Is ArchiCAD not acting properly? Object movement or 3D navigation is sluggish. The cursor keeps disappearing. Have you tried turning it off and on again? My brother is in IT and I’ve learned it’s a truism of computers. Don’t just close the file. Close down ArchiCAD. Restart your computer even. If ArchiCAD suddenly starts acting weird, 90% of the time this is the solution. Computers get weird. I swear there
Micro Aided Design, the Graphisoft Reseller in Finland, has a really cool Add-On for ArchiCAD. They actually have a couple, but Zonematic really stands out. It will create zones from a text file–which from a programing and planning standpoint is just awesome. They have both an English and a Finnish version. You can read more about it and download it for free here.
I like adding 3D views of the major facades on my cover sheets. I first did this about 3 years ago using the sketch rendering engine. I knew it was a good move when in a client meeting we hardly left the cover sheet while discussing the exterior of the house. I use 11_Tech_Pencil and turn down all the noise settings to zero. It makes a nice black and white
History lesson. My two favorite changes between version 9 and version 10 where the merging of Plotmaker into ArchiCAD and the arrival of multiple pen sets. There is a lot of power and utility with multiple pen sets. At SALA Architects, I use 6 pen sets on a standard project. In this post I’m going to discuss the basics of two: one pen set, with colors: STANDARD (COLOR) one pet
December must have been the month of old files. I’ve had a few people ask me about opening up ancient projects. If you want to open a file from before v8.1 and only have v14 installed (I’m pretty sure even v11 can’t open anything older), there is a solution. You can download a free file converter that is an updated pre-installed older version of ArchiCAD. With the file converters you
My wife and I were watching Baking with Julia tonight. The episode co-starred Bread Machine Wizard Lora Brody of West Newton, Massachusetts. Julia Child, a bread machine skeptic, had a killer quote: You’re the boss of the machine It’s a wonderful mantra for ArchiCAD (Revit, Vectorworks, or any BIM program) and makes a great lead into my first post.
There are a couple ways to hang a picture in an ArchiCAD project. There is an object which I can never find in the library when I look for it. There’s also the object mentioned in this forum post. My preferred solution is to place a wall that is as wide, deep, and high as the desired frame (say 2′-11 1/2″ x 4′-8″ x 1″). Then place a niche into
Aligning 3D textures in ArchiCAD should be easier. It needs to be done in 3D and this can be tricky if you don’t have a node in the right place to snap to. Sometimes I’ll make a temporary object or one that will stay invisible to have a point to click to if the texture starts in a weird spot, or if I want a lot of textures to all
This AECBytes article by Thomas M. Simmons of ARCHIVISTA is great. Material takeoffs are a lot easier and closer at hand than I thought. Worth a read. I have some experimenting to do.
