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

Modeling tools in general

We are almost ready to start modeling on our own. While Archicad has a huge set of modeling commands, they all behave quite similarly and are structured the same way. Once you can model a linear element, such as a wall, it is not difficult to apply the same methods to create a beam, and you will see similarities between both tools with the basic 2D Line Tool. And after you have learned how to draw a slab, roofs and fills use the same approach, as their geometry is all contour-based.

Here are a few common behaviors or methods, which are available for many tools:

  • Archicad distinguishes between Default settings and Selection settings in the Info Box. The properties displayed in the Info Box are either those from the currently selected element (Selection settings) or, if no element is selected, the setting that will be used for the next element you create (Default settings). Each tool remembers the last settings that were used, and these become the...