Choosing a Building to Model

[Anonymous]

As part of my ArchiCAD course we've been set a 2 month project of creating a model of a building of our choosing. I was thinking of doing a local church which is in a gothic style, but thought your guys might have better ideas to impress my ArchiCAD tutor with so the floor is now open to your suggestions....please

[Dwight]

The local church: do you have the drawings?

A gothic structure is great in Archicad because there will be many modeling challenges: the windows, the buttresses and ceiling ribs. This will impress your tutor but bring you dangerously close to catastrophic Ragnarök. [ie: preposterously difficult]

What level of skill is this exercise intended for? How good do you want to get? You could play it safe and do the Barcelona Pavilion, a full sized model of which can be had from 3D warehouse. Lacking drawings, you could measure this model.

Another modeling and perhaps GDL challenge would be the Gherkin - you'd need very accurate information - exceeding that found at 3D Warehouse. Colleague Angus Lee has had a run at it with the Curtain Wall Tool without great success.

[Anonymous]

I don't have the drawings yet, however I've spoken to the Vicar and he thinks the Church Architect will have a set of drawings, which is why I chose the Church I also realised the would be a significant amount of difficulty involved with this model and why I would like to attempt it.

What level of skill is this exercise intended for? How good do you want to get?

I think our tutor has given us such an open ended brief to allow us to tailor the project to our own level. I have been getting to grips with ArchiCAD for the past 3 months and am growing in confidence with it's modelling capabilities, and so for as how good would I like to get, I'd like to be an ArchiCAD Jedi I really enjoy the modelling aspect after coming from a 8 year background in AutoCAD!

Yes I've seen Angus Lee's Curtain Wall Tool and think that it typifies using ArchiCAD, you need to think outside the norm to get a lot of things done!

Out of interest my Tutor recommended Zoom GDL, is it still available and do they do a student version? If not what is the best Object Modelling program?

Thanks for your help and interest,
Richard

[Dwight]

i think that Zoom is "boom."

The SEO and Complex profile can do some pretty good things.

OBJECTIVE is king.

ArchiForma, the Knave.

And an afternoon spent with the GDL Cookbook: marvelous.

http://www.archicad.ca/?p=84#more-84

[Erika Epstein]

Hi Richard,
The church should be a good choice. As Dwight notes, there are some good challenges there, but Archicad should be up to it. If not, we'll send Dwight over

Buildings like this have many repetitive elements and sets of elements. Start by defining these.

Do you have screen shot of your building?

What is the end product that your Instructor wants?

[Anonymous]

I only have this dodgy photo to hand, but the church is about 1.5 miles down the road so visiting is no problem

The end product is to create a fly thru and 2 A2 presentation boards showing views of our model.

[Anonymous]

Oops, difficult task!
You will have to simplify some of the geometry! Especially the tower!
Do you have to model the graveyard stones too?

[Dwight]

I wouldn't be concerned about the geometry if i made the measurements.

If you don't have good information, you CAN'T do a good job.

Is this a modeling or a measurement assignment?

"Dodgy" indeed!!! Without the data, stay away.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Very ambitious are you. If it were me, I'd select a project which lends itself a little better to the 'out of the box' functionality of ArchiCAD. Not that what you're looking at can't be done, I'd just hate to attempt it without the benefit of some modeling add-ons.

At university, I had a professor that ran a course in watercolor renderings as part of our studio. We selected images from the works of Masters, traced them and painted the images in watercolor. I think the same methodology would apply well to your task. Select a building from a Master ie Corbu, FLW, Meis, Kahn etc.... Modeling it will give you a deeper understanding of ArchiCAD and insight into the work of the Architect. Also, selecting a building which is more relevant to modern construction technology might be an experience more applicable to your future work.