ArchiCAD Workshops: 2004: feedback

ArchiCAD NINE and seminar style Q&A session with Graphisoft

This was really useful for me, as it was only a small group and we had two GS guys there to take questions. The others in the group didn't seem to be regular AC users and only had a few general queries - so I had the chance to ask about ten straight questions!! (Karl Eckermann)

Went to Friday afternoon session, was very disappointed. I expected a more detailed follow up to presentation, and information on IFC as listed; instead he spun out the few extremely detailed aspects raised by one or two members of the group and demonstrated that they knew more than he did; and he knew next to nothing about IFC and didn't even know that he was meant to be covering the subject. (Derek Davis)

A good opportunity to discuss new features to enhance future versions of AC with the developers themselves! in this particular case starting from the newest AC9. but maybe a good idea for the next ACU; small table talks (it's easier to discuss in a smaller group) with the developers to explain them our wishes. (Dirk Van Hecke)

Great to sit down and talk to GS people. Went through DWG settings which had a lot of useful info in it. (Susanne Ollsson)

Simon Gilbert held court on a Q&A session over the use and production of DWGs within ArchiCAD. It was a small group and so particular issues could be raised and looked at in more detail. We saw the improvements to the DWG translation engine in ArchiCAD 9, including cropped content DWGs from Plotmaker! At last! In addition, the attributes of DWG files that have been x-ref'ed into the archiCAD file are now deleted when detaching them (with relevant warnings!). a double-whammy! (Ben Frost)

Very interesting run through the many detail improvements made in AC9 that the team did not have time to cover in Friday morning's presentation - the product really does seem well thought out. I am not too experienced in using my AC8.1 myself (due to the office I work with being several AC versions behind and on OS9 into the bargain) so had not even got around to wishing for some of the detail changes that are now already made. Nice to have a close contact with the GS team, just as impressive (and reassuring somehow) as they were in the earlier presentation. (Peter Bennison)

Abvent Special

Very interesting. It made me wonder why I did not use ArchiCAD earlier. If Graphisoft gets its marketing sorted watch out Autodesk & Bentley Systems. (John Littlewood)

ArchiCAD for TOTAL beginners!

As I have only used Archicad appr. 5 times in total, this workshop was really helpful to me! The tutor was really easy to understand, and by the end of the it, Archicad made a lot more sense to me! (Christiana Charalambous)

ArchiCAD for Intermediates

For me, the highlights of the whole event were John Dyson's (Midpoint) workshops. He has a fantastic way of teaching ArchiCAD without making you feel a total idiot. It is very difficult to be at the very beginning of the learning curve and very easy to lose confidence but John has a very interesting way of explaining everything. (Gerry Condon)

Very helpful workshop which has already made many things much easier. (Marie Sofie Larsen)

I learnt loads of stuff I never knew ArchiCAD could do! (Mike Johnson)

He explained not only ten but some 19 things you could do to use Archicad more efficiently. Most of it was new to me, so I think it was very good to attend this workshop. (Susanne Welcker)

Found this well-presented in a simple way, with a good number of tips to help me. Others present commented in a similar way..... covered topics the more experienced users would find obvious no doubt. As an example I have never used Profiler.... Graphisoft dont even include it in the index in the step by Step Tutorials! .............. John explained how this tool works and I now know. (Alan Wahlers)

Following the Archicad for beginners this was also very important as we got in more details concerning Archicad and learned a few methods that will make our life easier when using Archicad! (Christiana Charalambous)

This workshop was subtitled “Ten things you need to know about ArchiCAD”, but John undersold himself in this regard. His workshop covered far more than this, and was presented in an easily understood manner. [David Emery]

ArchiCAD Teamwork, large projects

It would have helped to have started with finding out where individuals were coming from and what questions they had before launching into an introduction to all of the features of teamworking, which I suspect most of us were already familiar with. As the session went on we were able to ask specific questions, and this was very helpful. I now have a much more rounded knowledge of how to use teamwork. (Nigel Walter)

Informative and with good discussions. (Susanne Ollsson)

We have used Teamwork in the past, not always successfully, currently using hotlinks in a housing development and it is all about planning well in advance Favourites came up again and must start to use them. (Chris Johnstone)

For me it was an introduction to this subject, since up to now we haven't taken advantage of Teamwork. We are expecting to begin a new project using Teamwork very soon. (Katherine Bedwell)

ArchiPhysik

Gerald should be praised for coming to ACUE with an ArchiCAD connected English version of Archiphysik. I was slightly disappointed that the current version seemed quite limited in its abilities. The standalone software is grafted on to ArchiCAD by reading data from the model, which must be manually matched with predetermined materials data from Archiphysik. I found the idea of assigning materials in ArchiCAD and again in Archiphysik an unattractive one. (Richard Swann)

ArchiFM - Facilities Management

Helped me to understand more about this plugin and enabled me to compare it to the other FM prototypes with which I am familiar as well as the CAFM prototype that I developed a few years ago. (Aladar Kish)

Abvent special - PhotoCAD, Art*lantis

Really interesting although I expected a more detailed description of the Art*lantis interface! (Christiana Charalambous)

Better moviemaking with ArchiCAD / Artlantis

I loved the movies but where was the popcorn? I could not see what would happen after the Architects movie pitch to the client finished. We need conversation to share the vision not passively absorb a polished self-running movie, a product in itself. Miguel’s tips and technical expertise were insightful but, like singing in the bath, I will be trying my first multimedia exercise in private. (Richard Swann)

Impressive and full of helpful tricks and eye openers. But do not forget that you cannot make a good animation without a well designed building. (Susanne Welcker)

Miguel took us through some very simple do's and don'ts. The standard architectural fly-through is very poor cinematographically; in this session we were given a primer in the televisual language we all "read" but few have given thought to how it is "written". Miguel stressed the need to tell a story, and showed how this can be done by mixing short animation clips with still images, plans etc to make a far more appealing presentation; he also stressed the importance of choice of music for creating the right atmosphere. 10/10 (Nigel Walter)

Not having made any movies myself, it was an excellent introduction to the subject. (Mathilde Kaplan)

Never will I do a long fly-through again. Miguel showed simple techniques, using software that is largely built in to operating systems, that both save rendering time and improve the impact of presentations. Nothing complex to achieve, just very effective ideas on how to do it. I had several moments of clarity during his presentation where I realised the stupidity of my previous attempts at making movies in ArchiCAD. (Rowan Murray)

Very very inspiring look at applying "proper" moviemaking techniques to the desperately boring fly throughs and animations that we have all been guilty of inflicting on clients. I suppose that I have always known instinctively (not least from previous ACUE events) that spending so much time on detail modelling and rendering that is at best glimpsed for a second as the camera path careers drunkenly through yet another wall and spins off like a helicopter ride from hell is a waste of time and effort, but it needed Miguel's calm and utterly to the point exposé to bring it home. It's all there in his excellent course notes and his case examples on CD, just very simple juxtapositions of still and moving images, thinking more of art and poetry for once, use of timing and rhythm and MUSIC ! And all with straightforward no-cost software such as Windows Moviemaker and iMovie - I shall certainly be looking at my iTunes collection in a new light. I would also like to look at ways of introducing hand coloured or Piranesi treatments into the sequences as I have long felt that it is not necessarily the photo realism that has the greatest impact.
Definitely one of the high points of the event for me. (Peter Bennison)

Cinema 4D

A demo starting from an Archicad model, that's the trick!Nice teacher, keen to show what we had liked to. (Bertrand Audinet)

I went in hoping for Cinema 4D to be demonstrated as a useful tool for us - it wasn't. Computer software rarely sells itself - the salesperson still has a role to play. They need to know their audience and know their product - neither happened at this session. (Karl Eckermann)

Stunning. Fantastic software. On my wishlist definitely. I love video work and I already have Final Cut Express and this would be a perfect partner. (Daniel Dusoswa)

Very good. Better than 3D Studio Max, and cheaper. (John Littlewood)

EcoTect

Impressive software. The demo of a case-study form Archicad modelling was missing. A live demonstration is a very nice complementary information to what we can see on the website. (Bertrand Audinet)

A great product - Andrew really is gifted. His humble yet evangelical zeal for this incredible tool is highly contagious. I am very interested to invest in this product at a later stage when the right project arises. Simple, powerful and easy to use without having to totally re-educate. Its interactive design lets architects use it as a sketch design tool or 'rule of thumb' tester. Or, it will do exhaustive simulations on more detailed models. I'm sure I only saw a
small part of its real potential. Wow! (Karl Eckermann)

For me this was the star of ACUE 2004. Although it (sadly) has little to do with ArchiCAD, It demonstrates what can be done with a fresh approach to the idea of the 'Virtual Building' not bound by preserving old code. The customizable scripted algorithms that generate and alter building forms in REAL TIME is something to behold! Andrew's unique abilities as author to deliver to the market such a profoundly powerful tool matched by his infectious enthusiasm undampened by the gruelling ACUE schedule suggests Ecotect will go from strength to strength. Watch out Graphisoft, this software IS the future: Environmental testing and form generation of the virtual building in real time at sketch scheme level. (Richard Swann)

Could be a God send! But I am not convinced that it is in its current format. It does not appear to be able to read ArchiCAD format. It should be able to import ArchiCAD models or even better as an ArchiCAD Plug In with standard scripts to calculate for instance compliance with Building Regulations. If it would do this then I would buy it immediately, and in my opinion so will everybody else in Britain and Ireland. (Daniel Dusoswa)

Excellent. This should have been a main session. At 2005 it should be main stage particularly with the 2005 EU Energy directive looming. (John Littlewood)

I remember getting an email from DNC (many months ago) mentioning Ecotect and I went to look Andrew's web site then. I have been back a few times since then to stay in touch with what is going. It was good to meet Andrew and listen to his presentation of what appears to be a really brilliant building analysis tool. Of course, Andrew makes it look easy, but I couldn't see any reason why the application could not be integrated into the design process. With ever growing legislation this would certainly be a useful tool. (Richard Payne)

Ecotect is infintely better than the thermal modelling programs that I have used, and that put me off doing thermal modelling. It also seems to pack an enormous number of features into its modest price tag. But realistically, while I can see its potential for helping to make a lot of design decisions early in the process, it's not going to be useful until it has a function to import a model directly from ArchiCAD. As it requires the set-up of zones or regions (can't remember the name within the program) for its analysis, I imagine that the ArchiCAD zone could be used for this. I hope that these issues can be ironed out - perhaps in conjunction with the introduction of IFC. (Rowan Murray)

GDL Introduction

Now - as some may know by now, my GDL skills are not quite on a level with my ArchiCAD skills. I'm rubbish! I can take the most complex of objects, understand its structure, pull it apart and put it back together in new ways, 'parameterise' it, etc. But ask me to make a simple object of my own and I'm stuck. Big Time.
So it was a great relief to attend Herbert Peter's workshop and finally have the basics explained in a thorough and patient manner. Herbert is an excellent tutor, running through the syntax and examples of some basic keywords before putting them to use in a simple object. I can now actually remember some basic GDL and with a bit of luck, a tailing wind and lots of practice I might get there yet! Thanks Herbert! (Ben Frost)

Very good, indeed my favorite workshop. Herbert explained everything very clearly and was easy to follow. (Katherine Bedwell)

GDL Objectmaking Intermediate

I may be an "advanced intermediate" in some areas of GDL but knew nothing of creating graphical hotspots. Sadly I am none the wiser. I tried The advanced workshop but could not break into the tight circle of Jedi surrounding Yoda himself! Maybe next year... (Richard Swann)

OK, I admit it - I actually like GDL. I look forward to when there is a need for an object in the office. That doesn't mean I'm good at it, but I can get by. This workshop spent some time looking at structured programming and loops and though was not new to me helped clarify some aspects that I am a bit shy of. (Richard Payne)

GDL Objectmaking Advanced

GDL is my first concern when I choose every year to go to Nottingham. It's always refreshing to share for two hours this incredible enthusiastic involvement in GDL David is showing, year after year. With always new ideas new concepts and new objects. When I leave my internal batteries are everytime refilled, and ready for the year to come. A special mention for Alfred Man, and his incredible researches with GDL. (Til Breton)

Good fun and nice examples, but pity that in the last session not much actual GDL coding was addressed. (Daniel Dusoswa)

Hard work, but very inspiring. Hope to be able to pass some good information on to the other students here in Aarhus. (Marie Sofie Larsen)

What I learned most from this session was not about advanced or difficult use of GDL script, but ways to organise increasingly large and complex objects in simple ways so that (i) the object works and the script doesn't crash, and (ii) it is easy to use and understand. (Rowan Murray)

Interactive Scheduler

Great knowledge, and listeners asked many relevant questions. (Susanne Ollsson)

At the very start of ACUE 2004, it seemed from the 'ArchiCAD encounter' reports that hardly anyone used the Calculate menu or, by implication, the Interactive Scheduler. I was pleased, therefore, to see that Adrian was going to attempt to unravel this feature.
During an excellent presentation, Adrian proceeded at a pace that I personally felt very comfortable with, and it is testimony to his teaching skills that no one in the audience ever appeared 'lost' - unlike in another workshop I attended - despite the complexity of the subject. The members of the respectably large audience were, I am sure, pleased with what they saw and heard, and left the session much the wiser.
As so often seems to happen at the ArchiCAD University, just being in the presence of a true expert allows us lesser mortals to learn almost by osmosis. In this case, I - and another well-known user of 15 years experience - learned more about Door Parameters in the first five minutes with Adrian than we had ever known before! The workshop was thoroughly worthwhile, and I would recommend everyone to seize any opportunity to learn from Adrian. [David Emery]

I have to start trying to use it, I think it helps the architect’s work. (Stella Papapolychronou)

Excellent (my fear of Interactive Scheduler has been conquered.) I have now completed complex door schedules in the office, it took a while setting up, but now with some nice saved templates, I think its the way forward. (Roger Pratt)

Makes me wonder why hadn’t we been advised about this before. (Ed Sharpe)

Materials and Rendering with ArchiCAD

A very good taste of what we can do in AC9 with Lightworks capabilities - Just a slight regret that we had not had the opportunity to experiment with AC9 before this workshop. Perhaps it could be repeated at next year's ACU? (Mike Willey)

A good unbiased view on what Lightworks can and can't do in ArchiCAD9, but let down slightly by not being too clear on the projector. Went into detail on how to get the most out of the shaders and materials. (Mike Johnson)

Navisworks

Very good workshop, Howard gave good explanation of the advantages of programme and demonstrated their application. (Derek Davis)

Objectmaking without GDL

This workshop was very interesting, as one of my problems while using Archicad was the lack of objects in the object library. I am now able to create my own, simple but effective objects and save myself a lot of time looking for them. (Christiana Charalambous)

Valuable workshop. I shall also need to look at GDL at some time. (Ed Sharpe)

Picturereality Site modelling, 'Streetscening'

Can I spend more time with this guy using ArchiCAD? I picked up so much. Damn I'm going to revise all my teaching notes. I wish he could write a manual for ArchiCAD. If I had just attended this woorkshop it would justified my attandance at the conference!! I think I will be speaking to Howard on a regular basis. (John Littlewood)

Rhino 3D

Well done for this young lady who could have been slightly faster. Very pro anyway. (Bertrand Audinet)

Rebecca can become a more expert user of the software. From a little bit I attended it seems an interesting package. (Stella Papapolychronou)

Piranesi 4

A delight for early presentations with uncompleted models. I am convinced, bought one. (Daniel Dusoswa)

A super workshop for those, who like me, were looking for all those clever artistic effects!. v4 seems a 'must have' for all those client & Planning presentations. (Mike Willey)

Very interesting and useful. I want this product. (John Littlewood)

Despite making my living from producing photorealistic artists impressions, I was impressed with what Piranesi could do. David is a good salesman for the product, and I can definitely see a use for the program in our work after attending Davids talk. (Mike Johnson)

I liked Piranesi 3 last year and was even more taken by V4 this year. It is going to be on my shopping list. I intend to give this one a go once I have mastered Sketchup. (Mathilde Kaplan)

Project organisation

Important info for businesses which uses AC. Got a little caught up in archiving which meant that other info that was about to arrive got lost when time was up. (Susanne Ollsson)

I felt that Matthew's workshop became a little off-topic a little too soon and became stuck firmly in a particular issue of one of the participants. However, it's always a pleasure to hear Matthew's clear and calm reasoning on any topic that falls his way! I became a fan after hearing his half-plenary last year on the topic of office standards and many-a-time he has unravelled and explained a particular issue on ArchiCAD-TALK in a way that turned the light-bulbs on in my head! (Ben Frost)

The most useful of all workshops I attended - although Matthew was too easily side tracked, he was great. I discovered that our office system of descriptive layers rather than alphanumeric (standard) gibberish was a proposal also from MaxATS. We would benefit from the pen setting of the MaxATS. (Ed Sharpe)

Sideways look at GDL

Bertrand showed me most amazing thing. He was able, with an addon of his own, to script GDL directly in AutoCAD with an adequate 3D simulation. This looks like a fantastic Trojan Horse, Graphisoft Team should keep in touch with him and dig this. (Til Breton)

Sketchup4 introduction

I am now convinced that it is a good tool, I bought one. (Daniel Dusoswa)

Everybody was talking about Sketchup. so I went to this workshop and I was impressed. Sanjay was brilliant, so is Sketchup. The right tool for architects who do not rely on their drawing skills but want to impress clients nevertheless. I will try to convince my colleagues to purchase a version for us. (Susanne Welcker)

Excellent, well-presented by Sanjay..... looks far quicker than Archicad for initial design concepts....why cant Archicad do this? (Alan Wahlers)

Just having received my 4 upgrade it was good to have all the new features demonstrated to make full use of them. I was smitten by this software at last year's ACUE and finally bought it after the winter school, where Mike Lucy from Ireland presented Sketchup 3 including case studies of his firm's work. (Mathilde Kaplan)

Good presentation and run through by Sanjay of a great product, that I knew already but had not seen at such close quarters, very inspiring. Although I do wonder if I will be able to free myself up from the AC way of doing things, can but try ! Definitely on my list now. (Peter Bennison)

Sketchup 4 advanced users

We have Sketchup, but are novice to intermediate users. Peter's session was wonderful for two things - i) showing how he has used it for early planning consultation work, superimposing a model onto an aerial photograph of a portion of city; and ii) sharing user tips - small things that make a big difference to workflow. Because of the small numbers there we were able to ask specific questions and get help in how to use it. I feel Peter's session will enable us to make proper use of the features of the programme for the first time, and has given me ideas as to how to present early stage projects. If at all possible it would be great to put the movies or skp files onto your website as examples of best practice. (Nigel Walter)

Very convincing use with 'live' project examples featured. Good explanations of getting desired set-ups and effects. Very nice tutor manner with wide audience mix. (Mike Willey)

Peter demonstrated, not just how things could be done in Sketchup, but also some very helpful case studies. Planners love this type of interaction. (Mathilde Kaplan)

Web presentation for ArchiCAD projects

Pavol Elias gave us two reassuring sentiments. First one is that his company Dunako is making really good work. Once you've seen ArchiShock3D you understand that web sharing of 3D interactive models is now knocking at our office's doors, and there's just one step left: open the door and let Dunako products in. Secondly ArchiCAD is now becoming a standard more and more companies believe it and are ready to invest in it. (Til Breton)

Working with Plotmaker Templates

One of the best in my opinion. I never liked Plotmaker until this workshop.... It will take me a while to get rid of my bad working habits. His work method makes sense in particular with the Virtual Building concept. The automation shown will work best on models that do not need a lot of patching. In future I will build up my models more as in reality with foundations and proper eaves detailing, floor and roof construction etc. (Daniel Dusoswa)

Another useful session - Link has some good practices and a couple of practical objects. A large group attended - I think about half the group understood what was happening and half were completely bamboozled! Unfortunately this meant those that didn't understand asked some pleading questions and the workshop lost some focus. (Karl Eckermann)

Link has a clear and direct methodology to smooth the workflow between ArchiCAD and Plotmaker. As one who avoids Plotmaker whenever possible I was interested in the automated numbering and detail referencing, but slightly disappointed that it did not take the idea further. Making automated amendments 'update' drawings, a process iterated far more than the production of new drawings would speed up the tedious process between designing and printing. Link's method is not for all and I sensed some resistance from the audience to his suggested template approach.
Its ‘horses for courses’, but as a straightforward approach to avoiding unnecessary processes and minimizing necessary ones, he has a lot to teach us.(Richard Swann)

Some useful tips and tricks, learned to use some new features of Plotmaker. (Susanne Welcker)

Link has done what I have hoped to do before now, which is to produce a system that enables a practice to set up an LBK and a PLN to work together, reducing the time spent setting up the layout book to almost nothing. Some very useful tips here. (Nigel Walter)

Useful idea in its own right, but problem with retaining copies of revised drawings at each revision stage of the building process.... no revision numbers on drawings for instance.... model is updated but no record of updates include. Presentation ok, not that useful to me. (Alan Wahlers).

I have another vision on AC-PM templates in an office like mine. I don't agree completely with Lincoln but he could convince me for some of his ideas. i like that! (Dirk Van Hecke)

Good, with valuable tips and tricks. Should have had a pre-requisite though, many listeners whom had not used PlotMaker for AC 8.1 got completely lost... (Susanne Ollsson)

I was very keen to attend Link’s Workshop since the production of working drawings is the most important part of my working life, and it has to be said that he has produced a superb system for automating the production of drawings direct from the model.
In essence, he has produced a parametric object that sits over the model in plan view, the size of which can be adjusted to suit different combinations of scale, sheet size, and plotter. When the view sets are created, the object ensures that the size of the view - which is represented by this bounding box object - is exactly the size of the drawing sheet in Plotmaker. In conjunction with pre-defined sections and detail windows, the system allowed the production of working drawings directly from ArchiCAD without the user really needing to think about the output - instead one can concentrate on the design. (David Emery)

There were some excellent ideas presented at this workshop and I could see how some processes could be integrated into our workflow and with the approach outlined by Matthew. Link showed how AC and Plotmaker layout books could be pre-built to allow for almost automatic formation of final documentation. Of course, problems could be seen with larger and unpredictable projects but the underlying message was clear to be seen - pre-planning output repays the time invested many fold. Something else to take back to the office. (Richard Payne)

Link, the travelling ArchiCAD consultant, gave us a thorough run-through of his ideas for maximising the efficiency of Plotmaker. This wasn't just about setting up a template file (as I had somewhat ignorantly assumed!), but also ideas, tips & tricks and often forgotten yet simple methods for getting Plotmaker working for you (layer combinations anyone!).
It required a thorough understanding of the methodology behind the ArchiCAD->Viewsets->Plotmaker workflow, which should really have been a prerequisite for attending the workshop. Maybe next year Link should run two workshops: one addressing the basic ArchiCAD viewset organisation and how Plotmaker relates to this for new users and those not really using Plotmaker in their workflow. The second, an advanced follow-up, taking this a step further by covering the contents of this year.
That said, I thought Link's presentation was well organised and he did well to keep on track with wide variety of questions and puzzlement coming his way! like Matthew's 'practice standards' , Link gave us plenty of food for thought for creating and organising our own templates by adapting his ideas. (Ben Frost)

Pretty good. Good discussion on time-saving top tips. No consensus within the group on how to mange drawing revisions though! (Roger Pratt)

Some of the tricks learned were quite helpful. I have already updated some of our office Plotmaker templates to apply some of the techniques. (Katherine Bedwell)

I didn’t completely absorb this at operational level in time available (no laptop) but it seems of great value. (Ed Sharpe)

Good advice here, if presented a little in the "this is the way I do it and therefore the way that you should all do it" manner, but I did learn a lot about how much time can be saved by careful initial setting up the PM layout book templates. One particular tip about using the centre of the sheet for drawing position reference point (particularly sections) should save me hours, and has already been implemented in my own work ( I was still sticking to old bottom left corner start point that must go back to drawing board days). Was also pleased to hear that at last in AC9 it is possible to save only the contents of an AC zoom view into PM.
So generally very useful, some overlap with Matthew's Half Plenary, but here again useful discussion time was railroaded into a few specific points of view that were certainly not shared by the group as a whole. There were also a few members who clearly did not know the base principles behind Link's system - hopefully they found some benefit - as you say, this subject would certainly warrant a split into Advanced and Beginner classes. (Peter Bennison)

It seems from the quanitity and feel of the feedback on the ACUE website that the PlotMaker Template workshop was quite popular! I am glad it was and worked hard to make it as valuable as possible, although I do agree with some that it needed to be categorized as an advanced course. Anyway, I look forward to doing it again and have much more confidence in talking on front of larger crowds now. Thank you! (Link Ellis)

Organiser's note: Sorry. although the title didnt say it was advanced (unlike my GDL one), the description sounded advanced. We need more health warnings on some of the more expert workshops to avoid people being disappointed by mis-choosing 90mins of their precious time. next year, we could do with a simpler workshop called something like, "A beginners introduction to Plotmaker" with the small print being, "The Layout book, importing drawings, cropping, hotlinking, drawing settings, the publishing function, setting up master layouts, setting drawing and paper sizes, and getting stuff printed". (David Nicholson-Cole)