How do you use ARCHICAD on Mac OS for extensive interior design?

[Anonymous]

I am attempting to streamline my workflow, especially in interior design, since it is what for me is the most detailed phase. I am looking at ways on how to use ARCHICAD extensively for interior design from schematic phase to rendering and presentation in the most streamlined workflow you could suggest.

Also, I would like to know where an interior designer get his/her high quality furniture for ARCHICAD. We know that some of the built-in objects in ARCHICAD are "too generic" and ugly for production use.

[David Maudlin]

joa101501 wrote:
Also, I would like to know where an interior designer get his/her high quality furniture for ARCHICAD. We know that some of the built-in objects in ARCHICAD are "too generic" and ugly for production use.

You can search the internet for formats rather than .gsm (Objects), like .3DS and .OBJ, import them and save as objects. This will give you a broader range of options. These objects won't be parametric, but will represent real furniture.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response David.

David wrote:
You can search the internet for formats rather than .gsm (Objects), like .3DS and .OBJ, import them and save as objects. This will give you a broader range of options. These objects won't be parametric, but will represent real furniture.

I have tried this already but the results are not optimal. The result is always an increase of the PLN file size. It also slows down the drawing to a crawl. Also, the resulting model ended it a lot of triangulation.

David wrote:
You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

Sorry about that.

[Erwin Edel]

If your project is not strictly interion design, you could consider hotlinking the 'technical / building'-model to a presentation file. In this separate file you add the furniture and such for renders. This keeps your technical drawings clean and the file size down for that file.

Also, this means stepping into detailed settings territory for Cinerender, I would say. The standard 'scenes' that give you a quick setup for the render fall short for good interior renders.

This might be an interesting read to scratch the surface of what can be achieved with cinerender and some post processing: https://www.graphisoft.com/users/bim-case-studies/svetlana-kravchenko-archicad-revisiting.html

For example, it explains how the displacement channel can be used to get good results with relatively low poly models. Subsurface scattering also seems to make a big difference.

These are all things I have zero experience with (or time to explore), but I find good interior rendering to be a category to its own. I do a lot of exterior renders, which I give a sketchy look to keep production time low. It is nice to see (in my opinion) very good results out of cinerender though.

[David Maudlin]

joa101501 wrote:

David wrote:
You can search the internet for formats rather than .gsm (Objects), like .3DS and .OBJ, import them and save as objects. This will give you a broader range of options. These objects won't be parametric, but will represent real furniture.

I have tried this already but the results are not optimal. The result is always an increase of the PLN file size. It also slows down the drawing to a crawl. Also, the resulting model ended it a lot of triangulation.

After importing the models, convert them to Morph. Then use the Morph command Modify Segmentation > Fewer Segments to decrease the number of polygons. If you download and install the Goodie PolygonCount you can get a reading on the number of polygons as you modify the model. When done, save the Morph as an Object to place multiple copies.

Thank for adding the signature.

David

[Anonymous]

David wrote:
After importing the models, convert them to Morph. Then use the Morph command Modify Segmentation > Fewer Segments to decrease the number of polygons. If you download and install the Goodie PolygonCount you can get a reading on the number of polygons as you modify the model. When done, save the Morph as an Object to place multiple copies.

Thanks for the patience Mr. David. I never knew about this workaround. This is a great piece of life-saver advice. Now I can go back to my previous workflow without worrying about hiccups. ARCHICAD community is very generous!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your generous response.

Erwin wrote:
If your project is not strictly interion design, you could consider hotlinking the 'technical / building'-model to a presentation file. In this separate file you add the furniture and such for renders. This keeps your technical drawings clean and the file size down for that file.

I've been using hotlinked modules for quite some time on all our projects, but I never thought of using this feature to streamline the project by dividing it modularly by phases. It makes more sense now that you mentioned it.

Erwin wrote:
This might be an interesting read to scratch the surface of what can be achieved with cinerender and some post processing: https://www.graphisoft.com/users/bim-case-studies/svetlana-kravchenko-archicad-revisiting.html

This is what I've been looking for to give me a headstart on CineRender.

Again, thank you very much!