Archicad training in northern ireland

[Anonymous]

Hi.

At the moment i'm studying archicad on my own but without proper tutoring its going to take ages for me to start working effectively. So i am looking for some supervised training courses to attend to. Any companies in northern ireland (or northern part of republic of ireland) provide this service ?

Found some courses in Dublin, 4 day course, but its too far to travel everyday, so i need something closer.

Any ideas ?

[Steve Jepson]

Some (perhaps most) would disagree with me, however, I think you are on the right track to study on your own. You do not need "training".

It is what you learn on your own that counts.

What you are taught, you will for get before you even need to know it.

Just jump right in to with a real project. You have thousands of ArchiCAD users who would like to help you.

The things you need to know and the sequence you need to know them in are found out very well by following the natural process of design and production of the working drawings.

You can ask any question here on this forum and someone will provide many answer you will find useful.

When you finish your first project, you will be a proficient ArchiCAD user.

Now then, assuming that you are new to ArchiCAD, you must have some question about something.

What would you like to know about using ArchiCAD?

[TomWaltz]

I think Steve actually has a really good point. A big introductory course might give you a great overview, but you will probably forget most of it before you can put it to use.

I think you would be better served to work through a few tutorials, do a project, and THEN consider a class (and not a beginner one). You will have a lot of usage/application questions by then and you will start to see how to be better at what you've already figured out.

I've known a number of self-taught users over the years. Usually the things they do know they are really good at. It's the things they don't know that limit them. I find that the formal classes tend to fill in that gap of things they don't know.

[Anonymous]

Well, i'm self taught in every aspect of my work (x86 hardware, OS'es i use, AutoCad, 3DSMAX, CorelDRAW, etc...). One major advantage i see in LIVE tutoring is that i can question the hell out of my tutor during the sessions. I could learn on my own, but i just cant spare enough time for this. I have learned loads of things about AutoCAD while getting my first certificate. I have been questioning the training facility staff questions beyond the scope of my first certificate there. Call it learning opportunism if you will. Since then i always looked forward to experts who can answer MY questions, not drill me in boring mundane stuff like UI or basic concepts...

One thing that still bugs me in Archicad is snap to objects function. I'm used to end/mid/perp/int point snaps. In archicad i cant do that (i'm sure i'm missing something). It lets me to configure "snap segments", distance, etc. What i want is say snap to base point where i inserted a window. AC treats this line/curve as if there is nothing. Meaning "nea" point...

I'm sure there is workaround in this situation, i just cant be bothered to dig thru helps and docs. But in situation of a live tutor i can just ask him. And things YOU ask usually stick in your mind because solutions to problems usually get remembered pretty easily. Especially such vital functions as snap functions, that you use constantly afterwards. There is no forgetting them...

If i had enough money to just hire an AC expert to sit thru one project with me i'd do just that... But they don't come cheap, so i'll have to resort to question asking in 3-5 days...

[Steve Jepson]

you asked about snap points

On the Control Box there is an arrow. Click on that and it will open the Snap Points Menu.

Need to know where the Control Box is? At the top of your screen click on the Window menu tab. Then Pallets, then Control box.

This will let you set the snap points on many things like walls, lines, splines, etc...

For Objects like doors and windows you can turn on all hot spots which sill give you more choices about how to dimension them.

From the object Preview window you can click on any of the hot spots shown and designate which point the object will snap to when placed.


There are at least 5 kinds of snap points.

The kind you may want on something like a wall or line.

The kind that designate which point on the object will snap on placement.

Hot spots on an object that you could dimension too.

Grid snaps, and auxiliary grid snaps.