Quickstart to ArchiCAD 1.4 - Guides, Snaps, And Grids

Understanding the subtleties of snapping and guides will dramatically improve your productivity and it will make it easier for you to use ArchiCAD. This movie explains how to use guides, snaps, and grids.

Quickstart to ArchiCAD Part 1.3 - Tools and Commands in Detail

This movie explains many of the tools and concepts for creating and editing in ArchiCAD. This movie uses an exercise file that you will need if you want to carry out the exercises as well. Download the file from this link:
exercise files

Quickstart to ArchiCAD Part 1.2 - ArchiCAD Interface

This movie explains the ArchiCAD interface.

Quickstart to ArchiCAD Part 1.1 - Selecting and Deselecting

This movie covers the basics of selecting and deselecting. Selection is an important concept to learn early, so I'm covering it first.

Quickstart to Vectorworks Part 3

This movie carries on from part 2. In this movie you will learn model a house again. We will also cover lighting, textures, and rendering.

Quickstart to Vectorworks Part 2

This movie carries on from part 1. In this movie you will learn how to model a house. We will use the snapping that we learned about in Part 1, we will use the Push/Pull tool and learn about other 3D tools.

Getting Started with Vectorworks - Part 1

This movie, for Vectorworks 2019 is the first in a series of movies to show how to get started quickly in 3D. In this movie you will learn how to set your units, page size, 3D view, and how to model a house. You will learn about snapping, 3D viewing, how it use basic tools such as the Rectangle, Circle, and Push/Pull tools.

Vectorworks Tip Retaining Wall

You can create a retaining wall on a site model by using a couple of site modifiers. They can be pads or contours. 

The important part is to make sure that you use a grade limits to control the extent of the site mode change. 

podcast 225 - Nudge

Nudge is where you move objects a small amount using the shift+arrow keys. it can be useful, but watch out if you need to measure the objects.

Introduction to BIM for Landscape Course

It has been a while, but I have decided to start face-to-face courses. I used to have these courses on a regular basis in Auckland NZ. I am starting with the first course late March 2017. It’s already sold out, so don’t worry about the short notice, but I am planning on running these courses every three months. Use this contact page if you would like to book for this course.

There is a lot of talk about Building Information Modelling (BIM) in relation to architecture, but not in relation to landscape design. The principles behind BIM can be used to speed up the a production of your landscape projects and drawings. This course is an introduction to using BIM with Vectorworks Landmark and it has been designed to teach you the concepts of BIM and how to use the Vectorworks Landmark in the most productive way. It has all been brought together in a concise face to face course.

Introduction To BIM Course

It has been a while, but I have decided to start face-to-face courses. I used to have these courses on a regular basis in Auckland NZ. I am starting with the first course this week. It’s already sold out, so don’t worry about the short notice, but I am planning on courses every three months. Use this contact page if you would like to book for this course.

BIM Introduction Course

Many people talk about BIM these days, it is an important way to create drawings. This course is an introduction to using BIM with Vectorworks Architect and it has been designed to teach you the concepts of BIM and how to use the Vectorworks Architect in the most productive way. It has all been brought together in a in a concise face to face course.

In this 2-day course you will draw a simple two story project that will teach you the basics of BIM. We will start with first principle and work through creating a Building Model that will allow us to create plans, sections, and elevations. We will progress through site modeling, solar studies, rendering 3D views, internal room elevations, and details.

By the end of the course attendees should be able to create a Building Information Model and create drawings from it.

The course is limited to 7 people max, BYOD. 

Course Outline:

Day 1

Session 1 – Setting Up the Project

In this session we will set up the project using Design Layers, Stories, and levels. As well as setting up the project we will also start to create a library and template so that in future projects we will have an efficient way to get started.

Session 2 – Concept Modelling

In this session we will start to create our project using techniques to create the site model, property line, surrounding buildings, and the bulk and location of our project.

Session 3 – Creating the Building

In this session we will use our concept model to create our building using wall styles, slab styles, and roof styles. These styles to the Stories and Levels so that when changes are made to the stories, the walls and slabs will automatically update.

Day 2

Session 4 – Creating Doors and Windows

In this session we will create doors and windows for our project using styles. These styles will allow the windows and doors to be created efficiently and saved to our library. We can also use these door and window styles to create a door and window schedule.

Session 5 – Internal Fixtures

In this session we will fit out the building placing fixtures in bathrooms, kitchens, adding stairs, and adding additional furniture and fixtures to the plan.

Session 6 – Drawings

In this last session will create our drawings. We will create a site plan, floorplans, sections, internal elevations, details and detail referencing.

Additional Information

This course is an intensive course for learning Vectorworks architect. You might think that there is a lot to go through in a short space of time, and you would be right. In order to give you as much background information as possible at the conclusion of the course, you will be given online courses (value $280 plus GST ) that you can refer to for further information. Included in the cost of this course are the following online courses:

• Vectorworks Fundamentals
• Vectorworks Architect
• Vectorworks Architect Asia
• Vectorworks Site Modelling.

How Well Do You Know Vectorworks?

I get a lot of questions from users about my web sites. They want to know if they should join my subscription web site, or whether they should complete one of my courses first.

epodcast200 - Create Dimension Standards

When you create a Dimension Standard you will find that it is only in the file you created it. Unlike other resources, Dimension Standards cannot be exported to your library. They also do not appear in the Resource Manager. However, you can import Dimension Standards from  another file.  When you create a dimension standard there is an Import button on the dialog box. If you click on this button, you can navigate to the file that has the correct Dimension Standard. When you choose your Dimension Standards, they will be imported into your current file.

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epodcast199 - Create Similar Object

When you are creating your projects, you often want to create more objects like to ones you already have. You could copy an paste an object, but then you have to move it and edit it. The Create Similar Object command sets the same tool, class, and tool settings as the original. This allows you to move a new location and start using the correct tool instantly.

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epodcast198 - Slab Drainage

Vectorworks 2017 introduced Slab Drainage. There is a specific tool to use to create the drainage. This tool has several modes that allow you to add a drain, edit the location and direction, connect drains together, and edit the valleys. The slab drainage can change the entire slab, or it can taper a component of the slab, but it only works with slabs.

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epodcast197 - Select Similar Tool

I use this tool a lot to select a group of things that are similar. You can define how similar they are. They could be the same class, the came object type, or a combination of these. You can save your favorite settings so that you can recall them easily.

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epodcast196 - Door With Custom Height Sidelight

If you are using Windoor, you can use the vertical divisions to create a full height door with ½ height sidelight next it. With the standard Vectorworks doors and windows you can’t create this object using the same technique, but there is a way to do it. create the door and sidelight that you require and make sure that the jam of the door in the sidelight overlap.  Select the door and window. Make a symbol from them.

When you create a door, choose the option to use Symbol Geometry and use your door symbol. This allows you to use the door object and add it to your schedule.

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epodcast195 - Keeping Viewports Rendered

When you open a file, you sometimes find that all the viewports need updating. This can be frustrating and time consuming. There are a few things you can try. You can enable the Viewport Cache or you can convert the viewports to bitmaps. 

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podcast 224 Align & Distribute

You can use the contextual menu to activate Align/Distribute.

podcast 223 - Roadway (Custom Kerb)

Of all the roads available in Vectorworks, this is the most flexible.