How to draw existing historical/listed buildings?

[Anonymous]

We are having a little difficulty drawings historical buildings like listed buildings and churches etc. Obvious these buildings contain complex mouldings, unusual arched windows, decorative moulded stone arches etc.

How can these be best done in ArchiCAD? Does anyone else do this kind of work as 3d models or is it generally better to forget the 3d bit when doing these kinds of buildings and stick to 2d only?

Thanks for any help

Nats

[fuzzytnth3]

I've worked on buildings that involved complex Classical moulding and the like and came up with a quick n'dirty solution to allow the new building that was fully modelled in ArchiCAD to merge with 2d AutoCAD elevation drawings.

My technique was to import the AutoCAD survey elevations as Library objects and place these in the ArchiCAD model like theatre stage "flats" sitting in the correct location relative to the ArchiCAD model.

Obviously it's not proper 3d modelling and they won't display in a photorendering (unless you make a texture with photos of the building painted onto the "flats" )

I hope the above makes sense to you.

[Rafal SLEK]

You'll find Cigraph add-ones very helpful - ArchiFacade and ArchiForma. Look at cigraph site: http://www.cigraph.com/
In attachment below - house where all was designed in AC 5.0 without these plugins (three times more work)

[Anonymous]

fuzzytnth3 wrote:
..and came up with a quick n'dirty solution to allow the new building that was fully modelled in ArchiCAD to merge with 2d AutoCAD elevation drawings..

I've used another variation to the same concept described, when I needed the historical building to show on all my elevations (as context to my building only and did not actually need to do any work on them). I modeled a simple massing for them so I can know their exact location on all my elevations and sections, and then copy and pasted provided CAD line drawings into their correct position (using a white fill under the outline to mask everything behind it that shouldn't show) my building updated correctly while the 2D lines just sit there static, which is all I needed..

[Anonymous]

On a recently finished restoration project on the Byron Bay Lighthouse Precinct, profiler, solid element operations, and constructing library parts were all techniques used to create the models of the historical buildings.

It was decided to create the models of the buildings as accurately as possible not only to assist with the restoration but to also provide accurate records in the event of fire or other disaster.

An image is enclosed of the tiny signal house, one of the buildings restored, with bed joints extracted using SOE, cornice made from Profiler, vents made as library parts, etc, etc. The walls are actually slabs with the details added.

It was decided to stop short of laying blocks after discussions on this forum.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

In AC10 it is much easier to do classical details. Here is a sketch render of a little folly I did for my talk at ArchiCAD University. It's not much design wise but it is nearly proper doric order (actually a bit more federalist I suppose) done entirely with AC10 as it comes from GS (no extra add-ons). The new profile function is terrific for this sort of thing.

[Anonymous]

The question is: What for do you need this technical documentation. So, I've made it by transformations of primitives. Couple months ago I made a factory - neo-gotic. It's pretty complicated especially staircase are complex.


roniN

[Erika Epstein]

In Archicad, when we do models, the best advice has been to build the virtual model like you will the real one. While there will be exceptions, and you don't need to model every brick, this approach works.

Break down what you need to model into the pieces of which they are constructed. This will define for you what you are trying to model into manageable pieces.

When you get stuck, post a photo of what you are stuck on and then we can be more specific in our help.

[Anonymous]

Erika wrote:
In Archicad, when we do models, the best advice has been to build the virtual model like you will the real one. While there will be exceptions, and you don't need to model every brick, this approach works.

Break down what you need to model into the pieces of which they are constructed. This will define for you what you are trying to model into manageable pieces.

I dont understand this at all. Are you saying you model the stone features etc all as library pieces etc and then insert them into the wall? Does this show correctly in section?

Is there anyone here who can explain exactly how they would construct such a brick building in the posting above for example, in simple steps, so that the walls, windows and stone surround all appear correctly in section and elevation and still form a 3d model rather than cheating by doing them as 2d items afterwards on sections etc. And how would you construct a wall with stone headers and cills to windows and a contrasting brick plinth for example. Do you build all different walls separately?

Does anyone have a source of help regarding actually how to construct 'proper' buildings generally in Archicad (as opposed to the simplistic ones that feature in all the official tutorials). The official documentation tells me how to 'use the program' but not how to build a 3d building. Its pretty lousy IMO. At the moment we are completely in the dark regarding how to actually build a complex building made up of different wall types and with stone lintols, cills etc.

The UK definitely needs a good book on how to actually use ArchiCAD. We've had Archcad for ages and have yet to construct a proper 3d model with it. I just dont know where to start. Ive tried on my own but I dont have enough free time to figure out these things for myself through exploration (I learned AutoCAD myself but that was very easy and I was much younger!).

Any help much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Nats,
Our office works mainly with historic buildings in London. Attached is a finished model with some notes.

We usually build a simple body of the building first.
For detailing, some people in the office frustratingly still do 2D line drawings over top of these initial models. For small jobs where we have no visualization to do, this is is quicker, but I don't like this 2.5D approach.

Others (me included) model all the mouldings and window surrounds etc... using whatever tool best fits the purpose - roof, slab, wall, mesh, profiler and now, custom profiles, and the Solid Element Operations. I guess with the custom profiler we'll probably start building up a typical profiles library.

For creating good looking sections and elevations, we use a combination of layer control, fills covering bits that look wrong (I hate doing this) editing the GDL and sending things to the front or back of the drawing. I'll see if I can dig through the archives and find a section of the attached image to show you what it looks like.

This probably isn't the best way of doing things, but we don't seem to have any problems with it. And slowly the 2.5D people are seeing how a bit of modelling at the start can save a heap of line drawing down later on.

The UK definitely needs a good book on how to actually use ArchiCAD...

I agree, but more importantly it needs a good reseller! Where I used to live in Christchurch, New Zealand there were regular beginner's night and day courses and excellent reseller support. In London - nothing.