Book Image

A BIM Professional's Guide to Learning Archicad

By : Stefan Boeykens, Ruben Van de Walle
Book Image

A BIM Professional's Guide to Learning Archicad

By: Stefan Boeykens, Ruben Van de Walle

Overview of this book

A BIM Professional’s Guide to Learning Archicad is a comprehensive introduction to all that Archicad has to offer for creating 3D models, 2D document extracts, and related outputs. This book is not a click-by-click series of recipes, but rather focuses on helping you understand why and how Archicad works by providing realistic examples and expert tips. The book gradually introduces you to Archicad tools using ample examples. It then helps you master its complexity through clear modules, allowing you to start your first project quickly, gain useful skills in subsequent projects, and keep using the book as a source for insights into the software. You’ll start with the basic modeling of construction elements and then move on to adding roofs, stairs, and objects to the project. Next, you’ll dive into basic drafting and 2D views for creating 2D output, and grasp how to use attributes and more advanced modeling tools for designing curtain walls and sites. The concluding chapters will show you how to extract and visualize your data and automate the publishing of your extracts and 2D documents into a variety of output formats. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a solid understanding of Archicad, how to implement it efficiently in your architectural projects, and how BIM can improve your overall design workflow.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Started with Archicad – Project Setup and Essential Modeling Tools for Your First Residential Project
9
Part 2: Becoming an Archicad Professional – Learn About Archicad Tools and Settings to Create and Publish Any Type of Project in Full Detail

Archicad priorities

Using the Composites we created in the previous section, Advanced Composite Walls, Slabs, and Roofs, opens up a lot of new possibilities for more detailed construction documents. How different elements connect, however, also becomes increasingly complex. To learn how this works, we have to dive into one of Archicad’s settings that provokes great enthusiasm when starting out, followed by possibly some disappointment and frustration when you evolve your skills, and hopefully ending in a very efficient workflow once mastered: priorities. There are in fact four different types of priorities in Archicad, within a priority hierarchy. Arranged from highest to lowest priority within this hierarchy, these are as follows:

  • Layer Intersection Priority: Prevents or allows connections between elements on different layers
  • Building Material Priority: Regulates the connections between different elements based on the Building Materials used in these elements and...