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New ArchiCAD Video Tutorial: Tracker Tricks

ArchiCAD’s Tracker facilitates on-screen, on the fly entry of coordinates and dimensions. This 24 minute ArchiCAD tutorial video starts with the basics then demonstrates and explains cool time-saving tricks and methods used by ArchiCAD experts.

TIPS: If the video appears fuzzy, click the gear icon and choose HD; you can also switch to full-screen. NEW: Try adjusting the speed control to go through the video faster – I use this all the time.

TRACKER DISPLAY

In the default Work Environment settings, the Tracker automatically appears after you make the first click in a multi-click process. It displays your current cursor position relative to the Edit Origin, which is usually the previous click-point. In some cases this can be relative to the other end (or an adjacent node point) of an element you are editing.

When you draw a single wall or line (or a series of walls or lines), the Tracker will show the length and orientation of the element. When you draw a rectangle (of walls, lines, slab, roof, etc.) the Tracker will show two linear dimensions.

When you move an element or a set of elements, the Tracker shows the offset from the original point (i.e. how far you are moving it).

Except for preliminary sketch design, it is not advisable to rely on Tracker values when drawing with the mouse. The displayed accuracy is based on a combination of your current zoom factor and Working Units (which can be set in the Options menu > Project Preferences). For example, if your working units are set for 1/4”, then the Tracker will round dimensions to the nearest 1/4” and your potential error can be as much as 1/8”; this can cause issues in dimension strings later on.

To hide or show the Tracker click the Tracker button in the Toolbar. Hiding the Tracker may be helpful during annotation when precise distances or sizes are unnecessary.

To show the Tracker ALL the time, use the Options menu > Work Environment > Tracker and Coordinate Input > Show Tracker > Always. You can change this back to the default at any time.

TRACKER INPUT

Any time you can click the mouse to indicate a position or dimension, you can hit the Enter key instead of clicking the mouse. This allows you to carefully position the mouse, then use the keyboard to confirm the location. This may be helpful if your hand isn’t totally steady, and you find that sometimes the mouse position jumps as you click.

Alternatively, you can enter information into the Tracker to specify a precise dimension, then click Enter to confirm and essentially “click” at the computed location.

The Tracker always has a highlighted input field displayed in bold text. Simply type in a numeric value, and it will be entered into that field. Hit the Enter key on the keyboard to complete the operation.

For rectangular dimensions, one field will be highlighted. Type in…

NOTE: I’ve written up a 5 page PDF as a quick reference guide to the ArchiCAD Tracker, which I’d love to send you. Simply click the button below and tell me where to send it, and you’ll have it in your inbox within a few minutes.

[thrive_leads id=’2613′]

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ArchiCAD 20 News and Training

Empowering and Educating Users Via
Professional Courses and Free Tutorials

As you probably know, ArchiCAD 20 was released last week here in the U.S. and in several other countries.

It brings a sparkling new interface with a raft of new features and optimization of existing functionality.

CELEBRATING ARCHICAD 20

To celebrate ArchiCAD 20, I’ll be running a special MASTER ARCHICAD promotion through August 20, with deep discounts on all of my training products as well as pre-release pricing on MasterTemplate 20 upgrades and new licenses.

As the first step, I launched an online ArchiCAD 20 Upgrade Training on Thursday July 7.

It’s designed to help you hit the ground running and take advantage of the enhanced workflow for new projects as well as the most seamless methods for migrating projects forward.

This is the first of 4 Masters of ArchiCAD Training Courses for 2016.

At the end of this post, I’ll also share with you some goodies, including a FREE Guest Pass for two of the most interesting presentations from the recent Masters of ArchiCAD Summit 2016.

ARCHICAD USER STUDY

Recently I conducted a survey of about 600 ArchiCAD users to help me understand the most important challenges facing each of you. From that study, I have come up with a plan for tutorials and training for the second half of 2016 to help you Master ArchiCAD and get the most out of this powerful software.

Here is an interesting graphic that illustrates the answers to the survey question “What is your biggest challenge when using ArchiCAD?” The size of each word is based on the number of times it was referenced.

MASTERS OF ARCHICAD TRAINING SERIES

I taught a 4 week online ArchiCAD 20 Upgrade Training course in July; this will be followed by a 4 week course on ArchiCAD Office Standards and Templates. The courses are made up of a 60 – 90 minute session each week, delivered live through GoToWebinar and recorded for convenient reference in the member website.

From September through November, we’ll have two 6 week courses (schedules to be announced), one on Quantity Calcs and Cost Estimation, the other on Advanced 3D Modeling. These courses will be taught by experts who presented at the recent Masters of ArchiCAD Summit.

For more info and to sign up for any or all of the Masters of ArchiCAD 2016 series of training courses at special discounted pricing through August 20, please visit the MASTER ARCHICAD sales page.

Earlier courses from the Masters of ArchiCAD 2015 series as well as the Summit 2015 and Summit 2016 conferences are also on sale.

MASTERTEMPLATE 20

MasterTemplate, the Office Standard for ArchiCAD, embeds best practices principles into the structure of the project file to speed your work and improve the quality and consistency of your projects. With each new version of ArchiCAD, MasterTemplate is upgraded to provide full compatibility as well as additional features and functionality.

MasterTemplate 20 will be released in the second half of July. Pre-release pricing is available through August 20 for both upgrades and new licenses of MasterTemplate.

QUICKSTART AND BEST PRACTICES COURSES

My QuickStart Course is one of the best ways to get up to speed quickly with ArchiCAD. Originally created for ArchiCAD 15, I will be producing a brand new version this year, highlighting the new ArchiCAD 20 interface and working tools.

The Best Practices Course is one of the most comprehensive training resources for ArchiCAD available anywhere, with well over 100 hours of carefully organized curriculum. I plan to review the training videos and create new ones for ArchiCAD 20 wherever it will be helpful. In addition, I’ll be adding both of my new courses: ArchiCAD 20 Upgrade and ArchiCAD Office Standards and Templates, to the Best Practices Course.

Anyone who purchases QuickStart or Best Practices in 2016 will get free access to the AC20 lessons; upgrade pricing will be available for people who signed up earlier.

In addition, during the MASTER ARCHICAD sale, both QuickStart and Best Practices will be offered for a substantial discount.

FREE ARCHICAD TUTORIALS AND PRESENTATIONS

I plan to create a new series of short videos that I’ll share on my ArchiCAD Tutorials YouTube channel, which recently achieved a couple of milestones: 15,000+ subscribers and 2.4 Million Views. I’ll announce these new tutorials as they become available over the next few months.

As a final treat, I’m making available for a limited time a Masters of ArchiCAD 2016 Guest Pass, allowing you to catch three cool presentations from the 2015 and 2016 Summit conferences with my compliments.

One is a talk by veteran designer Chris Ellis, a graduate of my Best Practices Course. Chris shares how he works “live” inside ArchiCAD in design charrettes with clients and pre-sales meetings with prospective clients. His refined methodology wins him more business and saves a huge amount of time during the design process. His hour-long presentation is accompanied by a 30 page PDF guide with practical notes and checklists that he produced especially for the Summit.

You’ll also get to watch an impressive case study by New Jersey architect Andrew Passacantando from the 2015 Summit. He does amazing work with ArchiCAD on very complex and beautifully designed residential projects with intricate details including ornate mouldings, staircases, turrets and roof planes (see screenshot of his ArchiCAD model).

With the Guest Pass, you’ll also get my ArchiCAD Speed Tricks and Shortcuts mini-class, which may just help you push your working speed up an extra notch.

Click here to grab your free Masters of ArchiCAD Guest Pass. You’ll get an automatic email giving you access to the three Masters presentations, and you can watch them at your convenience.

I’ll be back with more news soon!

Eric

P.S. Have any comments? Constructive feedback? Ideas?
Drop me a line – I’m all ears!
Or post a comment on the Master ArchiCAD sales page.

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The Masters of ArchiCAD 2016 Summit Explained – Themes, Topics, Program Info

People are calling this week’s Masters of ArchiCAD Summit the online ArchiCAD event of the year.

It’s our second annual virtual conference featuring presentations by a dozen ArchiCAD veterans from around the world.

These are users who design buildings, create models, produce construction documents, and deal with clients.

Just like you, only a bit further down the road, perhaps.

So…what’s in it for you?
Why should you care?
What’s this all about?

In this post I’ll tell you!

The Masters of ArchiCAD Summit is a unique, “can’t miss” event for all passionate ArchiCAD users. It’s absolutely worth your time to watch these webinar sessions, either live on Thursday and Friday (see schedule below), or later as recorded videos.

First of all…

Masters of ArchiCAD Summit is made for YOU if…

• You want to get the most out of ArchiCAD
• You get excited when you learn how something tricky and/or time consuming can be done more easily and quickly
• You know your 3D model could be taken further
• You aspire to deliver higher quality documents that make construction go smoothly
• You aim for continual improvement; “good enough” isn’t good enough for you
• ArchiCAD is a key competitive advantage that helps you win projects

THEMES AND TOPICS FOR SUMMIT 2016

I’ve carefully selected presenters who push ArchiCAD to the limits. Not necessarily in terms of exotic architecture (although a few of them do projects that are pretty “far-out”), nor in terms of size (most work on smaller projects), nor materials.

However all of them drive this tool hard, and make it deliver the goods. In general, they’ve figured out how to make it perform like a precision instrument, carrying their design firm to success, making clients happy and actually having some fun themselves.

Here are some of the themes that we’ll be exploring during the Summit:

• CONCEPTUAL DESIGN – making conceptual design more fluid, efficient and flexible (Yanes, Gilchrist, Haynes, Horvath)
• DATA AND COLLABORATION – leveraging data / building information flow / improving collaboration (Hopkins, Ball, Lettner, Matthews)
• WORKFLOW AND SPEED – optimizing project workflow and speed of delivery – (Hohman, Matthews, Lawes, Bobrow, Horvath)
• CLIENT COMMUNICATION – creative adaptations of tools and methods (Horvath, Haynes, Hohman, Gilchrist, Allsopp)
• PUSHING THE LIMITS – cutting edge tools and ideas (Allsopp, Ball, Hopkins)

The Masters of ArchiCAD Summit will inspire you and teach you practical methods that you can take back to the office. It’s an event AND it’s a reference library of case studies, tips and tricks, and eye-opening peeks behind the curtain and over the shoulder of these veterans.

CLICK HERE for advance price tickets at half-price
(Only $147 through Wednesday night)

Hey – what if you can’t fit this in to your schedule?
Or can only watch a little bit this week?

No problem.
Sign up now and you’ll get permanent access to the video recordings.

MASTERS OF ARCHICAD SUMMIT SCHEDULE

(ALL TIMES PST / LOS ANGELES = GMT – 8)

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4

9 am – Phil Allsopp, USA
Using Point Cloud Files from Laser Surveys for As-Built Data

10:30 am – Gary Lawes, UK
Hacking GDL – Practical Parametric Object Making, Part 2

12 Noon – Timothy Ball, UK
IFC Automated Specifications and Keynotes

1:30 pm – Van Hohman, USA
Optimized Workflow and Client Communications for Remodels

3 pm – Eugenio Fontán Yanes, Hong Kong
From Concept to BIM: ArchiCAD Design Strategies

4:30 pm – Karoly Horvath, Australia
Managing Colour Schemes in ArchiCAD

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5

9 am – Ed Haynes, USA
ArchiCAD Design for Live Events, Restaurants and Theater

10:30 am – shawn B hopkins, South Africa
Using Data to Inform the ArchiCAD Design Workflow

12 Noon – Andreas Lettner, Austria
Collaborative Design with ArchiCAD BIM Server

1:30 pm – Duncan Gilchrist, USA
Concept Modeling: Complex Geometries and Large Projects

3 pm – Eric Bobrow, USA
ArchiCAD Speed Tricks, Shortcuts and Power Tools

4:30 pm – Rich Matthews, Australia
How to BIM an Indian Palace in Australia

Click here for complete information and registration for the Masters of ArchiCAD Summit.

REMINDER: The half-price advance ticket offer ends Wednesday night.

 

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Announcing Masters of ArchiCAD 2016 (YOUR INPUT REQUESTED)

The Masters of ArchiCAD Summit returns for a second year in 2016.

In February 2015, a dozen ArchiCAD experts from around the world shared their knowledge, insights and tips in the first Masters of ArchiCAD Summit, a virtual conference presented as a series of live webinar presentations over two full days.

Over 400 registrants attended live or watched the recordings, making this one of the biggest ArchiCAD events ever held.

The second annual Masters of ArchiCAD Summit will be held February 4 and 5, 2016. Some of the most popular presenters are returning to share their latest projects and experiences, along with a number of veteran users covering new topics.

Masters of ArchiCAD is a rare opportunity to peek into the working methods of experienced users, to help you learn and implement optimized strategies in your own office.

Each presenter brings their unique perspective to the virtual table, focusing on one or more projects or on a topic that they are passionate about. Topics in 2015 included rendering tips and tricks, creating custom parametric GDL objects, quantity calcs, IFC data exchange, modular design, optimized modeling, design-build, etc.

The entire community gets to see how ArchiCAD can be deployed in different contexts, often with distinct workflows as well as building sizes and styles.

There are a few spots left to fill for the 2016 event, so I’m opening this up for your input.

1) Would you like to present? (Note: Presenters receive a substantial honorarium.)

2) Want to nominate or suggest a possible presenter? It could be someone well-known to our global community, or not. Tell us about a colleague who is passionate about their work and pushes the limits of ArchiCAD!

3) Is there a topic you want to see included in the Summit? Your ideas and requests will help shape the final roster of presenters.

Please post your comments, ideas and suggestions here or send me an email with the words “Masters of ArchiCAD” in the subject line.

Details of the 2016 Summit program will be announced in January.

NOTE: To add a comment, click on the title of this article (“Announcing Masters of ArchiCAD 2016”) to go to the actual blog post, then scroll down to the bottom of the page.

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ArchiCAD CyberWeek Begins: Back to the Fundamentals (free tutorials plus some special deals)

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Black Friday.
And Cyber Monday.
But CyberWeek?

It’s an idea that I’ve put a lot of thought into.
As an ArchiCAD user, I think you’ll find this story of interest.

This week I’m sharing some free goodies (some of my best video tutorials on the fundamentals of ArchiCAD) as well as offering some tasty deals. Read on for details…

ADVANCED ARCHICAD TRAINING – IS THAT ALL?

I’ve created and produced plenty of highly advanced ArchiCAD training this year. Things like the Masters of ArchiCAD Summit, with 12 experts from around the world showing their work. And the Masters of ArchiCAD Training Series, 5 short courses on advanced topics. And my recent set of ArchiCAD video tutorials on YouTube, focused on IFC fields and specification reports.

Wow. Pretty heady stuff.

It’s inspiring and eminently practical if you’re already working productively with ArchiCAD and want to get an edge, optimize your process, shave minutes or hours off your daily routine.

However, for many of you, this advanced stuff is not that useful.
You need to work on your ArchiCAD fundamentals.

BACK TO THE FUNDAMENTALS

As I contemplated Cyber Monday, and the idea of creating a promotional offer on my ArchiCAD training materials and resources, all of a sudden it hit me.

It’s time to go back to the fundamentals of ArchiCAD.

Why?

There’s a whole new generation of ArchiCAD users.
Our ranks are increasing.

And there are a LOT of users who are just getting started, or just getting by.
Architects who have just bought ArchiCAD.
New staff members hired as firms get busy.

Note that it may not be an entirely new generation, age wise.

For example, I talked over the weekend with one white-haired FAIA who has been working with that “other BIM software” in his office, and now wants to learn ArchiCAD. Why? Because he’s heard that it’s going to be easier and more enjoyable for HIM to use.

I get a lot of requests for guidance from students. They write to me from all over the world, including quite a few from places I have to look up on a map.

They’ve seen my ArchiCAD tutorials on my YouTube channel. They know I have a kind heart, and a gentle way of explaining things. So they ask me questions, sometimes specific, sometimes just “please help me learn ArchiCAD.”

I asked myself: “What can I do to help?”

CYBERWEEK BEGINS WITH A NEW FREE TUTORIAL VIDEO EACH DAY

OK, so it’s a cute name (at least I think so). Instead of offering a special sale promotion for one day, Cyber Monday, let’s try it for a whole week. (This is just the beginning of my cunning plan.)

Instead of giving away an occasional video tutorial, every once in a while, I’m going to pull out of my vault some of my best training on ArchiCAD fundamentals and post a new one every day this week.

Each day I’ll post a new free tutorial, and I’ll also announce one or more new sale items. By the end of Cyber Week, we’ll see where we stand.

VIEWS AND LAYERS – ESSENTIAL (BUT CONFUSING) CONCEPTS

To start this out, I have uploaded to my YouTube channel an 11 minute video on View Settings, one of the essential concepts in ArchiCAD. Views are the primary way that you control your working environment for modeling and documentation, and layout out your drawings on sheets.

Over the years, I’ve seen lots of ArchiCAD users confused about the Project Map and the View Map. They look much the same to the new user. Some people even ask me “why do they have both of them – what’s the difference?”

A while back, I created a video on this topic and shared it on YouTube. If you haven’t watched it, I suggest that you check it out, to make sure you’re really clear on the differences and when you should use one versus the other:

Project Map vs. View Map

 

To kick off Cyber Week, I have just posted this video:

ArchiCAD FUNDAMENTALS Tutorial | Intro to View Settings

 

Over the next few days, I’ll post additional videos on:

– Layers and Layer Combinations
– Layer Management
– Clone Folders
– Advanced View Options

NOTE: These lessons are all pulled from from my Best Practices Course on ArchiCAD as my gift to you and all ArchiCAD users this week.

SO WHAT ARE THE “DEALS”? WE’LL START WITH ARCHICAD BASIC TRAINING

CyberWeek wouldn’t be worthy of the name if I didn’t offer some special pricing on my ArchiCAD training and template products.

To start the week out, let’s begin with ArchiCAD basic training. My QuickStart Course provides 29 easy-to-digest lessons totaling 13 hours of instruction. It’s designed to get a raw beginner up and running, comfortable with the ArchiCAD environment and able to produce a clean model and accurate drawings.

Many people have reported that they’ve gone through QuickStart in a weekend, or just a few days, then stepped into a new job at an office using ArchiCAD and been able to take direction and get going. It may not be a miracle, but QuickStart is probably the most effective way to get started as a new user, with my Best Practices principles incorporated throughout the teaching.

Normally this course retails for $197, but during Cyber Week, you can purchase the QuickStart Course for only $97, less than half price. After payment through our secure shopping cart via credit card or PayPal, you’ll get immediate access and can get started right away.

For even more value (and support) pick up the QuickStart Course bundled with 3 months of my ArchiCAD Coaching Program for only $144 (a savings of $150).

FYI – as a member of the ArchiCAD Coaching Program you’ll get my personal assistance on your ArchiCAD questions. You’ll get started right, and keep going strong with my help!

NOTE: These limited time offers are valid during CyberWeek, then disappear.

Eric

P.S. What’s the deal for tomorrow? It’s a surprise. Something I’ve never put on sale before. In fact, there are several goodies in tomorrow’s basket. Stay tuned!