topic Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad? in Modeling

"Ortho" function in Archicad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:37:00 GMT

Hi everyone,
I've been working in Archicad (12, 13, 14) for the last 2-3 years after a 10+ years of Autocad.

I have to say, the feature I miss the most from Autocad it the "F8" function to switch on/off the ortho mode.

Is there anything like that in Archicad? Have I missed something so basic in the last few years?

Thanks!

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

TMA_80 — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:41:46 GMT

The shift command is the only way I know.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:52:49 GMT

Yeah... I was hoping for something that I could just swithc on and off, like the groups.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Dwight — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:49:22 GMT

I am almost certain that you can master this simple Archicad aspect. It is very natural unless your mind is terminally corrupted by archaic Autocad methods.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:34:45 GMT

But the left hand usually serves the purpose of supporting the head, so having to click on the shift now and then is very disruptive.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:43:45 GMT

I don't think my mind is that great in general, but do I really have to use two hands to keep it orthogonal?

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:21:08 GMT

You can activate the guidelines (Q).

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:48:41 GMT

there's really nothing similar to the "Ortho On/Off" option?

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Dwight — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:59:50 GMT

Well, if you are using Archicad correctly, it is already drawing most elements - roofs, walls, slabs, polylines, fills, etc, orthographically. Consider building your 'drawings' with these things instead of mere lines.

Also as colleague Krippahl indicates, turning on guidelines acts as an on-the-fly constraint for any number of references and orthographic controls.

These tools are adequate for anyone willing to consider alternatives to what they expect to draft.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Dwight — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:02:19 GMT

And another thing:

I sympathise because it took me some time to accomodate the idea that detailing with linework was silly. Using elements with 'thickness' and 'sides' like poylines and fills really speed up details since, even though 2D, the elements are faster to edit than linework.

Enrico - try it our way.....

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:29:21 GMT

Dwight and Miguel,
thank you very much for taking care of my case.

My drawings are already made up by 3d elements only (no lines, just some fills here and there to show particular things like site perviousness and such). I'm working on 3d BIM models, if that's what you're telling me to do. That was my main goal for switching from Autocad to Archicad (and from the 20th to the 21st century, if you ask me).

It just happens sometimes that some error may occur in creating/editing those 3d elements (walls, slabs etc.), so that alignments go lost, angles are not totally precise... I guess it's more a snapping issue than an "ortho system", really.

One more thing I miss from working in Autocad are the snaps. I guess I still have to learn how to use Archicad ones at best.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:32:50 GMT

I don't know what Ortho mode exactly is, but you can press ALT+X to lock the X coordinate, or ALT+Y to lock the Y coordinate.
Do the same command again to unlock it.

Re: "Ortho" funciton in Archiad?

NCornia — Fri, 13 May 2011 22:10:36 GMT

Swift, deft and deadly. Laszlo, you are an ArchiCAD ninja.

Re: "Ortho" function in Archicad?

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:28:37 GMT

Thanks.