup, and the User is logged in to ARCHICAD with a valid GSID, the appropriate software key will be automatically acquired.
System Requirements have not yet been posted and I’ll update this post when that info is made available.
So far, I like the reduced file sizes, the additional view options for columns and beams, the ability to rename layer combination, MVOs, Pen Sets, Renovation Filters, Graphic Override Combos or 3D styles without having to point the view set parameters to the renamed settings – this always annoyed me. These 3 enhancements are probably the most valuable to me. It will be interesting to see what the new CineRender Engine (R20) brings to the table.
Update: What the announcement didn’t mention, or mention in more detail, which I later discovered during an ArchiCAD 23 reveal and demo presentation and thought was pretty neat was that the new beam tool is really something special… a user may edit the profile of any beam along its path or a defined path to create more complex beam shapes than ever before. Any beam can now be modified as if it were a morph object so the possibilities are close endless. The slab can now show elements as dashed if those elements are underneath a slab. One may now dimension and label in 3D.
Check out the following videos to see more.
Learn more about ARCHICAD 23 here.