Happy 40th Graphisoft!

 It’s been ages since I last wrote in here. Who writes/reads blogs anymore, anyway?

You want your message heard, you need to be short, snappy and all over the place.

Preferably video based – so no effort needed for reading.

 

But Graphisoft is 40, a worthy cause to dig out the old blog and fire it up.

When I started with ArchiCAD some 27 years ago, I did not think we’d grow old together.

Yet we had.

At the time, paid the price of half a new Audi car for the software/hardware package – come to think of it, it was about half of my annual salary.

I learned to use the blimming thing and added to the knowledge over and over, wore the badge of the weirdo ArchiCAD user with pride.

I showed my commitment to it and kept it over the last 3 decades too.

Grudgingly.

Talk about a marriage of convenience. But let’s not talk about me.

 

Let’s talk about GS and their celebratory message:

“Stay focused, design more”

Is that it?

Aimed at the ‘core market’, the mysterious architect in the black T shirt blessedly ignorant of the world around him, the industry.

Yet, that architect must be getting terribly old if he is happy with the antiquated interface, the clumsy layer system-based workflows, the drawing focused layouts and the overall feel of it, fiddly attribute management, so 1990.

 

Shhhhhh.

Don’t do that! Revit is still worse than that. Slower, clumsier…

It is, but (and I thought I never say this) it plays better with others.

Or at least it is trying to be seen as an ‘industry citizen’ rather than just an architect’s folly.

 

I know, I’m probably being unfair.

GS is a business, needs to survive, grow, make the most of its following until a new messiah of a construction software, language, and communication style is born.

They were at the forefront once, can squeeze another year or decade out of the old fame.

And I do sympathize here, myself closer to 60 than forty, makes sense to sail into calmer waters and keep paddling in low risk.

 

But, what about the younger generations? Not those in their forties but twenties, just entering the industry.

Where is the Archicad equivalent of their time? Or Revit (Sonata?) for that matter?

Getting anything off the ground even mildly in synch with other (everyday) communication styles seems to be still almost impossible in the global AEC these days.

I do like the way Revizto is going in all of this, must mention.

Push those authoring tools in the background and focus on the communication, interface, and usability.

 

Critiquing arch/construction software has always been a thankless job, so closely intertwined users/developers have been over the last 3-4 decades of BIM’s infancy in any/all of the 3-4 main authoring silos. Best way to blow up one’s career prospects, really.

But then, what else is there in today’s world worth standing for than honesty and integrity?

Thankfully so few people read blogs these days!

(picture of an old Archicad project)