Blog Posts

Greater than the Sum of the Parts – guest blogger David Jefferis talks about Hybrid Notation

This guest post is by David Jefferis. My preferred style of notation breeds the Full Text Note with the Full Keynote to produce the Hybrid Note. The primary problem with both styles of notation presented last week is the lack of hierarchy: special details or materials are not given special treatment and can get lost amid the notes for standard assemblies. Using the Hybrid Note system, these standard assemblies such

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Compatibility notes to ArchiCAD on Mac OSX Lion

Kind of important if you’re using any version of ArchiCAD and getting excited about Lion (or have already installed it). Read it. Now: http://archicadwiki.com/MacOSXLion No more using any version of ArchiCAD older than version 8.1 if you go to Lion (Mac OS 10.7). Good to know for all those 6.5 files I occasionally need to open. If you don’t have ArchiCAD 10, remember to install the file converters so you

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Do You remember when the Explore Model method of navigating in 3D first appeared?

While doing some research for an article I wrote for ArchiMAG, I found an amazing forum post from the release of version 10. Take a quick walk down memory lane. It’s too bad Graphisoft took out that functionality with the first ArchiCAD 10 hotfix. It was a fun few weeks. I still miss those options. By the way, my article should be in the fall ArchiMAG issue and has almost

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Key Notes – guest blogger David Jefferis takes us from Conventional to Exceptional

This guest post is by David Jefferis. In these posts, I will focus on general techniques of standardized representation and strategies for producing construction documents so that our conventional drawings can be exceptional. An important but rarely discussed part of starting an office is establishing a set of effective graphic standards for communicating design intent through construction documents. Most design websites and blogs show multiple rendered perspectives, plans and sections

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Korean Professional Video Game Players & ArchiCAD

Can you make a living playing video games? If you work hard. It also doesn’t hurt if you’re South Korean. Want to hear more about that lifestyle? There’s a great Tech Stuff podcast about it. What does this have to do with ArchiCAD? Keyboard short cuts. I’ve talked about them before and I’ll talk about their importance again. Watch the following video. The entire thing is pretty mesmerizing, but all

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ArchiCAD in China!

Two big pieces of news from Graphisoft this week. Both to do with Graphisoft partnering up with Chinese firms. This is very exciting news. You can read both press releases below. Graphisoft inks Strategic Partnership with JZFZ in China Graphisoft joins forces with UDG in China Why does an ArchiCAD user in Minnesota care about this? Why was this a great 4th of July surprise? Think about it: Teamwork 2

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One Year of Blogging and some Great Screencasts

So July 11th will be one complete year of blogging for me. I haven’t missed a week, even though my wife and I became parents for the second time in late March, we spent two weeks in Wyoming with little to no internet access, and among many other plausible excuses I got the flu for the first time in my life a month ago. June in Minnesota is NOT supposed

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Invisible Beams… aka Rookie Mistake… aka Expert Trick

Hidden walls and beams can cut visible elements, and not all trimming is done with SEOs or the trim to roof command. This is most often seen by new users when they don’t yet understand layer intersection groups and priority numbers. Hidden elements on layers that don’t have their intersection groups set to zero can cut and merge with visible objects. While this is a common rookie mistake, it can

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