Lake District Architect Website - Allplan FT CAD User News Page Archive 1

William Sutherland

Architect

Click Here
to Return to
News & Views Current Page

Office Address Cluan
Rydal Road
Ambleside
LA22 9BA

015394 34489
Fax 33413

For location plan
see Local Links

please email
any comments or corrections ...

Allplan FT user pages
News & views...

Tues 26.06.01

v16.2 launched - officially launched at CAT in Stuttgart - here is the English press release of 01.06.2001 (which still mentions the Docuware link-up... anyone seen it in English?) which should allow you to make sense of the German press release of 19.06.2001 in conjunction with one of the auto-translators.
Galleries improved - the official galleries on the Nemetschek websites have

improved I notice - when this happened I do not know but they certainly look better than the last time I visited... some good stuff being shown - like this image of a residential building in Sofia - Neat way it is fitted into a real street picture. v16.2 is supposed to make this sort of thing easier to set up. :)

Fri 15.06.01

Student Design - a design competition was part of a students meet Architects day organised by Nemetschek in Munich. The first prize went to this ingenious design for a Zeppelin hangar - all modelled in Allplan - here is the official press release (scroll down for the picture links).

Thur 14.06.01

Nemetschek Magazine - the Nemetschek Magazine only seems to be available in German (Acrobat pdf format) but the pictures and projects are very interesting - there is even a short article on the recent Nemetschek HQ building (you may have seen it on the demo disk as a C4D animation). As elsewhere in the world the Architects mentioned in the articles generally do not have websites to display their work - which is surprising and disappointing.

Mon 11.06.01

- Nemetschek.de FAQ updates - several new FAQs have appeared on the Nemetschek.de FAQ site this month - some seem to be updates of older postings but are none the worse for that - the graphical ones are fairly easily understood - windows under a roof slope and such like - even an intriguing polygonal dormer - but the one that caught my eye was about 'low battery' messages on laptops. My German is not up to a translation here and so if these topics are of interest you will need to delve into the FAQ in person.

Wed 06.06.01

- Information for download - Cadconsulting-usa.com (Thanks guys!) have put up 3 new pdf files on their non-ssa support page. One is a 'What's new in v16.2' [fixed] and the other 2 are to help with network installations of Allplan. Scroll down to the bottom half of the page to find them.
(The downloads work like this - click on the drop down box next to the file you want and then select the 'download' option offered. This should then open Adobe Acrobat within your browser, wait for the download to complete - or at least the first page to appear - and then to save it locally click the floppy disk icon within the toobar at the top of the inner Acrobat window - not the browser outer window.)
at last! - in v16.2 you can now have the animation window 'docked' with 2 other windows automatically... or have it 'always on top'...

Sat 26.05.01

- Cinema 4D XL v7 shipping - can't wait to get my hands on this latest version - shipping date is 29th May - press release here.
[update 5th June - anyone else looking for 'Smells Like Almonds' 2.5 (where do they get these names from?) which should have shipped with C4D XL7 - it's not in the box but will be shipped in the next few weeks apparently - a note somewhere would have saved a lot of searching!]

Mon 21.05.01

- London Partner - there is a London based Nemetschek Partner now - www.vamoos.co.uk (just contact information and a link to the Nemetschek home site at the moment).

Sun 20.05.01

- real information - the Nemetschek.de home site is worth a visit - the news is more up to date than the plainer English version site - being more 'at the heart of things' as it were, - e.g. nice to see Allplan FT v16 awarded a 'product of they year' prize for 2000 in April 2001 by readers of a respected German publication for Architects (DAB). Unfortunately as with a recent review of the new Nemetschek HQ building in Baumeister magazine (Feb 2001) there seems to be no on-line version available.

Fri 18.05.01

- which Nemetschek do you mean? I am sure Nemetschek know best but this is becoming a regular query in conversation with Architects since the popularity of Vectorworks from Nemetschek North America. You would imagine it causes the distributors a few problems.

Thurs 17.05.01

- v16.2? Spotted a mention of v16.2 in this FAQ page on the German Nemetschek site. It just mentions that the trick of changing the cursor size has been altered in v16.2.

Sat 12.05.01

- Plandesign FT 2.5 Looks like you do have to import Allplan drawings direct from the /nem/Allplan/prj folder - so how do you know which file you are bringing in? [16.05.01 - see webboard].
I'm not sure about the 'cool' look to the transparent menus - I think the effect can be turned off. It is an example though of how stylish the programme looks and feels. A tutorial would be a great help.

Sun 29.04.01

- Plandesign FT 2.5 - At first look there are some clever ideas in here although it is not immediately obvious how to get Allplan drawings/filesets into the package - that will come with study. Very Allplan-like in it's emphasis on a good underlying project structure before setting off on the graphic design. Just one small omission in the translation - 'Extras->Customise' toolbar names are still all in German.

Sat 28.04.01

- Plandesign FT 2.5 arrives. Looks wonderful....

Sun 22.04.01

- All quiet on the Allplan front and so out of curiosity I wandered over to www.graphisoft.com after coming across a bulletin board reply to a message from someone who had switched from Archicad 6.5 to Allplan 16 a few months ago and saying that he had no intention of switching back (still trying to locate the original message).
Archicad 7 - I see no mention of including a 3D modeller with the forthcoming version as promised to some UK users apparently. As usual from Graphisoft some neat ideas - like wall panelling and trims - but not as dramatic an improvement as I was expecting.
Still not enough to tempt me away from Allplan FT.

Sun 08.04.01

- new Google language translation service - top search engine www.google.com has a beta up and running of it's new website language translation service (into English). This is helpful for searching the several German and other language sites related to Allplan - you have to enter the site name as a search and when found by google it offers a 'translate this page' option - click this and it not only translates the page but all linked pages within the site as you access them - it seems to know what language the page is in - the translations are about as good/bad as other services but the ease of use makes up for the occasional 'Tarpaulins for the future' type mistake (this was the Systransoft.com amusing translation of the opening sentence of a recent Nemetschek press release in German - perhaps 'the future is covered' is what they meant?)
Interesting structure - the front pages of www.nemetschek.de and www.allplan.com feature an interesting flash movie [update 20th May 2001 - Flash movie now gone] which shows an interesting tent like structure - modelled in Allplan (the English versions do not feature this animation) It is the proposed Elephant House at Cologne Zoo by Oxen + Romer und Partner. Their website gives a bit more information - I have copied a couple of images into Architects using Allplan

Sat 31.03.01

- Plandesign FT 2.5 English version - some day my prints will come?... [sorry, British humour :) ]
Allplan-USA.com - save a bit of typing - allplan-usa.com will reach the cadconsulting-usa site. (I assume they are one-and-the-same.)
I notice allplan-usa have announced some English language 'step by step' guides - including some I have not seen listed before - to their ssa (i.e. support contract) users for download. (Horst & colleagues seem to provide a very good service for US users - from which we all benefit as well).

Wed 28.03.01

- Service Release 3 for 16.1 - SR 3 has been posted on the www.cadconsulting-usa.com site - now with descriptions of what it fixes (thanks, Horst) - and also on the German server accessible via the www.nemetschek.bg site (same as uk site).
change of name- Panthar (UK Allplan distributor) has become 'Panthar Technology' it seems due to the growth of it's Allplan related business. Michael Axon tells me that Panthar Technology will now deal exclusively with Allplan matters.

Sun 25.03.01

- Cinema 4D v7 - Maxon surprise - version 7 shown at Cebit in Hannover - fast radiosity engine/adaptive anti-aliasing among new features. I wish they would slow down development of Cinema 4Dxl long enough for me to catch up!

Wed 22.03.01

- Webboard - Emil Metchikian has announced that the International Support team in Bulgaria will answer technical queries posted on the webboard starting next Monday 26th. This should be good news - Emil and the team are Allplan experts - and are genuinely helpful.

Fri 16.03.01

- Cinema 4Dxl - so impressed with Cinema 4Dxl v6 and Bodypaint demos that I have purchased both programmes from UK distributor Hisoft (good site by the way). The new C4D export from Allplan v16.1 works very well and loads into Cinema 4D with all the existing colours and textures intact for further editing. Bodypaint does things I did not think possible - painting in 3D with textures/effects.

Wed 14.03.01

- Graphic cards & v16.1 - well, the Gloria III has arrived and it is excellent - even smoother, faster animation than the Gladiac - and it has solved the problem with scrolling I was experiencing after the upgrade to v16.1 (there's a demo of Cinema 4D in the Gloria box and other Nemetschek/Maxon products)

Tues 13.03.01

- Graphic cards & v16.1 - gremlins with using the Elsa Geforce 2 card under v16.1 that worked fine with v16 have prompted me to go wild and order an Elsa Gloria III card. We will see if it lives up to it's marketing - the previous Gloria II was given a less-than-glowing review by tomshardware.com because of poor drivers for non-Acad/3DMax users.

Friday 08.03.01

- Plandesign FT v2.5 English version nearly here - Just waiting for the CDs to come back from the pressing plant apparently - any day soon - I've had a German language version for a while - the programme looks like a cross between Allplan and Coreldraw - looks powerful with some interesting ideas.

Tues 06.03.01

- v16.1.2 - bitmap editor! Beware the bitmap editing option under the 'File' menu. I just thought I would try this (as you do with new things) - tif image came in fine... hmmm what's this 'oilify' tool do?.... No - don't like that.... let's just 'Cancel' out of the dialogue.... Uh-oh, complete Lockup of the PC. Find myself following my own advice about 'what to do if your PC crashes'! Shame as 16.1 is otherwise extremely stable - maybe it was a 'one-off' - but I'm not going to try it again! :)

Friday 02.03.01

- awards? Great to see the cadconsulting-usa.com website 'in at number 6' in the tenlinks.com list of allplan links. Good for them - at least there is useful information on their site.

Tues 27.02.01

- Webboard returns! / More v16.1. Doing a big complex model of a private house at the moment - redraw speed seems much improved - there's a general nice 'feel' about the tools.

Mon 26.02.01

- More v16.1. Ctrl+Enter to close the text editor is a good addition. I also like the improved default planes tool. Hallelujah! they've fixed the measure tool! Not mentioned but I notice there is now a display of relative offset when you pick up and move using the left mouse button - useful.

Sun 25.02.01

- First thing found 'unfixed' in version 16.1 that used to work OK in v16. If you go to the animation window (F4) and then back into the normal drawing, any scrolling of the drawing by keys, window scroll arrows flyout, middle mouse button - all corrupt the display - or rather do not seem to redraw it properly. A regen/refresh will clear the display until you try scrolling the drawing again. It can be cured by changing from single window to multiple windows or vice versa... until you use the animation window whereupon the problem starts again...
This is with an Elsa Gladiac Geforce 2 GTS graphics card with the latest bios and drivers under Win2k which worked perfectly under v16.

Sat 24.02.01

- Version 16.1 is here - and service release 2...

Plandesign FT v2.5...Still waiting for English language version.
Webboard still down... must be pretty serious maintenance!?

Sat 17.02.01

- Webboard down... maintenance apparently - back on the 20th it says in a note on cadconsulting-usa's site.

For Archives of February to June 2001
For Archives of July to September 2001
For Archives of October to December 2001
For Archives of January to April 2002
For Archives of May to September 2002
For Archives of October to December 2002
For Archives of January to March 2003
For Archives of April to June 2003
For Archives of July to Dec 2003
For Archives of Jan to Dec 2004

Home ¦ Park Issues ¦ Services ¦ Local Links ¦ Technical Section
Allplan FT Users Page 1

disclaimer - please read!