BIM details.. what a pain in the ass

[Anonymous]

I am attempting to completely model a house, I want to stay away from exploding and drawing in 2D, because I'm fed up with BIM not living upto expectations. I had an issue this weekend which made me realise that BIM still has a long way to come, unless I'm missing A LOT. sure, it's great that you can show someone in a sales pitch how quickly you can draw four walls, a hip roof, throw a window and door in there and render it.. WOW, I'm sold (but I'm not so much anymore) There are so many details that seem to be such an arduous task to complete but yet would be considered essential to what a true BIM model should be. I am by no means an expert in ArchiCAd, so I'm hoping to be won back with your replies to this post.

In my ranting state I'm sure that much of what I've said doesnt make sense, so let me put an example to it. I put a window in a wall, a very simple single hung casement window out of the andersen window library, and I want to put a brick row-lock under the window.. how do you do it? sure I could draw a little piece of wall there and make it look like a row-lock, but in my opinion that's not the point of BIM, the row-lock is part of the wall, thus it should be modeled as such. I get so sick of work-arounds, and "well this LOOKS right", and I'm sure theres accesories and add-ons I could BUY to do this, but in my opinion that's a bunch of bull5hit I should NOT have to pay thousands of dollars for an architectural modeling programme, and then run out and pay another 5000 dollars for 12 different add-ons to be able to make proper stairs, decent windows, wall cladding, doors, skylights, landscaping.. ArchiCAd should bloody well do these things out of the box, I know this has been said so many times, and it's so frustrating to me to see that nothing is being done about the problem wether in ArchiCAd Revit, whatever.. I know that I'll end up staying with ArchiCAD, but AC10 better damn well be a stunning piece of software.. or I'm just gonna lose it.

Maybe I'm way off base and theres a bunch of simplet things that I'm over looking that are causing me to have problems like this, but It just seems to be so incredibly ineffecient to completely model a house, when BIM is supposed to make everything so much more efficient, theres times when I hoenstly feel like I could hand draught a house faster than someone coulde model it in a BIM programme. (I'd also like everyone to know that ,with the exceptions of the add-on rant, I think all the BIM programmes out there are equally lacking in this area of modelling, not just AC)

someone help me.....
convince me that BIM isn't a clusterfsck of endless work-arounds and addons, to make things "look" correct, rather than be correct.. which is the entire point of BIM...

cheers,
Daniel

PS. It's monday and I haven't had a fag today, sorry if that all came out a little harsh.

PSS... apparently f.ag is censored.. I haven't had a cigarette today.

[Anonymous]

Where can i get the SE 9 Library?

[Aaron Bourgoin]

tr.graphisoftus.com

[Anonymous]

Daniel,
For the problem of the row-lock, you could use a roof or roofs
to make the row-lock and subtract with SEO from the sill of
the wall opening.

I've been thinking about your statements about BIM and AC
and have a few thoughts.

When you say, "the row-lock is part of the wall,
thus it should be modeled as such", several things occur to me.

No program is psychic and therefor it has to be told what to do.
In this context then, the program would need to know brick detailing
and have a control to enable those details. Maybe your right, but
AC does not have this, so far, so you need a work-around.

I don't think that any program can have all things for all people
so a good program has to use a different approach.
AC uses the approach of allowing the user to use work-arounds.
Work-arounds aren't bad but are part of allowing the user to
have as much freedom and power as possible.

I agree with Z.Bauer and Tom Waltz that add-ons often don't work
for what you think they are intended to do and, as you point out,
they can be expensive. Therefor, it's back to Archicad and finding
ways to get what you want within the the program.

This leads to something I have always thought and makes me really
appreciate Archicad and that is Archicad has GDL .
With GDL one can get around all sorts of shortcomings in the program.
In the context of the row-lock, since AC does not have brick details
stored in it and you need to model brick details, make your own
with GDL.

Some say, I am a designer not a programer I should not have to
learn GDL. My answer is, no program is perfect, no program has
all things for all people all the time, so a program that gives you
the power to make what you need yourself is a superior program.

This, essentially, is my answer to your statement,
"someone help me.....
convince me that BIM isn't a clusterfsck of endless work-arounds and addons, to make things "look" correct, rather than be correct.. which is the entire point of BIM... "

I think that GDL is an important part of Archicad and people who want
to get the most out of AC should use it.

Thank you,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Peter,

I appreciate your response (and everyone's for that matter) I don't know if it's the fact that I'm home now, away from the stresses of the office, or if I've just had time to cool down, but I'm starting to see what you mean about work-arounds. For whatever reason, I've never really taken to learning GDL which is od because I'm a fairly good programmer when it comes to C++, perl, VB, and java... so GDL should really be something that I use on a regular basis.. I think I'll take some time this week to learn the finer points of GDL, and I'm hoping that it will allow me to see the brighter side of BIM.

once again I'd just like to say that I appreciate all the feedback, and enlightenment.

cheers,
Daniel

PS: where should I look to, to find a decent GDL guide? (other than PMing Peter / Zohrab / Tom / Fmr / etc, every 20 minutes)?

[Anonymous]

Daniel wrote:
PS: where should I look to, to find a decent GDL guide? (other than PMing Peter / Zohrab / Tom / Fmr / etc, every 20 minutes)?

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=9439

irony? conincidence? luck?

[Anonymous]

Daniel,
Thanks for the kind response.
The GDL Cookbook by David Nicholson-Cole
is by far the best help in learning
GDL because the manual is a bit terse.
That the book is out of print is terrible.
I bought The GDL Cookbook 3 and have the CD that accompanies
the hard copy. I would like to send you the CD but of course I can't
for obvious and respectable reasons.
I wonder if you could ask David Nicholson-Cole (a forum member) if
there is any way you could get the CD either from him or some
other source and get him properly compensated.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Peter,

I'll take your advice, and send David a PM regarding a CD request. Thanks for the information.

cheers,
Daniel

[Anonymous]

Daniel,
Check out this thread. Maybe Dwight has another copy.
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=9439
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

I'm going to contact David Pacifico tomorrow morning and see if he has a copy laying around somewhere that I could purchase or possibly borrow from him, if that doesnt pan out then I'll get in touch with Dwight. Thanks again

cheers,
Daniel Streby

[Anonymous]

Daniel,
Just on a lark I typed in "gdl cookbook" on google
and found that the yahoo store sells both "The GDL Cookbook II"
and "The GDL Cookbook III" .
Check out this URL
http://www.architecturalcadd.com/books4.html
Peter Devlin