Innovation has been a key differentiator for ARCHICAD since the beginning. ARCHICAD 21 introduces the highly-anticipated Stair Tool, featuring GRAPHISOFT’s patent-pending Predictive Design™ technology. ARCHICAD 21 delivers a number of other, important functional improvements in the fields of visualization, OPEN BIM, performance and productivity making this version one of the strongest in GRAPHISOFT’s history.
What's new
New Stair and Railing Tools
Designing stairs is one of the most complex tasks in architecture, since the stair must comply with stringent standards. The countless iterations required to sync design intent with these standards in a specific building has meant tedious, manual work – up until now. The new Stair Tool in ARCHICAD 21 extends architects’ creativity with automatic validation against human ergonomics — on the fly. In other words, ARCHICAD’s algorithms validate thousands of design options in the background and offer architects the most optimal stair designs to choose from within the context of the specific building.
Updated CineRender Engine
CineRender by MAXON offers architects integrated, photo-realistic rendering options in the BIM context. The latest version introduces Light Mapping and Secondary GI methods for more realistic, yet fast rendering.
Element Classification System
An ARCHICAD model can be described as a central BIM database that stores all project data and makes it accessible to any project stakeholder. While previous ARCHICAD versions provided a fixed set of Element Classifications, ARCHICAD 21 introduces a flexible way to classify elements supporting any national or company-standard classification system. In addition, classifications are core to intelligent OPEN BIM workflows, providing unprecedented interoperability among disciplines. Classifications can be transferred between projects via XML file format.
IFC Model Referencing
Place IFC files as hotlinks into ARCHICAD projects as protected reference content. Model Filtering narrows the inserted IFC reference content by categories, such as Structural or MEP, or by element selection. The inserted IFC model content can be updated easily from the linked source file. If the link is broken, elements of the inserted IFC modules can be edited as regular ARCHICAD elements.
Collision Detection
With the evolution of BIM as the de facto workflow, architects increasingly receive consultant information in a BIM format. To help architects fulfill their role as lead coordinator of the model, Collision Detection becomes a standard part of the feature set starting with ARCHICAD 21.
