Learn how to total up areas of exterior walls, doors & windows based on orientation for energy analysis - creating a custom Orientation property, defining a custom schedule, and setting up a Graphic Override to check if everything is tagged consistently and completely.
MasterTemplate, now in its 14th year of continuous development, embeds my celebrated Best Practices methods directly into the Archicad file structure, helping you take advantage of the full power and speed of the program.
I want to thank Archicad user Richard Morrison for showing me this idea, and encouraging me to adapt and include it into MasterTemplate. Great ideas should be shared!
Wherever you are on the journey towards ARCHICAD mastery, I'm pretty sure you want to continue to learn and improve your skills and optimize your workflow so that you can derive the maximum benefit from this amazing tool.
That's exactly what I want for YOU - and all other ARCHICAD users.
This month I am running a special "Master ARCHICAD!" event.
I'm producing a bunch of new free video tutorials to share with the community. AND I'm putting all of my products on sale.
A BIG sale. It's going to be "Black Friday - all month long!"
NEW ARCHICAD VIDEO TUTORIALS
Over the next few weeks, I'll be producing a new series of 7 free video tutorials, tentatively titled:
ARCHICAD Design/Views 1: Sketches & Construction Docs
ARCHICAD Design/Views 2: Con Docs & Presentations
ARCHICAD Design/Views 3: Quick Studies of Surface Finishes
ARCHICAD Design/Views 4: Cutaways and 3D Documents
ARCHICAD Design/Views 5: Framing in 2D and 3D
ARCHICAD Design/Views 6: From Composites to Profiles
ARCHICAD Design/Views 7: Progressive Detailing Using Profiles
This is going to be fun. Lots of quick tips and tricks, and examples you can use. Short videos (for me) - I'm aiming for 5 to 15 minutes each.
I'll even be including cool downloads to make it easy to do some of these tricks.
BLACK FRIDAY - ALL MONTH LONG
Help yourself to some bargains on ARCHICAD training and on MasterTemplate.
This is the first in a new series of QuickStart lessons, totally revamped and up to date. The QuickStart Course is my training on ARCHICAD basics, available for purchase at https://acbestpractices.com/quickstart (separately or a part of my Best Practices Course).
The original version is the most popular ARCHICAD video tutorial to date with 676,000 views on my YouTube channel. Created in 2011, it’s helped thousands of users get familiar with the working environment of the program.
I share the first several videos from the QuickStart Course on YouTube as my contribution to the ARCHICAD community. I look forward to helping a new generation of users with the new series!
I’m continuing my series of free videos on ARCHICAD 21 Stairs and Railings. This 19 minute tutorial is focused on three common options for stair balustrades that require subtle adjustments of settings to achieve.
NOTE: You can still sign up for my full ARCHICAD Stairs & Railings Course for half price on this page: http://bobrow.com/stairs.
I couldn’t resist Colorado architect Steve Nickel’s challenge: build his custom-designed spiral stair with the new ARCHICAD 21 tools.
It seemed straightforward, but as with so many things, led me down uncharted pathways to figure out how to make everything work.
In this new 65 minute ARCHICAD tutorial video, I distilled dozens of hours of exploration, testing and optimization into a tightly scripted, step by step training that goes over methods applicable to a wide variety of stairs.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, GAME ON!
The challenges started with the fact that while ARCHICAD can easily make a spiral stair, it refuses to go past 360 degrees. This stair has 13 treads at 30 degrees, a total of 390. I settled pretty quickly on creating two separate elements that aligned to look like one continuous spiral.
Then came the question of attaching the railing: could it be one railing that spanned both stair elements? After some experimentation, I found this could be done surprisingly easily, as long as you set up the stairs in the correct way. (Hint: Set both stairs to start with a riser, and end with a riser, to make the railing continue in a smooth curve.)
Creating custom treads, balusters and newel posts each had a learning curve, as I tested different options until I mastered the key controls. Making the 2D symbols read cleanly was an interesting process, as I found literally dozens of different settings that allowed finessing the graphic appearance.
Now almost everything seems straightforward to me, as the tools that Graphisoft programmed usually work elegantly and give fine control of the model and symbol. However this 65 minute video moves along briskly, with few wasted motions or superfluous explanations, which may be evidence that these tools require extensive study to learn and master.
ARCHICAD MEANS AND METHODS
Topics and methods covered in this tutorial include:
Defining the precise geometry of the stair
Choosing a basic structure and finish for the schematic model
Aligning two spiral stairs to go beyond 360 degrees
Adding an associated railing to both stairs in one step
Calculating the pattern dimension and baluster spacing
Reworking the floor plan symbol; tread numbering, break line, description
Creating a custom tread; understanding coordinate references
Defining a custom baluster using an outline in the profile editor
Changing base and top heights of balusters and posts
Creating a custom newel post using a set of modeled elements
Defining a similar, more versatile newel using the profile editor
Swapping the new stair and railing into place using the Renovation filter
Please add your comments or questions below or send an email to support (at) bobrow.com.
As always, I wish you the best on your journey towards ARCHICAD mastery, and am always happy to help!
HOW TO SHORTEN YOUR ARCHICAD LEARNING CURVE
TIP:If you’d like to shorten your learning curve, and be able to design, model and document stairs and railings with fluidity and efficiency, I invite you to check out my new ARCHICAD Stairs & Railings Course.
