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

Complete stair systems with railings

While we already know from Chapter 5, how a basic stair is set up, there still is a lot to learn about this complex architectural element. In this section, we will cover editing the shape, changing the 2D representation, and creating specific stairs as well as adding railings – safety first!

Editing the stair settings

Archicad’s Stair Tool is quite flexible – you can use it for a plain, straight stair, but it can contain multiple flights and landings and be controlled in depth.

In Chapter 5, we already explained the importance of the stair baseline and the contour. However, if you select a stair, you have two ways to control it – via its settings and graphically.

Using the Stair Settings dialog, you get an elaborate dialog, displaying the stair as a hierarchical system, which you can control top-down:

  • At the highest level, you control the main Stair setup, including Stair Height, Width, Risers, Goings...