Architects face two design challenges: drawing something impressive enough to win a commission and then creating plans to turn the concept into a real building. Graphisoft's ArchiCAD 6.0 does a fine job of helping you meet both challenges. New 3-D features extend the "wow the client" impact of ArchiCAD creations, and expanded groupware functions greatly simplify the collaborative effort common on large projects.
We Do Buildings
One key to ArchiCAD's success is the program's pure specialization in architecture; ArchiCAD is rather awkward for industrial or mechanical design. The program's object libraries consist exclusively of architectural components, and the software itself is based on the concept of a Virtual Building.
ArchiCAD is a well-behaved Mac program, with intuitive menus and — new in this version — the ability to drag and drop objects into floor plans. The objects themselves, specified in ArchiCAD's Geometric Description Language, are intelligent; they contain extra information that lets the program decide what to do about intersections and other conditions, without user intervention.
New 3-D features enable you to view 2-D drawings from a 3-D perspective. The program also includes bundled utilities that let you produce photo-realistic virtual-reality walk-throughs of your designs. A new QuickViews feature... speeds design checking by letting you quickly zoom in on details in the drawings.
Do It Together
The program’s new Team Work function, a unique adaptation of CAD software to a networked world, lets you establish separate users and passwords for each part of a design project.
The program does an excellent job of translating files that are in AutoCAD v14 DWG, which is currently the most used CAD format. No other program is as adept at preserving object specifications when converting to and from the format.
ArchiCAD also makes it easy to collaborate with builders; you can automatically generate component and materials lists from drawings. You can also print your 2-D drawings on any CAD-scale plotter of the last decade.
A Few Cracks
ArchiCAD can be a bit fussy. Instead of a single Open command on the File menu, it has two commands, each with multiple options. You need at least 64MB of RAM for easy use; the manual warns against using virtual memory, and the virtual-memory hit is harsh if you do use it — with window-open, -close, and -switch operations running at 10 to 15 seconds each on a fast G3.
ArchiCAD also uses a keyboard-port hardware lock — even beefed-up laptops and iMacs can’t run the program. The lack of laptop support can be a problem for people doing on-the-road presentations.
Seiter, Charles. (December 1998). ArchiCAD 6.0. Macworld. (pg. 52).
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ArchiCAD_6.0v2_k.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
SheepShaver
