January – June 2013
ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – February 20, 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
Is it possible to make the extension lines in a dimension run parallel to linework (at 30 degrees) in a 2d axonometric sketch? No unfortunately it is not possible to get the dimension tool to draw lines at an angle. As usual though there is a workaround, but it is only available for users who have ArchiCAD 12 or above. First Eric drew a rough copy of the caller’s sketch using ArchiCAD’s 3d elements, and then he positioned his copy into an axonometric position using – view>3d view options>3d projection settings>isometric axonomentry. After positioning his drawing, Eric turns it into a 3d document by right clicking>capture window for 3d document. This 3d document is fully editable and the dimension witness lines run parallel to the linework. 0:01:25
How to make details that are not referenced to a particular view. The details also need to be numbered with scales and titles. First, Eric opens up the ArchiCAD layout sheet that has a grid layout, and he shows how to custom number each detail or drawing that you put into the layout sheet. He then shows how to place a linked marker. This is a way that you you can create references to imported details that you have placed onto your sheets (these details can be pdf, dwg etc.). Eric, also describes what independent details are 0:13:24
Caller had mistakenly deleted some of his preformatted sheets in master template, and wanted to bring them back. Master template is designed and sold by Eric, it is a tool designed to greatly enhance your productivity. Anyone interested in learning more about this tool should contact Eric. Eric didn’t answer the question on this coaching call, but he promised to email the user instructions on how to do this. 0:24:58
Is ArchiCAD 16 worth buying or upgrading to? The quick answer is yes by Eric. Eric also took a mini poll between the callers on the coaching call (the callers agree they particulary like the morph tool and integrated ecodesigner). The reason for this question by the caller was not about how good ArchiCAD is, but is it worth the high price (the caller’s words) to purchase a upgrade and subscription when another version is going to come out in another couple of months? If you wait past more than one upgrade version before you upgrade then the price to upgrade will increase accordingly by how many versions that you are upgrading from. You wouldn’t be on subscription with the upgrade if you purchased the upgrade after the version came out. Before it comes out (the next version) you can in general buy a subscription, you would then get the upgrade automatically. If you are interested in following this advice – please first watch the coaching call video clip to just check that I have worded this correctly. 0:27:16
Questions on interior elevations. How to set up arrows and numbers pointing to specific walls to identify the elevations (Eric demonstrates many of the functions in the interior elevations settings e.g. turning things on/off). How to adjust the north arrow to bring it into phase with project orientation – options>project preferences>project location – this is the pathway in ArchiCAD 16, in some versions of ArchiCAD the pathway is slightly different, but it should be found either somewhere around the area of options>project preferences, or in the older versions try – view>3d options>3d projection settings>more sun. When you have done this all the interior elevations should be labelled with their correct orientation. 0:37:18
  Eric also shows how to place an interior elevation marker in a non-regtangular space, and how to place individual elevation markers at each elevation (for rooms with more than four walls) 0:52:30
Caller wants to show a full elevation of a particular wall together with a section of an adjacent wall that contains the window. To achieve this you would have to draw the room boundary going past the room and past the adjacent wall in question, and it is also possible to do this with individual elevation markers. 0:58:55
How to print a drawing showing the trace reference of a floor below The caller didn’t just want to show his main drawing and the trace reference, he also wanted to control what items in the trace reference would be printed. Eric goes through overlaying two drawings (moving to back and making the pens grey in the back drawing, so it acts like a trace reference), changing the penset colour/color in order to make the trace reference less prominent, how to crop away the part of the trace reference he didn’t want to show (in the caller’s case it was the markers) and how to change the trace reference’s layer combination. 1:03:45
How to drag an entire building that has more than two stories The answer is use the thick marquee in the info box (this will move everything including the unseen stories). When you do this first make sure that you open up the layer settings and make sure that everything that needs to move is seen and unlocked. DO NOT then select the option edit>select all in marquee, because this will override the thick marquee and mess up the moving of the building, just surround everything that needs to be moved with a thick marquee and then select drag and move everything. 1:17:10
How to get zones to show up with the same colours/colors in 3d (in this case to match the colours/colors that show up in the plan view). Eric also shows how to change the zone’s colours/colors in the 2d plan view) Eric puts some zones onto his plan, and then switches to a 3d view and turns on zones in 3d – view>elements in 3d view>filter elements in 3d>check zones (the square box next to zones). Eric shows how to change the zone’s colour/color; how to create/make an entirely new colour/color for the zones to use; and how to turn everything off (walls, floors etc) so that just the zones show (this is particulary useful for presentations) 1:25:03
Lightworks and matching with internal engine Eric explains why we use this procedure. The simplest way to choose materials is to pick them using the internal engine and then go into lightworks and click on match with internal engine. 1:33:00
Why would we use 3d documents as opposed to full renders for some presentations The reason being is that on 3d documents we can put text, dimensions, lines and fills onto the drawing to explain and illustrate. A point about 3d documents, is that they are fully updateable, so if you need to make changes to say a wall, you just need to make the changes and then go to – window>3d document/autobuild model – think of them as a bit like elevations/sections 1:39:50
How to align a texture to a given point or direction The caller had a complex roof where some of the tiles weren’t lining up correctly. Eric shows how to change the alignment point, and also how to change the direction or angle where the tiles were pointing – design>align 3d texture>set origin or design>align 3d texture>set direction. Another option for changing the direction of the texture is the “change its angle” option – go into the material settings options>element attributes>materials>find your material and then duplicate it>texture>change its angle (this option is found just below the keep original proportion checkbox) 1:46:55
How to change the direction of a fill, and how to distort a fill Eric shows how to do to fills what he did to textures in the above question 1:52:37

ArchiCAD Training – Coaching Call – February 20, 2013

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