Wall Sections Question

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I am new to Archicad (just picked it up last week) and am a student currently enrolled at Mohawk College in Ontario for the Architectural Technology program.

The time has come to do presentation drawings and I have taken the time to go out and search for rendering software. Archicad was my choice due to its flexibility and capabilities.

Our current project is to model a house, I was able to create the walls, roofs, and generally create a passable render of the house. Only problem is now I need to do cross sections of my house and am running into problems.

All of my walls are solid slabs, with paint on each side (yes I know I'm still new) my question I guess is am I able to create studs within those walls and specify details for each of those slabs (ie 2X4s @ 16" throughout walls) and have Archicad generate those automatically or do I need to go through and manually create each of the objects (ie bricks, framing, etc etc). The same goes for my main floor, am I able to specify floor joists at 'x' inches or not?

The details are something I am a bit concerned about and if Archicad can generate them automatically than I will stick with it. Unfortuneatly I am the only person in our class that has taken the time to go out and learn Archicad if this process is not simple I will be forced to go back to Autocad for my cross sections

Any help on this subject is greatly appreciated and if you can direct me to a guide or any other reference that would be great as well!

Thanks and I look forward to hearing back from you guys

Kyle Parry

[Aussie John]

Wall accessories will allow stud work into walls although i never use it. Walls in plan and section always have the same fill but you can get around that by using different display options for the plan and section.

In section stud walls are easily shown by adding a fill or a rectangle shape library part to the wall to indicate the noggins, floor and top plates. Of course they are not linked to your wall if it is moved.

As a last resort you can break the section from the model and then it will be just like autoCAD.

[Anonymous]

Kyle

Step back from the edge. It will all be o.k. There's no point going back to AutoCAD. Anything you can do there (in 2D) you can do in Archicad.

As John says, just add detail over your sections either with simple lines (grouped is good too) or library parts. I don't know if the Rapid Details library is available where you are, but it has a great selection of standard construction elements you can overlay on sections. Timber framing, linings, brickwork and masonry, reference symbols, steelwork. We get it free from Cadimage with our purchase of Archicad. Check out Rapid Detail 3 at their website here. They also have a wall framing add-on if you want to go the whole hog and model it all (same site), but I haven't used it. Maybe others can tell you what its like.

[__archiben]

kyle

small steps! small steps . . .

all of what you're after is possible with varying degrees of intelligence and automation through the use of add-on tools and object libraries.

take a look here:
http://www.cadimagetools.com/home.php?page=products&productID=185

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Hey guys,

Big thanks for helping me out. I run forums like this site for other subjects and I must say this forum is a very helpful one. You are all very knowledgeable and I look forward to posting more and scanning the forums for help!

As it turns out, the module I was looking for was your composite wall part, it allows me to show different wall sections on elevation and plan view, which si the only part I am looking for at the moment.

The framing is not quite due yet so I will hold off on it however I did download that addon and will be testing it tonight.

Unfortuneatly my teacher thinks archiCAD is cheating when it comes to designing your crosssections and elevations since I am the only one in my class with knowledge on how to use it. The thing is she hasn't even taught the class to use Autodesk and VIZ yet, we have presentations tomorrrow and I am going to get her jaw to drop XD

@ S2art: I actually had to end up helping my partner in Autocad last night, I HATE it hahaha, drawing each line per wall is a horrid task and if I can convince my teacher my entire project will be done in Archicad lol

And thanks guys for suggesting the program, you have been a big help!

[__archiben]

kyle.parry wrote:
Unfortuneatly my teacher thinks archiCAD is cheating when it comes to designing your crosssections and elevations since I am the only one in my class with knowledge on how to use it.

WHAT?! she is raving!

tell her that archicad forces you to build the building virtually in a way that resembles more closely the real-world situation. BIM solutions (of which archicad is one - the others being revit, closely followed by microstation) teach you far more about the building process because they force you take decisions based on how elements go together: connections, junctions, different materials. if you don't know how a building is built you find out pretty damn quick! you will learn about buildings far quicker using archicad than you will with autocad.

if she still gives you trouble, put her on to me - i'll have a few things to say . . .

we have presentations tomorrrow and I am going to get her jaw to drop

bloody right mate! good luck!

~/archiben

[Dwight]

And they made us do long division long after calculators were common.

Could the student please post some results just to show what can be achieved after only one week?

[Anonymous]

kyle.parry wrote:

Unfortuneatly my teacher thinks archiCAD is cheating when it comes to designing your crosssections and elevations

As another Architecture teacher, I would love to hear your teachers reasoning.

To be honest, I have heard a LOT of arguments against the Virtual Building approach on architecture students, but "cheating" beats most of them...

It's like saying you should not drive to work, or write on a computer, or travel by train, or use your phone, or email, or live in a house with windows, because all that is CHEATING!

Maybe, in her opinion, we should never have left the trees in the first place...

[TomWaltz]

There's a troglodyte in every crowd 😉

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:
There's a troglodyte in every crowd 😉

Sure...but being in a teaching positions enables you to do a lot of damage.