topic Re: Help for a new User in Modeling

Help for a new User

Anonymous — Tue, 23 May 2023 14:53:55 GMT

Hi, I would like to introduce myself. I have started working at a new job and they use Archicad. I have been using CAD software for about 20 years now and have just come from being the office CAD manager of an office using Revit.

I have now been using Archicad for a few months now and I am still having trouble wrapping my head around methodology as well as some features and was wondering if anyone could help me.

I really do not want this to become a Revit vs Archicad discussion as to which is better -so no hijacking my thread please.

I will be comparing to Revit because that is the software I have been using for the last 4 years.

Anyway here we go:

Plan orientation:
How do you manage different orientation of the plan on different pages. For example site plan should be oriented to true north, this would also be for sun diagrams etc. But for the floor plan quite often the plan is oriented orthangonally to a site boundary or the way the walls run.
Or if you are managing a large site with different buildings that do not run orthagonally to eachother, they would be rotated to align with the page.

Globally setting up object types:
How do you setup a object type (windows, door, slab, wall etc) so that you can globally change it. for example I am doing an office building that has some external windows with louvres. half way down the track we want to change them to be awning sash windows. In Revit you would choose the window type, redefine it and it will automatically change all the windows in the project of that type. How do I do this in Archicad - the same goes for wall types etc?

Dimensions
Can you round millimeter dimensions to the nearest 5mm? Who dimensions to a 1mm tolerance?

Can you redefine the basepoint for one dimension in a dimension string or so you have to erase the whole string and start again?

Text
Is there a quickway to edit text? Currently it is a 3 click process - pick the text, right click - "select and activate" then pick the text. Considering this is probably the most used tool it adds a lot of extra "clicks"

I have also been asked to set up Archicad in the office to some standards and will need some direction on that if possible. - Is the key to object management in setting a hundreds of "favorites" - foe example, wall existing double brick - wall proposed double brick etc?

That's all I will ask at the moment, I have these and many more questions in the future, 😃 but if any one can help me with these initial ones I would be very grateful.

- Gus

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:11:29 GMT

Gus,

Plan orientation:
Simply rotate the whole drawing in layout, Edit->Move->Rotate, or with the pet palette. The boundary will rotate also, so you will have to select the corner nodes and move them to reform the original boundary. Sounds lengthy, only takes a few seconds.
For multiple plans you can copy and paste your one rotated drawing (for example a ground floor plan) and set it up across all your floor plan layouts as required. Then right click on the ground floor drawing, select "link drawing to" and relink to the other floor plans. The plans will be pulled in rotated as the original.

Globally setting up object types:
Find and select is a powerful tool, Edit->Find&Select. Can be used with the marquee tool to select your relevant windows. With the windows selected, open the windows settings dialogue and change the window type. Same is true of object, walls etc.

Dimensions:
Can't help there I'm afraid...not sure it's possible. Surely regardless of how you dimension you should be modelling accurately? So long as you model to multiples of 5mm the dimensions will be fine? And I for one have always issued drawings with dimensions accurate to 1mm, as does everyone at the practice i'm with...

Text:
With quick selection active (magnet symbol, spacebar standard shortcut) simply double-click on the body of text and it should open the edit dialogue.

Hope these help

Simon

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:03:59 GMT

Thank you very much, very helpful, I got most of that except for the floor plan stuff.

When you say "link drawing to.." is that for hotlinks?

My thinking is that for the building there is one BIM model, and that different plans are just different view orientations, not completely different plans.

I guess all I want to do is rotate the view "layout" if you will, not the model.

The way I think you should work is that the model is always orientated to north, but working plan views are orientated orthagonally with the page.

So in fact you can view the same model with different orientations.

for example, I would set up a site plan with on a story above the roof that shows the roof of the building I am working on anthe surrounding site. This would be oriented with north straight up the page. The floor plans however would be oriented to have the walls recitilinear with the layout page.

Is this not possible? Surely if you had to copy a plan, every time you changed something you would also have to change it on the other plan?

As I said previously, this is more a methodology question than a "how to" question (although I want to know how to as well).

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:58:25 GMT

Guzilla

Normal workflow is to save views in the View Map which stores various settings required to display that view on a layout to which it is placed. For example - general Floor Plan, Electrical Plan, Reflected Ceiling Plan are all views of the same part of the model, but with different settings to display the various layers, model view options, pen sets, etc. required for output

What Simon is suggesting is that the view placed on the Layout is rotated to make the plan orthogonal to the sheet. The "Link drawing to..." suggestion refers to the different types of plan - eg. You start with a general Floor Plan on a layout, then create a new layout based on this original plan. Select the View on the Layout and "Link drawing to..." and select an Electrical Plan or Ceiling Plan or other such saved view, so the orientation and position of these new plans are the same as the original.

Hope this helps, and doesn't just confuse you further.

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:09:40 GMT

ok... so I get you can rotate the view map in the layout book. Can you work in a rotated view so the text and lines are orthangonal?. Just rotating it in the layout book, doesn't help withe the rafting procedure, where there are many different views with different orientations.

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:12:41 GMT

No, you can't rotate the view you are working on (as in the old UCS-follow I remember from AutoCAD) but you can rotate your grid - Go to View > Grid Options menu.

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:42:44 GMT

SiRowe wrote:
Dimensions:
Can't help there I'm afraid...not sure it's possible. Surely regardless of how you dimension you should be modelling accurately? So long as you model to multiples of 5mm the dimensions will be fine? And I for one have always issued drawings with dimensions accurate to 1mm, as does everyone at the practice i'm with...

Simon

I am sorry, but having used CAD for over 15 years I can't believe that one can ever build a model that exactly, espacially where existing conditions exist or you are using a surveyors drawing. The real world is not accurate to 1mm, nor is the buidling trade. Not having rounding is a bit illogical by my reckoning.

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:36:15 GMT

It's all relative.
If I'm designing/building cabinets a 1/64" might be relative.
If I'm designing/building a wall in a existing house, hell the existing house walls are almost always out something, sometimes 1/2-3/4" from top to bottom.
Now tell me a 1/16" matters here and you might get at least some solace talking to a shrink.

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:02:59 GMT

Guzilla wrote:
I am sorry, but having used CAD for over 15 years I can't believe that one can ever build a model that exactly, espacially where existing conditions exist or you are using a surveyors drawing. The real world is not accurate to 1mm, nor is the buidling trade. Not having rounding is a bit illogical by my reckoning.

Hi Guzilla,

I can tell you that when you work with metal structures every fraction of mm counts...

and besides this... a BIM software must cover lots of professional niches... Not only yours.

About rounding dimensions by 1 mm... Yes you can.. you can found this information here.

Good luck.

Re: Help for a new User

Erika Epstein — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:25:33 GMT

lec1212 wrote:
Now tell me a 1/16" matters here and you might get at least some solace talking to a shrink.

I've said this before and I will say it again. I keep the tolerances set to 1/64", the highest available in Imperial dimensions. This insures I know immediately if my model is off. A little bit here and there and the errors multiply.

If you have dimensional errors that are not seen because you set the display to 1/2" for example, then you will come also see dimension strings not adding up. I minimize this problem with software tolerances setting dimensions to 1/64" accuracy.

A work around is to have a set of views set to 1/64" to check dimensions. But that's a workaround.

Re: Help for a new User

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:18:35 GMT

[Message delayed a day or two due to forum problem...]

Guzilla wrote:
Globally setting up object types:
How do you setup a object type (windows, door, slab, wall etc) so that you can globally change it. for example I am doing an office building that has some external windows with louvres. half way down the track we want to change them to be awning sash windows. In Revit you would choose the window type, redefine it and it will automatically change all the windows in the project of that type. How do I do this in Archicad - the same goes for wall types etc?

Your title does not match your question ... your question is about switching placed windows from one type to another. To do that, view in 3D and use Find & Select to select the desired windows as Simon says, then open the Window Settings dialog, find the thumbnail image of the type of window you want to switch to and inject (syringe tool - cmd-option / ctrl-alt) into that thumbnail. For most windows, that will transfer the sizes and any material assignments, yet change the type of window.

Dimensions
an you redefine the basepoint for one dimension in a dimension string or so you have to erase the whole string and start again?

See the help. Mouse down on the dimension chain intersection. The element dimensioned will temporarily highlight. When you let go, the single point and leader will be highlighted. Press delete. To add a new point in the chain, select the chain itself (the line - not a point), then cmd-click / ctrl-click on a hotspot to be dimensioned.

Cheers,
Karl

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:11:03 GMT

Erika wrote: “If you have dimensional errors that are not seen because you set the display to 1/2" for example, then you will come also see dimension strings not adding up.”
True enough for sure.
I was not trying to imply that being accurate to a necessary level was irrelevant.

As Braza said in “work with metal structures every fraction of mm counts...”

That definitely makes tons of sense. Relative it is.

All I do is residential remodel-addition-renovations and only twice have I had to deal with a steel “moment” frame (except pre-made Hardy shear frames) so the adjusting to discovered site conditions (once const is underway) generally rules, with the exception of
critical things, like, but not limited to;
Set backs, egress, certain critical measurement needs like hall and stair widths, head clearances, “guard rail and riser heights, equip needs etc.
Unless there are specific customer requirements, the on site fact that a general room is plus or minus and inch or two usually would not matter.
Besides an existing wall being often times out ½” from top to bottom, the room your taking off from or attaching too is out of square by ¼” or more and then on top of that;
The floor height your adding to is off by ½” or more just in the say, 12’ width of that room! Now try to draw that up.
But after all this slop I speak of , just for the record, I do try to be accurate as much as is relatively reasonable when designing these renovations and try to build within a 1/16”.
So not all that bad I say.
Some will disagree.
Stay tuned, and….
Happy Trails!

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:09:57 GMT

I feel that because of CAD people think that because you are able to dimension to the nearest mm you should. How did we deal with it in the days of pen and paper?

When it is said that the rounded dimension strings will not add up - of course they won't. That is why (in my experience at least) you never have a full string of closed dimensions. If you have a wall with ins and outs, you have an overall dimension, critical sub dimensions, then a tolerance dimension - usually noted as verify on site. The builder will not be setting out to 15003mm. Building still has tolerence and the dimensioning of it should account for that.

Anyway as noted before, as this software is used for many different diciplines should it not therefore have the option of rounding?

I also apologise as I am using version 11, perhaps this has been changed in 12?

Thank you all for your very interesting input though. And thanks Karl for the tips, exactly what I was looking for!
However I looked at the find and select and sems not to have enough criterion to define the window selection. (we use cadimage windows)
For example - I have placed in the job single pane louvre windows of various dimensions. How do I choose them all, if I say want to change them to be Awning sash? Is there a way to use the eyedropper to pick up all of a windows properties then, whittle away the ones you don't want?

Sorry - if you can point me to documentation it would help. I have looked and not really found what I am looking for. Hence why I have come on the forum.

Re: Help for a new User

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:34:08 GMT

Hi Guzilla
You might consider putting a unique pen or other parameter that you have made that is specific to your favorite(s).
Then you could dial in to those specific objects with more precision I believe.
However, someone may prove me wrong.
Stay tuned.