archicad_curriculum_lessons_imp_3 -...

Lesson 3 – Complete the Model

LESSON 3 – COMPLETE THE MODELIn this lesson we’ll finish the model of the example project. We’ll construct the central stairwell, using Hotlinked Modules to speed up working with repetitive elements. We’ll create stairs and get to know the Parametric Library Parts of ArchiCAD.

3.1. THE HOTLINKED MODULES

Let’s open the “Curr_lesson3.pln” file from the “ArchiCAD Studio Lessons\Demo files\Startup files” folder.First of all let’s create the outlines for the central part of the building, between the two towers. We’ll start drawing the walls on the 2.Floor. Set the height of the default wall to 10’ in the Wall Settings dialog (double-click on the Wall icon on the Toolbox).In the Info box, select the construction method with the Reference Line of the Wall on the left.

Position the cursor on the right side wall of the left tower, so that it is in line with axis E. The cursor changes to a checkmark.We’ve already seen that we can enter numeric coordinates in the Tracker relative to the starting point of elements. Here we are going to enter coordinates relative to the current cursor position.

The method is the same as we’ve seen already: press “Y” to enter a vertical value. The Tracker appears. Enter “10’--”. The cursor jumps to a position 10’ down. (“10’+” would have meant upwards. If you had pressed “X”, “10’--” would be to the left, “10’+” to the right.) Press enter. The wall will start from the modified cursor position.

Draw the wall to the right. Keep the Shift key pressed so that the horizontal angle is fixed and move the cursor toward one of the left corners of the neighboring column. The wall would now extend to the column, but remember, we want the insulation and the wall finish (4” wide altogether) go around it.So instead of clicking at the column corner, we now press “X” and enter “4”--”, that is we’ll locate a point 4” to the left of the column. Press Enter and keep on drawing the next wall toward the column.

Position the cursor on the top left corner while keeping the Shift key pressed. Enter “Y”, then “4”+”, then “Enter”.

Draw the next wall toward the next column on the right. Position the cursor on the top right corner while keeping the Shift key pressed. Enter “X”, then “4”+”, then “Enter”.

BIM Curriculum – ArchiCAD Studio Lessons 45


The last two walls are easy to construct, since we already have the previous ones as reference. Draw the fourth wall to the guide line of the first one (Shift key pressed) and click. The last wall is drawn to the side of the wall of the left tower. Double-click at the last point.

Now let’s select all five walls (since they were created at the same time, they are grouped automatically). Select “Edit/Move/Mirror a Copy” from the menu (with a right-click this command is also available from the context menu). Click on the grid line below the walls. As you move the cursor, a ghost display of the mirrored elements is shown. Click again on the grid line to complete the mirror axis. The new walls are placed.

Select the new walls and choose “File/External Content/Save Selection as Module...” from the menu. In the upcoming browser window, give a name to this module like “Curr_central1.mod”. Now if you select the walls, their Element Information pop-up tag states they are part of a Hotlinked Module.In many respects, a Hotlinked Module is very similar to a reference file (Xref). It resides outside the project file but is linked to the central (”mother”) file. If changes occur in the module file, the mother file is updated to show these changes. Unlike a reference file, the elements of the hotlinked modules are actually placed to the mother file, so if the external data is not available (file is missing), the information is still not lost.Let’s see how that works. Save the current file and select “File/Open...” from the menu. In the browser window, browse for the previously saved module file (specify “Module file” as file type). Click “Open”. In the opened module file, let’s fit the contents into the floor plan window.

46 BIM Curriculum – ArchiCAD Studio Lessons


Let’s add windows first. Open the Window Settings dialog. Select the already familiar curtain wall element. Change the settings as shown. (Height 10’, width 12’, sill height 0”, etc.)Check out all the options available under the Curtain Wall Straight Settings panel:

Click “OK”. We will insert the window to the midpoint of the top wall. Hover with the cursor over the wall and wait for the Special Snap Point to appear. Click there. Do the same with the bottom wall. Check the results in 3D as well.



Select “File/Save” from the menu. Let’s open the mother file and see what happens to the model after these changes.After opening the project file, we receive a warning about the status of the hotlinked modules. Choose “Update”.After the project opens, the changes we made to the module file are clearly visible.

Now let’s select now any element of the module. All elements of it are selected at once. Choose “Edit/Copy” from the menu. Go to the next floor and Paste the elements. Do the same with all the floors up to the 21.Floor. Check out the result in 3D.

Let’s go back now to the 2.Floor. We are going to open the tower walls to join them with the central part of the building.Suspend Groups by clicking on the corresponding icon in the Toolbar.

Select the Wall tool in the Toolbox. Keeping the “Ctrl” key pressed, the cursor changes to a scissors shape. If we click now to a wall, the part between the closest intersections will be deleted.



Click to the part of the tower walls that are in between the central module walls. Do it on both sides.

Since there are two walls on top of each other, we’ll have to repeat the trimming of the walls on the 12.Floor as well. Let’s now save the project file and return to the module file for further modifications.

3.2. CREATING STAIRS

Let’s open the module file and create a stair for the central stairwell. First let’s measure the available space. Click on the “Measure” icon in the Toolbar.

Let’s measure the diagonal of one of the alcoves. We have a 12’-2”x11’-1” space. These will be the measurements for our stair as well.Right-click and select “Cancel” from the context-sensitive menu, or press the “Esc” key on the keyboard. Both will interrupt the current action.Double-click the Stair tool in the Toolbox. The Stair Default Settings dialog box opens.



Here we can choose from several highly parametric pre-fabricated stair objects, but this time we’ll create a new one. In the top right section, to the right of the selected object’s name, click on the little arrow and select “Create New Stair”.

In the upcoming Stair Type Selection dialog, select the “U-Return with two Landings” option. Click “OK”.

Now we can start to construct our stair. In the StairMaker dialog, the first panel is dedicated to specifying the geometry of the stair and the flights. The stair height will be 11’, the flight width 4’-8”. As soon as we enter a value which surely won’t change, click on the little lock icon. Locked values remain untouched, helping to set up a correct set of parameters. The next three values come from the measured space for the stair: length of the side flights is 11’-1”, for the middle flight 20’-2”. Lock these, too.



At the bottom, select the left icon, so that the last step of the stair is below the upper connecting floor level. To the right we see that tread depth and riser height values remain within the pre-set limits, so our stair is OK.If we want to change where the 2D symbol of the stair should be cut, we can simply drag the ends of the cut lines with the cursor.Let’s go over to the next panel of StairMaker by clicking on the second icon at the top left. Here we can

specify the stair and landing structure.

Let’s select the last structure type (without treads) in the top row. At the bottom, set the thickness of connecting slabs to 8”.Also in the top right section, select uniform surface materials for the different stair surfaces. Since we’ve selected a stair without tread plates, the next panel is not accessible (here we could have set the parameters of the treads if we had any). Let’s go now to the next panel, which deals with the railing set-up.Here we could choose from a great number of railing types and specify every detail. But at this point of the design process we would like to keep the model as small as possible. We can add detail to our stair anytime later, so for the time being let’s select “No railing” from the roll-down menu.

When finished with all the parameters, let’s click “OK”. In the upcoming browser window, name the stair “Central_stair1.gsm” and save the new stair to the Student.LIB library.



We return to the Stair Default Settings dialog, this time having our new stair as default.Set the stair to be shown one story higher as well. In order to have the stair represented correctly, set the “No Break One Story Above” parameter ON.Select the lower left corner of the stair (on the 2D symbol) as the anchor point. When we place the stair, that point will be placed to where we click.Set the elevation of the stair to 0” to the current story. Click “OK”.

On the floor plan, click the lower left corner of the alcove. The stair is placed immediately.Check out the result in 3D.



3.3. CREATING PARTITION WALLS

Let’s return to the floor plan to add some partition walls. Open the Wall Default Settings dialog box.In the Floor Plan and Section panel, select the Cut Fill parameter and click on the little arrow. The list of available wall structures appears. Let’s select “Wall 2x6 + 1/2" Gyp.Board” from the end of the list.

Also at the bottom of the dialog box, click on the Select Layer button and choose “A-WALL-INTR” from the list.Let’s start the partition wall from the bottom left corner of the stair. The length of the first wall segment should be 10’.



Then turn left and draw the second wall segment as long as the existing exterior wall. (Use the Shift key to lock the angle and take the length with the cursor from the existing wall.)

Draw the third segment to the wall corner.

Shift-click on the partition wall to the right to select it. Click again somewhere inside (or on the edge). The Pet Palette appears. As a default, the Drag function is active. Press the “Ctrl” key on the keyboard. A little “+” sign appears beside the cursor, meaning we are going to drag a copy of the selected wall. Move the copy 6’ to the left.



Set the wall placement method to Single.

Now let’s position the cursor at the junction of the new partition wall and the exterior wall. Press “Y” and “5’-6”--”. The cursor jumps to the new position. Start a new wall there.

Draw the wall to the opposing partition wall.

Let’s set the Special Snap Points to display Divisions along elements. Right now it is set to 3, which is fine for us.

Set the wall construction method to Center (reference line is in the middle).Hover with the cursor over the horizontal wall and wait for the Special Snap Points to appear.

Draw a wall from each point toward the exterior wall.

3.4. ADDING DOORS

Double-click on the Door tool in the Toolbox to open the settings dialog.



In the Library, select the “D1 11” object. In the first panel, set the anchor point to the edge instead of the center.Door width should be 3”, door height is 6’-8”. There should be no casing inside or outside. Check out the available threshold types as well, but set it to show no threshold.

Examine the Door Panel section of the dialog box. Select “Flush” so that there is no glazing in the door leaf.Click “OK”.Back on the floor plan, position the cursor to the inner bottom right corner of the partition walls and enter “X” and “4”--”. Press Enter. The cursor changes to a double eyeball. Here we can select on which side of the insertion point the door should be placed. Click to the left.



Now the cursor shows a single eyeball. This determines the opening direction of the door. Since there can be four possible opening directions (two to either side), click toward the desired quarter – in our case this will be the top right quarter. The door will be placed accordingly.

Use the same method and insert the other doors as shown.

Select the upper three doors with Shift-click. In the Info Box, set the width of thee doors to 2’-6”.Note that the anchor point (where we initially clicked) remains in position while the other side of the

door moves according to the change in width.



3.5. ADDING OBJECTS

Now we are going to add some sanitary equipment. Double-click on the Object tool in the Toolbox. The Object Default Settings dialog box opens.

From the Plumbing Fixtures part of the library, let’s select the “Basin 01 11” object.To keep model sizes small, let’s switch 3D representation OFF.Rotate the object by 270.00°. Select the anchor point in the middle.Click “OK”.

In the Toolbar in the Special Snap Values menu, set the Distance value to 2’-8”.

Hover with the cursor along the lower part of the right side wall and wait for the Special Snap Points. Once they appear, click on them to place the basins as shown. Repeat it on the opposite wall. If the objects are placed the wrong way, select and rotate them around the anchor point.



Using the same method, let’s place toilets and urinals, too. For the toilets use the “Half ” Special Snap Points set to appear Between Intersection Points.

We would like to create a similar unit on the other side of the central module as well. Since the other unit is going to be centrally symmetrical, we need to define the center of symmetry first.

To do this we are going to create a Guide Line Segment using this command accessible from the Toolbar.Draw the guide line diagonally between the two exterior wall polygons. Its center point will be the center of symmetry.Select the whole sanitary unit. Select “Edit/Move/Rotate a Copy” from the menu. Click to the midpoint of the guide line using the Special Snap Point. Start the rotation angle anywhere and finish it at 180°. A copy of the unit will be placed. Select and delete the urinals here

(this will be the Ladies’ section).



We’ll finish the central module by adding a slab to the top. Open the Slab Default Settings dialog.Use the settings shown here. Click “OK”.

We’ll construct the slab with the Polygon geometry method by going from node to node around the exterior wall corners.

Now all that’s left to do is to cut holes into the slab for the stair. Select the slab and while it is selected, start to draw a rectangle around the stair. With this method we can define a hole in the slab.

Also cut two additional holes in the bottom part of the module. This is where we are going to place the elevators. Start the rectangles at the window corners and finish at the wall corners.



Finally – with the slab and the Slab tool still selected – let’s click to the right and left edges of the slab and choose Offset Edge from the Pet Palette. Offset the sides by 1’.Let’s save the module file and return to the original project. Opening the project file again we receive the warning that a module has to be updated. Choose “Update”.

On both the floor plans and in 3D we can confirm that all the additions to the module file are present in the project file as well.



3.6. FINALIZING THE GROUND FLOOR

Let’s go now to the ground floor. It is still fairly empty, so we’ll have to add some perimeter walls as well as a stair going up to the 2.Floor.

Let’s start with the stair first. As a basis we can use the one from the central module. The main difference will be the vertical span, since the module stair climbs 11’, whereas on the ground floor one has to climb 18’. So we’ll edit the existing stair and save a new version.Open the Stair Default Settings dialog and browse for the stair we saved when adding it to the module file. Clicking on the little arrow beside the stair name let’s select “Edit this Stair...”

In the upcoming StairMaker dialog box the only thing we’ll change is the total height parameter of the stair. Let’s unlock it and make it 18’. Click “Save as...” and save the stair with a different name.Click “OK” in the StairMaker dialog. Now we are back in the Stair Settings dialog. Here if we don’t see the new stair among the available ones, we may have to reload the libraries currently in use by the project file.

In the top left part of the dialog we see the “Load Other Stair” button. Click on it and select the “from File Dialog Box”, then select the stair we’ve just saved from the browser window.

Use the stair with the settings as shown. Click “OK”.

Back on the floor plan, we must find the correct position for the stair. To do this, we must be able to see the elements on the 2.Floor. So right-click on 2.Floor in the Navigator and select “Show Trace Reference”. The elements of the other story appear. Now we see where the stair should be placed.



We can place the elevators where the holes have been cut to the floor slab. Open the Object Settings dialog and select the Favorites, select “Elevator Standard 11” object from the Library.

Use the settings as shown. To reduce model size, switch the 3D representation OFF.Click “OK”, then place the elevator object on the 1. Story. This object recognizes the story structure automatically and will be displayed correctly on all floors.



Drag a copy of the elevator object, then mirror a copy of both objects so that they will be facing each other.

Now we can create the perimeter walls with the same composite wall type we’ve used before in the project file. To pick up attributes from existing elements, press the “Alt” key. The cursor changes to a little pipette. With this we can point to all kinds of elements. Their settings will become the default setting.Take over the settings from the 2.Floor walls seen as trace on the ground floor. Change the height, so that the wall bottom elevation is 0”, top elevation is 17’.Draw the perimeter walls under the 2.floor walls as shown. Switch off Trace Reference display.



Finally, let’s insert storefront windows into the walls. Open the Window Default Settings dialog and use the settings as shown.Window width is 10’, height 17’.For the placement let’s use now the “Side” geometry method instead of Center.Click “OK”.

Let’s place a window by clicking to the corner of one of the columns within a wall.

Go to View/Elements in 3D View/Filter Elements in 3D... and switch off the Slab in the Element Types to Show in 3D section of the Dialog.



Use a marquee with the Single Floor option to mark the area around the window. Right-click and select “Show Selection/Marquee in 3D”.



In the 3D window, select the window object. Click on one of the upper left hotspots, and select the Object Stretch icon from the Pet Palette. Stretch the object using the upper corners of the neighboring column. Now the window will extend to the next column. Note that in the Info box the width value is now 18'-6".Also note the pink selection dots of the window. With these dots, certain parameter values (in this case, the position of the indicated mullions) can be modified graphically.Try to raise the Middle Rail Elevation by clicking on the pink selection dot and selecting the Move icon in the Pet Palette. The Tracker appears where the values can be entered numerically if needed. When finished, press the “Alt” key and pick up the settings for the window object with the pipette.

Going back now to the floor plan, add windows to all the remaining walls.

Now switch back to the Slab in the Filter Elements in 3D dialog and check out the result in a perspective view. (Select “Show all in 3D” from the context-sensitive menu first.) Save the project.


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