Different Level Problem

[Anonymous]

When I measure the plan at different floor heights, it measures as if it were at the same level. The interesting thing is there's nothing on the lower floor. Including the stairs. But there's actually a difference.

[Barry Kelly]

zsvnc wrote:
So how can we add a level dimension on stairs landing?

You can't unless you model the landing with a slab.

You can place a level dimension and then edit the text so that it is 'Custom' text rather than 'Measured Value'.

Barry.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I guess the developers did not have the time to develop this functionality as well for ARCHICAD 21. Hopefully they will keep adding features and Level Dimensioning will work on Stairs as well in the future.

[Anonymous]

Barry wrote:

zsvnc wrote:
So how can we add a level dimension on stairs landing?

You can't unless you model the landing with a slab.

You can place a level dimension and then edit the text so that it is 'Custom' text rather than 'Measured Value'.

Barry.

I just started learning Arhicad. But these things break my motivation. I just want to build the architectural project faster than AutoCAD. How can you not have such simple features? Another point is, there are no books about Archicad. Isn't that a little unreasonable? is Revit more useful to draw architectural projects? What do you think?

[Barry Kelly]

zsvnc wrote:
I just started learning Arhicad. But these things break my motivation. I just want to build the architectural project faster than AutoCAD. How can you not have such simple features? Another point is, there are no books about Archicad. Isn't that a little unreasonable? is Revit more useful to draw architectural projects? What do you think?

It becomes hard when you start comparing one program to another.
They all work a little differently and all have features that are better and worse than other programs.
For 3D modelling and documentation I have only ever used Archicad - so it would be unfair of me to try and comment about other programs and which is better.

It also depends on what you are trying to output.
Personally I have never had the need to put a spot level on a stair landing, but maybe that is because I am only involved in residential work.

There are plenty of tutorials and how to guides and movies out there.
Some by Graphisoft and others by individuals who just share the information.
Much of it will not be specific to what you are actually trying to produce so will be generic in content and may not show every method for doing what you want.
Some individuals have businesses offering training which can be tailored to your specific needs but of course you will need to stump up a little money to get that kind of help.

Archicad is a pretty steep learning curve - more so now that is has so many new features compared to when I stated some 20 years ago.
The best way to learn if you can is to sit down with someone else who knows it well.

Barry.

[Erwin Edel]

If you can take a training course, I can really recommend that.

The people we've had join our company (even interns) were sent off to do the basic 3 day course and are so much more productive than sitting side by side with someone here. I should mention our reseller offers the course for free to interns though, but still it is a great way to get at least the basic skills to start modelling in ArchiCAD. At that point the veteran users can share knowledge about tricky modelling or in depth tips, instead of explaining how to dimension walls or something like that.

Personally I was thrown in at the deep end and it took me a year or more to get a feeling of real productiveness and this was with ArchiCAD9, with all the features these days I would imagine it is only worse.

If you are completely new to ArchiCAD as a whole, the youtube tutorials (I think there are 3 or 4 series) are a good start to get familiar with ArchiCAD, though some of them are already on older versions (last time I checked), so you run in to differences in the user interface on the newer version v.s. the one shown in the youtube video.

[Laszlo Nagy]

zsvnc wrote:
I just started learning Archicad. But these things break my motivation. I just want to build the architectural project faster than AutoCAD. How can you not have such simple features? Another point is, there are no books about Archicad. Isn't that a little unreasonable? is Revit more useful to draw architectural projects? What do you think?

Do not get discouraged by the difficulty of learning a new BIM application.
I remember when I first started using ARCHICAD I really did not like it. I used AutoCAD before that. After a while I realized that the reason for disliking it was that it was SO MUCH different from my previous CAD system, AutoCAD and I didn't like that fact that in many cases I had to start from scratch in relearning all the concepts of this new application. But when I started to get the hang of it I started to realize how much more productive it is and how much more potential it has.

This is the ARCHICAD Training Series Erwin is talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Archicad/playlists?shelf_id=17&view=50&sort=dd

[Anonymous]

Everyone around me using AutoCAD. I constantly work with Archicad and want to learn this program. But it's really hard to switch from AutoCAD, especially. I wish I'd learned when I was a student. Thank you all very much. You've been very helpful to me. I am preparing an application project in Turkish standards. The laws and regulations are different here. I think Archicad is more of a European standard. So I'm making progress very slowly and this situation is annoying. Revit's been very confusing with me interface. But wherever I look, there's a source of Revit. I wish there were more written or visual resources related to Archicad. The Archicad videos on Youtube are so messy.