Production

Flexible, Fast and Functional – A Review of Master Script’s Total Keynote

This guest post is by David Jefferis. “Someone finally made a good keynote object.” The reaction by a former co-worker sums up my feelings about the new Total Keynote object by Master Script. The object has a deep level of functionality and easily conforms to any graphic style or working method. In addition to describing and analyzing the object (note, it’s NOT an add-on), I will also explain how the

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TWO videos on Complex Profiles

Tonight I recorded two videos. Making these videos reminds me of how I first learned ArchiCAD. I spent a fair amount of time sitting behind one of my coworkers, just watching him work. It was very enlightening. And as I rewatch my videos, I notice a bunch of little techniques that I take for granted, but are probably as enlightening as the main focus of the video. The first video

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THREE graphic shortcuts for Sections and Interior Elevations

Over the past year and a half of blogging I’ve had many small ArchiCAD tips and tricks that I wanted to share, but could never find the proper way to write about them. The aggregate of these tricks help me to easily problem solve within ArchiCAD and produce the quality drawings I desire, but these techniques don’t readily lend themselves to a blog post of a few hundred words. They

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Zumbro Zen

I’m particularly proud of this project. It’s the Star Tribune’s Home of the Month for September 2011 and is going to be on the Homes By Architects Tour in Minnesota on September 17th and 18th, 2011. I did the drawings back in late 2008 on ArchiCAD 11. You probably won’t see my name in the articles. I wasn’t the lead designer. But I https://shoegnome.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/1d-2d-3d-intersection.webpd the project. I often join projects

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CADspeed talks Computer Performance & ArchiCAD

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/

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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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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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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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Conditional Operators… aka Graphic Operators… aka POST 100

(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

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