Step 2 : Annotation and Data Extraction
A - Creating Sections & Elevations
Sections and Elevations (S/E) are both 2D views on the 3D model. They use the same tool in ArchiCAD. The nice thing about the Virtual Building
is the fact you can slice the 3D model to generate 2D drawings. This is fast and accurate and it will be correctly updated when the building model
changes. Moreover, when you open a Section or Elevation window in ArchiCAD, you can still edit the objects. Editing a door in the section
correctly updates the door in the full building model. This is extremely important and is one of the main advantages of using Building Information
Modeling.
S/E Tool
To create a section or an elevation, simply draw the section in the 2D Window using the S/E tool. You can draw the section line by clicking
start and end point in the plan view. Then you need to point to the view direction (the eye cursor). You can adjust this at any time.
Open the actual section view by rightclicking the section line or using the navigator (which is explained in more detail in step 3). In this 2D
view, you can select any object and access its settings. You can move objects, which is usefull to correctly position beams and windows
vertically.
By default, any S/E is linked to the full model, so reopening or refreshing the window updates it. This can take a while for larger projects and
it can be turned off if required, but unless you have a very good reason to do this, avoid breaking the link with the Virtual Building (or be
prepared to go back to the days of 2D drafting and making sure both drawings are correct).
You should try to model as much as possible in the full 3D model, but some things are easier to "fix" in 2D. When you don't need a full 3D
car, tree or person, you can as easily place 2D drawing objects in the section view to speed things up. But the primary use for S/E windows
is annotation: place reference dimensions, especially for all vertical elements that aren't easy to indicate in the 2D plan view.
The S/E Object has additional settings to define how the section will be generated. This includes line types to distinguish between elements
that are further off then others.
General
You can define an ID (short text) and a name (long text) to identify the section, which is necessary to give section drawings their title
automatically.
A section can be infinite or limited or even zero depth and can be limited vertically. A section is thus a cross-section of the geometry
and additional projection of the geometry on the view side of the section line. An elevation simply doesn't section the building (although it
might cut through the terrain or the surroundings).
Floor Plan (with line type, arrows and marker setings)
A section has a marker, which is a parametric GDL object and can be adjusted or even created from scratch to follow office layout. This
is further specified in the Marker and the Section Marker Styles rollup.
Sections and Elevations will usually use a different marker, but you can use them as you please.
Cut Elements define if the fill and pen will use the objects' settings or the section settings.
Model Effects can optionally activate additional display options for the projected model.
Fill Uncut Surfaces with Elements' Own Materials allows you to get a coloured S/E, which greatly increases the readability of a S/E,
especially for coloured plots.
Vectorial 3D Hatching adds the hatching on 3D objects, such as the brick pattern (which can take a long time to generate for complex
models)
Vectorial Sun Shadows adds a hatched polygon to show the shadow on the projected model (which greatly improves the legibility of
the S/E view)
Story Levels in Section will set the look and functionality of Story Levels, which allows you to graphically interact with the Story Levels in a S/E
window. You can turn it off, if you don't like their appearance and, frankly, the text layout has some serious alignment issues... Right-click in the
S/E window to access the options to edit them interactively.
With the following options, you can display the same S/E in a different way, without changing anything to the building model.
The editing in S/E Windows will be mostly adding text and dimensions and to verify and adjust the vertical position of elements.
Beware! The section above is usable, but is not a correct structural section through the building! It requires
some (serious) adjustments.
Which strategy to follow for the creation of correct sections
While this overview is not meant to teach construction detailing, you must not forget that you are still being trained as an architect and as an
engineer. The first steps might seem simple, but to create a correct section, additional care has to be taken...
The following picture illustrates a very common problem, for which students often fail to produce a correct solution.
The left side of this picture is what ArchiCAD produces by default when a floor and a wall intersect. The right side is what we have to create,
as an architect (and which is simulated in Photoshop). Unfortunately, this is a limitation in the software. At the time of writing it has not
been resolved, even though it was reported during the beta-test phases of ArchiCAD 11 and 12.
While the software provides an option to define priorities for the different skins in a composite structure, they are ignored with floors. This
output is unacceptable for our purposes (and will be checked in the assignment). There are a few scenarios to manage it; "workarounds" if
you wish.
Strategy 1: create everything separately
In older versions of ArchiCAD, walls were only visible on their home story. The common goal to create structurally correct building
models forced many users to create the outer and inner layers of a cavity wall as separate elements and to split up floors into separate
elements for finishing and core structure.
Advantages:
model exactly how you would build
clean sections without additional drawing work
stable
Disadvantages:
windows and doors are split into the frame and interior sill and another (empty) element with the opening, sill and header for the
outer leaf. This makes the default libraries almost unusable.
more modeling work. Changes are less easy to perform.
Strategy 2: use composite walls and composite floors
To make easier use of the Windows and Doors, we need to insert them into composite walls.
Advantages:
less modeling then with the first option
reuse all Door & Window objects as is
Disadvantages:
Required to use additional 2D drawing or Solid Element Operations or additional Beam Elements to create a correct section
For this example, one would have to draw the floor to the inner side of the wall and add a beam for the overlapping part, since beams
do cut holes in walls. When the beam uses the same material as the Core skin of the floor, they will be merged in a section.
Strategy 3: use composite walls, but still split the floors.
Here, the floors are still created as separate layers. This is, in our opinion, the best strategy.
Advantages:
less modeling then with the first option
reuse all Door & Window objects as is
Possible to create an (almost) correct section without any other action in the Section View
Disadvantages:
play with display order in the Section view to correctly let the floor stay on top of the walls.
More modeling then the second option
So how should correct sections be displayed then?
To summarize, the following picture shows you how the section should look. By default, ArchiCAD will display the picture in the middle. This
is not acceptable!
The left picture displays the section from a preliminary design phase. No need to display composite structures at a scale of 1:200 or even
1:100. Use the Model View Options to turn of the display of the layers in these composites.
The right side displays how the section should look at a more detailed phase: construction design, with scales from 1:100 down to 1:20. Use
the methods discussed above, to split up the floor structure and possibly use SEO to cut out the overlap between structural floor and wall.
3D Document (r12)
Since release 12, ArchiCAD includes the 3D Document. this is a new representation type, being a combination of the 3D Window and the 2D
Window. It is for the most part similar to a 2D Window such as the Section or Elevation window, since it derives from the 3D model to
generate a 2D Representation. You can use all normal annotation tools, such as text and dimensions.
However, it uses a 3D Viewpoint, rather than a top or frontal view, which allows it to show perspective or axonometric drawings.
And in contrast with the 3D Window, composite structures and surface hatching are visible. If you combine this with proper Marquee
sections, you can create 3D details or construction drawings. Dimensions are aligned to the geometry.
You can not orbit around the model, but you can regenerate the view at any time and even redefine the viewpoint.
This works also nicely with the Partial Structure Display.
Partial Structure Display
Using this view option, you can hide the finish and the non-core parts of composite structure elements. E.g. display only the concrete
structure of walls and floors, for the structural engineering drawings.
Document > Partial Structure Display...
[...ADD PICTURE...]
Interior Elevations (Tool / Document > Document Extras > Interior Elevation)
This is a tool that allows you to choose an elevation marker, place it in a room (you need to have a Zone defined) and then generate four
projected views from that position. There are settings to control placement on the drawing, pen and text, but overall it's easy to use. The tool
is not as integrated in the rest of ArchiCAD as regular S/E tools.
B - Creating Details
Detail Drawings let you focus on any particular part of your Virtual Building and show an up-close, detailed view. Detail Drawings can
be generated from any part of the Floor Plan or Section/Elevation windows, or else drawn by hand ( independent details ). Detail
Drawings are displayed in a dedicated Detail Drawing Window. (From the manual)
You create a Detail with the Detail Tool. You can adjust the settings, such as Marker and Name and then draw an outline to define which fragment
you want to elaborate in the detail window.
Details which are created from the project use the model as an initial drawing, which means that the model is translated into a series of linework
and fills. At any time, the detail can be refreshed to reflect changes in the model, which is important for the synchronization of the model and the
detail view. Rightclick the Detail Window and choose "Rebuild from Source View".
You can link a Detail Marker to existing drawings, so the same detail window can be made visible in multiple places (e.g. a plan view and a
section view).
Detail Windows are Views in ArchiCAD terms. This means that they are drawings, linked to the Virtual Building, with their own setting for active
Display Settings, Layer Combination, Scale and Dimensions. Select the Detail Window in the Navigator/Organizer to retrieve its settings.
C - Rooms/Spaces using Zones
Zones are objects to manage rooms and spaces. They are drawn in the plan view as most other ArchiCAD objects, but they contain specific
spatial information, such as an area and a volume. Use them for area calculations, plan presentations and area-based cost estimations.
Creating zones automatically
The easiest way to start using zones is by connectioning them to their enclosing walls.
Activate the construction method Inner or Reference Line and click in between walls that enclose an area.
Creating zones manually
Here you draw the zone as if you were drawing a slab or roof. This is more precise, but takes additional clicking. You can use the Magic
Wand to speed up the tracing process.
Properties of Zone objects
Name and Positioning: general settings, including the height, name and number. This number is using in listings.
Floor Plan: visual settings (line types, color and fills)
Zone Stamp: this is a parametric GDL object for the graphical display of Zone parameters. The name, area, height and perimeter
can be displayed (or hidden). The specific parameters depend on the GDL object. There are a few default zone stamps included in
the regular ArchiCAD library.
Custom Settings: only visible when the Zone Stamp object provides an interface script.
Model: the material used in the 3D Window. Beware that Zones are usually not visible in the 3D Window. To make them visible (e.g.
for a volume study) go to View > Elements in 3D View > Filter Elements in 3D... Normally, zones are hidden in the 3D Window.
When you activate them, all other elements are turned to wireframe.
Area Calculation: when you rely on zones for area calculations, you might want to adjust the measurement method (e.g. to conform
to local regulations).
This dialog displays the actual measured gross area, the areas that have been subtracted by Walls, Columns, fills or parts of zones
that are clipped by a roof plane and then you can optionally define an additional reduction percentage.
Listing and Labeling
When you create zones automatically, they keep some connection with their enclosing walls. Use the Design > Update Zones... dialog to
recalculate their geometrical size, when you have adjusted the sizes.
D - Annotation
(1) Text & Labels
Text in ArchiCAD is one of the Document objects. In contrast with most CAD applications, Text is set in Document units by default: the text
height is set in mm and prints always on the same size, regardless of the Display Scale. This might confuse new ArchiCAD users (especially
when coming from AutoCAD). You can set text to Scaled or Fixed from the Text Settings Dialog. The rest of the settings are rather typical
for text. When you have several lines of text, you might want to adjust the Formatting settings.
You might want to use the opaque and frame options, when you need to display text above other entities and want to make it legible.
Another difference with AutoCAD is that omission of a shared Text Style. When you edit the graphical properties of text, no other Text
objects are adjusted.
(2) Dimensioning
Dimensions in ArchiCAD are created as annotation and they anchor themselves to the measured objects. When you adjust objects, the
dimension string is automatically updated. You can create a full dimension line as one object, allowing you to line them up and adjust them
easily.
Many different types of dimensions are all created with the same tool.
Dimension tool is used for linear dimensions but also for a linear list of levels in a section.
Angle Dimension
Radial dimension
Level dimension for plan level labels.
The visual label of a dimension level uses a Dimension Marker, which is a parametric GDL object.
When you are drawing dimensions, keep an eye on the info box, since you might have chosen horizontal dimension type, even when you are
drawing vertical dimensions.
There is a method to create large amounts of dimension strings automatically: Document > Document Extras > Automatic
Dimensioning > Exterior Dimensioning... which generates a series of dimension lines around selected entities (the option is greyed out
when nothing is selected).
The units for the dimensions are not a property of the dimension objects, but are set globally: Options > Project Preferences >
Dimensions...
(3) Linework & Fills
Even though ArchiCAD is primarily a BIM application, there are many drafting tools required to finish up technical drawings. It should come
as no surprise that the focus in ArchiCAD is indeed on the Design objects and less on the Document objects. That said, the flexibility of the
tools and the drawing methods will be more then enough for any drawing required. The biggest problem might be when you are switching
from a regular 2D CAD environment, such as AutoCAD, since it requires to adjust your drawing methods.
Lines and other drafting elements can function as Zone Boundary geometry.
Lines are simple line segments, which have a pen setting (pen number to define color and thickness) and a linetype. They can
optionally carry an Arrowhead and belong to a certain line category. The Rectangle and Polygon construction methods create
individual lines which become grouped.
Arcs and Circles react similar to lines. Use the Geometry Method to chose the creation click sequence. You can adjust the radius
and endpoints afterwards.
Polylines are chains of lines which can enclose an area.
Splines are used for freeform 2D drafting. Choose between Natural (smooth), Bézier (with control over tangency) and freehand
(follow mouse drawing).
Fills are filled areas, which have a contour and a Fill/hatch setting. In ArchiCAD, fills can be created separately when you need to
insert a graphical hatch that is not a part of a regular entity. Fills can display their area, which makes them suitable for quick design
drafting.
Hotspots are points which can be used for magnetic snapping or to layout different pages in the plotsheet.
(4) Figures/Drawings
These tools are used to place external content into ArchiCAD drawings. You can use it for documentation, but also as a tracing sheet, when
you have scanned documents from which the building model should be derived. Figures are stored externally and their content is referenced
in an ArchiCAD project.
A short overview is found on http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2007/issue14-archicad.html which can help you understand the concept
of placing external content into ArchiCAD. While this is commonly used to place drawings from the current project, you can apply it to insert
references to other content as well. Use the drawing sheet to collect everything that is relevant to place inside your project.
What is important to understand is that you are effectively placing a reference to the content. That implies that the content can be updated
and ArchiCAD can reflect the changes in those files. You can use the Drawing Manager to have an overview of all placed drawings. It is
possible to explode the drawing, so the graphical entities become native ArchiCAD lines, arcs and texts. This is good when you need to edit
the content form within ArchiCAD.
Creating Listings
ArchiCAD, as a Building Information Modeller, allows you to extract listings from the 3D Model. There are several methods, but the most powerful
approach is in the Interactive Schedules. They are defined as some kind of query into the model database, where all elements that obey to some
selection rule, can be filtered. You have control over the parameters to include into the listing and you can even make some adjustments to the filtered
elements from within the list.
The result of the list is a table, which can be included in plot sheets or can be exported to another application, such as Microsoft Excel.
At any time, changes in the building model will be correctly reflected into the listing, when it is regenerated.
Remark: It is not easy to generate a full bill-of-materials (Meetstaat in Dutch), since it requires a thorough
understanding of the building structure and what you need to measure. A simple example is the amount of
'Common Brick'. While you can easily define a filter to display all walls with structure common brick and
include their total volume, you have to explicitely take care of also inserting all Composite Structures which
include a skin using the same Common Brick fill. And then you might still need to take the complex profiles
using this fill into account.
For our introduction, we will focus on rather simple extractions: a list of doors and windows and a zone-list,
displaying room areas, which are very valid in early cost estimations.
Interactive Schedules
There are presets for generating Door and Window Schedules. You can find them in the Navigator, underneath Element Schedules. Interactive
schedules in ArchiCAD are fully formatted reports. They can be tweaked, to display the report on several ways, but they are also interactive: you
can edit the objects in the report and they will be modified in the building model.
The left panel can be folded open or closed and you can edit the headers and formatting. When you select an element in the list, you can edit
some fields (only the one that make sense: you can't change the Quantity, but the Window sill height is editable). You can also press the button
on the top to select the chosen element on the floorplan, directly in the model.
In the Scheme Settings... dialog, you can edit the schedule in detail: choose the element to filter from the building model (the Criteria) and choose
the values to display (the Fields).
In the Fields pane, you can create summaries by clicking on the button next to the sorting button for a particular field. A SUM sums all values while
a SUM1 counts the amount of values.
The interactive schedule can be updated at any time and can be placed on layout/plot sheets.
Other list types
ArchiCAD is already available for quite some time. There are other types of lists that ArchiCAD can generate. They are found in the Navigator,
underneath Lists. They are less graphical, but can be valuable for different reasons. But to master them, takes effort... a lot of effort. To simply
extract a list of doors or windows, it is better to stick with the interactive schedules.
Anyhow, there are many lists included by default and just double-clicking them in the Navigator generates them. Most of them are textual, but
there are graphical ones. However, they are not as easy to manage as the interactive schedules. These lists are divided into three categories,
depending on the type of object to query.
From the manual:
Element Lists = are best used when creating schedules and inventories, and to display the parameters of construction elements in a
project. To generate Element Lists, ArchiCAD filters the project or the selection set for construction elements according to the configuration
of the selected List Scheme. Elements matching the filter settings will be listed together with element Parameters, Components and
Descriptors, if so defined in the List Scheme.
(This is a list of project entities, filtered and sorted in a specific way)
Component Lists = are generated when bills of materials, quantity takeoffs or price lists are required. These reports typically sum up and
display component type properties; however, certain element parameters can also be listed.
(This is the most complex of the list types, since it relies on many different attributes of entities. There are ways to define property objects
and rules to relate them automatically to objects. This allows a very stubborn designer to configure lists that include estimates for
properties that are not modelled, but for which the quantities can be derived from other elements which are modeled, e.g. the lenght of
plinths which can be derived from zone perimeters or wall lengths. This is way beyond the scope of this introduction and Graphisoft clearly
prefers the use of the Interactive Schedules.)
Zone Lists = are generally used to create room schedules and finish schedules. Zone Lists can include parameters of Zones and related
construction elements. When related construction items are listed, the report is in fact an Element List where the range of calculated
elements is limited by the Zones they belong to.
(This lists zones, which you can use for area measurements, quick cost estimates and for some of the administrative documents for a
building permit.)
Check the help files or the manual (Help > ArchiCAD Calculation Guide) for a fuller overview. Beware that much of the functionality for editing
these lists is hidden from the default ArchiCAD workspace, by default.
Visualization
While ArchiCAD is primarily an application for the modeling and drafting of a building, it includes a decent set of functionality for architectural
visualization. You can create realistic images, including colours, material textures, shadows and reflections, but also animated walkthroughs and
sunstudies from within ArchiCAD. You can even export Quicktime VR Objects and Panoramic images.
People usually use external applications, such as Abvent Artlantis Render/Studio or Autodesk VIZ, for more sophisticated renderings, but they require
an additional export step, to convert the geometry and material information into a suitable format. Use this for ultimate quality and final presentations or
when you are not satisfied with the default renderings. However, in many cases you can generate decent and usable results with ArchiCAD alone. And
it's much easier, since you don't have to convert anything, nor do you need to make sure that you are making a rendering from the correct version of the
building.
A - Rendering Images
Introducing Rendering Engines
Since a few years, Graphisoft has licensed the LightWorks Rendering Engine, which is an advanced rendering toolkit that is
used in many other applications, such as TurboCAD, FormZ and VectorWorks. It supports raytracing, allowing for accurate
reflections and refractions, there is support for multiple processors (when available in your computer) and there are advanced
materials (shaders). Unlike some other competitors, the radiosity-module of the LightWorks rendering system is not included in
ArchiCAD, so there is no built-in support for indirect lighting. However, some of the LightWorks-Lamp objects can create an
effect that gives similar results, when applied with care.
The Internal Engine is a leftover from the early days of ArchiCAD 5.x, when it was last fundamentally updated. There is
support for shadows and material textures and basic lighting, but no reflections or refractions (where raytracing is required) and
no procedural materials. For quality, most people don't use this anymore, but it has never been left out of ArchiCAD.
There is an additional Sketch Engine, which can be used to generate hand-drawn effects, simulating pens, markers and
pencils.
You might see other Rendering Engines (such as Z-Buffer), since ArchiCAD supports plugins which can add functionality to
ArchiCAD. Unless they are installed specifically (such as the excellent Maxwell Rendering Engine) you will probably not need
them.
Lamp Tool
The Lamp tool is a GDL object which can contain regular GDL scripted geometry (the armature), but in addition has a lightsource,
which will cast light into the scene. The light is only visible in renderings.
There are limitations to the Lamp tools, so for the best quality you'll use dedicated light sources from an external rendering
application.
Sun & Sky
ArchiCAD has built-in support for a SUN and a SKY, but also provides special features for better renderings.
You can define the Sun and the current project's coordinates from the 3D Window, by rightclicking on an empty spot in the 3D Window and
choosing Perspective Settings > More Sun... dialog
It is best to set the sunlight and ambient intensity rather high. You can set Location and Date here and the sun will automatically be oriented
correctly.
The ArchiCAD Sun is the default sun, defining the global position of the site (coordinates), the time and date and the main light
color settings.
The LightWorks Sun is only used with the LightWorks rendering engine and provides two options (using shaders): the regular Sun
shader and the Realistic Sun shader. This can only be set in the PhotoRendering settings dialog. The first renders faster, but the
latter provides not only a sun but also some additional environmental light, which can hugely improve renderings.
The following are three LightWorks-specific GDL objects, to aid with lighting and rendering:
The SunObject is a dedicated GDL object which inserts a directional light source, with some additional parameters. This is largely a
leftover from the time when the Realistic Sun shader was not available. Its position is irrelevant, since directional light sources mainly
define a light direction, not the position of a lightsource.
The SkyObject is in fact a series of directional lightsources, placed in a hemisphere around the scene. This can be used to mimic
the light coming from a sky. This is also less usefull when the Realistic sun can provide a simpler solution.
The WindowLight is an area light, which provides a series of light sources in a rectangle. It can be used in interior renderings, by
placing this area light on the inside of a window and having its light orientation be defined by the Sun. This mimics wide bundles of
sunlight entering an interior through the windows and can hugely improve rendering quality, at the cost of much longer rendering
times. it is best to place them on a separate layer...
B - Sunstudy
In a sunstudy, the sun is animated, to mimic the sun and shadow evolution throughout a single day. This can be rendered as a movie file.
When you activate the Sun Study, you need to set the source, which is normally the PhotoRendering Window.
Avoid to set the 3D Window, as ArchiCAD doesn't display shadows in the 3D Window, unless you choose the Internal 3D-engine
(non-OpenGL) as display engine and you activate analytical shadows in the 3D Window settings.
Choose a date and the start and ending time, set the desired amount of frames (in between steps).
Double click the next image to play the Quicktime movie...
Render the result as a Quicktime Movie, using True Color/Millions of Colors. Choose one of the available compression codecs from the
Set... dialog. For high quality and good compression, Sorenson 3, mpeg4 and H.264 are good options (this depends on which codecs and
software are installed in your operating system). Be sure to set an appropriate window-size.
C - Walkthrough Animation
In a walkthrough animation, the viewer will navigate through the building in a movie. This movie is rendered from ArchiCAD and has to be created
by defining a moving camera.
Create a camera object, make sure that it is set to 'walkthrough' mode (Perspective View).
You need to create a Camera Path, defining different consecutive positions. In the final movie, ArchiCAD will interpolate the position of the camera
between these set positions. Use them sparingly and avoid wild movements: walkthroughs are most effective when only using rather slow
and smooth movements.
The arrow on the camera indicates the moving direction and can be thought of as a Bezier-like handle. The circle is the camera target and the sun
indicates the current sun orientation (derived from the main sun settings).
When you create additional camera's, they are added to the current path, unless you start a new path from the Camera Object settings dialog.
In the Create Fly-Though dialog, you can choose the source (the 3D Window or the PhotoRendering Window) and the way to interpolate between
the camera positions. The 3D Window will be the fastests, but will only display with the same quality as the actual 3D Window. When you want full
rendering, choose the PhotoRendering Window as a source.
Render the result as a Quicktime Movie, using True Color/Millions of Colors. Choose one of the available compression codecs from the
Set... dialog. For high quality and good compression, Sorenson 3, mpeg4 and H.264 are good options (this depends on which codecs and
software are installed in your operating system).
It is possible to render as a 3DStudio File or a VRML file, which generates a 3D scene with an animated camera, which you can use in
external visualization applications, but frankly, when you use such an application, it is better to only export the scene from the 3D Window
as a static scene and create the animated camera in that software.
D - VR Object & VR Scene
This is also managed by the Camera Tool, which can be set in two additional "modes". They render the scene in a Quicktime format for VR, which
can be displayed by everyone with the free Quicktime Player. The user does not need ArchiCAD to be installed, to be able to display the results.
A VR Object is an animation where the camera moves around the model in circles and renderings are made from each viewpoint.
However, instead of playing them as a movie sequence, the user can drag with the mouse and the correct viewpoint is then displayed.
This makes it interactive and you still have full rendering quality. The biggest limitation is that you need a fairly high amount of images with
small intervals to have a smooth experience, which in turn makes the rendering time long and the files large.
A VR Scene is a panoramic image.
This is the view you would get when you turn your head around while standing still. The environment is rendered as a cylindrical projection
(technically, cubes and spheres would also produce usable results). This is a single distorted image of a high resolution, from which you
only see a small excerpt. When you drag the mouse around you'll see a different portion of the panorama.
Drag the mouse in the next image to see the Quicktime panorama...
The integration of these two VR types in ArchiCAD makes it fairly easy to produce interactive images or movies. However, there is no 3D in this
type of images, so you can not walk around freely. In case that is what you need to do, there are external plugins/addins, which export the
ArchiCAD model into a browsable world. TurnTool and Zermatt are two examples, but you can also export the ArchiCAD scene as a VRML model,
which can be loaded in a VRML-browser. Better results can be obtained by exporting the ArchiCAD scene to a 3ds-file, load it in VIZ or 3ds max or
other Digital Content Creation applications and then export to VRML from there. VIZ/3ds max have additional VRML helper objects, which can
introduce interactivity into the scene (such as opening doors when pressing buttons).
E - Working with external Visualization software
Exporting an ArchiCAD model to Autodesk VIZ, Abvent Artlantis or Maxon Cinema4D (and many others) can result in dramatically improved
renderings. But you'll need to learn a complex application to get to this results... and that takes time.
It is usually most efficient to export the ArchiCAD model to the 3ds file format and load that in the application, since texture mapping is preserved
(although the references to textures can be corrupted since the 3ds-format is a leftover format from the old ages of MS DOS where filenames
needed to contain 8+3 characters...).
There is also a dedicated Exchange plugin from Maxon for Cinema4D, where the complete scene is transferred but with the additional advantage
of enabling the update of the geometry, so all changes in ArchiCAD can be reinserted automatically, without losing all material assignments,
animation sequences and other Cinema4D-specific visualization features.
Advanced Modeling
A - Solid Element Operations
Solid Element Operations allow you to define custom Boolean operations between any two objects.
The Target is the element that gets modified. The Operator is the tool to create the operation. In a subtraction operation, the operator is the hole
geometry. Apart from the regular Union and Subtract, ArchiCAD allows you to define a subtract with upwards or downwards extrusion. This
allows you to cut away a part of another element and all the geometry that lies above (or below) the selected operator. This is very usefull to
define the volume that is excavated from a site, using the lowest foundation geometry (e.g. a slab).
Characteristics of SEO's
Advantages
Operators and Targets stay connected, so the operation is maintained when objects are modified.
Many complex modeling operations are simplified when applying SEO's.
SEO lead to correct volumetric calculations. When requesting the volume of an element, the SEO are taken into account.
Disadvantages
When you use many of these SEO, the project data might start to destabilize, so use them sparingly.
SEO's lack any general overview on the Project level. There is no place where you can find all SEO's in a project and when
you receive projects from others, it is difficult to tell wether any operations have been applied.
It might sometimes be wiser to put all operators on dedicated layers, where you can activate the "Wireframe" display option.
This allows you to selectively hide or show layers with operators and maintain some kind of organization.
Example/Tutorial: http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2006/issue10-archicad.html
B - Custom Element Profiles
One of the more "spectacular" new features in ArchiCAD 10 are custom profiles for Walls, Beams and Columns. This is a custom section, drawn
as a set of 2D fills, which is then used as the section to extrude or sweep alongside one of these elements.
These profiles can be applied to straight walls, columns and beams. You can adjust the Profile definition afterwards. It is possible to define the
reference planes for windows and doors from within the profile, allowing you to predefine if inserted walls will be vertical or follow the direction of
the reference plane.
To define a custom profile carrying multiple components, you draw fills in a separate 2D Edit window. These fills reference the desired material
components. The Profile has reference lines which define how the object can be stretched. With this, you can define a specific top of a wall, which
will be moved but not stretched when the wall height changes. That way, the dimensions of the top or bottom ending can stay constant, even for
walls with a different height.
A short tutorial can be found on http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2006/issue12-archicad.html. An additional tutorial is on ArchiCAD Insights:
Construct Walls (cadalyst site)
C - GDL (Geometric Description Language)
As explained in Step 1, Library objects in ArchiCAD (and all other objects, actually) rely on GDL commands. You can use existing GDL objects,
you can graphically create them and you can program them (or use a combination of the above).
D - Importing SketchUp Projects
A plugin to import SketchUp models directly inside ArchiCAD can be found at http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/solutions
/sketchup.html. This will allow you to load SketchUp files in ArchiCAD, where vertical faces will become walls, horizontal faces will be slabs and
slanted faces will be roofs. Use it to translate an intial design in ArchiCAD native objects.
It might be better to recreate the actual design from scratch in ArchiCAD, when you need to finish the model up to construction drawings, but it's a
valid solution.
E - Cinema4D add-on
Cinema4D is an external modeling and animation application, which is also owned by the owner of ArchiCAD, being Nemetschek. There used to
be a separate MaxonForm application, but this seems to have been discontinued. You can use it to create new geometry or to modify and sculpt
an existing object. The result is always a GDL-object, so if you use it on a Wall or a Roof, the object will loose it's typical behaviour afterwards
(e.g. you can not place windows in the transformed object). It does support reopening the GDL object and restoring all the native Cinema4D
geometry, with all its parametric behaviour, which is important.
You can use it for freeform modeling and as a modeling aid, the rest of the ArchiCAD scene is displayed as well, so you can use it as reference
geometry.
While the MaxonForm software is discontinued, the functionality of MaxonForm is included with the free Cinema4D Exchange plugins: a
combination of the external modeling from Cinema4D (what MaxonForm did) and the rendering and updating workflow with Cinema4D (what the
Exchange add-on does).
References:
http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/addons/cinema_4d/ The official Graphisoft/Maxon plugins (one for ArchiCAD and one for
Cinema4D)
http://dinnye.neobase.hu/ an alternative (and Open Source!) plugin which more closly mimicks the behavior of the former Cinema4D
10/ArchiCAD 11 add-on. Since Maxon changed the way models and materials are exchanged (Melange tools), the official ArchiCAD add-on
lacks a way to export the model according to materials. This add-on solves this.
F - EcoDesigner
This is a fairly recent add-on for ArchiCAD. It is only free for educational users, but works in a demo-version too.
You can generate an energy simulation directly from your ArchiCAD model, fairly easy. When the plug-in has properly classified all elements to the
right category (exterior walls, roofs etc...) and the materials and composite structures have the correct heat resistance and other physical values,
you can generate a report.
The fun part: making adjustments is fairly easy: modify your building or adjust some of the settings and you can re-generate the report.
Some references:
http://www.graphisoft.com/products/ecodesigner
http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2010/EcoDesigner.html
http://www.archicadwiki.com/EcoDesigner/Advanced_EcoDesigner_User_Guide