Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on February 14, 2013January – June 2013
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – February 14, 2013
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Eric Bobrow, Creator of the Best Practices Course
ArchiCAD Training Session Notes
| QUESTION | ANSWER SUMMARY AND NOTES | START TIME |
| Is there a way to set a priority selection in the pet pallet? and how to quickly move an element. | No, unfortunately setting a priority selection is not possible. The priority selection in the pet pallet works by remembering your previous selection. So if you last selected move, then this is what will be selected the next time you use this palette. The caller wanted the “move” tool to always come up as the first selection, and Eric says that there is a workaround,so you can always use move as the first option. The way to do this is first make sure that nothing is selected, and then hover over the item you want to move, all you now have to do is select and move in a single action the element that you want to move. | 0:00:47 |
| How to make your homemade dimension set the default in your project (without it being reset when you change the view that you are in). And how to change the dimension precision. | The caller was having trouble because his custom made dimension set only worked in the view he was in. When he changed from say plan to elevation and then back to plan the custom made dimension set was gone. First of all Eric shows how to change the dimension precision (e.g. from 10mm to 5mm) – object>projectpreferences>dimensions. Then Eric goes to the navigator and selects ALL the views that he wants to change the dimension settings to, and he opens up the view settings (the view setings are found at the bottom right hand side in the navigator panel and it is the first option) – view settings>2d/3d documents>dimensions – and changes the settings to the one he wants. So basically the trick is that you need to record the dimension settings that you want in the view settings and you must do it for all the views you want to change (just do them all simultaneously by selecting all the ones you wnat to change) | 0:06:18 |
| Project north in ArchiCAD 16 | Project north has undergone some changes in ArchiCAD 16 and Eric demonstrates them here. | 0:09:45 |
| How to change the scale of door types in schedules | Eric shows how to change the scale to change the size of the (elevation) image of the door type in the door schedule | 0:15:00 |
| Wall dimension not updating properly. Eric explains what the round and square bullseye mean in the dimension tool, and the dimension settings | The caller had a wall that he had to move and he was finding that his dimension was not updating with the moved wall. Eric explains what the round and square bullseye mean. The square bullseye only appears when you click on an empty space (static point), or a non hotspot, and this was a possible reason for the wall dimension not updating, as the static point will always be in the same position whether you move a wall or not. So make you that when you dimension a wall that you always get the round bullseye. A handy tip for when you place a dimension in the wrong place is to click on the dimension again and it will delete itself. Eric also explains the dimension default settings and in particular the “dimension only the core of composite and complex walls” setting. | 0:17:15 |
| How to create decorative gable boards | First, Eric brings into ArchiCAD an image that he uses to copy or rather model the decorative gable from. Then in an elevation view he uses the fill tool to create an approximation of the decorative gable (i.e. the position, rough shape and size). Then he copies the fill and goes to – design>complexprofiles>profilemanager- he then pastes the fill into the profile manager. Finally he demonstrates how to make the intricate shape that makes up the gable. Eric made the decorative gable using the wall tool in the profile manager. It is possible to make the decorative gable using the beam tool in the profile manager. Using the beam tool has an advantage, in that you can use the beam tools settings to set any pitch that you require, but frustratingly you can’t alter the decorative gables length, so you have to model a decorative gable for every gable that has a different length (this would be also true if you had made the decorative gable using the wall settings in the profile manager). | 0:26:02 |
| How to make two separate intersecting fills join together to form one fill | 0:30:15 | |
| How do you show door and window trims to match real casing profiles, so that it will display in the 3d model? | The ArchiCAD casing feature is rather limited, and so if you are finding that it won’t do what you want you should turn this feature off and create your own casing. Eric says that he doesn’t have the time to do a demonstration in this tutorial, but he does say that he would use the profiler tool – design>designextras>profiler – to make the trim. Despite saying that he didn’t have the time he demonstrated the procedure with the profiler anyway. After he creates the trim with the profiler tool, Eric needs to flip it into a vertical position, and he achieves this by turning the trim into an object – view>3d view options>3d projection settings>parallel projection settings>side view – to turn the trim upright, followed by file>libraries and objects>save selection as>object – to turn the upright trim into an object. If you use this method make sure that you measure up accurately the size of the opening that you need to cover before you create the trim, as you can’t alter the size once you have created it. | 0:55:09 |
| You could also purchase a specialized trim maker. A company called smart parts make such an addon, see link on far right, another company who make trims is cad image see link on near right. | ||
| Window in a stairwell between floors. How to get the window opening to subtract out of both floors | The caller had placed a window in a stairwell between two floors. Unfortunately, the window appears in either one floor or the other, but not both; the caller wants to know how to show the window in both floors (the caller is talking about the 3d view of the window). The solution is to place the same window twice in the same position, once on the lower story and then on the upper story (using the trace and reference palette to help in positioning the window). To stop both windows showing in the window schedule, you can either change one of the window’s ID’s to X (this excludes it from being included in the schedule), or you could just explode one of the windows – edit>reshape>explode into current view. There is also a third option that Eric goes through called multi-story walls (basically this involves dragging the lower wall up past where the window needs to be positioned) | 1:14:32 |
| Issue with the level of accurency (project preferences) switching back to previous setting from what the user had set | See description at time 0:06:18 in this coaching call. | 1:27:43 |
| How to use fills to colour/color an interior 2d elevation | Eric takes us through all the settings and options of fills in this context. | 1:28:08 |
| How to take a jpeg image of a patterned tile, bring into ArchiCAD, and use it in a 3d view on a floor. And how to make the same jpeg image into an image fill, so it could also be used in the plan view | To define or make your jpeg patterned tile material – options>element attributes>materials>duplicate>texture>search (find your jpeg image). To define an image fill – options>element attributes>fill types>new>image fill>fill texture>load image. | 1:38:08 |
| Issue with a vertical line showing at the junction of an elevation between two walls. The walls are in line with the same colours/colors | The problem was three walls merging at the same position, and therefore it wasn’t cleaning up perfectly. Eric suggested drawing a white line to cover up the joint line. Another option is to change the layer combination (this is a workaround and you would need to alter the combination for the different views). | 1:50:47 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – February 14, 2013
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