I recently had to model a Queen Anne house in ArchiCAD to produce some renderings for a client. It was a ton of fun. And I learned some cool tricks while modeling the various trim and ornamentation. I have to admit, of all the things I’ve done in ArchiCAD, this model is my favorite. Unfortunately I can’t share images of the entire house until the overall project is completed later
As I was developing my BIMx competition entry, I tried to give each room or area in the file something special. There was the zombie soldier with the axe in his back walking towards the tank, the horde of zombies in the yard, the blackened trees, the ominous sky, the burned out upper story, the hole in the floor when you enter the master bathroom that drops you down to
My adventure started after finishing a bachelor in architecture and working in several architects’ offices. I found that drafting in 2D really annoyed me: First draw the floor plan, then the elevations, manually add in shadows… and then the architect changes the design and you start over again. Those painstaking hours of checking if the elevation matched the floor plan… If only there had been an ArchiCAD feature like Trace
Recent History Over the past few months I’ve made a couple of terrain models in ArchiCAD 14 and then exported them to SketchUp 8. At first this was done to figure out a way to collaborate with a fellow architect who is an avid SketchUp user. We both wanted to work in the program we knew best. After I modeled the first site it became evident that it was incredibly
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
(note: if you read this before 11 pm on Sunday June 19th, 2011, you should reread it as I’ve made some important updates) In many 2D drawings (whether done by hand or flatcad) parts of objects are left undrawn for clarity. Railings, for instance, are cut in front of elevations to better show what’s beyond. How do you do that in ArchiCAD without completely turning off the railing and adding
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
ArchiCAD, from my experience, doesn’t like making frameless doors. It seems so obvious, just set the frame dimensions to zero, press okay, and then go to lunch. Try again. If you go the simple route of setting the frame to zero, archicad will freak out. It might work in 3D, but you’ll get lots of error messages. I don’t like error messages. One solution is to make a custom door.
I model all the major elements in kitchens. However the detail across the kitchen is usually a mix of 2D and 3D. In one kitchen, 08113, we spent a lot of time working on two elevations with the client. We sent tons of 3D views similar to those below. Because of this, I modeled all the cabinet doors for about a dozen different variations. In contrast the island, which the
