Planning Drawings to Construction Drawings

[Anonymous]

Hi

We are based in the UK and are a young firm. We have a 3000m2 residential block which has passed planning and needs to be taken forward to the construction phase. Me and my colleague have never done that in Archicad, only in Autocad and Microstation.
Could somebody please explain to me the best way of taking a project into the construction phase? I will need 1:10 details, 1:20 section of important junctions and was wondering how most people work. Do you work the 3D model until you can take the detailed sections from that or do you just zoom into the 3D model and trace the detail over it in more detail in 2D. We would like to use Archicad in the most efficient way possible and really need some advice on how to do that. I would really appreciate any help,

Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

For the most part, we import pre-drawn details into Independent Detail windows. At times we will use ArchiCAD's Detail Tool to establish the horizontal or vertical controls of the detail, but we draft on different layers and use the 2D drafted layers in the view that is sent to PlotMaker. The virtual model layers are only turned on when we want/need to verify the drafted lines, etc.

Hope this helps as a start to what you are trying to do. I suspect there are many different views on the advantages and efficiencies of the different methods employed in ArchiCAD based offices...

[Anonymous]

The extent to develop the model depends on the proficiency of the operator. Since you are new to the process, you should probably not be too ambitious at this point. The general rule of thumb is to model walls, floors and roofs tight and accurate (plumb, level & square) and detail the model to produce acceptable drawings at 1:100.

Enlarged details are typically done by adding symbols, notes and fills to enlarged views of the model.

If you have trouble getting the model clean enough to generate the elevations and building sections directly, the old trick is to copy the drawing some round number distance to the right (say 40 or 50m or so depending on the size of the building). This way you can edit the drawing freely and still copy changes over from the drawings created automatically by ArchiCAD.

[Anonymous]

Could somebody please explain to me the best way of taking a project into the construction phase? I will need 1:10 details, 1:20 section of important junctions and was wondering how most people work. Do you work the 3D model...

As Matthew wrote, try keeping the larger constructions as 3D (with composite elements and so on) with correct sizes for 1:100 printouts.

For 1:50 - 1:20 in plan/section windows use new layer comb's and display opt's + add additional detailing with the help of 2D elements.

When it comes to scales larger than 1:20 I would use the detail tool to get the basic shapes from the 3D model and then use layer comb's (and of course disp. opt's if needed) to then add more 2D info. Or if you already have DWG's of detailing - use independent det. tool and merge the DWG drawing in to the detail window.

This way everything included in the real project building will be kept in the AC model.

It also makes it's easy to get final drawings from PM with the help of organised AC Navigator View Sets

[Anonymous]

Interesting.
We already employ some of the things mentioned. I am trying to stay as close as possible to the 2nd Tutorial that shipped with AC9 - a very helpful tutorial.
Essentially you work the project in 3D for anything up to 1:100 and move to 2D for any scale larger than that.
One problem we have for example is that the line thickness in the elevations are the same as the linethicknesses in the sections. The only way of getting the line thickness thickened in the sections is to copy and paste the section in the window and then manually thicken up the lines. Is that correct?

Everybody else my building is using Vectorworks and we always discuss which program is "better". I suppose i won't be able to answer that question until i have actually run an entire job using AC.
So far I have not heard anybody say "I wish we would get Autocad, Archicad is such a pain the neck...", only the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Hi Patric

patricprz wrote:
One problem we have for example is that the line thickness in the elevations are the same as the linethicknesses in the sections. The only way of getting the line thickness thickened in the sections is to copy and paste the section in the window and then manually thicken up the lines. Is that correct?.

Why don't you try the new features in AC 9 with Cut Fills (in 3D elements' settings)/Cut Lines (if needed, in Line's settings) together with the settings for the 2 above found in Display Options.
Then save the view in your Navigator View Sets.
This way you'll get rid of the copy/paste editing ...

[Petros Ioannou]

patricprz wrote:
One problem we have for example is that the line thickness in the elevations are the same as the linethicknesses in the sections. The only way of getting the line thickness thickened in the sections is to copy and paste the section in the window and then manually thicken up the lines. Is that correct?

Since you are interested in CD's you may try using plotmaker where you can define diffrent pen weihgts for each drawing placed on a layout.

HTH
Petros

[Anonymous]

"patricprz" wrote:
Interesting.
The only way of getting the line thickness thickened in the sections is to copy and paste the section in the window and then manually thicken up the lines. Is that correct?

Try changing the 'section tool' to use its own pen settings rather than the objects pen settings. But I usually find I do not need to.

[Anonymous]

patricprz wrote:
One problem we have for example is that the line thickness in the elevations are the same as the linethicknesses in the sections. The only way of getting the line thickness thickened in the sections is to copy and paste the section in the window and then manually thicken up the lines. Is that correct?

The best way to control (and vary) line weights is by setting pens according to function and changing the pen settings as needed in PlotMaker.

For example, I use pen 1 for element section outlines and pen 2 for the cut element fills. I set these pens in ArchiCAD to the correct weight for the predominant scale. For the pen 1 outlines, I typically use 0.35mm at 1:100 and 0.5mm at 1:50.

[Anonymous]

I took on a project for a presentation a couple of years back and modelled a proposd Science Centre. It came at a stage where I had been ArchiCad for a mere 6months but as the project drew close to completion I had learned so much about ArchiCad. I started modelling in the ground, laying the foundations and working my way up. I remember my `storeys` were `founds`, `first floor`, `second floor` `roof level` and I was a detailed as I possibly could. It may the 3d walk throughs so much easier and presentable. I havent used ArchiCad in a few years but have decided to reinstall it again, its great fun too!