Beverly Kenville is a building designer and ArchiCAD consultant based in Soquel, on the California coast a scenic 90 minute drive south of San Francisco. She works on about 20 to 25 residential and commercial projects each year, both for her own clients and as a consultant for a number of architects and contractors.
She has been working with ArchiCAD since version 6.0, but has really been mastering it in the last couple of years, with dramatic results.
In one project last year, Beverly tried one of the tips in my free video tutorials (which showed how to get ArchiCAD to automatically number windows and doors in a controlled sequence). She wrote to me with great enthusiasm: she said this tip had saved her at least a couple of hours of tedious work. There were dozens and dozens of windows and doors, and it had taken her just a few minutes to renumber them all!
Later on, Beverly signed up for my Best Practices Course. She has been continuing to optimize her workflow, fluidity and efficiency with ArchiCAD.
When I called her this week to find out more about her practice, she proudly told me about a concept design she had just completed for a client meeting. She got the assignment on Saturday, and by Monday, after only a day and a half of work, she had designed, modeled, rendered and laid out presentation drawings for a 4 story project with 44 dwelling units, 4 commercial spaces, and two levels of underground parking.
I asked her: “How long would this have taken you before?” She said “Days and days! I would never have been able to even come close to having it ready.”
Beverly says that she can produce better work in less than half the time that she used to take.
She attributes her success to a combination of factors. She loves MasterTemplate, the project start-up kit, since it has so much already set up. She has tweaked and reworked it to make it fit her needs, and says it makes it easy it is to get good work done quickly.
Beverly has learned how to work in the 3D window much more of the time, affording her more control of the building model on all levels at once. Precise use of Find and Select gives her the power to modify sets of similar elements in a single step. She used to painstakingly perform operations on elements one by one before she knew how to take advantage of more of these built-in power-user features of ArchiCAD.
Beverly is a great example of someone who was productive with ArchiCAD, but not satisfied with how long it took her to get a job done. By studying the Best Practices and using a robust project template, she is now able to deliver better quality results in a fraction of the time.
She says that even in this economic downturn, due in part to her improved efficiency and faster turnaround times, she has lots of projects to work on, and many repeat clients. Beverly is doing well because she invested in herself - improving her skills, her knowledge and her working tools.