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

Creating rendered images

The techniques displayed so far mainly rely on regular projection and attributes. However, there is also a dedicated system for the generation of Photorealistic Images or Renderings. In fact, Archicad has always provided means to generate a 3D view with lighting and shadows. This really got a boost with the integration of the Cineware engine, which is borrowed from the Cinema 4D software by Maxon. This is a professional and dedicated visualization software, and Archicad has gained the whole rendering functionality to allow realistic lights, materials, shadows, textures, reflections, and the distribution of light using Global Illumination techniques.

This is where your computer will start using its full power to generate highly realistic images of your Archicad model.

Since Cineware is a very extensive system, we cannot cover all its details. Luckily for us, Graphisoft has decided to implement this using a preset system. You typically pick one of the presets...