Everyday Problems and Struggles

[Anonymous]

Hey Guys,
I was wondering what types of problems everyone encounters with their users everyday? Or at least most days? What kinds of things do you find difficult to do in Archicad if you don't know it well? How do you help your users overcome these struggles.? Like Stairs and Curtainwall. Now I am not looking for solutions I was just thinking we could all start making a list and perhaps it would make it easier on all of use if we new what the common problems were. Then we can start talking about users. I'll Start with my list:

1. Stairs
2. Curtainwall
3. Creating Sections and Elevations
4. Detailing
5. Sloped Roofs
6. Dimensioning
7. Mesh Tool and Sitework
8. Elevators
9. Curving a Wall that Would be a Custom Profile
10. Columns, Beams, and Cross-Bracing
11. Cutting a Hole in a Slab
12. Linking one Detail to Multiple Tags
13. Custom Object Creationa nd Modification
14. Sun Screens
15. Curved Roofs
16. Flat Roofs with Tapered Insulation
17. Modifing Doors
18. Retaining Walls
19. Multiple Floor Heights on One floor Level (Multiple Stories or Single Story)
20. Coil Doors
21. Creating a Wall with Multiple Wall Segmetns and Removing the Extra Linework
22. Creating a Stair from Slabs witha Custom Railing
23. Stair Sections
24. Railings on a Balcony or Loft
25. Column Enclosures
26. Bemolition and Existing Building Work (Grayscale and Dashed)
27. Fire Rated Partitions (Priorites through Layer Control)
28. Screenwalls

That is my list so far. Anyone else have anything that they get asked about frequently be new or exisitng users that we think it might be good to document a best practice? Hopefully we can gather alot of information on this post then start answering.

[Laura Yanoviak]

29. Reading the Manual/accessing the Help Menu

[TomWaltz]

If it makes you feel any better, I had most of those problems 4 years ago.. probably the biggest remaining one is demolition & rehab work. I could go for hours on how I handled some of these problems.

Someday over a beer we'll talk about all of them!

My general answer is "slow and steady progression over a few years". I was fortunate to lead an implementation that added 5 people at a time, approximately every 2 months. As one group got better and picked up more tricks, their wisdom & knowledge was added to the training of the next group. By the time the last group got trained, they were getting (what I thought) was really an amazing combination of technical instruction and real-world application.

I always knew that Archicad was a hybrid program, which would combine 3D and 2D elements to create a set of drawings. I encouraged people to model as much as they could effectively and always keeping an eye on editability.

Keep in mind K&A started on Archicad 8.0, which was much less capable than what you see in Archicad 10. I taught a lot of people how to build almost anything in the world with slabs, roofs, and meshes. Some days I think there is still a lot of validity to that method.

Sections were definitely tricky, since you have to know how to model, how to construct for real, and how to draft. You also need to know how to clean up material/surface connections.

I'm curious, what problems are you having with sloping roofs, detailing, and dimensioning?

[Laura Yanoviak]

As far as "detailing" is concerned, I have found that many have been so focused on the 3D-modeling aspect, that they have difficulty going back and relating to drawings in 2D (I, myself, remember using AC 14 years ago at which time resorting to using a "line" seemed a foreign concept).

I insist that everyone go through the "Detailer Tutorials" prior to creating wall sections and details.

[Link]

28 items is not so bad! I have been contacted by new clients with 10 times that!

Although some of yours (e.g. 4, 6, 7, 11, 15, 19, 24, 27) look like they could probably be addressed either here or with a little point in the right direction.

Gaining confidence and proficiency with ArchiCAD is usually just a matter of getting a good base training (which I'm sure you received given the company you work for), a good template system, practice and thinking outside the box.

Let us know if you want to hit that list.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

Link,
There are more 28 is all I could think of in about 10 minutes. I could answer most if not all of them. The reason behind the list is I am in the process of writing our guide book and in addition to standards we are going to document procedures. So I am working out a list of things I should cover in the book. So, what I was looking for from you guys is a list of things that I should make sure I get in the book.
We do get most of it covered in the training here, I am the one who does the training. But most people forget what they learned and they need to be showed again. The book will serve as a reference for those who can not get in touch with me or one of the iBIM Operations Staff. If you have any great ideas on how to do some of that stuff though feel free to post it or shoot me an e-mail I woul love to hear it.

[Link]

PivoArch wrote:
Link,
If you have any great ideas on how to do some of that stuff though feel free to post it or shoot me an e-mail I woul love to hear it.

Yes I do. I will PM you in the next few days.

Cheers,
Link.

[TomWaltz]

Laura wrote:
As far as "detailing" is concerned, I have found that many have been so focused on the 3D-modeling aspect, that they have difficulty going back and relating to drawings in 2D (I, myself, remember using AC 14 years ago at which time resorting to using a "line" seemed a foreign concept).

I insist that everyone go through the "Detailer Tutorials" prior to creating wall sections and details.

What Detailer Tutorials are you using?

[TomWaltz]

PivoArch wrote:
There are more 28 is all I could think of in about 10 minutes. I could answer most if not all of them. The reason behind the list is I am in the process of writing our guide book and in addition to standards we are going to document procedures. So I am working out a list of things I should cover in the book. So, what I was looking for from you guys is a list of things that I should make sure I get in the book.
We do get most of it covered in the training here, I am the one who does the training. But most people forget what they learned and they need to be showed again. The book will serve as a reference for those who can not get in touch with me or one of the iBIM Operations Staff. If you have any great ideas on how to do some of that stuff though feel free to post it or shoot me an e-mail I woul love to hear it.

Do we want to do all 28 hear in one thread? Are there any you want to hit first?

[Anonymous]

We could get started here I guess. I would say Object Creation, Fire Ratings, and Demo with Existing are gonna the major ones.