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ARCHICAD

ARCHICAD

Overview

What is ARCHICAD?

ARCHICAD is a 3D architectural design application and BIM from Graphisoft, a Nemetschek Group company headquartered in Budapest.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

ARCHICAD is widely used by architects, engineers, and interior designers to transform their ideas into compelling virtual structures. With …
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Pricing

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Archicad Solo Version

$240

Cloud
per month

Archicad Full Version

$280

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Details

What is ARCHICAD?

ARCHICAD Video

Design, collaborate, document, analyze, and visualize with Archicad. More information: http://graphisoft.com/archicad Free ARCHICAD Download: http://www.graphisoft.com/downloads/ https://www.youtube.com/user/Archicad https://www.facebook.com/archicad https://www.instagr...
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ARCHICAD Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(27)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

ARCHICAD is widely used by architects, engineers, and interior designers to transform their ideas into compelling virtual structures. With its easy-to-use interface and customizable options, users can quickly create virtual buildings and architectural components. This makes it convenient for professionals to present their client's ideas visually, helping them to better understand the design concepts.

The software simplifies the architectural and engineering workflow by providing a well-organized display of plans and notes. This eliminates the need for struggling with decision-making and implementation, as everything is easily accessible in one place. Furthermore, ARCHICAD serves as the primary tool for producing architectural plans, 3D models, construction documentation, design coordination, and visualization processes. It has been trusted by firms for over 25 years, supporting various stages of projects from conceptual design to construction administration.

Interior designers find ARCHICAD particularly useful for conceptualizing base designs, modifying geometrical objects, and reviewing models created by students. The compatibility of ARCHICAD with both Mac and Windows systems simplifies administration and expansion. While the software is well-designed and easy to use, there are some limitations in the student version, such as scaling for printing and landscape features in rendering.

Overall, ARCHICAD offers a user-friendly experience that empowers professionals to visualize their ideas effectively and seamlessly execute them in real-life experiences. It is an essential tool used by architects, engineers, and designers in both large and small projects for various tasks including building drawings, urban planning, lighting design, landscaping, and interior design coordination.

User Interface: Many users have praised ARCHICAD for its super cool and graphics-oriented user interface. Numerous reviewers have mentioned that it provides a variety of tools and options for drawing and editing, making it easy to create architectural designs.

Seamless Collaboration: The seamless collaboration feature of ARCHICAD has received high praise from users. Several reviewers have highlighted how this feature allows for easy teamwork with other members, facilitating efficient communication and coordination among multidisciplinary teams.

Integration with Other Software: Users appreciate ARCHICAD's integration with other software like Lumion 360 render software. Multiple reviewers have commented on how this integration enhances the realism and visual appeal of the drawings, making them appear more real.

High Pricing: Some users have expressed that the subscription or pricing for ArchiCAD is on the higher side, which makes it less affordable for certain individuals or businesses. They feel that a more competitive price point would be beneficial in order to attract a wider user base and provide better value.

Limited Features: Several reviewers have mentioned that ArchiCAD lacks certain features like an automatic Keynote database extraction system and an expandable Phasing/Options manager, which can be limiting compared to other software options. These missing features hinder their workflow and require them to find workarounds or use additional tools.

Complex Setup and Customization: A number of users find that setting up and customizing the Revision/Change Manager and new Stair and Railing tools in ArchiCAD is too complex. This complexity leads to frustration as they struggle to efficiently utilize these features and spend additional time learning how to customize them according to their specific needs.

Users commonly recommend the following for Archicad:

  1. Customize template files: Many users suggest creating customized template files that align with their specific requirements. By doing so, they can achieve better results and enhance their workflow efficiency.

2.Seek training and guidance: It is recommended to attend training sessions or seek guidance from experienced Archicad users. Proper training and understanding of the software are crucial for maximizing its capabilities and becoming proficient in its use.

3.Consider client preferences: Users advise considering the preferences of clients when choosing software. This ensures that the selected software aligns with the client's needs and facilitates smoother collaboration throughout the design process.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Being an interior designer by profession and now heading the department of Interior Design, I use this software to conceptualize the base design and modify geometrical objects. I also review the models created by the students using this software. The modern design interface helps me and my students to quickly create virtual buildings or virtual components, such as doors, walls, roofs or any other architectural structure. The user interface is quite user friendly, which helps in quick customization. This is what I really like.
  • User interface is super cool. It helps you customize any new theme on your architectural objects.
  • Minimalistic approach in the toolkit helps in quick editing.
  • Render realistic images.
  • Collaboration with other team members is an awesome feature.
  • Subscription or pricing is on a little higher side.
  • Requires a robust system of high level RAM, otherwise it crashes often.
  • Due to its minimalistic approach, it is not flexible enough like other software.
Best suited with:
1) High quality RAM
2) First time users on architectural design
3) Quick layouts with customization

Not suitable for:
1) [If] more flexibility in design is required
2) Less RAM
3) Transferring standard details into a project
  • Easy way of imparting training to students
  • Quick customization for quick results
  • Visualization of geometrical objects is amazing and gives a holistic view of your imagination
  • Resolution on images, such as light, texture and theme is quick and agile
  • Helped us build an expert team of faculties to teach ARCHICAD
  • Developed design workflow has sped up
  • Working collaboratively and sharing information has become easier
  • Workflow tracking with detailed analysis has helped solve problems at the root stage
ARCHICAD is more intuitive and user friendly tool than AutoCAD. In this day and age, we need a minimalistic approach tool that can help us create smart designs with right user experience. The custom libraries and design options of ARCHICAD gives us better design variations in an actual work environment and ARCHICAD fulfills that with a perfect score.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
ARCHICAD is our key application for design work and used by all teams to produce their drawings. It was implemented over ten years ago and was purchased for the production of our CAD work.
  • Simple to learn
  • Good user interface
  • Information exchange can still be challenging.
  • Hard to break the Revit only mentality some clients have.
We use ARCHICAD for both small and large scale projects and have success in it. Constant investment in training and hardware is required to ensure that you make the most of the product, but this is true of all CAB /BIM products these days.
  • Collaboration with remote offices is good.
  • Production of information (when you do the setup of the model initially well) is easy.
The feature set in ARCHICAD and integration with various other products is growing year on year and, from conversations with their support, you can see that this is set to continue. It feels genuinely like a product the developers believe in, and they seem to spend the maintenance money we pay on productively improving the tools and our user experience.
We have rapid responses from their support team, and they often go the extra mile to pinpoint the root cause of an issue and assist the team in resolving it. They are honest when a problem is down to user error, or a glitch on the version we are on.
Paul King | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
ARCHICAD is the primary tool we use for the production of construction documentation, design coordination, and visualization processes.
  • Design modeling: the user interface allows for a pretty intuitive and integrated creative process. It's great for exploring and communicating ideas, and in cases where the process is not inhibited by the need to switch to different software for different stages of work, such as when moving to develop the design in detail. It also allows for a much more seamless process when changes are requested, so that all material from initial visualizations all the way through to detailed design information are all always in sync and up to date. No redundancy of effort is triggered through the logistics of needing to pass the design through multiple software platforms (eg SketchUp => Revit =>AutoCAD) as each design iteration evolves.
  • Design documentation: it's reasonably clear that ArchiCAD has the best implementation of BIM in the architectural domain, compared with the nearest rival Revit, and is unmatched for design development and coordination between disciplines, supporting large multidisciplinary teams who can all work simultaneously via the cloud or a local server on the same integrated model.
  • Somewhat responsive developers: unlike some others, if an issue is reported, there seems to be a fair chance of the developers engaging with the user and for the issue to be addressed in a subsequent update.
  • The Site Mesh tool could be enhanced by auto contour line generation and regeneration, surveyor break lines for cutting/controlling mesh triangulation, and allowing concavities in mesh surface without resorting to SEO. Built-in roads, sidewalks, retaining walls, etc. that modify surface appropriately and intelligently would also be great. Note there are paid 3rd party plugins addressing some of these, but I think these should not be necessary as these requirements are integral to most projects on sloping sites.
  • It could do with enhanced case by case control of materials' priority vs SEO, and other junction resolution methods for composite slabs, walls, columns, beams, and roofs.
  • Currently, a universal rule-based approach for the whole project may work for 90% of junctions, but it then leaves 10% of cases quite hard to resolve satisfactorily without workarounds.
ARCHICAD is well suited for Architects and engineers (with appropriate 3rd-party add-ons). It's less suited for specialist visualization artists who will play no further role in building design or construction documentation.
  • As a freelancer, in one sense the productivity gains generated by ArchiCAD are a (short-term) negative, because greater efficiency results in fewer billable hours -- though long term, it is hard to remain competitive that way.
  • As an architect, the productivity gains give me an edge over the competition and allow me to improve quality quite drastically within any given time budget compared with alternatives.
  • I am able to tackle much larger and more complex projects, single-handed if necessary, and with more confidence than I ever could have without ArchiCAD.
Essentially ArchiCAD has proved better by any metric, despite my original skepticism.
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