To further Matthews comments,
Q1. I often use the wall tool with the polygonal geometry method to quickly block out masses. The Zone tool works well too, with the advantage of displaying a zone stamp if necessary. To quickly find out info like area and volume of an object, look under 'Window, Palettes, Element Information' which will give you the info on any object (or objects) you select.
Q2. Generally in ArchiCAD objects are related to a particular storey. If you adjust a storey level, all the walls, slabs, library parts etc that are associated with it will move as well. Individual element relationships are less easy to manage, currently being limited to grouping then together. In plan you can still use the marquee tool to stretch multiple differing objects together over either one, or all storeys, which is very useful when adjusting the dimensions of the building. Having the option of locking a wall to a slab would be quite useful though!
Q3. As Matthew says, you can have as many views of the same storey as you like, each at a different scale. You can control the visibility of dims and text both by using the in-built scale sensitivity of text, which can be set to remain the same size whatever scale you view it at, or using layer combinations associated with a particular view, ie some layers are turned off in some views but not in others.
Q4. As an alternative approach to question 4, if you prefer a more 'visual' guide to placing an object a certain distance from somewhere, try using the measure tool.
1 - First set up your window (or whatever)
2 - Before placing, and still with the window tool active, press 'm' to activate the measure tool,
3 - Click the point you want to measure from, then point the virtual 'ruler' in the direction you need, using the temporary guide lines to hold its position.
4 - Just type in the distance you require straight into the keyboard, it will enter automatically into the little popup box, DON'T HIT RETURN! but with the mouse click the little circle/target symbol (called 'mark position') next to the number you just entered.
5 - This automatically marks the distance with a temporary guide line. Hit escape once to cancel the measure tool.
6 - You can now place the window using the guide line that should be still there.
It sounds a long winded way of doing it, but in reality it only takes a couple of seconds with a bit of practice. Try both methods several times, you might find one easier than the other!
Q5. I wouldn’t say it’s ‘that’ difficult to produce a detail like that. That sort of detail has been discussed several times, and it does cause people some grief, but the best solution we have at the moment is either use 2 or 3 custom profiled walls and/or use Solid Element Operations (SEO) to subtract the slab from the wall. Not by any means perfect, but do-able nevertheless.
See these links for further info.
http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/Composite_Walls_with_Varying_Skin_Heights?highlight=%28TechNotes/%29%7C%28Category3dModeling%29
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=13017&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
James Murrays great site has got a good solution too.
http://www.onland.info/archives/2007/07/custom_profile_as_section_patch_substitute.php
The comparison between ArchiCAD and revit has been discussed many times on here. You may find that any further questions may have been answered already. Have a look at these two for example.
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=19644
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=18694
Hope that provides some food-for-thought!
Q1. I often use the wall tool with the polygonal geometry method to quickly block out masses. The Zone tool works well too, with the advantage of displaying a zone stamp if necessary. To quickly find out info like area and volume of an object, look under 'Window, Palettes, Element Information' which will give you the info on any object (or objects) you select.
Q2. Generally in ArchiCAD objects are related to a particular storey. If you adjust a storey level, all the walls, slabs, library parts etc that are associated with it will move as well. Individual element relationships are less easy to manage, currently being limited to grouping then together. In plan you can still use the marquee tool to stretch multiple differing objects together over either one, or all storeys, which is very useful when adjusting the dimensions of the building. Having the option of locking a wall to a slab would be quite useful though!
Q3. As Matthew says, you can have as many views of the same storey as you like, each at a different scale. You can control the visibility of dims and text both by using the in-built scale sensitivity of text, which can be set to remain the same size whatever scale you view it at, or using layer combinations associated with a particular view, ie some layers are turned off in some views but not in others.
Q4. As an alternative approach to question 4, if you prefer a more 'visual' guide to placing an object a certain distance from somewhere, try using the measure tool.
1 - First set up your window (or whatever)
2 - Before placing, and still with the window tool active, press 'm' to activate the measure tool,
3 - Click the point you want to measure from, then point the virtual 'ruler' in the direction you need, using the temporary guide lines to hold its position.
4 - Just type in the distance you require straight into the keyboard, it will enter automatically into the little popup box, DON'T HIT RETURN! but with the mouse click the little circle/target symbol (called 'mark position') next to the number you just entered.
5 - This automatically marks the distance with a temporary guide line. Hit escape once to cancel the measure tool.
6 - You can now place the window using the guide line that should be still there.
It sounds a long winded way of doing it, but in reality it only takes a couple of seconds with a bit of practice. Try both methods several times, you might find one easier than the other!
Q5. I wouldn’t say it’s ‘that’ difficult to produce a detail like that. That sort of detail has been discussed several times, and it does cause people some grief, but the best solution we have at the moment is either use 2 or 3 custom profiled walls and/or use Solid Element Operations (SEO) to subtract the slab from the wall. Not by any means perfect, but do-able nevertheless.
See these links for further info.
James Murrays great site has got a good solution too.
The comparison between ArchiCAD and revit has been discussed many times on here. You may find that any further questions may have been answered already. Have a look at these two for example.
Hope that provides some food-for-thought!
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