What is best?

[Anonymous]

I'm assuming most people have asked this in the past but i'll ask again.. i'm getting confused with what is the best way to go when starting a drawing? Is it best to start with the floor slab>pavement slab>then the walls or is it best to create the walls by drawing a set of straight walls and then adding the slab? also i'm finding it difficult to dimension things. Is the best practice to draw ao an approximation and then trim/extend to get the dims exactly right? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Dwight]

Draw walls first since slabs can be MAGIC WANDed to conform later. Less drafting, more automation.

If you know the size of what you want to draw, take the time to accurately place it the first time. Slow and steady wins the Archicad race. Study the training manual to understand alternative methods of entering elements to efficiently constrain their angles and lengths. Do you know anyone who can demonstrate? It is a craft thing you need to develop.

Why are you having dimension problems? What is going wrong?

[Richard Morrison]

Dwight wrote:
Draw walls first since slabs can be MAGIC WANDed to conform later. Less drafting, more automation.

I have heard just the opposite from a trainer. Draw the slab and then "magic wand" the walls to the slab. Not sure I have an opinion on which is best, though.

[Dwight]

I guess the point is: don't draw both -- use the MAGIC WAND.

I do walls first because it is more architectural.
For me, walls define space while slabs can be afterthoughts.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the replies.
The problem with the dimensions is that i cannot (well i dont think i can!) key in coordinates of walls i.e. length, height accurately; and whilst drawing the mouse isnt sensitive enough to achieve the exact dimension (e.g. length of wall) of an element. So the result is that most things i have drawn so far are either longer than what i want or shorter. Ideally i'd like to say the wall is 4.35m long by 3.500m high and ArchiCad would draw it. Hope that explains my problem..
Cheers

[Dwight]

You might like to return to the tyranny of command lines?
A fellow could be sure of what he was doing, then.

But with a question like yours, it is hard not to suggest that you really need to study Archicad craft basics. Using the HELP menu leads you to many resources that will help you constrain elements to specific directions and distances, use guidelines and other tricks to control the freeform drawing into rational built form.

Look for: Interactive guides and the training guide.

For instance, with the wall tool active, enter "x 10" and get a horizontal element 10 units long. This is really simple to show but hard to describe.

[Link]

Richard wrote:

Dwight wrote:
Draw walls first since slabs can be MAGIC WANDed to conform later. Less drafting, more automation.

I have heard just the opposite from a trainer. Draw the slab and then "magic wand" the walls to the slab. Not sure I have an opinion on which is best, though.

That's curious. Did the trainer have a specific reason for this?

I think walls first was the best way to go. Not only is it more typical to lay walls out first, but the direction in which the slab was modeled has a direct effect on the direction of the walls magic wanded onto it. Plus you can choose to magic wand to the outside or inside edge of the walls.

As for the original question, I would avoid estimating whenever possible. Use the tracker or coordinate box to get the measurements perfect the first time.

Cheers,
Link.

[Richard Morrison]

Link wrote:
That's curious. Did the trainer have a specific reason for this?

I think walls first was the best way to go.

I don't know. I'm guessing that the trainer worked with firms that typically did a pretty "blobby" schematic design to start with, and might well progress from fills or zones that showed the areas, then magic-wanding slabs onto the terrain, and then magic-wanding the walls onto the slabs, which would set the wall base elevations automatically.

Also could be that it was just more impressive to see the walls "magically" appear on the slabs than the reverse.

[__archiben]

i would be wary of anyone telling you to do it one way or another. there is always more than one way of skinning a cat in archicad . . . no one way is always better than another for a certain set of circumstances. it depends on how you're designing (or surveying) and what kind of constraints that you are imposing on yourself.

bottom line: start wherever you want and wherever feels comfortable. but get some basic training first, eh?!

~/archiben

[Dwight]

While the merits of slabs first versus walls first can be debated, we will all agree that a plain idiotic way is to draw it all with lines first like some guys might do.

That would be wrong.

[__archiben]

Dwight wrote:
While the merits of slabs first versus walls first can be debated, we will all agree that a plain idiotic way is to draw it all with lines first like some guys might do.

i do that too. two lines and a hatching pattern. it's a bugger when we change the material . . .

[Dwight]

Who knows from symbols?

Just have the drafter change the note on the elevation.

[__archiben]

Dwight wrote:
Just have the drafter change the note on the elevation.

i wish i'd thought of that.