Word Document in BIMx

[Fez1974]

Dear All,
I've been asked by a client to include the building's Operation and Maintenance Manual (a word document or pdf) in to the BIMx file. I can only see a way of importing a pdf sheet at a time and wondered if there was an quicker and easier way of doing this.
I've used archicad for 12 years but not exported many BIMx files so I'm a little bit unfamiliar with it and can't find a good tutorial on it.
Thanks in advance

[Eli Chiasson]

Placing PDF pages one by one as Drawings on a Layout or Worksheet is unfortunately the only way I have found to do this.

I agree it is tedious and it would be nice to have the drawing tool able to handle multipage PDFs the way InDesign does, for example.

[Fez1974]

Thank you Eli for taking the time to reply. Atleast I know that I'm doing it as best as one can I suppose.

I think there is something to be worked on there then for Graphisoft in terms of BIMx as it should have the capability to be a full building manual. We would like to incorporate the manufacturer's data manuals, ie Heating Controls etc. and I'm not going to load all those page at a time.

Having options to add manual hyperlinks too would be useful. ie. click on an air source heat pump and you have the option of going straight to the documentation preloaded within the BIM docs.

[Eli Chiasson]

Fez1974 wrote:
Thank you Eli for taking the time to reply. Atleast I know that I'm doing it as best as one can I suppose.

I think there is something to be worked on there then for Graphisoft in terms of BIMx as it should have the capability to be a full building manual. We would like to incorporate the manufacturer's data manuals, ie Heating Controls etc. and I'm not going to load all those page at a time.

I have created a wish for this: https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=67555
Vote for it to let Graphisoft know this would be a useful addition.

Fez1974 wrote:
Having options to add manual hyperlinks too would be useful. ie. click on an air source heat pump and you have the option of going straight to the documentation preloaded within the BIM docs.

You can link to an external URL: https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/44264/

But yes, I agree, it would be nice to be able to create links to parts of the BIMx file. You might be able to create something out of a Linked Marker that points to that sheet.

[Gyuri Nyitrai]

Fez1974 wrote:
I've been asked by a client to include the building's Operation and Maintenance Manual (a word document or pdf) in to the BIMx file.

Hi, I think it is not necessary to include manuals into you ARCHICAD projects to make it accessible in BIMx. Instead I recommend you to store these manuals anywhere on the web and link it the the related model element. Please review this Help Center article about how to create such a hyperlink:
https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/44264/

Regards,
Gyuri

[Eli Chiasson]

Hi Gyuri,

I understand where you're coming from, I think, and that is of BIMx being a tool only for the architectural side of a project. I believe that restricting it like this will be a detriment to Graphisoft as BIM and a digital workflow continue to develop.

In our office (a combined development/architecture/construction management/owner) we use BIMx through design with the owner/client but mostly as a construction administration/management tool. In this way it lacks a lot compared to the many project management tools on the market today.

Two things that would improve it significantly are:
- Easier handling of consultant drawings, shop drawings, O+M manuals and information
- Better integrated communication that ties into markup within ARCHICAD

I think that looking at from this wider perspective will keep it at the forefront of the market.


Eli

[Rex Maximilian]

If you open the PDF in Acrobat you can extract all pages into a single page each. It will append the file name with a number so they sort. Then, drag onto a large layout 8 at a time or so. If you were wanting one PDF page per letter sized layout, then unfortunately you may need to do that manually on a per page basis after all.

Fez1974 wrote:
Dear All,
I've been asked by a client to include the building's Operation and Maintenance Manual (a word document or pdf) in to the BIMx file. I can only see a way of importing a pdf sheet at a time and wondered if there was an quicker and easier way of doing this.
I've used archicad for 12 years but not exported many BIMx files so I'm a little bit unfamiliar with it and can't find a good tutorial on it.
Thanks in advance

[Richard Morrison]

You can get a large size PDF (say, 24" x 36") from a Word doc by using the 1/2 size trick detailed here: https://bobrow.com/archicad-tutorials/archicad-tutorial-using-pdf-files/

This will allow a 4 or 5 column Word doc (original at 12" x 18", which is then enlarged by 200%) so that you have 1/8 the number of individual page PDFs.