Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on March 20, 2014January – June 2014
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – March 20, 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 edit hotlinked modules when their associated files are missing | To find linked module files go to File>External Content>File Manager you can see the list of source files and if they are missing or not. Even if files are missing AC still shows the data on the plan. To edit module, select it, copy it. Shortcut to do this is drag grouped module to new location, press Option (Mac) or Control Key (PC), when you see the small plus sign release and a copy is created. Right click on copy, select Hotlinked Module Settings, check Break Hotlink of Selected Modules. Then Suspend Groups for editing elements within the copied module. | 0:02:19 |
| How to label walls and other elements with associated labels. Troubleshooting how to label elements when no label appears. | Select object, go to Object Settings>Listing and Labeling>Label Object. If no label appears go to Label Settings>Object Tool>Change from Text to ID or load another label. If no label appears still, go to Library Manager and add in standard Library 17, reload library and apply changes. Then go back to Label Tool and there will be more labels available. Select a label and format it. Turn on Show Object ID to be automatically updated. If off you can manually set the ID. Also check your model view options and layers to make sure the label is visable. | 0:07:18 |
| How to create a schedule utilizing the wall labels | Select any schedule from your view menu, select Scheme Settings, Create New, label it Wall Schedule, select Construction Elements from Items, click OK. Then select your fields for schedule including ID, Height, Building Material, Quantity/Number, Length. | 0:28:35 |
| Material priorities. Affects on take-off quantities when walls are intersected with composite slabs. | Scheme Settings>Available Parameter>add Area of the Wall to fields of schedule. You can add in Conditional, Gross, and/or Net Surface area of each side of the wall. They will update as walls are edited and elements are added such as windows and doors. Net Surface area is the most precise for determining quantities of materials needed. Setting material priorities Options>Element Attributes>Building Materials while having both your elements selected. Move the element materials to be stronger down below the other materials. AC does not claim to do quantity take-offs for ordering. It says that you can do certain quantity calculations. | 0:40:16 |
| PDF’s for schedules and notes | AC does not generate specification documents directly. CAD Image created Keynotes (Eric thinks) that puts in information with tagging and formatting. There is nothing inside AC that could do it better than an outside source can create. | 1:04:11 |
| Start Edition of ArchiCAD verses the full version limitations and workarounds | The Start Edition of ArchiCAD is a lower cost product of ArchiCAD designed for the small firm or one person office and eliminates some of the tools for collaboration such as hotlinked modules, Xrefs, and Teamwork. It does not allow you to import a pdf so you can not place external files into your work file. The work around is to convert your pdf to a jpg and copy and paste it in or use the figure tool to do that. | 1:09:22 |
| Formatting Word Documents for import | You can format your document in Word with the size you want it to import as so you don’t have to edit it’s size in AC. This allows you to control the size of your text for standardized text in your construction documents. To place the pdf go to File>External Content>Place External Drawing>Browse for file>click to place. | 1:13:28 |
| Marquee tool | The thin marquee will only effect elements on the active story. Draw marquee around building area and select any element within the marquee area and move it to stretch the entire building on that story. It effects lines as well as walls that are included. The rule is you have to have the marquee tool active to move the entire marqueed area. The elements outside the marquee are not affected. The heavy marquee affects multiple stories. Marquee tool can be used to adjust wall lengths. Even using the heavy marquee, as soon as you have an element selected they take priority over the marquee. Elements on hidden layers will move if they are within the marquee and grouped with the elements that are moving, otherwise they will not be affected. How renovation layers are affected with the marquee. | 1:19:07 |
| View map configuration. Is it possible to save or import a tree structure into a new template? | No. The only way to have a view map go from one file to another is to have it be a “child” of another file. Save a copy of an existing file, change its name and delete what is not relevant to the new project. This is not a template, but a Save As but has the effect of keeping all your structure in tact. The other way is to literally have a template file that you’ve created the same way by doing a Save As and saving it as a tpl file. The other way is to have both files open, the one you want the tree structure from and the new file, then manually recreate the view settings from the old to new file by looking at the old and making the new one match. | 1:32:53 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – March 20, 2014
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