It’s a bit wild that this is the third release of the Shoegnome Open Template. Thank you all for the support and encouragement. I’m so glad to be able to continue sharing the template. Maybe next year I’ll get it out the same month ARCHICAD 20 is released. But probably not… If you are itching to get my template, click the link below. But keep reading for the details.

Shoegnome Open Template V19

Some years an ARCHICAD template is a revolution. Other times it’s an evolution. For me the revolutionary jumps were ARCHICAD 9 to 11, 16 to 17, and 17 to 18. My templates between ARCHICAD 11 and 16 were pretty seamless. There were improvements each year, but nothing radical. For both ARCHICAD 17 and ARCHICAD 18 I rebuilt my template completely and reworked so many things. For the leap from 18 to 19 I returned to the concept of an evolutionary change. For those of you familiar with the Shoegnome Open Template 18.4, you might struggle to notice what’s different. That’s okay. I’ll give you some hints:

• Surfaces: I’ve reverted the Surfaces back to the default out of the box ARCHICAD 19 USA Surfaces. Why? Because I don’t care what they start with. And neither should you. As a project develops you’ll want to rework and rename all the Surfaces that are important to you. I’m not going to waste time perfecting them for some imaginary generic project. There’s no need. I would rather encourage flexibility. Even some of the minor tweaks I used to make like changing glass names to Clear and Frosted have disappeared. Because you know what? If you want that to show up in a Schedule or Label, it’ll take two seconds to update. And that’s good practice. Plus, maybe you really want Low-E and Triple Pane instead of Clear. I don’t know. Either way the Surface Painter makes updating Surfaces so easy and fast, there’s no need to worry about them on Day 1.
• Favorites: Favorites are where I spent most of my time, especially on Labels. Check those out. I also did an IFC data pass. I did what I could to get the basics correct. It won’t win IFC awards, but it’s at least a start. And coherent. It also means that if you do a project based on the Shoegnome Open Template 19.0 and always start with Favorites, you’ll be able to look at the IFC Manager and have it be legible. So, you know. Step 1. Also, look at the image below. Everything in that image is automatic. All the graphics are from the model. All the Labels are pulling data from the elements and all the Labels are Favorites. Annotating this section took seconds. It’ll take longer on a real project, but this is super speed here.

Mostly this version of the template was created so that we could all start working on new projects in ARCHICAD 19 ASAP. A lot of what I did was remove things. I want a simple template. Maybe by ARCHICAD 25 I’ll have a blank template with nothing in it but the word “START!”

There’ll be time for bigger updates later, as we all get deeper into ARCHICAD 19. What’s next? Focusing on methodologies to increase the utility of automatic labeling. Another reason I haven’t messed with too much of my template is because I’m not sure what I need to change. I liked my ARCHICAD 18 template. It was lean and fast. The 19 version is leaner and faster to work with. As I explore automatic labeling, I’m sure my naming conventions will change and I’ll develop new workflows. Bu there’s no reason to change bits of my template that work fine until I break things with new ways of working. Download my template, break it yourself and let’s share.

All Hail Automation

Here’s a quick video talking about the improved Label Tool and the magic of setting up Favorites-and having some correct IFC data in your objects (you’ll have to look quick to notice that though).

All Praise Templates

What I think is amazing is that the ARCHICAD template landscape is getting fiercer. There has been an explosion of template sharing in recent years. You should download the Shoegnome Open Template for ARCHICAD 19, and even courage me to continue developing and sharing by supporting it. But you should also be aware of the other ARCHICAD templates out there, both old and new. Here’s a quick list of some of my competition. If I’m missing any, please let me know.

• ArchiCoach Template
• BIM6x Template Kits
• Eric Bobrow’s Master Template
• [mac interact] template
• Master Script Clean Template
• S#19 BIM Template for ARCHICAD 19

What are you waiting for?

Go download the Shoegnome Open Template for ArchiCAD 19! Did I mention it’s free, if you want it to be? Because it is. Unless you’d rather send some support money my way. Because you can do that too.

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