How do YOU use Archicad ??

[Anonymous]

I would like to know how everyone here uses Archicad

The way you are 'meant' and trained to use Archicad according to Graphisoft is to do a reasonable 3d model using composites etc, project elevations and sections, and then rely mainly on patches and 2d lines to create the 1:20 sections and details. Who does this?

I've heard of firms adding nearly all of their construction detail to the 3d model itself creating much of the information that will end up in the details and sections automatically. This must be a good way to get accurate cost schedules from Archicad I would guess. But this must be really time consuming. Who does this way? Doesnt it make the model really slow and difficult to read? I suppose your layering conventions have to be spot on for this.

Does anyone create an Archicad 3d model just purely for aesthetic visuals and rely on Autocad or 2d Archicad for everything else?

Who here just uses 3d Archicad for the plans to enable doors and windows to be inserted and then does everything else in 2d?

Does anyone go the whole hog and use Archicad as a proper BIM model for heating calcs, daylighting, scheduling, as well as generated elevs/sections/details etc?

I would really appreciate hearing everyones views on this. Can a moderator make this poll sticky for a few days please?

[TomWaltz]

nats wrote:

Karl wrote:

nats wrote:
... I can see you have embelished them quite a bit with 2d work - the standard Graphisoft working method.

I'm going insane with the number of times you use this phrase, Nats! Can you show me in a user manual PDF or somewhere where GS says that 2D embelishment is the 'standard working method'?

Karl

Well this is how we are being taught to do it during our seminars in the office by our Archicad reseller.

It's kind of important to note that the resellers are not Graphisoft. It's like your car dealer teaching you to drive stick. He'll teach you how he does it, but it's not really the way Volkwagon or Toyota or Ford would do it and it's likely to vary from reseller to reseller.

The only "official" GS way of doing things is what you download from their website, and I'm not even sure the marketing-side of the brain knows what the programming-side of the brain is doing.

[Dennis Lee]

I voted for the first option, although technically, Graphisoft didn't train me. I am modeling more and more w/ each project. Right now, I am using 2d autocad & sketchup during schematic phase, then move on to AC for dd through cd. In the near future, I will be moving to all AC. In the sd phase though, I still think I will work w/ 2d AC and sketchup. Of course, tracing paper and felt pens are always being used as well.

[PatriciaLe_o]

Great subject! It's really nice to know what's happening outside my little world. I voted the second option, although I know I still have a loooong way ahead to reach the examples final product quality...

nats wrote:
Well this is how we are being taught to do it during our seminars in the office by our Archicad reseller.

I never received proper training... and gave up on it before I had it, cause the option around here would be probably with our reseller, who many times gave me an "I don't know" answer for my beginner simple questions and who also used to have this same 2d speech... Fortunately I found this forum and some other sources of learning.

nats wrote:
If Graphisoft were truly serious that the 3d model is everything and want Archicad to head the way in proper BIM modelling why did they introduce the new 2d drafting tools in r11?

I wonder it myself too... I still can't consider 11 as a real NEW release... IMHO it's more like a 10.5... Maybe they remade lots of things that I can't see. I know it's off topic but I also wonder...will Graphisoft have the 'energy' to come up with real good new things every year? Something that worths paying the new release?

[lasse]

Funny topic, in a way....

The beauty of Archicad is that it fits so many working methodologies. There might always be a better way, or a few things to incorporate to improve your proficiency/abilities/efficiency, but.....if it works for you and you get the job done and you can sleep at night........!

I have been "using" since the days of 4.....back then I could call tech support anytime during business hours, many multiple times a day, I knew them all by name, there were no subscriptions, there was no time limits......miss those days. The program was still VERY rough, there was a lot to be desired, but they tried to help achieve my objectives. I honestly don't think there was much training going on back then. In fact, we didn't even have the internet hooked up in the early nineties. Communications were somewhat simpler back then. Who else remembers even when Apple would give you free unlimited lifetime support. I think that ended with my PowerPC 8600!

In any event, I learned Archicad thru trial and error....Alone. I try to use the program to it's fullest extent, modeling as much as possible and keeping the base model intact throughout the entire process, but going on 13+ years now, I am kinda set in my own methodology. The old list format Architalk (with the perquisite 24 hour delay) was a huge help back then, the rest is simply getting comfy with it. I use this forum on a very limited basis, but to me, the individual objective relative to the programs abilities are best realized thru mileage (the more you use it, the more you think about it and the more you explore), the better one becomes at mastering the art of Archicad.

I am almost ready to forgive Graphisoft for this subscription "plot", for there are improvements, but gone are the good old days when a upgrade (at the price we are obligated to pay) was worth much more then a decimal point increase unless of some earth shattering improvements. I will reserve judgement for yet another year (ho hum) and see what 12 may bring.

Sorry for the rambling post, it's been a few years of pent up emotions.

Respectfully,

Lars Guy

[Anonymous]

I try to model 90% to the building, which gives me great flexibility when I need to change something. I usually design the building using the 3D modelling, much like using a cardboard model. I could not imagine doing this without ArchiForma though!

But till recently I had the bad habit of exploding the elevations and redrawing much of the stuff with lines. This is wrong! And it is very easy to find it out when you have to redesign all the external sun-shades on a circular building!

Now it is only 3D with some small stuff with fills with white background and some retraced polylines for adding thickness to the front elements.

[Anonymous]

kliment wrote:
I try to model 90% to the building, which gives me great flexibility when I need to change something. I usually design the building using the 3D modelling, much like using a cardboard model. I could not imagine doing this without ArchiForma though!

Those doors are high! Nice drawings cheers intersting you mention Archiforma.

What perhaps Graphisoft should do is take all the Cigraph plugins, incorporate them properly in the program, and sell it all as one upgrade v12 at a reduced upgrade price. They do that and I can really see Archicad becoming serious as the BIM market leader, and loads of architects here will start to take the program seriously, perhaps it would even start to displace Autocad! Which surely must be their overall goal? But at the moment theres no way I would spend £3000 on Archicad and then shelve out £60 or whatever for every addon to make the program do what its supposed to, and then shelve out another £500 upgrade cost for Archicad and again for all the addons etc etc every year after that. Where are they going here do you think? Surely changing the program to adapt to 2d drafters such as myself cannot be good marketing sense?

[TomWaltz]

kliment wrote:
I try to model 90% to the building, which gives me great flexibility when I need to change something. I usually design the building using the 3D modelling, much like using a cardboard model. I could not imagine doing this without ArchiForma though

What in that model required ArchiForma?

[Anonymous]

All the stuff in this project could be modelled with AC and Goodies. But it is much easier with ArchiForma.
Model was started in AC8.1 and completed in AC10. Some things are made using Profiler, some with ArchiForma and some with Complex Profiles.

[Karl Ottenstein]

TomWaltz wrote:

nats wrote:
Well this is how we are being taught to do it during our seminars in the office by our Archicad reseller.

It's kind of important to note that the resellers are not Graphisoft. It's like your car dealer ...

Exactly. Unfortunately, inconsistency between the knowledge and practices of independent business people (the resellers / channel partners) makes it challenging for customers / users.

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Kliment, thanks for posting your beautiful work and discussing your process.

In Ralph & Kliment's examples are moldings and profiles, the ones around heads and sills of windows, accomplished inside or outside of AC? This is all very interesting, and pleasing (visual information), to me since I can finally see what is possible with the software... if it is truly time effective.

It emulates something close to what I do with a photograph, line drawings, and hand-sketches (although the moldings and trim pieces are usually left off of a visual presentation until I show a client the material board -- then I just have had physical samples of the material).

This could be a big time-saver and competitive edge for me.