I need speed-up tips

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys,

Working with Archicad for about 3 months, while I can build about anything, I'm finding this program to be slow and I'm frustrated.

Other than shortcuts, what really helps speed up the production with archicad?

A big thing I struggle with is I've got a building section I know I need complex profile wall but to "build" the wall you have to leave the building section draw it with no context in the profile manager. Then you incorporate it to the project in plan only to find out you need one more course of block or something similar when you look at the section.

At this time I am in deep regret for buying this software but I'm not ready to give up just yet.

[Barry Kelly]

When you are creating the complex profile in the profile manager you are drawing fills to represent the wall.
So draw the fills in the section where you can see their relevance and then cut and paste into the profile manager.

Barry.

[Barry Kelly]

Also I have moved this post to the "Working in Archicad" section.

Barry.

[insideru]

short answer: a template.

if you are starting each new project from the default template, you are doing it wrong. if you have time to read shoegnome's take on it, here it is: www.shoegnome.com/2015/12/09/bim-still-bankrupting-firm/

once you have a good template going, you should see an up to 50% less time needed to finish an ordinary task.

long answer: experience. archicad is easy to step into but kinda difficult to master. thats because it doesnt do everything, and what is does isn't always so straightforward. i've been using it for close to 15 years and i'm still learning. one great place for self education is the archicad youtube channel. take some time and watch as many videos as possible.

[Richard Morrison]

A few thoughts come to mind:

1. 3 months is about the time that you can expect to see proficiency, not mastery, which can take 1000 hours or even significantly more. I've seen discussions by CAD managers of almost every major program saying that they usually see understanding of a program in about 3 months, 6 months to get up to speed, and a year for full mastery. You may be too hard on yourself.

2. Your hardware may be frustrating your efforts a bit. It may be fine..., but a faster processor and more RAM might change your experience. And are you using multiple monitors, which can have a big impact on overall productivity? If I had to produce a major project on a laptop, I might shoot myself first.

3. You seem overly quick to dismiss shortcuts. I've found that many of the significant time-saving features are pretty well buried, and are not obvious. I'm not talking about keyboard shortcuts, although there are usually improvements available there. (e.g. I have ALT & CTRL keys mapped to my mouse thumb buttons, so almost everything is a one key command on the keyboard, and I'm starting to get into voice recognition for writing text.) I'm talking about things like context menus, full use of snap point options, guide line segments, full use of graphic overrides and renovation filters, and putting some serious time into creating and organizing Favorites.

[Carstenem]

I think this is just what you need, straight to the point, not wasting any time.

Have a look at my new free YouTube Channel called ARCHICAD speed model tutorials. They are all done in AC21, please check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ZZv1KYtYJlJqCrGdD5huQ

[Anonymous]

As I'm only a student, in 'Data Safety and Integrity' settings.

I turned down Auto save to 20min, undo limit to 15 steps.

I think this was the biggest improvement, set Hotlink update to 'Ignore Hotlinks'

[Eduardo Rolon]

Doug66 wrote:
As I'm only a student, in 'Data Safety and Integrity' settings.

I turned down Auto save to 20min, undo limit to 15 steps.

…'

This is not recommended. In all of my years using AC I have never needed to change these settings to speed up a project.
Even though AC is extremely efficient and is not crash prone the fractions of seconds that it will save is not worth it.