ArchiCAD is flexible in creating new elements. If you prefer you can work without any constraints; however, many editing and construction aids are available to help you to work precisely. In this part we’re going to learn some basic methods for the accurate placement of elements.
Let’s select “File/New” from the menu. A dialog box appears. We’ll use a template with the basic settings for our own project, so let’s browse for the “Curr_project_template.tpl” file located in the “ArchiCAD Studio
Lessons\Demo files\Startup files” folder. When found, choose “Standard Profile 16” as the work environment and click “New”.
If you see the “Library manager” palette after opening the template file it means that you have to load the required object libraries for your new project. For the“Curr_project_template.tpl” file you have to load the subfolders of the “ArchiCAD Library 16” folder, which is located in the ArchiCAD 16 installation folder, and the “Student.Lib” folder from
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Data Entry
ArchiCAD Training Series Vol. 1
47
Add button at the top of the dialog box. Choose the appropriate folder, then the “Choose” button. After adding the two folders, click on “OK”.
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Data Entry
Let’s place a a single straight wall segment on the Floor Plan first. Activate the Wall tool in the Toolbox by clicking on the Wall icon once.
Note how the Info Box changes to reveal some of the most important attributes of the wall we are about to place. The placement method we’ll choose is the Single Wall as seen in the Info Box.
Click somewhere on the Floor Plan. While drawing the wall we already have two helpers for data input: Guide Lines and the Tracker.
During a drawing action, guide lines show different angles in pre-set increments (currently 45°). When the cursor comes near the guide line, it snaps to the line enabling precise data input. Try and move the cursor around and see other guide lines coming up.
The Tracker shows current cursor position relative to the starting point of the action. As a default it shows either polar (radius and angle) or Cartesian (X and Y) coordinates. A right-click with the mouse during the
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Data Entry
ArchiCAD Training Series Vol. 1
49
action brings up a context-sensitive menu where the preferred coordinate-type can be selected.
You can also enter data into the Tracker. Move the cursor so that the wall is near horizontal. The cursor snaps to the 0° guide line. As you move the cursor along this line, only the Distance value changes in the Tracker.
Press “D” on the keyboard. The Distance field is highlighted and a new value can be entered. Let’s enter “6000” and press “Enter” on the keyboard. The wall is finished and it’s exactly 6 meters long.
Of course, if we don’t snap to a guide line, the distance and angle values can be set one after the other (by pressing D and A respectively), or we can operate with X and Y values (by pressing X and Y on the keyboard). An Enter finalizes data entry.
Now let’s take a closer look at the wall. Move the cursor along the wall. The intelligent cursor technique is one of the major innovations of ArchiCAD. The cursor shape changes according to its position in the model - for instance, it takes the form of a checkmark, hammer, or mercedes-sign. We see the cursor changing its shape to a mercedes-sign when finding one of the sides (a bold one when finding the Reference Line of the wall, meaning the line we actually drew during data entry) and to a check-mark
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Data Entry
sign when finding one of the corners. These points and lines will help us construct the model accurately without using coordinates all the time.
Note that as you hover over significant points (or lines), guide lines appear and show significant angles. Moving the cursor over one of them and hovering there briefly will make that guide line permanent.
Guide lines can be removed by bringing up the context-sensitive menu with a right-click and selecting “Remove all Guide Lines”.
Let’s start a new wall at the lower right corner of the existing one. Find the corner first (wait for the cursor to change to a check-mark shape) and click. This time we are going to use the X and Y coordinates, so press “X” and type “0”, then press “Y” and type “10000”. Press “Enter” on the keyboard. A 10 meter long wall is constructed, perpendicular to the existing one.
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Data Entry
ArchiCAD Training Series Vol. 1
51
Note that the layers of the composite structure of the walls are joined seamlessly.
We’ll start the third wall at the upper right corner of the previous wall and construct it parallel to the first one. In this case, we know that the first wall is 6m long, but that may not always be the case. So if we want to construct a wall of equal length, we’ll have to take measurement in most cases. To do that, we’ll fix the angle of the wall by pressing the Shift key on the keyboard. Note that the angle snaps to horizontal (or vertical, or other pre-defined angles, if near). While you draw the wall, point with the cursor to the starting point of the first wall. When you click, the
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Data Entry
current wall will be just as long as the first one. ArchiCAD helped to take the measurement, instead of you having to make calculations.
Let’s finish the rectangle of walls by connecting the upper left corner with the lower left one. Let’s take an axonometric view of what we have produced so far.
Basic ArchiCAD Techniques – Selection Methods
ArchiCAD Training Series Vol. 1