Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on May 28, 2014January – June 2014
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – May 28, 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 view the webinar coaching call live on screen. | The control panel for the webinar can be opened or closed with the orange button with the white arrow. When you click on the control panel for Go to Webinar it will bring the Go to Webinar application to the front and you may need to use the menu to bring up the Go to Webinar viewer so it wouldn’t be hidden by other aps on your computer. | 0:02:34 |
| Scans on different stories to use with Virtual Trace but elements do not align and when scans are moved it changed on other floors as well. What are the best practices with working with Virtual Trace? | If you are going to share files you need to select the option “Store Drawing in the Project File” in Drawing Selection Settings dialog box. This increases the size of the project file, but it means it will be included in the project file.***We will return to this later in the call due to missing files.*** | 0:03:40 |
| Floor plan view of house at 1:50. How to create an enlarged detailed plan view at 1:20. What is the best way to do this to exclude the rest of the plans outside the chosen area? | Start by changing the scale of your view to what you want. The text will change size. Save this as a view such as “Enlarged Kitchen Plan” and you can choose “Enlarged Plan” as your layer combination choice because it is a standard combination with certain layers turned on and off for an enlarged view. The main thing you want to do is create a new view with the proper scale and you want to have the Current Zoom turned on and uncheck “Ignore zoom and rotation…” because you do want to zoom to this specific area of the plan. This is not a clone. It is a zoomed view with a specific scale. If you drag this view to a sheet it will be a cropped view that is croppable on the sheet with the pet palette. You can edit your layers to show or hide whatever you choose. In Master Template you can use the “U Drawing Special Enlarged Plan” layer and anything you put on it will only show on the enlarged plans. If cropping is good enough then you don’t need fills but if not you can use a fill with background color to hide elements you don’t want to show. Make it a drafting fill and turn off the outline. Use display order to bring the fill to the front and other elements to the back. This fill will not be seen on any other plans. You can do the same with any notes as well and they will only show on the enlarged plans. | 0:09:40 |
| Display order | Display order. AC has 16 positions for elements in the display order so you can potentially have up to 16 elements displayed in a certain order. AC has a default display order but you can move things up or down as needed either one level at a time by selecting “move up” or “move down” or you can move them to the top with “Move to Front” or the bottom with “Move to back”. If there are two things are on the top then the default will win out but you can force that change. | 0:26:03 |
| Calculation rules in Project Preferences when you make a selection of the ID names of building materials, where does this information get listed and what are the best practices for using the information? | Options>Project Preferences>Calculations Units & Rules>Calculation Rules have to do in part with how you are going to reduce calculations if you punch a hole in a wall is it going to reduce the amount of materials you will need depending on the size of the hole. Definition of Listed Skins. A skin is when you create a composite wall or slab or roof it is made of multiple components that are skins. So Definition of Listed Skins will possibly tabulated all your insulation or whatever material you want to total by creating text field with your list of materials. Then look in component schedule or components by layers to possibly see your data. Eric will do some research and get back to this. | 0:29:05 |
| Deleting layers in a template. | Go to layer dialogue box>dimensions layer. A warning box comes up saying “Deleting layers and moving elements is not undo-able” and gives the option to “Delete Elements” or “Move Elements onto” another layer. You can also delete or move them manually view point (in Project Map not View Map) by view point and possible on the sheets as well. | 0:41:33 |
| Deleting other attributes in AC 17. | If you want to delete other element attributes in a template in AC 17 such as fills or building materials AC will let you switch anything that uses that element to another element. In earlier versions you would have to go find and select elements that used those settings, change them and then check in attribute manager if they were unused. | 0:49:01 |
| Missing elements in the Library Manager | File>Libraries and Objects>Library Manager it will tell you if folders and their elements are missing. Sometimes you have to search all the views and layouts to find missing elements. | 0:49:56 |
| Showing dimensions to the nearest 5 mm and how to set this up. How to change dimensions by changing the numbers. | Options>Project Preferences>Dimensions>Plain Meter you can edit your decimals and add “extra accuracy”. There doesn’t seem to be an option to round in millimeters. In AC you can not change the numbers in the dimensions to change the elements. You have to measure your element such as a wall by typing in the specific unit of measure you want by going back to the reference point and then telling it what size. So you can move or stretch elements based on their distance from something else. | 0:54:52 |
| ***Return to Scan Question from above*** | If you have a scan and you’ve used Trace tool to redraw it and you’re drawing is not aligned properly. There are two ways to align a drawing in virtual trace. Go to the Virtual Trace & Reference Palette and reposition the trace. You can zoom in and move the whole trace. As a rule when you bring in a pdf or jpg put it in at 100%. If you move the trace reference in one view it will move it in all views. If you are referencing one story to another using Trace & Reference if you use the Offset here anytime you use the Offset it will affect all relationships between stories. You can’t use the offset when you’re working between stories. The preferred way to edit the views is to switch your view so you are looking at the scan and the AC drawing is the reference that you can select and move to the proper relationship to the scan instead. Do this for all stories. An alternate way to consider this is instead of having extra stories for the scans put them on worksheets. Create worksheet by right clicking on the worksheet folder in the project map and then go back to the scan, cut it, place it into the worksheet in the original location. Now you have it on a worksheet instead of a story. Then you can delete the extra story that only had scans on it. You can still use Trace and Reference to see the scan on the worksheet. This simplifies your story organization with real stories. Use worksheets for extra information. | 1:06:15 |
| Pdf scans and workability coming in AC 18 | New feature in AC 18: if you have a pdf created by another drawing program that is vector based you can explode that and turn it into lines and points and snap to it. | 1:17:31 |
| General rules when importing pdfs to use in worksheets with Trace & Reference. | In general stories are for real building vertical divisions. You can have a foundation, roof, and or a site story or combine those. Framing and rafters should be on layers not stories because certain elements such as staircases can not cross over a story and go two stories above. Other things people have used dummy stories for are possibly surveys or scans. These are reference materials. Put them on worksheets instead and reference them. Each worksheet can have different offsets where as if they were stories it messes up your plans. If they are in worksheets they can have offsets. 2D information that are not actual building elements should be put in worksheets or details. They both function very much the same. Have everything that is not a detail drawing but are 2D information such as scans put on worksheets. | 1:20:21 |
| Window selection settings specifically Marvin option settings. Is the rough opening dimension critical or the nominal size opening? What is the relationship between them? | They (Marvin) may have fewer parameters because they are optimized for their needs. Nominal size relates to the size of the unit. If you are working in a framed building the opening can be made to suit then you tell your contractor what the rough opening is. If you are working with a masonry building it is better to follow the sizes of your masonry units and pick something that will fit your brick openings. So then it is important to pick a window or door that fits in your masonry opening. In one case your critical dimension is the size of the unit you are ordering and the other is the size of your opening. | 1:26:18 |
| If you are starting with a simple model with solid walls (type undecided) and you are putting in doors and windows there are options for how they fit into the wall you may have to change when you turn the wall into a composite and you may have to switch the wall type and the door or window closure. | Simple wall and window combination. Click on window settings and look at the wall closure. If you set it to stud wall or masonry (solid) wall it will automatically change based on the wall type. If you change the wall to composite it will do more complex stuff. You can edit the wrap within the wall closure options on inside and outside. | 1:29:33 |
| Favorites defaulting to custom closure. | Select your window and go to Window>Palettes>Favorites and save the selection as a new favorite and name it and save. Then you can select that favorite and place it when you need it. Favorites recall the exact type of window as well as its closure information. | 1:38:51 |
| Is there a way to globally select all window markers to adjust them? | In order to change a marker style you have to select the window or all windows and then go into the window tool and change the dimension marker to what you want. You can redefine your favorites to match and then all windows you place with the favorite will have the same marker. | 1:41:12 |
| What governs the assigning of door and window numbers? | The rule is based on the placement order. If you want to edit that order select the elements you want and go to Documents>Schedules and Lists>Element ID Manager. There is a lesson on this. This allows you to renumber based on a certain ID format after selecting that you want them to be unique. You have to pre-select them in the order you want. | 1:43:54 |
| Open tread stair with series of slabs without translating on two axis. | Create a slab and multiply it with a vertical displacement. You can choose to have them touching in plan or whatever distance you choose. | 1:46:59 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – May 21, 2014
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