Let’s place a slab underneath the walls. To do that, select the Slab tool from the Toolbox. The most important slab settings appear in the Info Box. Let’s select the Rectangle placement method and place the slab by clicking first on the lower left corner, then on the upper right corner of the walls.
Now, with the Slab tool still selected, let’s press the Shift key and hover with the cursor over different parts of our little model. Note that elements underneath the cursor are highlighted, helping the selection process. Click when the slab is highlighted. The slab will be selected: we are able to select elements without the explicit use of the selection tools.
Let’s click on one of the corner points of the selected slab. Aside from the Tracker, another little palette appears. It’s named the Pet palette (because it can be set to follow the cursor like a pet animal) and it gives access to various relevant editing functions. The advantage of this
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Construction Aids
solution is that the required modification tools are always at your hand when you need them.
In the upper row: the selected node can be dragged to another position; the selected corner can be filleted/chamfered; the whole outline can be
offset; Boolean addition and subtraction with another polygon can be
performed.
In the lower row: the whole element can be dragged; rotated, mirrored,
elevated or multiplied.
Let’s select the “Offset” icon. Then press “D” and enter 500 into the Tracker’s Distance field and press “Enter”. The slab outline will now appear around the walls.
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Let’s click now on one of the sides of the slab. This time the Pet palette contains different editing functions in the upper row.
A new node can be added to the side; the selected side can be
transformed into a curve; a tangent to the curved side can be specified; the sideline can be offset. Explore the possibilities. Once you finished the modifications, make sure that the Slab is deselected. Press “Esc” on the keyboard to achieve this.
Finally, before turning to our example project, let’s get to know the Special Snap Points. You may have noticed that when hovering with the cursor over an element, temporary division points appear, to which the cursor can snap.
Let’s move the cursor now to the bottom side of the slab. After a short while a little black line shows the halving point of that side.
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Construction Aids
The so-called Special Snap Points can show other particular points in addition to halfway points. Let’s check our possibilities in the Toolbar.
Clicking the little arrow by the Special Snap icon brings us to the currently valid settings. We can choose among different options: • showing halving points of element sides
• showing division points (number of divisions can be set in “Set Special Snap Values”
• showing a division point at a certain ratio of the side (as a percentage)
• showing division points at a given distance from each other (and the nearest node)
Use the “Set Special Snap Values” menu to set values for the division points.
I
Also there is an option whether the division points should refer to the entire element, or just that portion that falls between intersection points with other elements.
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For the time being we are going to use the halving points. They will help us to insert windows into the walls. Let’s select the Window tool from the Toolbox. In the Info Box let’s select the Center “Geometry Method”.
Let’s hover with the cursor over the walls and wait for the Special Snap Points to appear. When they do, click on them with the cursor.
After the first click, the cursor changes to a little eye. Click toward the exterior. The windows will be inserted exactly at the middle of the walls. Let’s see the result in 3D: select Show all in 3D in the context menu. Now we are all but ready to start our example project. With the Window tool still active, select “Edit/Select all Windows” from the menu.
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Construction Aids
This particular menu item always refers to the currently active tool, so if - let’s say - the Column tool is active, we’ll be able to select all the columns from here.
Here, all the windows on the Floor Plan will be selected. Press the “Backspace” or the “Delete” button on the keyboard. All the windows will be deleted.
Do the same with the walls and the slab, too, to delete them. We’ll start to build our example project with a clean sheet. Close this file with File/
Close. Choose "Don’t save" in the "Save changes" dialog box.
Congratulations!
You have succesfully completed this Training Guide! We hope that you have learnt many new and exciting things about the possibilities of BIM and understood how ArchiCAD supports the architectural design workflow. Please check the other volumes of this training series for more details about ArchiCAD.
Should you have any questions regarding ArchiCAD or other
GRAPHISOFT products, please visit ArchiCADwiki, our online knowledge base: http://archicadwiki.com
Please feel free to contact GRAPHISOFT and its worldwide partners with further questions at www.graphisoft.com.
We look forward to seeing you in the ArchiCAD user community.