Graphisoft has announced the forthcoming release of ArchiCAD 12, a new version of their Computer Aided Design (CAD) architectural software for Mac OS X and Windows. It’s coming in July.
ArchiCAD is billed as “Virtual Building” software, designed to help architects focus on speed, design and documentation while modeling building information. It incorporates tools for creating 3D objects like walls, doors, windows, skylights — in short, all the design elements you’d find in a building, along with various project views, special modeling tools, 2D tools, drawing elements, special views and view types that architects all depend on.
The new release sports support for multi-core processors. In particular, ArchiCAD 12 gets an improvement in 2D and 3D navigation speed and 3D model generation. Image and fill handling performance and PDF generation has been improved, and working on large layouts is now faster.
A new “Curtain Wall” capability has been added to ArchiCAD’s design tools, along with partial structure display, hotlink module management, the ability to use any 3D view of the model as the basis for creating a document, a new system of fill management and new fill capabilities, and interaction enhancements.
System requirements call for a G5 or better, Mac OS X 10.4 or later, 1GB RAM, 1GB hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution, OpenGL-compatible graphics.