Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on January 23, 2013January – June 2013
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – January 23, 2013
| Thank you for visiting the Best Practices Course website. The video lessons are available for members only. If you are an active member and would like to watch the ArchiCAD training video on this page, please login to the website. If you are not currently a member, please visit the following pages for more information and to sign up for the Best Practices Course, the QuickStart Course or for the Best Practices ArchiCAD Coaching Program. Eric Bobrow, Creator of the Best Practices Course |
ArchiCAD Training Session Notes
| QUESTION | ANSWER SUMMARY AND NOTES | START TIME |
| Renovation palette and the status of newly created objects | A lady caller was finding that when she drew elements such as walls they were coming in on the wrong status, and she had to go into the selection settings and change the status. Eric said the lady was frustrated because she was trying to set the status in the selection settings prior to drawing the elements and was finding the feature greyed out. Eric explained to the lady that she was using the renovation feature incorrectly. You set the status not with the selection settings but with the renovation palette itself. What you click on in the “default elements” category in the renovation palette determines what you will be drawing next. You can bring up your renovation palette by going to – window>palette>renovation | 0:01:25 |
| If you aren’t doing a remodel project it is always best to have everything set to existing in the renovation palette. This is because existing lets you see everything in every view and whereas for example if you select new in the renovation palette certain elements might get turned off in certain views. | ||
| How to make barrels in ArchiCAD | The caller needed to make some barrels to place in a winery warehouse he was designing. Eric first drew a profile of one half of the barrel using the fill tool and then he went to – design>design extras>profiler. If you didn’t know – the profiler tool is an addon to ArchiCAD that is free and is available on the Graphisoft website (if it didn’t already come pre-installed with your version of ArchiCAD) if you need to install it go to your help menu and then ArchiCAD downloads/goodies. The profiler tool has two options which are swept and rotated forms. Eric demonstrates how to create a rotated form. | 0:09:02 |
| 3D wall trimming to roof issues | The caller was finding that when he trimmed his walls to the roof they weren’t cleaning up properly. The drawing was very busy and it was difficult to see what was doing what, so Eric selected the parts he wanted to examine more closely and right clicked his mouse and selected “show selection/marquee in 3d”, and by doing this he could now view just the elements he needed. In ArchiCAD 15 and above there is something that is called the cutting body (the transparent red lines and shading that surround your trimmed elements) and the cutting body in this case wasn’t stretching out as far as it needed to go to encapsulate the wall that was being trimmed to the roof. This was because the caller had his trimming body set to pivot line and it should have been set to contour line (his roof had a large overhang and this is where it needed to be cut from). To find the trimming body to change it go to roof selection settings>trimming body>and then choose either pivot lines or contour lines. | 0:26:29 |
| To turn trimming bodies (the transparent red lines and shading) on/off go to view>on screen view options>trimming bodies | ||
| Question on custom pensets | The caller wanted to outline in a thick red pen one of his section views to represent the air barrier. Eric goes through how to create a custom penset and the differences of pensets in views and the setup of pensets for printing (i.e. you may draw in multi-colours for viewing on screen but may want to print in black) | 0:38:22 |
| Worksheets vs details | Both of these are 2d windows where you can put anything you like. If you require you can take a copy of an area you are looking at in plan or section and create a detail from it. Worksheets and details are pretty much the same thing with a couple of small differences. Eric position is if it is going to go on a sheet of details use a detail tool, and if you are doing some other 2d work use a worksheet. The reason being it will help you to organize things better and find what you need quicker. | 0:46:55 |
| What is the best way to show chamfered edges at corners | The easiest way to do it is solid element operations. Eric goes into basis shapes and finds a cube; he goes into the cubes settings changes its shape (to the length and angle of the chamfer needed) and rotates it. He then places the rotated cube shape in the position on the wall where the chamfer is needed and he undertakes a solid element operation. Eric demonstrates the full procedure to do a solid element operation | 0:51:58 |
| An alternative to the above method is using the “beam tool” and doing it this way you avoid having to do a solid element operation. All you have to do is make the beam the right size and rotate it in the beam selection settings and then set the beams priority number in the settings to be higher than the walls (so it will cut into the wall), put the beam into position (where it will chamfer the wall) and then hide the beam with the layer settings. | 1:04:00 | |
| Making a patch (this is used for correcting anything in 2d plan views that won’t clean up properly) | It should be remembered that the solid element operations work in 3d. If you want the changes to also show in 2d you will need to make a patch. document>document extras>create patch. The patch tool is used for correctly anything in 2d, for example if a wall isn’t cleaning up properly you can use the patch tool to create anything you design that consists of lines and arcs. Eric demonstrates the procedure for making a patch and then he opens the patch – file>libraries and objects>open object – to make the necessary changes to it and finally he saves it with control S. | 1:11:00 |
| Assigning different materials to each side of a morph created as part of an intricate roof. The morph is in ArchiCAD 16 and above | To select an individual morph side you click on the arrow tool and then go to the info tool palette, and from here you can change the type select tool from one that selects everything to one that selects pieces or sides of an object (like in photoshop). You also have the ability to draw a line on a particular morph face and split it up and then add multiple materials to the face. | 1:28:30 |
| Problem with morph showing up fine in 3d, but in the elevation view it was extending through the building and showing up for some reason on the opposite side of the building | This is probably a bug in ArchiCAD. A workaround would be to put the problem morph on a separate layer and just turn it off in the view where it was showing up where it shouldn’t (see also solution below). Another possible workaround (in some situations) would be to open the section marker and change the horizontal view range – Eric demonstrates this at time 1:52:50. | 1:34:20 |
| How to use the complex profile tool to create intricate wall details | Eric took the problem morph (see question above) and turned it into a complex profile – select and copy the morph>design (menu)>complex profile>profile manager>new>paste | 1:42:00 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – January 23, 2013
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