July – December 2013
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – July 23, 2013
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
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 ArchiCAD Training Session Notes

QUESTION ANSWER SUMMARY AND NOTES START TIME
Material Hierarchy (windows not cleaning up properly with slab on a facade) Eric gives an explanation on “intersection priority” (available in ArchiCAD 17). Eric explains that walls and roofs have a sort of understanding of what they are made of when they are asked to clean up, other elements such as windows don’t have this sophistication. So say on a facade the window that is attached to a wall won’t automatically create a void where it meets the slab. Eric shows the caller a workaround for when this problem occurs. Eric uses a solid element operation to void out the space – design>solid element operations. Eric demonstrates the procedure to make the void in full. Eric also gives a quick demonstration on “intersection priority” numbers and how they effect what is cut when slabs meet walls. 0:03:25
It should be remembered that “building materials” in ArchiCAD 17 refer to what you construct walls, floors and roofs with (and also shells and morphs). But objects like door, windows and free standing objects like chairs are made with geometry with fills and not with “building materials”. 0:25:40
Eric describes that when using solid element operations he tends to bring up the “quick layers palette”, so he can turn on/off layers quickly – window>palettes>quick layers. Eric also shows another use for the quick layer palette at time 0:38:58 0:13:40
Problems with building a mesh on an extremely sloped site. The problem in this case was the caller wanted to show the building in different positions on the sloped site for presentation purposes. A caller wanted to know what story to put the mesh on. Eric suggests putting it on the main level where the main features are. And then tell ArchiCAD that you want it to show on the other levels. Another caller using a extremely sloped site asked “what is the best way to deal with a house moving around this site”? The house was a two story private residence and the house was being repeatedly moved to show the client all the different options. Eric says if you were to move the building around the solid element operations associated to the building would also change with the building. Eric then demonstrates the correct procedure for moving a multi-story building. Baiscally it involves locking all the site layers that you want to protect and then moving the building with a heavy marquee. Eric then demonstrates how to move the building up and down on the sloped site. You do this by again locking the layers you don’t want to move, and then select the parts you want to move and go to edit>move>elevate. You could do this in reverse i.e. lock the layers for the building and just move the terrain. Eric then demonstrates how to move a building (up or down) using the story settings, and he also explains how reference levels in the project preferences work. See also explanation of using mod. files when you need to show the building in different positions at time 1:00:15 0:27:38
Note: users need to be aware of a limitation in the graphisoft tools that when you do a solid element operation they are not subject to the renovation filter. So if you cut a hole for the building it will effect the terrain mesh regardless of what view you are in. The only work around here is by creating two versions of the terrain mesh and have one of them show up on a layer for existing conditions and the other one to be turned on when you are showing the planned status. 0:35:28
Can you move a building to a mod. file and then place it whereever you want? Yes, if you have multiple buildings on a site it can be very advantageous sometimes to work with them seperately. Of course when you pick the mod file you pick the whole of the house (so this may be useful when you want to try the building in different positions on a site). And you could even use multiple versions of it. A disadvantage of using mod files is you can’t modify individual elements, as they are like external references in AutoCAD, and you would need to alter the original file to make any necessary changes. 1:00:15
When using a magic wand to create elements within spline complex curves – what are the limitations? A caller had used splines for drawing organic shapes such as landscape and then used the magic wand, but would often get errors saying “boundaries not found”, when shapes were complex such as reverse curves etc. The actual explanation for this doesn’t start until time 1:16:18. Eric shows how to draw splines and he goes through the magic wand settings, and shows the extents of what is possible. 1:05:40
Is there a way of seeing what has been added in attributes when copying from another file to avoid adding rogue materials, fills etc. Yes, there is a special feature in ArchiCAD 17 that enables this, and Eric demonstrates. When you open up “building materials” of any selected elements you will find them high-lighted. 1:05:57
ArchiCAD 17 tip: When deleting elements you are now prompted to transfer elements to another attribute, but not if you use the attribute manager. A caller gave this tip. 1:06:00
Are there any types or methods for adding information to a detail layout sheet that should be avoided because they slow down that environment? In any drafting view plan or detail etc., if you have a lot of linework (e.g. an imported dwg that is loaded with lines), sometimes it can slow everything down. This was more a problem in the past when computers had much lower specs though. As well as dwg files graphic files such as pdf’s and jpeg can have way more information than they need to have and this too can have an effect on performance. 1:27:30
When you open a 16 file in 17 you have dozens of materials that are old. Should you go through them all and delete them, or just the ones that you are using? Graphisoft’s standard advice is before you migrate a file you should save a copy of it. And in that copy you go through and look at the materials, fills etc. that are in use and you delete the things that you don’t need. This is to reduce the number of things that are going to be migrated forward. Eric explains all this and gives some extra tips on migrating. 1:28:44
Which story should you put the site mesh on? And an explanation of how the level dimension tool works. Eric explains what he would do. You are actually able to have the mesh show up on other story’s too – mesh selection settings>floor plan and section>floor plan display>show on story’s. Eric also demonstrates the level dimension tool (with the gravitate to mesh tool). 1:35:11
Solving a problem of getting intersections of composites to close properly Eric goes through what to do. The solution was changing priority numbers and changing the type i.e. core, finish or other. 1:51:28
Downsizing large graphic files The caller had to place lots of graphic files on a layout sheet and he was finding that these large files were slowing ArchiCAD down. Eric shows how to downsize large graphic files (to enable ArchiCAD to work faster). Eric also demonstrated a free photo-editing package for people who don’t possess Photoshop. A great free photo-editing package not described here is GIMP (which has many functions similar to Photoshop). Check out what it can do on Wikipedia

 

 ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – July 23, 2013

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