On Land

Adapted from my brief presentation at the DC Archicad User Group meeting earlier this month. If you want to look at the files, there is a download link at the end of the post.

This is a simple scheme for using a single site model for multiple projects. It is applicable for everything from detached garages, to townhouse blocks, to proper campuses. The goals of this scheme are:

• Consistent 2D and 3D site data in each project, maintaining accurate story information.

• Visualization of the whole property in BIMx, while all buildings are easily kept up to date.

In our usage, the site is part of the main house's file. The site can be in a completely separate file using the same technique. The BIMx is published by the project file which contains the site. I will refer to the main house file and the small house file.

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I didn't want to talk this to death. What I like about alignment charts is they are assertive rather than argumentative. You have to just look at them and work out the relationships among the things, and ask yourself if your impressions of the things agree with the author's.

I made this by instinct. The strongest notion I had was that the morph tool is chaotic evil. The second strongest notion was that the mesh tool is a relic and needs to be done over. Then I was on my way.

Having meditated on it a bit, I think this is what the axes mean:

The lawful-chaotic axis runs from standard orderly content to custom content. The good-evil axis runs from user flexibility to user frustration. With that, I will proceed to talk it to death with some comments on each item.

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What shows:
• Walls
• Ceiling trim and finishes
• Ceiling fixtures including lights, fans, and mechanical fixtures
• Floor elements, including deck edges, stairs, counters

Using graphic override rules, floor elements are automatically shown dashed in RCP. And, ceiling elements, which are drawn dashed in the floor plan, are automatically shown solid. What a time to be alive.

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This is the current state of element schedules. All projects will have schedules for windows, interior doors, and exterior doors. Many projects will have finish schedules, which are schedules of zones.

Let's quickly review the basics of interactive schedules. In the scheme settings, there are criteria, which determine what elements will be listed, and fields, which are the information to be shown about each element. Schemes can be imported and exported as XML files.

Then there is the schedule itself, where you control the column widths, header content, and text settings. It is pretty WYSIWYG with respect to output.

In addition to making schedule output, schedules can be used to inspect and edit model information. More on that later.

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