ArchiCAD

Description

ArchiCAD is an architectural, BIM capable design software developed by Graphisoft and available on both Mac and Windows systems.

For a more comprehensive description see the product documentation or their wikipedia article

Support for OpenBIM

ArchiCAD has traditionally been an advocate of interoperability and a proponent of the OpenBIM concept when it aligns with their commercial interests.

BCF

ArchiCAD supports in product import of BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) files.

IFC

They have typically been quick to achieve BuildingSMART International certification for Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) import and export. ArchiCAD have developed custom export tools for exporting from other software to IFC format better suited to ArchiCAD import. buildingSMART Denmark have written an IFC Export Guide for Revit and ArchiCAD

See also

• Graphisoft Archicad includes information on correct setup of ArchiCAD for IFC export.
• A libre software alternative is FreeCAD
• A libre software alternative is Bonsai
• A proprietary competitor is Autodesk Revit

External Resources

• A good place to look for alternative software is https://alternativeto.net/software/archicad/
• Two Free/Libre alternatives are Bonsai and FreeCAD. However neither is yet mature enough to be production ready.
• buildingSMART Denmark have written an IFC Export Guide for Revit and ArchiCAD