Graphisoft, a pioneer and leader in Virtual Building solutions, has announced that ArchiCAD 12, the next version of its award-winning Virtual Building modeling solution, will ship on both Windows and Macintosh platforms in July.

ArchiCAD’s annual release cycle continues to focus on providing enhancements to help users to win more business, design more creatively and be more productive, said a statement.

ArchiCAD 12 reinforces its position as the most complete and flexible design solution in the BIM category. Enhancements to ArchiCAD 12 are focused on speed, design, documentation with capabilities including:

Speed

* Multi-core processor support – With ArchiCAD 12, multi-core processors become the recommended and standard platform for higher performance computing. Areas that will see noticeable improvement include 2D and 3D navigation and 3D model generation including sections and shadow casting.

* Image and fill handling – New technology allows for significant increases in performance in working with bitmap images and large fills in the design phase and during the generation of the document set layouts.  PDF generation is also improved. 
* Layout book – Working on large layouts is now significantly faster. 

Design

* Curtain Wall – This capability enables users to easily design and document curtain wall systems. Based upon a flexible hierarchical structure of schemes, physical members and additional accessories, users can easily control and change both the entire system and the smallest detail throughout the entire project.  

* Partial Structure Display – Enables users to work in the rich composite structure environment of walls and slabs while being able to easily coordinate the load-bearing structure with engineers. 

* Hotlink Module Management – Management and visualization of the whole Hotlink structure and recursive updates of nested Hotlinks provides reduced file size and increased update speeds. Users will benefit from greater productivity and better coordination when using Hotlink Modules, especially on large projects.

Documentation

* 3D Document – This innovative capability allows users to use any 3D view of the model as the basis for creating a document where dimensions, annotations and even additional 2D drawing elements may be added. This new level of clarity in communication helps users spend less time on design iteration with owners and reduce the amount of construction issues which increase cost and project schedule.

* Fills – ArchiCAD 12 introduces a new system of Fill Management and new Fill capability including translucent solid, image fills, and transparent gradient fills. These capabilities allow architects to remain in the ArchiCAD environment when preparing documents for competitions and client presentations.  

* Interaction enhancements – Users may now select any object in 2D or 3D and nudge, align and distribute in a manner similar to popular office applications.

The International edition of the solution will be available starting mid-July. For more information, contact  regional distributor atOne Software (Email: atone@almoayed.com, Telephone: + 971 55 636 7137 or + 973 17 574 333). -TradeArabia News Service