ArchiCAD Half Plenaries: 2004: feedback

Visualisation – Half Plenary: Rendering with ArchiCAD 9's new Lightworks renderer, Sketch Rendering, Artlantis, Piranesi, Cinema 4D. These components will be 20 min glimpses of the rendering topics that you can spend 90 mins looking at in more concentrated workshops. Facilitated by Adrian Harms of Bite, Nottingham with help from workshop tutors and vendors.

Adrian Harms chaired a two-hour session dedicated to the various visualisation products that work with, in and around ArchiCAD. Pavol Elias began with a clear and concise introduction to the basics of the new 'Lightworks' rendering engine within ArchiCAD 9. 'Lightworks' shaders are easy to import from five libraries of default materials included with AC9 and modifying their various classes can be easy or as complex as you wish! 'Lightworks' shaders can also be downloaded from the 'Lightworks user' website which has hundreds of shaders for free or proprietary shaders for sale. Also mentioned were the three new lamp objects included in the ArchiCAD 9 library, 'sunlight', 'skylight' and 'window light', which replace the built-in sun and ambient light with a better quality of light and soft shadows for some stunning results.
Next, Gerard Bomer of Abvent gave us the second big treat of the day - a trip through the new features of a working Art•lantis 5! on speaking about the design and considerations for the new version, one of the first things that struck me was the declaration "respect the operating system"! Gone is the traditional art•lantis garbled interface! Yay! and - the demonstration was on a mac - in came a slick cocoa-style UI that a Mac user could pick up in minutes. Graphisoft take note!!! What followed was a tour-de-force of new features including the terrific seasonally-aware trees, (seeing is believing!), and their new proprietary radiosity solution along with some very impressive images.
Unfortunately, I have to confess that i needed to absorb some of what I had just seen and so missed out on Perry Stacy of Maxon demonstrating Cinema 4D and David Rimmington's Piranesi 4. Next time maybe . . . (Ben Frost)

Another good session - briefly covered several workshop topics that I wouldn't be able to attend. This way I could focus on the workshops I had planned but not feel like I missed out on seeing some of the innovations in the visualisation field. (Karl Eckermann)

I was most impressed by The Artlantis presentation, the new version premiered was like Artlantis 4.5 had died and gone to heaven! At the right price there could still be room for the new Artlantis in the increasingly sophisticated rendering market. I found Piranesi a little less impressive. I had the sense that the presenter had done his image so many times his 'shall we have some of this' approach barely disguised the fact that he knew exactly how it would all end up. (Richard Swann)

This lecture was very interesting as an introduction to the several rendering programs. It probably enabled me to tell what program had been used to produce the pictures if I come across them in magazines and the web. Sadly, I must say I will miss the individual and original look of skillful handmade sketches. (Susanne Welcker)

Good introduction / reminder of these packages. Good to see what can be done with Lightworks - perhaps a worked example would have been helpful. It was good to see how Artlantis is improving, though this is of less interest since we don't use it any more.
I have heard David before; this time I could see how Piranesi would fit into our workflow. A likely buy. Nice images, nicely demonstrated, which conveyed the point of the software, what it is for, and how to use it. From a marketing point of view it would have been good to hear that Mac users will get a free upgrade to v4 if they buy now.
I got a good deal from talking to Perry afterwards. His presentation was of course crippled by computer issues; it would have been more effective if he had presented ideas of how the software could be used by architectural practices. I understand he is intending to produce a tutorial CD aimed at architects in the next couple of months. More bridge-building needed to his audience. (Nigel Walter)

Lightworks, Artlantis, Piranesi and Cinema 4D... good overall view of each of these... Piranesi was particularly impressive as was the presentation... We ran out of time... (Alan Wahlers)

I was most impressed with the speed of ArtLantis.. Piranesi seems a very powerful and useful, and essential when dealing with stakeholders who still prefer artists impressions created by hand. They would never know that a Piranesi image was created by computer. I'd like to obtain this software for our students. {John Littlewood)

Better 3D modelling with ArchiCAD – Half Plenary: Tips on better 3D Modelling with ArchiCAD 8.1 and 9.0 - a mixture of Solid Element ops, Mesh tricks, drawing in 3D, Object Making with AC tools and Add-ons, using Photo-objects, tweaking Autoscripted objects, Import / Export DWG etc , export to Navisworks.Some of these components will be 10 min glimpses of the modelling topics that you can spend 90 mins looking at, at other times. Presented by Howard Gill of Bite, Nottingham.

This was interesting - I didn't see anything particularly new, but was informative nonetheless. (Karl Eckermann)

Very interesting, showing good use of template set up. Also cleaning up of 2D underlay is half the work before starting 3D. (Daniel Dusoswa)

Good practical procedures from years of experience on real projects – very informative & worthwhile. (Mike Willey)

Really nice presentation. I especially enjoyed the 'drawing in 3D'-technics - something I almost never use although I work out all projects in 3D. (Dirk Van Hecke)

With a title like this, Howard Gill's half-plenary session was essential viewing in my opinion, representing as it does the reason for us all being there in the first place! Howard works so quickly with ArchiCAD, you sometimes assume his trousers are on fire, but the over-riding impression he gives is that he has a deep-seated enthusiasm for the product. He was able to show practical applications for the software - including one of my own projects to my great surprise - and he worked through a very ambitious multi-storey building in front of our eyes.
I was particularly impressed with his real-life example of a proposal for a school building, which was only granted planning permission once the model had been used to demonstrate that there would be no adverse effects on neighbouring properties. The model also showed up flaws in the scheme that the original 2D design had completely failed to identify - Howard's attempts to hide his frustration that despite this the client would be completing the 2D design in AutoCAD failed completely!
Howard's enthusiasm doesn't blind him to the fact that there are times when ArchiCAD just won't do, and his demonstration of Navisworks confirmed the old adage about 'horses for courses'… (David Emery)

Excellent, I was lucky enough to be a workshop with Howard, where he went into more detail with some of the tips. What a guy, I learnt so much from him. (John Littlewood)

I very much enjoyed Howard's session in 2003, and I wasn't disappointed this year - such an enthusiastic demonstrator of the solutions that we are looking for every day.
Great practical input on super quick city modelling, importance of templates that work for you as user, billboarding to save time (I always go overboard in unnecessary modelling of site surroundings myself ..), super quick 3D feasibility building model, leading into an interesting look at Navis on a more reasonable size project, importing landscape data effectively, leading into the very convincing 5 day primary school site impact assessment exercise. Very useful footnote (for me, I always get lost with this) of using x-ref import to avoid the usual AutoCad into ArchiCad nightmare.
As usual time ran out, but a very useful and inspiring session. One of the high points of ACUE for me. (Peter Bennison)

Construction Documentation and project organisation Presented in 2 parts by Matthew Lohden of Connecticut.

Matthew put forward a comprehensive and clear approach to documentation, balancing standards to maximize efficiency with practical working methods. I will remember more of his lucid delivery than the 25% he alleged. (Richard Swann)

All good stuff, even though some of it went over my head, good to know that the systems we are putting in place all follow the same reasoning. (Derek Davis)

Matthew's sessions are fantastic. Standardisation through use of templates should be SEXY! Why? Because this is how we get to do more creative work and less administration, how we get to leave work on time and see our families, how we get to find the time to come to ACUEWS.
For me the beauty of Matthew's work is that it brings together sound business thinking with this wonderful but huge software we use, to help practices develop a working method enabling employees of all skill levels to produce better work. I hope his www.cadsoup.com website will be up an running by the next time we meet; this should serve as a meta version of an office standard, and become an invaluable resource. (Nigel Walter)

Last year Matthew made a very precise and highly documented presentation of his methods. At this time he gave me confirmation that I was on the good way, that I was sharing with him many points of view regarding ArchiCAD methodology and that they were valid (cross-boundaries) choices. This year his presentation was at the same level and went even deeper in the organisation and all its meanings using ArchiCAD. Inevitable round the table presentation,
for all of us that want to improve their efficiency and organisation. (Til Breton)

Matthew Lohden’s two half plenaries were great. He is very articulate and his presentations well structured and organized in an easy to follow manner. (Aladar Kish)

I saw Matthew at ACUE 2003 and was so impressed that I made a point of attending his session again this year. His relaxed style of presentation is an interesting contrast to the very formal structures he has devised (and imposed on his clients!) for efficiency throughout the design office. If he hasn’t done so yet, I think he really needs to write a book on this stuff. (David Emery)

I attended Matthew's workshop with great expectation, born of the taster last year, and was pleased to receive his handout which meant I could concentrate on what he was saying rather trying to take notes. The session got a bit hijacked again by personal gripes of some attendees but there was still loads of stuff to take on board and I am really beginning to get a real handle on applying an overall office standard that could work and be sustainable. Matthew promised to post a .pdf of the handout which I look forward to (mainly to clarify his ideas on pen colours) and I look forward to to his proposed web site to initiate a forum on standards-methods-techniques (www.cadsoup.com). (Richard Payne)

Matthew Lohden took up residence in the penthouse seminar room looking more in-depth at some of the specifics of office standards: the need for them; the need to implement them; the need to maintain them; and procedures beyond ArchiCAD. He went over the same important example of the organisation and maintenance of standards as last year, but it is one worth repeating: 'standards', 'methods' and 'techniques' - the rigidly adhered to 'standards' that ensure an efficiency and quality throughout the office. 'Methods' that are clear ways of working with and defining the 'standards'. 'Techniques' which are important to the workflow and may one day become 'methods' or 'standards' in their own right.
His hand-out accompanying the seminar contained examples of standards in action: examples of pens and layers settings, albeit with a leaning toward US national cad standards. There was plenty of food for thought on these systems work and how they can be adapted to suit your own best practice.
Matthew also (a wee bit prematurely!) announced his up-coming website for the discussion and distribution of stanards: www.cadsoup.com - coming soon! (Ben Frost)

I very much enjoyed Matthew's session last year, and indeed wrote my notes on it up quite fully, which I found was a good exercise. All good sense, ways to be more efficient are so important.
This year was just as good, some sections improved. Matthew's course notes were a very useful framework to understanding it all, and his distribution of the .pdf files of his pen colour and thickness charts etc. was a bonus that I have yet to examine in my own time and benefit from fully. Lots of questions several of us present wanted to discuss, but the conversation was a little railroaded into other areas ... (Peter Bennison)

It seems that the best lessons I gained from ArchiCAD University were not in rocket-science wizardry, but in simple, common-sense ways to get the best out of the software and skills we already have. Matthew's session was full of simple ways to improve productivity and organise and disseminate office knowledge. (Rowan Murray)