Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on January 30, 2014January – June 2014
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – January 30, 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 |
| ArchiCAD updates | Generally you should download new updates as they come out. You can’t update it while it is running. It analyzes the current situation and gives you options. Updates come out a few times per year. | 0:01:34 |
| Door and window markers | Markers are attached to doors and windows and indicate the number or letter code you use for them. They can be turned on or off in several places. You would show them on the main floor plan and not on some others depending on your project per your choice by view. You have options in the Renovation Filter Options. The core question is if a window or door even has a marker associated with it. You can choose No Marker in the Info Palette>Window Marker or choose the type of marker to use. Finally under Document>Set Model View>Model View Options you have options for plans shown differently and the ability to edit what construction elements are seen in the views. Main things to consider when you want to get door or window markers to show is to have it associated with the door or window, have the model view options set up to show it, and double check or coordinate it in the renovation options. This is all coordinated in the View Options. | 0:04:44 |
| Window schedule editing | Select your schedule in the layout, press down and use the editing options in the Pet Palette. You can break the schedule up into two pieces if you have to to make it fit. Use the button on the bottom right of the pet palette for this auto adjustment and then do further adjustments with the pet palette. You can also open the source view by clicking on it and right clicking. In the source view you can edit the column widths or change the text size, etc. | 0:12:08 |
| How to compile a drawing list | In the Project Map go to Indexes and in Master Template click on Drawing List. This will show all the drawings in the project. The Index Settings give you a variety of choices for the list. To get a list of the sheets you can go to the Architectural Sheet Index in Master Template. It has a criteria that defines it that you can edit to create a sheet list you want. You can duplicate an existing one and modify it. | 0:17:00 |
| Are door and window schedules put together in a similar way? | Yes. Go to Window Schedule in your Project Map. There are many variations depending on your needs. All schedules have criteria saying what are we listing and then they have fields saying what information is being shown and you can pick from a lot of different options from here. There is a coaching call back in April 2013 on schedules. If you have a schedule with a blank column look at its criteria and see what it is trying to show and edit if need be. | 0:23:20 |
| ID numbering windows or doors. | Select windows or doors one by one in the order you want to number them. If your ordering sequence is not working properly, check what version of AC you are in. In some older versions of AC there were bugs with the sequencing of doors and windows. Options to look at your criteria and type for sorting. | 0:31:37 |
| If your project is running very slowly making it hard to click and work. | Turn off Virtual Trace which is the same as Trace & Reference to speed up processing time. | 0:37:36 |
| Virtual Trace | When one is using Virtual Trace you can make changes in the Trace & Reference palette to how it is viewed. The more things you do differently between the trace and the reference the more things AC has to do, therefore slowing it down, especially if the dimensions are different. You can look at the view settings for each and make them as similar as possible to speed up AC. | 0:39:00 |
| Publishing your project. Printing your project. | Publishing is about saving your work outside of ArchiCAD for other people to use. You can create pdf’s or dwg files. You can also use it to print your drawings. Beginning publishing files with a dot might be problematic. Change your prefix id to remove the dot to publish it properly. You can change the prefix manually or change it in the settings. You can also combine your published pdf’s into one pdf file that you can flip through by creating new set folder, select your pdf’s and drag them into the new folder. The folder then has an option to merge them to one pdf file. Then publish the set folder. You can also tell AC to break it up for you to fit on a certain sheet size. You can also draw a marquee around your plan and print Marquee only (option to do this is in the print window). You can even draw a guideline that fits the print window the way you want. | 0:44:10 |
| Dropbox. What are the pitfalls and advantages of saving projects to dropbox. | DropBox is something you can install for free onto your computer and it creates a folder on your computer hard drive and has a place on the Internet in the cloud where files can be stored. It is a way to back things up or share files with others. If you open up your drop box folder the files appear just like on your hard drive and they are on your hard drive. If you make a change to the file on your hard drive and save it, it automatically rewrites the same clone file in your dropbox folder and updates the file on another person’s hard drive if it is the same shared file. The thing you have to watch out for is if you delete the file, it will disappear from the cloud as well as the other person’s machine in the shared folder. If that is the only copy of the other person’s file they will loose it. The same applies if you make changes to the file. That is good if you want the share a file and you want he edits, but if that is not the intention, be aware that this will happen. If you want to share a file, select it in the finder and right click on it and choose to move it to Dropbox. Or you can upload it from Dropbox. If you share it you are giving other people the right to change your file. The caution is if you do not want the edits of other to affect your original file, COPY the file into dropbox instead DO NOT MOVE IT into dropbox. You can save your projects to Dropbox if you are not sharing it and it will be safe because what is happening is it is saving a copy of your file up in the cloud. That way if your machine has a problem your file is still there and you can access it from any other machine by logging into your account. The file that you save to Dropbox is saved into the Dropbox file on your hard drive as well as its clone in the cloud. | 1:09:09 |
| How to create a Legacy BIMx file verses a hyper model? | A BIMx is a way of saving a file out of ArchiCAD that you can send to a client or consultant that contains the 3D information. If they don’t have AC they can explore it in 3D. When you do a SaveAs there is an option to save it as a BIMx. This was an optional tool up to AC 16 and now everyone gets BIMx. Now they just added a new model called a Hyper Model. When you save BIMx there are options for how to save it and you can choose to store the camera positions if you want or you can limit the viewable information. The BIMx hyper model also know as BIMx docs combines 2D stuff like layouts with 3D stuff like models. The difference between saving as a hyper model and a BIMx file is under File>Save As verses File>Publish BIMx Hyper-model. | 1:22:12 |
| What is a hyper model? | A hyper model is a interesting creation that Graphisoft just came out with. In plan, if you right click on a section marker it allows you to open section. Imagine if you did that and it also allowed you to see it in 3D. What the hyper model does is opens the model in 3D with the plan shown with it. Its called “hyper model” because it is hyper linking like a hyper link on a web page that takes you from one spot on the web to another. | 1:32:05 |
| Favorites | Go to Palettes>Favorites. It is a time saver that allows you quickly add elements that you have previously set up and saved as a favorite. If you are saving something as a favorite AC will remember if it is on the current story or above or below. | 1:34:11 |
| Wall corners cleaning up properly | If your wall exteriors are different but the core is the same then they should clean up fine. If they are not cleaning up then the problem is probably in the materials priorities. | 1:40:25 |
| Is there a more efficient way to bring a detail into a project file from another one? | You can be in one project but switch in your project chooser to another one. You can also open up the organizer and drag layouts from one project to another as well as details. If you drag a detail from one project to another it will be linked to its source. If you want to change that detail you will need to incorporate it into your project. You can go to your source, select all, save as a module file that has 2D information that can be merged into your project file. To merge the module in you go to File>File Special>Merge and bring in the detail mod file. If you bring the detail over with the organizer the link will mean that the detail will change if you update the source but it is only a one way connection so you can not edit the detail in the new file unless you explode it, then it would be independent. | 1:47:03 |
| If you send a file to someone (that is a linked file), are such links broken? | Drawings have a source in that can be seen in the settings of the drawing and it has a view within the source. The source file would be either an external source or embedded. If you send the file to someone without its source or do not embed the source they will be able to see the data but not be able to check if it is up to date. It would be a broken link. | 1:57:35 |
| How to edit dimension text. Why is dimension text upside down? | You can select the dimension text (not the dimension chain) there is an option for the text to have an angle. There are also options relative to the orientation or the coordinate system. So if you rotate your coordinate system then that will affect your text. Also in the text tool there is an option for Always Readable and if you rotate the text it will keep it oriented to be readable even if you turn the text block upside down, but if you deselect that then the text can be rotated upside down. There is also an option if you rotate your grid and the x and y values get confused. Try putting your grid back to orthogonal grid to see if it fixes the text. | 2:00:47 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – January 30, 2014
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