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.

[TomWaltz]

PivoArch wrote:
a lot of our interens are pretty apt at programing and would like to explore

I'm jealous. I'd love to teach GDL. It's one of the few things I've never gotten to really teach

[Djordje]

PivoArch wrote:
Yea, we are looking at getting probably 2 or 3 GDL experts on staff, but alot of our interens are pretty apt at programing and would like to explore. So we are stuck with either we teach them or they figure it out on their own.

Get them GDL CookBooks.

Get Karl Ottenstein.

[Anonymous]

Ok sorry for the delay in the response, traveling a bit. So now from Atlanta...how about Stairmaker. Has anyone written a guide for stairmaker that is better than the one in the reference guide. And thanks LiHigh for the object it is perfect for us.

[Andy Thomson]

Rob, I posted a suggested workflow for this accessory here: http://www.archicad.ca/?p=24

Though I am just using the standard ghost pentable for fireplans now....

[Anonymous]

Thanks Andy, I was literally just about to start writting that myself so you just saved me some work there. I kid you not I had word open and everything.

[Andy Thomson]

The screenshots could be better (more context).... but it's a first draft...

You probably also noticed the materials project (go to tha main page) , this allows scheduling/spec writing by CSI, that's the goal of the project, might also be of interest to you...

[Anonymous]

So, I guess no StairMaker Guides out there anywhere? How about Custom Sun Screens?

[Andy Thomson]

Stairmaker hurts so badly, we typically modify the few preset objects in the default library, or use custom components, or ArchiStair - the latter option presents intense library management issues due to their copy protection - despite Fabrizio consistently brushing it off as a non-issue.

We would like to argue that all plugin copy protection be managed as a new field in the Attribute Manager - that way we would have a consistent way of dealing with all of these bits and pieces, like Door and Window builder, which is indispensable for large scale scheduling of panel assemblies IMO.

That being said, stairs are weak. We often end up using 3D stairs as a 'guide and grouping 2D elements to them to get the plan/section display correctly...

[TomWaltz]

My SimpleStair object is pretty easy to use 😉

[Andy Thomson]

And it is posted where?? 😉