Who has extensive experience with VW and Archicad. BIM related. Need advise.

[frv]

Hi, I have a small office and work often for a larger architectural firm as well. I am looking into switching to Archicad. I need a smoother workflow to IFC and BIM related projects. I have plenty years experience with VW. We have reached the limits of what you can achieve with VW and IFC exchange.  But still,  unacceptable long refresh times (hours !) of viewports and a number of rather serious  IFC problems.

 

Is there anybody out there who has done big projects with Archicad can give some advise. Is IFC exchange as cumbersome as VW. Does Archicad also take for ever to update a set of viewports. Does Archicad geometry also easily loose data and settings. Does Archicad also misses important geometry when exporting to IFC. In other words, are VW problems basically the way to is for all BIM CAD software or is VW really so far behind.

 

[Pat Stanford]

@zoomer ??

[zoomer]

Not really,

as my experience was back from testing it in 2010 and later only in

exchanging VW/Archicad with a colleague.

 

At that time here was no GUI update, Apple ARM compatibility, IFC4,

Viewport refresh in background, Cinerender, ....

I just remember that for me it was quite intuitive, I could model what I

needed, plan generation was easy and the results of my 2010 IFC 2x3

exports still meets current standards.

I initially worked through one video tutorial and after that I successfully

modeled an existing residential building.

 

But AFAIR there were a few others, experienced with more recent

Archicad versions, on this forum.

And I know that there is a more comprehensive thread about pros and

cons of VW vs Archicad on the german VW forum.

 

I would search the Archicad Forum for potential issues and/or test the

Archicad trial.

[shorter]

On 2/17/2024 at 9:01 PM, frv said:

Hi, I have a small office and work often for a larger architectural firm as well. I am looking into switching to Archicad. I need a smoother workflow to IFC and BIM related projects. I have plenty years experience with VW. We have reached the limits of what you can achieve with VW and IFC exchange.  But still,  unacceptable long refresh times (hours !) of viewports and a number of rather serious  IFC problems.

 

Is there anybody out there who has done big projects with Archicad can give some advise. Is IFC exchange as cumbersome as VW. Does Archicad also take for ever to update a set of viewports. Does Archicad geometry also easily loose data and settings. Does Archicad also misses important geometry when exporting to IFC. In other words, are VW problems basically the way to is for all BIM CAD software or is VW really so far behind.

 

 

Sounds like a workflow issue, rather than Vectorworks, TBH.

[frv]

Thanks Zoomer, for the tip checking out German forums.

@shorter, maybe a workflow issue but only someone with good Archicad knowledge would know. I have 35 years experience with VW and at the office there are some who have a workflow going that is hard to beat but still frustrating. Too many BIM related maintenance and work-arounds in the workflow compared to Revit (which we work with as well) and Archicad ( as we assume) .

[builtra]

please let me know your findings on archicad vs vectorworks

 

[shorter]

9 hours ago, frv said:

Thanks Zoomer, for the tip checking out German forums.

@shorter, maybe a workflow issue but only someone with good Archicad knowledge would know. I have 35 years experience with VW and at the office there are some who have a workflow going that is hard to beat but still frustrating. Too many BIM related maintenance and work-arounds in the workflow compared to Revit (which we work with as well) and Archicad ( as we assume) .

 

I am talking about the workflow in vectorworks.

[zoomer]

10 hours ago, frv said:

checking out German forums.

 

https://www.vectorworksforum.eu/topic/24950-diskurs-vectorworks-architektur-vs-archicad/#comment-111148

 

Somehow that was veeeeery hard to find again with the forum search.

At first I thought it would have been deleted .....

I learned that you have to search exactly for "ArchiCAD"

Edited February 20 by zoomer

[shorter]

I'm stil intrigued to know what workflows in vectorworks cannot be made to work?  revit cannot and should not be seen as the benchmark.  we know it is deficient in many areas where other softwares are superior, but it's now the lowest common denominator, and like starbucks becomes the dumb-down metric against which all other software must be measured.