My Favorite ArchiCAD Tutorial

This is the third page in my series of free ArchiCAD Best Practices tutorials.

In the first one, I shared with you my video training series The 7 Keys to Best Practices for ArchiCAD, a 45 minute overview of the Best Practices Method. If you haven't already watched these three videos, click on the 7 KEYS navigation link above left and check them out when you get a chance. You'll learn seven key principles that will help you get the most out of ArchiCAD.

In the second installment, I showed how to take advantage of ArchiCAD's Element ID Manager to automatically number windows and doors in sequence, saving a lot of tedious work. Click the QUICK CHANGE link above to watch this 5 minute video that could save you hours.

On this page, I’m offering to you my favorite ArchiCAD tutorial (pun intended ;->), which will show you how to quickly set up and take best advantage of the Favorites palette to speed up work within a project. This is especially useful when starting a new project.

The video is only 11 minutes long, and you can learn this concept instantly and use it right away – it’s that easy.

>>> CASE STUDY - SUCCESS STORY <<<
Read how Kenneth Andrews won a design competition using Favorites and other Best Practices methods.
[Click to see this case study in an overlay window.]

Please watch this video and then TRY IT OUT and share your comments below!

When you’ve completed watching the video, here’s what I’d like you to do. Simply open up your most recent completed project, or any project that you feel is nicely done. Take a few minutes to save as a Favorite each wall type, door, window, object, slab, roof, text item, dimension, etc. that you feel is “re-usable”. Name each Favorite in a way that you’ll easily identify. Don’t fuss with it, just do it quickly to see how it works.

Then export the Favorites, create a new PLN file and pretend to start on a new project (or actually start a real one!). As you lay out the building, use the Favorites and the eye-dropper whenever you can to speed your work. I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised how much quicker things go.

Taking this small step will give you a big payback – it’s MUCH quicker to draw up a project when you have your Favorite settings saved from a previous file. This is just a taste of how much different your work process can be when you learn and employ the Best Practices for ArchiCAD.

In the overall scheme of things, this easy change may be small, but it’s my favorite step – a step in the right direction!

While it’s still fresh in your mind, please take a few minutes to try this out, then share your experiences in the Comments section below.

Eric

P.S.  This ArchiCAD tutorial video is also available on my ArchiCAD Tutorials channel on YouTube.