Developing a Firms Image

[Anonymous]

I have been assigned the task of developing/strengthing our firms image through the use of our C.D.'s. Being quite new to ArchiCAD I am feeling overwhelmed with all the possibilities!! Applying sun shadows is the extent of my knowledge on this topic yet I know that ARchiCAD is capable of great graphic presentation for CD's. Is anyone willing to send/post some examples of sections, details, or elevations that go beyond just typical line work so I can get an idea of what ArchiCAD can do in this area.

[TomWaltz]

slw wrote:
I have been assigned the task of developing/strengthing our firms image through the use of our C.D.'s. Being quite new to ArchiCAD I am feeling overwhelmed with all the possibilities!! Applying sun shadows is the extent of my knowledge on this topic yet I know that ARchiCAD is capable of great graphic presentation for CD's. Is anyone willing to send/post some examples of sections, details, or elevations that go beyond just typical line work so I can get an idea of what ArchiCAD can do in this area.

I'm a little confused here... what is it that you're trying to do here? You're trying to improve your firm's image by making better looking construction documents?

[Anonymous]

Yes, for a couple of reasons. We are currently one of the very few firms in our city that use ArchiCAD. We catch a lot of slack from consultants for not going with the flow, (sticking with AutoCAD) so we want our AC CD's to really stand out and have that wow factor where AutoCAD can't. Plus, why not use CD's to support/enhance our firms image and style of architecture which for us is a lot of glass and steel.

[TomWaltz]

slw wrote:
Yes, for a couple of reasons. We are currently one of the very few firms in our city that use ArchiCAD. We catch a lot of slack from consultants for not going with the flow, (sticking with AutoCAD) so we want our AC CD's to really stand out and have that wow factor where AutoCAD can't. Plus, why not use CD's to support/enhance our firms image and style of architecture which for us is a lot of glass and steel.

I'm all for better looking CDs. Assuming they are already accurate, complete, and following normal drafting conventions, I don't think it's an area to try to impress someone. I think it's like Target trying to improve its image by buying nicer trucks, but I'll play along

Who are you trying to impress, consultants? Contractors? Potential clients? Out of the people you most want to impress, who actually sees the CDs?

What about the CDs you are making don't you like? Do you already have line types, line weights, and fill types figured out? Are you capable of meeting your company's graphic standards already? What is the "wow" factor you want? A rendering on the cover sheet? Or a nice iPod Touch slickness on color-print mylar?

The type of thing that impresses people most about a set of CDs is their accuracy, organization, and completeness, and it's really nice if you can produce them quickly and cheaply without sacrificing their quality. Those have a lot more to do with the person sitting at the computer than any software.

[Anonymous]

I agree with all of this particularly the accuracy part. Impress is aour goal in that we want to have an incredibly clear, concise and succint set of CD's. I agree with you it is all about legibility and flow of the set. For example, an isometric detail in AutoCAD takes much more time then what I am understanding it takes in ARchiCAD and the iso detail tells a much clearer story of the portion of building that is being detailed. THese are the clarifying capabilities of ArchiCAD that I am after. I just don't know of any of them at this point and was going off the idea that a picture speaks a thousand words therefore a good place to start. Maybe my question could be worded differently or better??? My understanding about ArchiCAD is that you can incorporate some particular settings into your template that will allow you to generate these types of strong graphic presentations for CD's. I definitely don't want to spend extra time on any part of it outside of a view moments setting up the office template so that these drawings will be generated with each set of CD's. Thanks for playing along:)

[TomWaltz]

slw wrote:
I just don't know of any of them at this point and was going off the idea that a picture speaks a thousand words therefore a good place to start. Maybe my question could be worded differently or better??? My understanding about ArchiCAD is that you can incorporate some particular settings into your template that will allow you to generate these types of strong graphic presentations for CD's.

I think that might be the problem. Your original post doesn't really tell us where you are now, so it's really hard to help you get to the next level.

[Anonymous]

At this point we have a strong template. Pen sets for various needs and scales, layer combos, pre-established views, a pre-established layout book with pre-populated drawings on each page, publishing sets are created, composites are created, favorites are established. I could keep going but maybe this is enough to illustrate that we have a solid foundation to build on??

[TomWaltz]

It sounds like a solid start. What things don't you like about your CDs now or what do you want to make better?

[Anonymous]

The more elaborate things we would like to do involve utilizing AC's 3D components for the documenting process. Isometrics with labels, I am at a loss for the technical term but basically a 1pt perspective and a section combined, Elevations that appear to have more depth to them then just the 3 basic lineweight variations that AC offers with the elevation tool, (the foreground, middle ground & background). There are others but I feel confident that once I am comfortable with these processes the other things will fall into place.

[Anonymous]

slw wrote:
The more elaborate things we would like to do involve utilizing AC's 3D components for the documenting process. Isometrics with labels, I am at a loss for the technical term but basically a 1pt perspective and a section combined, Elevations that appear to have more depth to them then just the 3 basic lineweight variations that AC offers with the elevation tool, (the foreground, middle ground & background). There are others but I feel confident that once I am comfortable with these processes the other things will fall into place.

There are THREE?!!

Where is middle ground, how do I get to that?
I know only how to make two different distances- through mark distant area- please do share where i find the option for foreground, background, and middle ground?