You all know I love user groups. I’m not involved with this one, but Patrick May is. I’m a huge Patrick May fan. You should be familiar with Patrick and the blog he runs.
Happy Sunday. Day 17. Post 17. I won’t make a full month where the total number of posts equals the total number of days in the month. Especially not this month. Soon I’ll be heading to Wyoming for a few days, to the land of horrible internet connections and a house with no Wi-Fi… That many posts is a horrible goal anyways. It’s just about numbers, not content. Fortunately there’s
Why should you be paying attention? Because of the WHO doing the comparing. Scott Mackenzie, BIM Manager at Stantec, is doing his own head-to-head comparison based on his extensive personal experience. The first post definitely reads as if it’s being written more for himself than for us. Which is awesome and very interesting. I hope he keeps it up and ignores any comments that disagree with his assessment. There’ll be time
Level of Development or Level of Detail (depending on how you define LOD) is a super fascinating concept. And ultra-critical to functioning intelligently in BIM. It’s not a be-all, end-all answer to success in BIM, but an awareness of the development and certainty of the information in BIM greatly benefits communication. And Communication is at the heart of good collaboration (foreshadowing). Instead of me writing more tonight, I’ll stop and
The traditional paths for a bright-eyed go-getter were virtually non-existent; both design opportunities and client interactions were meager and sparse.
I just want to make sure you have all read this and that there’s a link from my blog to it. How I wish I had written it! And today seems like a good time to link to it because I haven’t gotten around to cleaning up one of the 150+ partially written blog posts I have that need publishing. Tonight or tomorrow. I just need to design a mini-golf
I’ll use Post 300 as an opportunity to look ahead to the coming year. I’ll be honest. I want to hit 1,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube this year. And then 1,000 on the remaining two in 2014. It’s not going to be easy. As of January 2nd, 2013, I was at 557, 466, and 300 respectively. To reach that target, it’ll mean a LOT of content generation this
I read a lot of things that annoy me. It’s hard not to. Thanks Twitter. You’re really helping me out. Sometimes I get smart and stop following people who write too much that frustrates me. I’m also doing my best to just unfollow people who only tweet boring stuff. On an overly personal note I also went through and unfriended about 30% of my Facebook friends recently because seriously do
Last week was Thanksgiving in the United States. My wife, daughters, and I drove down to Texas to visit family, friends, and do some business (the benefits of partnering with your best friend). So my time to write was severely limited. In fact I told myself I’d skip the week and not post. It’d be my first off week in 2 1/2 years. I nearly failed. I wrote most of
Do you know how to create these two images in ArchiCAD? Clink on the images or the links to read posts I wrote for BIM Engine that talk more in depth about each. With a little bit of knowledge and template set-up both are very easy to do–and they are a great leap forward for what our documents can be. Evolution of an Elevation Adding Legibility to Details
ArchiCAD 16-FIN — three wishes granted So this is a long review, but it’s great and worth the time to read. Severi Virolainen, the author of the article and CEO at M.A.D. (publisher of ArchiMAG and Graphisoft Reseller for Finland), isn’t shy about sharing the good and bad of ArchiCAD 16. No surprise, he’s overall very positive. But he doesn’t pull his punches. Here’s two of my favorite parts: ArchiCAD’s
This post on Stefan Boeykens’ blog is a must read for all of us interested in BIM. It’s a great list of 10 tips for using BIM during the early phases of projects. Think about it. We’ve all seen the diagram below. It’s that first part where we architects have the most say, have the most fun, and can do the most good. What’s my favorite tip? What’s the clear proof
A former coworker of mine at SALA Architects introduced me to The Avett Brothers’ music a few years ago. I’ve since become a huge fan. They recently came out with a new album on September 11th and I bought it right away. Being fairly exhausted and worn out from my life these past few years, I find that working 8-10 hrs a day is difficult. And while I’m horrible at
There are a few things that really get my blood boiling. This for instance. Here’s another: People talking about how Architecture is like Jazz enrages me. I HATE when people make this comparison. I want to ask, okay so you say architecture and jazz are kindred spirits? Are you both an architect and a jazz musician? No? Then shut the fuck up. So here’s the thing. I am both an
So this Michael Graves New York Times opinion article has been making the rounds. I would like to state here that his argument is BULLSHIT. We should all be up in arms that this is how our profession is being represented to the general public. Michael Graves’ lack of comprehension and ability with computers neither proves nor justifies such a disservice to our community. How do his views help? How
Remember my recent ArchiCAD Heroes post? In it, I mentioned my five favorite posters on the ArchiCAD-Talk Forum. If you haven’t taken the time to start searching out their posts and learning from their experience, that’s okay. In time I hope you will. One of those top five, Djordje Grujic, wrote an article for Architectural Evangelist. In the article he talks about the mind-set and decisions required to make the
When I quit my day job in February, I started living off To-Do lists. Some items were minor: go to Target, do the laundry, e-mail the neighbors. Most where things related to my daily work life: write two blog posts, updated the LinkedIn profile, record more videos. And some where a little more grand: chase work with my blood brother* David, write a book, get Shoegnome mentioned on ArchDaily… Well
At the end of last year, an ex-colleague of mine and I — after 18 and 12 memorable years spent at Graphisoft — decided to carry on with the work we did as GDL fans in our former workplace with heart and hand. Since we established our new company, many friends have asked what manuBIM means Well, it’s not an unknown deap-sea animal —as we usually say 🙂 — but parametric
Here’s Part 2E of my series on Work Environments. Why 2E and not part 6? Well the plan is to do a Part 3, 4, 5, etc. that has nothing to do with the tangent started in Part 2 (ie, sharing everyone’s work environments). Have you read Part 1, Part 2A, Part 2B, Part 2C, and Part 2D yet? Does the name Scott H MacKenzie sound Familiar? It should. Last week
There are a lot of places to look for ArchiCAD jobs, but usually the positions are scattered among a whole variety of other opportunities. So it pays to keep an eye on local AIA boards, craigslist, the Archinect job board (when you click on this link make sure to add the keyword “ArchiCAD”), etc. And on many sites you can filter the job postings by keywords; searching the jobs on
At BIMstop we like to think big. We’ve come from humble beginnings and credit our growth and development to our engaged user base, such as the dedicated followers of this blog. Our service enables Architects and Specifiers to connect with the Manufacturer specific 3D BIM model of their choice, meaning less time searching and more time designing. Our vision is to be the helping hand when dealing with anything BIM
Since the release of ArchiCAD 15 I’ve enjoyed using the shell tool–more for it’s ability to be reshaped in 3D, plan, section, and elevation than its crazy form-making opportunities. BIMES has created a 4 minute video that highlights how impressive and versatile the shell tool is and I am just blown away. Enjoy. This video originally came from a blog post by BIMES that explains the origin and reasoning behind this
A very good article about how local Minnesota firm Wilkus Architects uses ArchiCAD. This is definitely worth a read. Great images too.
This case study is awesome. It makes me think of a future where all our cities are digitally modeled and managed. One more reason to love Scotland and the area around Glasgow. And ArchiCAD too. As if my wife needed one more reason to want to spend more time in Scotland. And I’m not arguing. So if anyone who’s reading this is part of STRATHCLYDE FIRE AND RESCUE, let me
Eric Bobrow has a lot of great free videos; he’s recently posted a bunch of new ones on his website that highlight his 7 Keys to Best Practices for ArchiCAD. But my favorite one is still his terrain modeling video. The technique he shares around minute six has come up a lot recently (not only in my own work and that of my coworkers, but also in the work of
When I started this blog, I looked to one place for inspiration: James Murray’s www.onland.info. Last week James left a comment on my blog. Much like when I got comments from Finith Jernigan and Link Ellis, I was super excited and honored. It’s nice to know many of my ArchiCAD and BIM heroes are aware of what I’m doing. In his comment, James included a link to a blog post
Miguel Krippahl has been blogging about ArchiCAD since October 2006. Back then I’d been using ArchiCAD for only 9 months. Miguel has decided that after blogging for so long, the BIMx competition is a turning point. If his readers don’t help him win by liking his entry, he’s going to stop blogging. If no one is willing to make the gesture, then his blog isn’t having a significant impact on
Of e-mails and iPads Have you had a chance to read all the great articles about architecture-related iPad apps on ArchiCADmonkey? There are a ton of apps out there and more being announced everyday (I haven’t forgotten about you OrthoGraph). All those articles and a fortuitous e-mail from a friend in the Netherlands convinced me to enter the BIMx competition that Graphisoft is running and hopefully win myself an iPad
CADspeed has two articles on their blog about ArchiCAD and computer performance. They are both quick reads and well worth it. I will now be sending people to read both these articles when they ask me about upgrading ArchiCAD and their machines or tell me things like “I don’t do much modeling, why do I need to upgrade from ArchiCAD 7 to ArchiCAD 15?” http://cadspeed.wordpress.com/tag/archicad/
Okay that title was both lame and a stretch. But whatever. This isn’t about my attempts for humor and continuity with the previous post, it’s about Eric Bobrow and all his ArchiCAD offerings. And he wants to and will make ArchiCAD easier for you. Eric Bobrow is fast approaching his 500th licensed client using Master Template. Congratulations Eric! That’s huge. To celebrate this milestone he’s offering both discounts AND incentives.
By now you’ve probably been told to read the recent AECbytes article Viktor Várkonyi, CEO of Graphisoft, on cloud computing as it relates to the AEC industry. If you haven’t, it’s a good read. Two things caught my eye. At first I thought it was going to be an article by Zolna Murray who writes the DebunkTheBIM. But it’s not; just a coincidental title. Too bad. I was excited that
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
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
Last week I tweeted (@https://shoegnome.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/1d-2d-3d-intersection.webp) and posted on facebook (www.facebook.com/https://shoegnome.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/1d-2d-3d-intersection.webp) a link to an old post I did. Here it is. It was a short post about two things. There were some great tips from the ArchiCAD Forum. Real little gems that have increased my effectiveness in ArchiCAD tremendously. I can’t believe I lived without these tricks for so many years. Go back to the old post, follow the links,
Many of us will be downloading ArchiCAD 15 in a few days. In preparation, read this very exciting in depth look at ArchiCAD 15 from Architosh.
Or at least you better. No one should be running ArchiCAD 6.5 on Windows 2000. It just doesn’t make sense. And it is a huge loss of value and wasted effort. No one should have to deal with plotmaker ever again. Ever. There is just no acceptable argument as to why someone would still want to use it. A few weeks ago, my brother Mike sent me a link to
Nice interview with Christopher “Kit” Johnson AIA, LEED AP, CNU of Texas firm, Architecture 365, Inc. If only Amanda Drury could have mentioned ArchiCAD (which is what Chris used) instead of arbitrarily name dropping Revit and Autodesk a few times. It’s a short interview. Watch it and read a bit more about it on the official Graphisoft Blog.
If you use ArchiCAD and have the internet, you probably know about Eric Bobrow’s Best Practices Course. I talked a bit about it in this earlier blog post. Since that post, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the course and Eric has also posted more free videos. Registration has opened up and will stay open until the 9th of March. Looks like a great course and a very
Every day Cadimage posts a tip on their blog. Every day. Some are specific to their products, but many are little gems for everyone. The tip from March 1st is a great example of one of these hidden treasures for the masses. Why did I never know you could reposition the camera in the 3D projection settings (perspective settings)? I knew I could change the camera in the 3D project
A good article from Green Building Pro on the future of IFC, BIM, and the promised land of real model sharing. Take the time to read it.
Many of you have probably heard of Eric Bobrow. He’s the guy behind ArchiCAD Master Template. Eric was a major Graphisoft reseller for 21 years and is now focused on improving our ArchiCAD skills. Eric has put together a new online training course on the most effective methods for working in ArchiCAD. In a recent article, AECBytes Tips and Tricks #56, he goes over his 7 Keys to Best Practices
Okay. Time to learn GDL. Check out Rabbit Hole Falling into GDL. It’s a new blog with a beautiful name by ArchiCAD-Talk regular Erich. It was started just last month (January 2011). There are only 3 posts so far, but they are good and clear. I’m not sure I could handle more than a few blog posts a month about GDL. My brain might explode. I need to start using
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.
There are some other very interesting things going on in the ArchiCAD blogosphere. Graphisoft has a growing list of blogs devoted to ArchiCAD here. Don’t want to sift through all that? Here’s three to look at first: http://www.thebimr.com/ This blog focuses on the experiences of someone in Amsterdam who is migrating his firm from AutoCAD to ArchiCAD. This should be an interesting blog to watch in the coming months. http://www.archicadmonkey.com/
