Recommendation for template tutorial

[Puddletroll]

Hi everyone,

having lost all of my work due to the catastrophic failure of my back up hard drive, I no longer have any of my templates that were provided to me when contracted to a particular, now defunct, business …we are going back a few years here…

I am hoping for some assistance or guidance please.

I am using v20 along with the associated 4D library, and was hoping someone could recommend a good tutorial on creating templates from scratch, suitable for residential projects. I have never had to create my own 😏

thank you!

[Barry Kelly · Accepted solution]

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@Puddletroll wrote:

and was hoping someone could recommend a good tutorial on creating templates from scratch, suitable for residential projects. I have never had to create my own

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That would be an impossible question for us to answer.

It really depends on what you need in the template yourself.

Everyone will have a different answer.

What layers do you want, including layer combinations?

What wall, slab, roof types do you want to set up as composites?

Pen sets.

Building materials and surface materials.

Default layout pages and master layouts.

Do you need Graphic Overrides and Renovatiojn filters?

The list goes on and on.

I would start with the default template and make adjustments to that.

I would try not to change pen colours, line types, fills, building materials and surface materials too much as the default library objects will be set to use those.

By all means add new ones, but try not to change the existing too much.

If you have any projects you have already done and are happy with those, then just delete the 3D model and annotation and you have your basic template ready to go already.

Barry.

[Laszlo Nagy · Accepted solution]

The best would be to get some education about template creation.

It is a big topic. Unfortunately, the GS Learn Portal does not have a dedicated Archicad Template Creation course. It is part of the BIM Manager Program, but that course covers a lot more than Templates. The Learn Portal offers Template Update Workflow Guides (€19 per piece) for the last several versions. Those may also contain some useful info, although they concentrate specifically on the Template considerations of new features in a given version.

You could search for videos on YouTube if you search for "Archicad template creation", I have seen a few that could be useful.

[Puddletroll]

Thanks Barry, the main issue i have which has had a flow on effect is the loss of all of my data. So I have no previous pln files to reference. I have managed to obtain pdf’s from some previous clients which will help to some degree, and a previous colleague has been kind enough to sent an earlier version of the template I had previously used…so I am on my way to achieving the desired outcome!

ps. We used to work together many years ago! You would have known me as Helen Button, then Murphy then Hall! 

[Puddletroll]

Thank you for your reply,I definitely need to get onto YouTube to brush up on my skills!

[Nathan Hildebrandt · Accepted solution]

Here are several presentations that have come from my ARCHINTENSIVE events over the last few years that might be of assistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KScL6WstI9k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN6bzLqBU9M 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2osRblV3-zg 

Cheers Nathan

[Puddletroll]

Thanks Nathan, I actually have couple of these bookmarked & up next on my to do list 🤗

[mthd]

Is your old hard drive salvageable ? If it was possible to remove it from your old computer you could connect it to your new computer. I have done that with an old PC that died. I just got a connection kit off eBay and connected the old HD to my newer PC and it worked a treat.

BTW in some instances you can even buy an old spec gaming PC that are mostly new. You can use them for old files and programs that will not work on the newer PC’s.

I can’t do it with AC because my old dongle was decommissioned when they upgraded me to a new one. I think you can go back as far as AC13 with old files but not sure how far back you can go with AC20 ?

[Puddletroll]

Hi Ace,

unfortunately not as it was a portable hard drive that was dropped whilst in use and it physically damaged the internal structure rendering it cactus...I have ArchiCAD 20 running on an old Mac mini with MacOS Mojave (10.14.6) & it is working a treat. I have my MacBook running Sonoma 14.3 for everything else I need to do.

thanks for the suggestions though!

[mthd]

Hi, I am no ace that’s just what the system shows, it all accrues with how much we use this site. Not good that your HD was dropped, have you heard of people getting the disk out of the drive and even after fires ? Some IT professionals can get the disk working in a new drive but that may not work if the disk is shattered at the segment where the information was stored. I like to salvage things if it all possible even when doing renovations I will try and salvage old materials where possible.

All good !