Each month there are one or more coaching calls; this is a recording of the session on October 30, 2012July – December 2012
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – October 30, 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 |
| Preparing questions for coaching calls | Eric has started a Google Documents page for showing questions that will be appearing in the next coaching calls. If anybody wants to check what questions will be appearing in the next coaching call, then open this document. (see link on the right) | 0:01:30 |
| How to turn on/off the grid snap points. If you have objects like walls snapping to the grid squares unexpectedly, then this is probably the reason why. | On occasions some people may accidentally switch on the “grid snap”. The grid is found in the 2d plan window, and when switched on grid snap will make objects like walls snap to one of the four corners of the squares that make up the grid intersections on the screen. To toggle on/off go to – view>grid snap, or use the shortcut shift+s. When the grid snap is activated a little dot follows your cursor about showing you the nearest snap point. The grid snap doesn’t actually turn on/off the grid squares, it just changes whether they are snapable or not. | 0:04:20 |
| Matching two different pen sets across two projects | Eric shows the caller how to make a custom pen set that contains custom colors and line thicknesses – document>pensets>pens and colors – he does this at time 0:09:45. He also shows how to set up a view with your pre-made custom penset. The next part that Eric demonstrates is how to bring in a custom made penset into another project. He does this by going options>element attributes>attribute manager, and from here you have the ability to bring in a penset from another project. | 0:06:40 |
| Eric describes what the acronym IFC means and what it is used for | 0:16:35 | |
| Cleaning out registry listings related to ArchiCAD | Eric talks about which old files he thinks are safe to delete. Eric also says deleting these files won’t make much difference to the speed ArchiCAD runs at. | 0:20:13 |
| Opening up old files on a recent ArchiCAD release | A lady wanted to open up an ArchiCAD 9 file on her ArchiCAD 16 (Apple computer). Eric says that ArchiCAD 16 is able to open files going back to ArchiCAD 8.1., if you find that you aren’t able to open an old file on a newer release of ArchiCAD click on the link to the right. | 0:24:00 |
| Problem activating multi-plane geometry in the roof default settings | The caller had the roof set to a single plane roof, and that is why multi-plane roof settings were greyed out. To turn on multi-plane open up the roof default settings, then open up geometry and positioning, and to the right of the dialog box there is a choice for single and multi-plane roofs – make sure that you have the multi-plane option checked and this will allow you to access the multi-plane geometry settings. | 0:29:08 |
| If you have a multi-plane roof, and you want to add to the roof with a gable how do you do that? | Eric has covered this on the best practices course (see link on the right). Eric also demonstrates what to do to add a gable to a newly created multi-plane roof. Basically you press down on the multiplane roofs pivot line (blue line of the side that you want to change) and then select “custom plane settings” (the icon that has a roof as its picture), and from here just check gable. Eric then shows how to merge a gable roof (i.e. an extension) to an existing multi-plane roof using – right click>connect>trim elements to roof/shell | 0:32:20 |
| Eric shows how to alter the multiplane roof to account for a later extension that had been planned for a building. Basically, Eric demonstrates how to draw the extension roof as part of the original multi-plane roof (all one piece roof) and also he describes the circumstances and reasons why (pro’s and con’s) you might want to keep it joined to or separate to the original multi-plane roof. | 0:41:45 | |
| Quick discussion on what to do when using the renovation tool regarding existing and new roofs (to make the roof appear intact). | 0:46:00 | |
| How to move the roof pivot line to rest on a different point off the wall plate. | 0:48:33 | |
| How to raise the extension roofs ridge height up, so it is at the same height (or common ridge line) as the original multi-plane roof. | 0:52:15 | |
| Is it possible to do wood framing in ArchiCAD, or do I need to buy a third-party addon? | The answer is yes ArchiCAD does enable you to do wood framing. If the user does wood framing regularly, and wants to do more sophisticated wood framing then an option would be to go to cadimage.com as they produce an excellent wood framing tool (it even produces dimensioned elevations and cut-lists) according to Eric (you can purchase this through Eric, or go direct). For all the people who want to see ArchiCAD’s wood framing tool – Eric demonstrates “wall accessories”, which is a free addon from ArchiCAD – design>design extras>accessories. If you haven’t got it installed on your computer go to help>archicad downloads>accessories, and then install this addon on your computer (if you are still unsure what to do, then watch the video as Eric takes you through what to do). Don’t forget once you have downloaded the addon you still need to install it into ArchiCAD through the library manager. | 1:03:50 |
| Cursor not moving at right angles when shift key pressed down | When the shift key is pressed down the mouse will move locked to a right angle. The direction it locks to is either horizontal, vertical or the continuation of a previously created angle. The position of the cursor will decide which of these three types will lock to a straight line (i.e. which node is the cursor closest to). If you find that the mouse is locking to the wrong option, release the shift option and re-adjust the postion of the cursor in regards to the nodes. Eric shows on the video where the cursor needs to be positioned for each of the options. | 1:19:45 |
| ArchiCAD 16 users – problems moving objects vertically and horizontally in 3d | In ArchiCAD 16 the horizontal and vertical commands are merged together, therefore if you want to move objects in a truly horizontal or vertical manner, you must first move them along the (blue line) x or y axis. Look for the small x y letters on the screen. | 1:23:40 |
| A building with different finishes running along each internal room wall of the same external wall, was showing a joint line everytime the wall’s finish changed (on the external wall side). | Eric demonstrates what to do to rectify this. The newest version of ArchiCAD deals with this issue in a more sophisticated manner. And if these sort of problems can’t be rectified, Eric shows some work arounds. Eric also talks about how changing the wall priority number effects how things clean up. | 1:31:45 |
| Quick discussion on whether it is best to have your reference line inside or outside the wall | Eric also gives advice on how the type of job may determine where you want to put the reference line, and he talks about (and demonstrates) how you may have to make some new reversed sided composite walls if you decide to change the reference line side, otherwise you may end up with the external wall on the inside. | 1:46:44 |
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – October 30, 2012
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