I've been bullish on Affinity since I first saw it in 2004.
- Randall Newton, AECNews

Frequently Asked Questions

Please click the appropriate category and question to view the answer.

Beta Program

Does Trelligence offer Beta Program participation for major product releases?

Affinity Tutorials

Does Trelligence offer any online Tutorials with Affinity?

Beta Program

Does Trelligence offer Beta Program participation for major product releases?

Yes. Trelligence welcomes participation in its product Beta Programs. Please contact Trelligence for information on the next scheduled program, or revisit http://www.trelligence.com/ at a later date to check for an announcement of the next program. We welcome inquiries into the program that will give participants an opportunity to impact the final release.

Affinity 5.5 Release

Trelligence announces release 5.5 of Affinity, Affinity for Revit and Affinity for ArchiCAD

Release 5.5 of Affinity was released in May 2008 and is available to purchase from your local reseller, or from Trelligence directly if a reseller is not available in your area. See below for details of this new release.

What's new in Release 5.5?

This major new release incorporates new features and functions that significantly extend the capabilities of the product. All subscription customers should upgrade from release 4.0 to this new release; all upgrades are included as part of the annual subscription. Highlights of this new release include:

Addition of Resources to space programming
Customizable program views. Includes several different views of the space and site programs, and allows users to show or hide columns of information, based on their personal preferences.
New types of program requirements. Includes capacity-driven requirements (e.g. classroom must accommodate 22 students at 18 sq ft each), and % of total program requirements, in addition to the existing quantity and area-based requirements.
Affinity for Revit. Delivers bi-directional integration with Autodesk Revit Architecture 2009 (and 2008), linking the space program to the design, which allows designers to continue tracking compliance with program requirements throughout the detailed design phase.
Support for phased project programs. Space programs can now be specified in phases, allowing future projected needs to be captured and tracked throughout the design phase.
Support for multiple buildings. Multiple buildings can be managed and tracked as separate entities within one Affinity project file.
Support for space planning at the Departmental level.
Affinity Template Editor toolkit. A comprehensive toolkit allows users to quickly and easily customize Affinity templates to meet the varied and often complex requirements of building project types as diverse as medical facilities, educational institutions, commercial buildings and hospitality.
Additional space planning flexibility. This includes the ability to create multiple space plan scenarios, and improved alignment and snapping tools in the 2D views.
New reports

Who are the target users of Affinity 5.5?

Affinity 5.5 is designed for use by commercial Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Owner/Developer (AECO) professionals.

Can multiple space plan scenarios / options be developed and saved?

Yes, this can be accomplished through several approaches.

Approach 1:
Affinity release 5.5 includes the ability to create multiple design scenarios in the same project file. Each scenario can be printed, preserved and demonstrated, and used to calculate and report on areas, quantities, estimated costs, and compliance to program requirements.

In Schematic Design, go to Tools / Edit Scenarios, and create scenarios by entering names, e.g. A, B
Spaces in a design layout can be assigned to a specific scenario. For example, several different options for a new building wing can be viewed using scenarios. This also applies to all other aspects of layouts, including buildings, stories, and spaces.

Approach 2:
Create multiple "versions" of your project file, each representing a specific set of floor plan scenarios.

Launch Affinity and create the Space Program for the project. Save this file as the original project Space Program.
For each floor plan scenario, start with the original Space Program file, create a scenario using the Affinity Schematic Design function, and save to a new project file (e.g. scenario1, scenario2, etc.).
The different scenarios can be printed, viewed online, or compared side-by-side by opening multiple instances of Affinity, one for each scenario file.
Reports can also be run and viewed for each scenario for comparison.

Does Affinity run on the Apple Mac platform?

Affinity does not run on the Apple Mac platform at this time. Please contact Trelligence if you have any questions.

Can an existing ArchiCAD or Revit plan be loaded into Affinity to provide a starting point for restacking a building?

Yes. To bring a floorplan from ArchiCAD zones into a new Affinity project:

Open the project in ArchiCAD
From the Affinity menu in ArchiCAD, choose New Project to create a new Affinity Project.
Then choose Schematic Design. Add as many stories to the space planner as there are in the ArchiCAD project. This ensures that the stories in Affinity are ready to capture the zones from each story in the ArchiCAD project.
From the Affinity menu in ArchiCAD, choose Refresh Zones and click ArchiCAD to Affinity, then click OK. The zones from ArchiCAD will be populated in the Affinity Schematic Design.
Save the Affinity file from the Affinity menu, and then work within Affinity Desktop to restack the spaces and stories. This action does not autogenerate a space program for the project - it only generates the spaces in Schematic Design
Go to Project Program to build the space program for the project.

CORRECTIVE ACTION if you experience display problems in Affinity

Users may experience display problems in Affinity, e.g. the 3D view not appearing, due to some system settings. To resolve the issue, we recommend turning down (off) Hardware Acceleration on your graphics card:

- Launch the Control Panel and select Display
- Select the Settings Tab, and press the Advanced button in the dialogue box
- Select the Troubleshoot Tab, and slide the Hardware acceleration bar to the None setting
- click on the Apply button
- relaunch Affinity

If this does not work, please contact Trelligence at support@trelligence.com.

Affinity 4.0 Release

Is Affinity 4.0 still available?

No, Affinity 4.0 is no longer available or supported. Affinity release 5.5 is the currently available version. Upgrades from Affinity 4.0 to 5.5 are available free-of-charge for all active subscription users. To experience the extended capabilities of 5.5 and to continue receiving product support, Affinity 4.0 users should contact Trelligence or your local reseller for details.

Affinity for ArchiCAD

What versions of ArchiCAD does Affinity for ArchiCAD support?

ArchiCAD 9, 10 and 11.

How do I configure ArchiCAD to recognize the Affinity for ArchiCAD plug-ins?

There are two Affinity plug-in files for each version of ArchiCAD. A two-step process is required in order to load them into the ArchiCAD Add-on Manager.

Launch ArchiCAD, and go to the Add-on Manager. Select Search to locate the plug-ins in the following directory: c:/Program files/Trelligence/Affinity/plugins/Archicad_. For ArchiCAD 10, first select the ACAP_DLL.apx plugin and install it. Then exit and re-launch ArchiCAD and follow the same procedure to install the second plugin - AffinityLink.apx. For all releases of ArchiCAD, ArchiCAD must be exited and re-launched prior to using the plugin.

Affinity for Revit

What versions of Revit does Affinity for Revit support?

Revit Building 9.1, Revit Architecture 2008 and 2009.

How do I configure Revit to recognize the Affinity for Revit plug-ins?

Configuration is not necessary, Revit will automatically recognize Affinity. You can access the Affinity menu within Revit by selecting 'External Tools' from the 'Tools' menu.

Affinity Tutorials

Does Trelligence offer any online Tutorials with Affinity?

Yes. We deliver three online Tutorials with Affinity. They can be accessed by going to Affinity Help and selecting Tutorials.

The Gallery Tutorial is an excellent way to gain an initial understanding of Affinity's scope and functionality. It asks you to review a completed project for an art gallery, and then walks you through the steps required to create that same art gallery from new. To access the Tutorial:

From the Start and Trelligence menu, double-click on Gallery Project (contains a sample project file). Access the Tutorial from Help, Affinity Help and Tutorials and Gallery Project.

The Quick Commercial Building Tutorial provides instructions on how to create your own commercial building. To access the Tutorial:

Launch Affinity, go to Help, Affinity Help, Tutorials and Quick Commercial Building.

The Custom Template Tutorial provides an introduction to the template customization process. The customization of templates is a more technical process that would not normally be performed by professional users of Affinity. Usually the responsibility would be assigned to an internal technical professional or administrator, or be performed by your reseller, or by Trelligence. To access the Tutorial:

Launch Affinity, go to Help, Affinity Help, Tutorials and Custom Template.