Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on April 8, 2014January – June 2014
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – April 8, 2014
| 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 |
| How to get composite slabs with different finishes to go through door openings on plan. Using roof tool for floor finishes for better control over scheduling, finishes, and multiple finishes within the same space. | The roof tool and slab tool are very similar. They both allow you to have composites, they both can be flat (slab has to be flat), they both can interact with walls in a sophisticated way however the slab tool does have automated intersection calculation with walls and the roof tool you have to do that manually. Scheduling quantity take-offs should be the same. If you want to draw a framed floor you could use the Roof Maker framing tool. Graphically they both have the same options on the floor plan. Both have cover fills. You can turn off pivot line on roof in On Screen View Options. Select wall then Edit>Reshape>Adjust Elements to Slabs to bring wall down to Core Top through floor material to top of structural floor. Doors would stay at the top of the floor material. | 0:02:47 |
| Using the roof tool for floor materials (demonstrated by another instructor but being discussed here) for adding floor material separately and above a slab floor to define floor materials separately for quantities. Eric says you can do this with the slab tool too and it works better for going through doors. I you use the roof tool you will need to lower it below 0′ because it automatically measures from the bottom of the roof where slabs measure from the top. Use the Solid Element Operations to cut the roof floor into the floor. You would also need to trim it to walls too manually. Use composites when flooring changes from room to room to avoid issues under doorways. Use cut tool to cut slabs for different rooms using different floor finishes. The core materials are the same so AC does not show the cut in the structure of the floor below. You can get your calculations for the flooring with this. Make sure to extend your walls to the core top for proper calculations. The benefit of using composite slabs over roof tool for floor finishes is that you have fewer elements to deal with. Using the roof tool for floors works best for ramps with slopes. Finish schedules usually are done by the Zone Tool with textual information stating what floor finish is used in each room. This is different from quantity take-offs. | 0:16:23 | |
| Does the quantity of floor material change if you use the Solid Element Operations to cut in a different floor material? | You can use the Fill Tool to quickly measure an area and turn on Show Area Text to see area number and can be dragged to any position. To see details about floor material area go to Window>Palettes>Element Information. This shows that walls are accounted for in reducing floor materials. | 0:33:51 |
| Eric corrects previous statement about Solid Element Operations and floor material quantities. AC does account for material changes when using Solid Element Operations. | 0:43:52 | |
| How to create a material schedule for quantity take-offs. | Go into any schedule in your view map and create a New Schedule, name it, select criteria, and select fields. You can manage your calculation rules here. | 0:47:23 |
| How to eliminate walls going through the roof. | Simple solution is to select all the elements, right click>Connect>Trim Elements to Roof/Shell. Problems can arise if your wall materials have priority over the roof. If you need your walls to be something strong like brick then you can use Solid Element Operations to cut them instead but it is not shown correctly in section. You can also instead select all elements, right click>Connect>Merge Elements to get the elements to begin to recognize each other, but you would then need to go back to Connect>Trim Elements to Roof/Shell. Additional clean up would be necessary in material priority to get the section to show properly. | 0:52:56 |
| Custom labels | Labels can be associated with elements by selecting an element and choosing to label it with a check box in the tool palette. Dimensions are the default label. You can change this by selecting the label and changing its settings. The best label for materials for a wall is to use “Label Everything” ($40 to purchase). | 1:07:25 |
| Updating drawings on a sheet. | If you want to save time and not wait for every page to update in your plans, go to Drawing Settings and choose to update manually. Then to update that page just click on the screen. A reason a drawing on a sheet may not update is if your view is selected to not be rebuilt. Another reason it wont update is if you delete the marker, but choose “Keep as Independent” instead of Delete, then the view will remain, but it will not update automatically. Rebuilt will not update it either. It changes to fills and lines. Final option is to delete the viewpoint. The sheet and drawing will still exist but the source view will be gone. You can go back and link it to another view, but it could have different affects to be aware of. The best thing to do if this happens is to delete the drawing and recreate your marker, view, and drawing on sheet. | 1:15:51 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – April 8, 2014
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