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

Flat and sloped roof elements

Any building needs a roof. In Archicad, there are a few approaches to model roofs. For flat roofs, it is often more convenient to use the Slab tool, if you ignore the slight slope that an actual roof requires. In that case, you simply draw the contour and set an appropriate Composite Structure. For sloped roofs, this doesn’t work. In that case, you can use the dedicated Roof tool, which is also based on a contour but provides an additional slope angle.

Modeling a simple flat roof using a Slab

To create the flat roof above the ground floor, we can simply draw a Slab. As shown in the settings in the following figure, (1) we select the default Flat Roof Composite from the Composites > Exterior folder in the popup. Note that (2) the Reference Plane property of the roof is set at the top of the Composite, with a negative offset (-150) relative to the Home Story property (3) to comply with common detailing for roof levels in coordination with...