We are excited to continue working with you as we refine the Archicad Connector to ensure it meets your needs. The current focus is on enabling coordination with other disciplines while making Archicad <> Revit workflows smooth.
Here’s what’s next:
Improved geometry fidelity: curved geometry will be imported with soft edges hidden and rendered as smooth objects.
Revit family instancing: elements from Revit will be converted to native GDL objects for better model management, and if possible, geometry will be reused to boost performance.
Support for all native Archicad element types: our goal is a reliable model transfer between Revit and Archicad for collaboration and coordination between project teams. This effort will span a few releases, so while we get there, unsupported objects will be imported as morphs with correct rendering material to ensure a WYSIWYG experience.
Views from Archicad in Speckle Viewer: 3D views created in Archicad in 3D documents will be accessible in the Views panel with the correct camera angle and clipping planes.
Better support for Archicad properties: to improve data transfer between BIM applications, we will support more Archicad native properties. This will also enable meaningful insights, dashboards and data analysis with PowerBI.
Analytical stick model support: Archicad users can also create an analytical stick model for structural analysis, and to welcome the Archicad Connector in our structural workflows with ETABS or Tekla, we will include support for structural analysis data.
We value your input and would love to hear what you use Archicad for. Your feedback helps us make Speckle Connectors better .
how is the management of attributes.
i do understand we need to have a What you see is what you get experience,
but that means that archicad will be cluttered with attributes from revit I.E. surfaces / building materials / linetypes.
can we add a prefix of the import so that we can see what is native archicad attributes/objects and what is imported? so if needed it can be cleaned up quite easily.
unsupported objects will be imported as morphs.
can we have a option to import it as a GDL object instead ? these are less heavy in archicad.
what happens with elements which are in first isntance made with a supported element (slabs, collumns, beams, walls etc.) but are then cut away or adjusted with a opening/space to achieve are specific shape of that element, will these be native archicad elements or are these also imported as morphs / objects?
Thank you for your questions! Below I’m trying to answer them.
how is the management of attributes.
Recently we changed the attribute references from index to names in the Speckle data. It means when you export attributes their name is stored on the server. This change has two reasons: the index is not readable for the user and it might changes between projects.
Currently when an attribute is being imported we check whether there is one in the current attribute set with the name come from Speckle, if there is we use it, otherwise we create a new one. Currently we don’t separate the newly generated attributes, however it can be easily done with the methods you suggested or using the new folder structure of attributes. (However, from 2.14 for newly created library parts we create separated folders in the embedded library for each import which can be easily dropped out.)
unsupported objects will be imported as morphs.
You are right, GDL objects are less heavy in Archicad. Currently in case of non-parametric import everything is imported as GDL objects, with the other option only Speckle DirectShapes converted from Archicad Morph elements will be imported as Morphs (still from 2.14).
what happens with elements which are in first instance made with a supported element (slabs, columns, beams, walls etc.) but are then cut away or adjusted with a opening/space to achieve are specific shape of that element, will these be native archicad elements or are these also imported as morphs / objects?
If originally they were sent from Archicad, they will be native Archicad elements (please note that there is an issue with the cuttings, will be fixed here: bug(Archicad): Parametric receive differences · Issue #2351 · specklesystems/speckle-sharp · GitHub). If they come from other application (e.g. Revit) you can also convert them as native elements, however currently limited set of information is converted (e.g. in case of wall start/end point, height, etc.).
If you don’t use the parametric import option, everything will be Archicad Objects.
I hope I could answer your question, if you need any more information please let us know!
Best,
József
When I creaed walls and slabs inn Archicad, then loaded it in Revit via Speckle, all element are visible and turn into native Revit walls and slab, except for attributes, like wall properties. The wall thicknes is 300mm in AC and 150mm in Revit…Whats wrong?
Hey @mrmarton welcome to our community and thanks for the feedback!
The Revit <> Archicad workflow is not yet matching the specific types your families have, so that’s the expected behavior for now.
As you can imagine, it’s quite a complex task as the two software don’t use the same “language”, we will most likely end up implementing a mapping interface like the one we use for structural elements.
What do you think?
Hey Matteo, any idea for when we can expect a mapping interface for Rhino - Archicad? That would actually be extremely useful in a lot of workflows. Many studios modelling in Rhino would love to have a way to get their geometry as native Archicad elements!
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