Object Intelligence

Smart objects help you work faster

ArchiCAD’s building elements are intelligent - they understand and react to their environment. Intelligent tools for walls, slabs, columns, beams, roofs, furnishing and terrains place elements on the floor plan, or in the 3D window, that already contain information about their height, thickness material and other properties. They react to their environment – wall intersections clean up, beams have intersection priorities, roofs can trim building elements – all accelerating your work. You can also model complex objects easily using solid operations. This increases your productivity, makes the management of the project easier and, most importantly, allows you to design instead of draft.

What's more, the designer can easily control an object’s appearance and behavior by changing a few settings in the dialog box or by editing parameters graphically. You can even change object appearance graphically using smart hotspots providing instant visual feedback and instant access to parameters.

Developed since 1982, Graphisoft’s GDL is the technology behind these smart building elements. GDL objects contain the information necessary for text specifications, 2D symbols and 3D models, while taking up very little space on your computer. In addition to material, style, and measurements, the objects can also store manufacturers’ data, making product-specific information available to designers, facilities managers, interior designers, and any other professionals who need access to this information.

To accelerate and simplify the design process, ArchiCAD is shipped with a library of more than 1,000 parametric windows, doors, skylights, furnishings, appliances, people, construction elements, landscaping, etc. Architects can expand and customize their object libraries by modifying object parameters, using solid operations, or choosing from tens of thousands of objects available through Graphisoft and the Web.