At the 2019 AIA Architecture Expo in Las Vegas earlier this month, longtime architectural software company Graphisoft premiered the newest update to their ARCHICAD software suite, a 3D BIM tool which has been available to architects continually since 1984.
ARCHICAD 23, according to recently-appointed CEO Huw Roberts, a former architect, adds an array of new features and “a whole bunch of really substantial performance increasing capabilities.” This includes whole new ways of dealing with mechanical voids, columns, and beams, among other building fundamentals, and a live connection that automatically makes changes within existing software like Rhino and Grasshopper.
Additionally, the new release has more APIs and greater OPEN BIM integration. “We’re strong advocates of OPEN BIM,” said Roberts, “and connecting our users with all the different tools and products out there through our open BIM.” In addition to existing C++ integration, ARCHICAD 23 also adds support for Python and JSON. There is also an API for Graphisoft’s mobile app. “We’ve got lots of customers that are using programmatic interface through Rhino and Grasshopper, but that requires you to actually be in the software,” said Roberts going over the benefits of the new APIs, “But that API actually can work software to software, doesn’t need a human or user interface to make that connection.”
Graphisoft also entered into an agreement with Epic Games to leverage Unreal Engine, the video game engine behind Fortnite and other massively popular mainstream video games. “[Unreal Engine] allows you to add things like trees, and lights, and weather, and cars, and more, in a really easy way,” said Roberts. “Twinmotion is an extension built on Unreal Engine that Epic Games just bought a month ago that we have already had a partnership with, that makes Unreal Engine work really well for AEC, for architects, and designers. And so what an ARCHICAD user can do is we have a live link from ARCHICAD to Twinmotion and the Epic Games Unreal Engine, so that in real time you can be changing your BIM model and a photorealistic movie view of the model updates live,” he explained. “You can fly around in there, and move around, and change the weather, change materials, and it’s always instantly the best rendering available.”