BIM: myth or reality?

[Anonymous]

Four years ago, I worked at a firm which used Archicad. I liked the program but I basically used it as a 2D drafting tool. Nobody at the firm actually generated sections or elevations or details from the 3D model. At best, we'd use section cuts as an underlay to get the width (and to a lesser extent, the height) of the building right. The section cuts and elevations drawn from the model were not nearly presentation quality and even if we had invested a huge amount of time making the 3D model perfect which wasn't always practical, there would still be the issue of lineweights.

What I would like to know is if anyone here feels they are truly using archicad as a BIM program. Does anyone actually update something in plan and automatically have their elevations, section, details, schedules update?

I've used Autocad for the last 4 years and I plan to go back to Archicad regardless of whether I can realistically expect to use at as a BIM program. I like Archicad more than autocad because I feel it's easier to produce 3D renderings and I like how you can draw "walls" as opposed to drawing 2 parallel lines and then trimming the intersections. I feel like Archicad is making a strong effort to allow it's users to have linked drawings but I'm skeptical about whether we are actually there yet.

I hope I'm wrong- maybe my previous firm was a little backwards in it's methods or maybe a lot has changed in the last 4 years. I'm very curious to hear, for example, if people hear actually pull presentable elevations off the 3D model or if they draft them the old fashioned way? or maybe some sort of hybrid?
thanks!

[Ben Cohen]

bruceprice wrote:
maybe my previous firm was a little backwards

hello! YES

[Anonymous]

I have been using the model to generate the finished drawings (through CD phase) for many years. So have my more successful clients.

[gpowless]

I'm one of those who model right down to the Nth degree. I have found that it is a much more reliable way to go when changes are being made during construction. When it is time to submit as-builts drawings, it is just one click away.

I'm stil looking for ways to improve my 3D modelling technique and hope some day that MEP will be a matter of fact. Currently I produce HVAC drawings that are two line because the 3D modelling capability for MEP are still weak in ArchiCad. I'm expecting that GraphiSoft will get this part right before I have to make the switch to Revit.

[Rakela Raul]

years back i used to think as archicad as a quick soft to produce a rendering and sell my projects.....now that i know a little bit better archicad, i see it as a software to produce the construction documents as its forte.
http://www.digitalvis.com/working_drawings_gallery.php

[TomWaltz]

To me, there's nothing like being able to make massive edits in the 3D window using Find & Select.... I just hate having to go back and move/change all the text that relates to the 3D....

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for responding. So it sounds like most of you are getting the most out of Archicad.
After I get my new copy of Archicad, I'll be using it primarily for wood frame residential construction. I'm guessing that a few of you probably do this sort of work also. If any of you have a moment, I'd REALLY appreciate if you could answer this series of questions in order to help me understand how the process of pulling drawings from a 3D model works:

If you do a section cut, can you automatically generate wall plates (and other standard wood frame structural details) by specifying 'wood frame' with the wall tool? Or do you have to add these manually every time you draw a wall? And do you do this by 3D modeling the wall plates? Or by 2D drafting them on to the section cut? And if you were to 2D draft lines onto the section cut, can the lines easily be linked to a 3D object so that if the 3D object were moved, the associated lines would automatically move with it? Can you automatically generate labels (i.e. you draw a (customized) wall with the wall tool and then open up the section and it already has cedar shingles, 1/2" plywood, & 2x6 @16" o.c. labeled?)

Finally, regarding lineweights, can the same object have 2 different line weights depending on the context of it's edge? For example. can a cornerboard be automatically programed to have a heavy line at the outer edge of a building and a much lighter line on it's inner edge, adjacent to the clapboard siding?

thanks so much!

[Dwight]

Right. Most of us DO use it to its fullest.

But what about the three guys who are just drafting with it?
What's with that?…

Yikes!!!!!

[Djordje]

Ben wrote:

bruceprice wrote:
maybe my previous firm was a little backwards

hello! YES

This is putting it mildly ... 😉

[stefan]

bruceprice wrote:
Thanks everyone for responding. So it sounds like most of you are getting the most out of Archicad.
After I get my new copy of Archicad, I'll be using it primarily for wood frame residential construction. I'm guessing that a few of you probably do this sort of work also. If any of you have a moment, I'd REALLY appreciate if you could answer this series of questions in order to help me understand how the process of pulling drawings from a 3D model works:

If you do a section cut, can you automatically generate wall plates (and other standard wood frame structural details) by specifying 'wood frame' with the wall tool? Or do you have to add these manually every time you draw a wall? And do you do this by 3D modeling the wall plates? Or by 2D drafting them on to the section cut? And if you were to 2D draft lines onto the section cut, can the lines easily be linked to a 3D object so that if the 3D object were moved, the associated lines would automatically move with it? Can you automatically generate labels (i.e. you draw a (customized) wall with the wall tool and then open up the section and it already has cedar shingles, 1/2" plywood, & 2x6 @16" o.c. labeled?)

Finally, regarding lineweights, can the same object have 2 different line weights depending on the context of it's edge? For example. can a cornerboard be automatically programed to have a heavy line at the outer edge of a building and a much lighter line on it's inner edge, adjacent to the clapboard siding?

thanks so much!

I strongly suggest you to contact some local reseller or ArchiCAD-based firm, since you ask about a very typical workflow, which seems not that obvious at first sight.

Yes, I strongly suggest to do this completely the BIM-way, but you might have some main office-workflow-setup before you to automatically generate this quite detailled output.

I assume that it would require some additional add-on (do they exist for full wood-framing details?) and at least a set of dedicated library objects for automation.