Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on November 15, 2012July – December 2012
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – November 15, 2012
| 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 |
| Best practice workflow for turning a 2d hand drawing of a roof (and all its details) into a 3d model and detailed section | Eric shows how to bring the hand drawing into the project. Then having brought the drawing in, he then proceeds to use a scale bar that was conveniently placed on the hand drawing as a guide to properly scale the drawing. | 0:03:35 |
| Having scaled the drawing correctly he then proceeds to trace around the hand drawn roof with fills (still working in plan view). The reason for this is to enable him to then copy the fills, and paste them into the complex profile editor. | 0:11:10 | |
| Eric demonstrates how to turn the fills pasted into the complex editor into a complex profile of a roof | 0:16:35 | |
| An alternative way to do it is use “trussmaker” which is found by design>design extras>trussmaker. The caller had to unfortunately leave the call due to technical difficulties, so Eric decides not to demonstrate trussmaker at this time (actually the caller comes back online and Eric decides to demonstate trussmaker at time 0:24:55. Eric says he prefers to use complex profiles over trussmaker because trussmaker has some limitations over the geometry, which may make it diffcult with certain details such as connectors. | 0:21:40 | |
| Note: When you are using fills to make a complex profile be aware that if the fills are touching then they will become one fill. This can create problems if you want to assign each a different material. In this case you would have to pull all the fills apart a little just so they aren’t touching one another. | ||
| Eric demonstrates how to use trussmaker. | 0:24:55 | |
| To make it easier for him to see what he is doing Eric decides to bring up the palette quick layers to temporary turn off some of the layers. Window>palettes>quick layers | 0:25:54 | |
| Eric shows how to add an outer sheathing layer, and inner plasterboard ceiling. | 0:38:20 | |
| How to insert the symbol for batt insulation into the composite. Eric demonstrates how to do it, and reorient the fill. Eric also demonstrates how to place an object insulation batt into the project. The difference and advantage with the object insulation batt is it is size adjustable, so you can make it only partially fill a particular area or shape. | 0:44:50 | |
| Explanation of 3d cutting planes | ArchiCAD tip: when you have made a 3d cutaway section using the marquee tool; you may find that you want to change the color of the cutaway edge, to do this go to elements in 3d view>3d cutting planes, and from here you can change the edges color. This is particulary good for presentation purposes. This feature also enables you to cut extra pieces off the cutaway section in a horizontal plane (or any other plane), so in effect you are taking the building apart to examine it, or to show to clients. | 0:54:15 |
| How to show the composite material fills in the 3d window | Right click in the 3d window and click on “capture window for 3d document”. The beauty of this feature is that you can also annotate and dimension the view from here. The only limitation working from here is that the view won’t rotate (it is at the fixed angle that it was created at) | 0:56:22 |
| How to make changes to elevation markers (storey heights) | For instance change the line color and create a marker head. Eric demonstrates what to do (in elevation selection settings), but he did find that ArchiCAD was rather buggy when he tried to open adjacent markers that he had also made changes to, he found some parameters worked and others hadn’t. | 1:01:23 |
| Creating a graphic for a title block that will be used in every master’s sheet | Eric demonstrates how to do this, and he also talks about how to reference the graphic in when you start another project. Eric then shows how to use the orgnaizer to bring in views from other projects and drag them on to a layout sheet. Eric discusses creating templates, and putting stuff into the template, so that future projects have access to it. Followed by an interesting discussion on how some of the caller’s arrange their master sheets. | 1:09:30 |
| How to merge files in attribute manager with creating duplicates | Options>element attributes>attribute manager. Eric explains the differences between “append and overwrite”. Basically by selecting append you are adding them to the end of the list (with new index number), and overwrite will take something of a certain numeric position and overwrite the item with the same numeric position. Eric also explains what purge unused does | 1:39:42 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – November 15, 2012
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