A few Weeks after founding the
ACUA, I had chats and talks with many users just to find out why people are so enthusiastic with it.
My initial question always is: "Do you think that we already have too many of these groups, forums, websites and blogs? Comparing to other Software, AC has a pretty strong and active user community."
I just want to mention some of them (of course a very personal choice )
There are
ArchiCAD-Talk and
ArchiCAD-Forum, fantastic sources of knowledge, provided for free from the best AC nerds worldwide. These Forums are hosted, maintained and paid by GS.
There is
AC Wiki, a huge, growing database, also driven by GS.
There is
AC University (THX David and all the others behind the scene working hard and voluntary) providing the community throughout the year with legendary main and side events (Archicad Summer School, Winter School, Sailing Weekend, and all national events around the world)
There are user groups almost on any available platform, in almost every language...
Should be enough !
But still there are still issues, not being covered at all!
For Example:
I found "Wishlists" on almost every ArchiCAD forum. But all of these are grown over years and completely unorganized.
If you take some time and have a closer look on these huge lists, you will find among thousands of cosmetic topics a few major wishes, mainly regarding functions which are already there, but still have something lacking. One of the most famous examples is the missing 2D feedback of a solid element operation in the floor plan.
Filtering out the real demands of us, the users and reacting to these could be a major key for Graphisoft's success on the BIM market.
I'll give you another reason: Sometimes GS cannot understand what users would need in working practice. Although a lot of educated Architects work at GS, they do not use their Product under real life circumstances. So we should give them a chance to discover what and also how we use it.
===Andreas Lettner
