ArchiCAD Summer School: Half-Plenary: Better 3D Modelling with ArchiCAD

Outline of James Murray's course in Better 3D Modelling - For the intermediate ArchiCAD user, still reluctant to use GDL. By the way, James will also do a workshop on 'GDL for Beginners' just to show how fairminded he is!

Whats a Good Model?
The primary function of ArchiCAD is construction documents. There are better free-form modelers, better rendering tools, better methods for schematic design. (Many of them dont require electricity.) ArchiCADs strength is that you can build a pretty good model using tools with an inbuilt architectural slant, and you can turn that model into documents.

I am a Virtual Building zealot. Since you're here, you probably use ArchiCAD, and I don't need to give the full pitch on why 3D modeling is the right way to document building projects. But here's the short version:

• Easy 3D for clients. Dont stop working on the project to present a perspective drawing. Clients who understand what they are getting, and are getting what they expect, are much happier.
  
• Design development. Work out the building as a building, not as a series of disconnected images.
  
• Structure coordination. Accommodate the required engineering, before a big beam doesnt fit, or it forces an architectural compromise.
  
• Virtual construction administration. Make virtual mistakes so you get it right in reality. Fewer surprises in the field.
  
• Document consistency. Faster turnaround for changes, fewer omissions and contradictions in the drawings,
  
• Quick development of additional drawings and details.
  
• Reliable geometry reduces the cost of annotation omissions. Better a so-so picture of a generally accurate model than a perfect drawing of... whatever.
  
• These advantages together mean a happier client and contractor.

I model everything I can. When I come up to something I can't model, I stop and figure out how to do it. Sometimes this takes longer than I might want. It my lead me into GDL, where I'm often stretching my middling logic and math skills for days at a time, which can be frustrating. 'James, you've been doing that wavy roof for two days.' I push through it because a model with in- tegrity is a valuable asset.

Like anything, if you model a lot, you'll get better at it and there will be fewer and fewer tricky situa- tions.

I have some solutions that are 'better' than the ones I'm going to show you. I have developed my own D/W, trim parts, structure parts, and curvy construction bits. I'm telling you this so you know that I'm not a non-GDL person. I know a fair bit about it. I will not say, “You dont need GDL!” I believe even a self-identifying non-GDL person can learn a few essentials that can economically help their general modeling ability.
OK, so you should model, and it can be done. Graphisoft makes it sound easy and automatic, which is their right, and it's probably wise busi- ness practice. But as we know, even the simplest project will have some conditions that challenge the ArchiCAD toolbox. For some conditions, you just need to use a tool slightly differently, or use a different tool, or just know the tools' limitations. Sometimes you need a trick. (Solid Element Op- erations are the biggest trick in the book.) Some- times you need to put the toolbox down and make an object. And sometimes you still need a patch.

continues........