AC-3e Documentation from 500 to 200

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About this Tutorial

In this Tutorial you will learn how to create more detailed drawings of 1:200 scale in ArchiCAD. The tutorial covers important Documentation topics such as Changing Views Scale, using Graphic Overrides to customize the appearance of elements, creating and managing Layer Combinations, and setting up Pen Sets for printing. These skills are essential for developing accurate and professional-looking documentation for your architectural projects. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a strong understanding of how to create detailed drawings in ArchiCAD and be well on your way to becoming a proficient user of this powerful software.

Skill level and duration

Level: 3 - Starting to Develop a Project

Duration: A couple of hours  

In this tutorial you will learn

1. From a Schematic Plan to an Architectural Plan

2. Graphic Overrides

3. Layer Combinations

4. Pen Sets

The materials you will need

1. Your laptop with internet connection to download and Install Software during the course.

Tutorial content

• 4 Videos 

• Full Tutorial Script 

Why take this tutorial

3DJony is a platform that provides comprehensive tutorials on how to use ArchiCAD, from basic to advanced levels. In level 3, you will learn how to create more detailed drawings of 1:200 scale, which is an essential skill for developing accurate and professional-looking documentation for your architectural projects.

By taking this tutorial, you will learn how to use Graphic Overrides to customize the appearance of elements, create and manage Layer Combinations, and set up Pen Sets for printing. These skills will not only save you time but also help you to produce high-quality drawings that are easy to understand and communicate to clients and contractors.

Moreover, 3DJony's tutorials are designed to be easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions and clear explanations. You can learn at your own pace and have access to the material whenever you need it. Additionally, the tutorial is taught by experienced architects who have been using ArchiCAD for years, so you can be sure that you're learning from the best.  

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1. From a Schematic Plan to an Architectural Plan

1.1. Overview

1. Moving forward in your architectural project means making more and more decisions about your building. Those decisions must be expressed in your plans and drawings, and that translates to a constant increase in the amount of information that needs to be displayed. In this tutorial we are going to learn how to set up your plans for your first architectural ideas, as well as the level of detail that each element of your model must have at this stage of the project.

1.2. Creating New Views

• In the file provided you will find a set of plans in scale 1:500. For the phase of the project that we are covering in this level, an appropriate scale would be 1:200.

1. Open the Organizer by clicking on the little house or by going to Window > Palette > Organizer.

2. Click on the View tab on both sides of the organizer.

3. Choose the 1:500 folder on the left side and the main folder on the right side and click on Copy item > > >. You can also drag and drop the folder while pressing Ctrl on your keyboard.

4. To rename the folder, right click on it and then click on Rename or use the field on the View properties section. We are going to name it “1:200”.

1.3. Setting Up the Views

1. Set the scale of all the drawings to 1:200 by selecting the folder and clicking on Settings … or right click > Settings.

2. Set the Scale to 1:200.

3. Set the Model View Options to B02 Drafting.

4. Double click on any of the views to see the change.

5. It’s important to notice that since you duplicated the VIEWS, they still refer to the same part of the Schneller Bader House. What we did was only to choose a different graphic for the same floorplan or the same section. We are not actually creating a new floorplan, section, or elevation.

6. We can then proceed to creating new layouts for our 1:200 views.

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2. Graphic Overrides

2.1. Create Topography

1. Now that we have our set of 1:200 plans, we might want to change the plans’ appearance to show more or less information, to match any regulations or to achieve a certain graphic style. One of the tools available in ArchiCAD is called Graphic Override Combinations. As its name suggests, this tool overrides the graphic settings of the objects based on a series of criteria that we specify. Let’s say that we want our floor plans to have gray cut walls.

2. Open the Graphic Override Combinations by clicking on this button in the lower bar or going to Document > Graphic Overrides > Graphic Override Combinations…

3. Graphic Override is a combination of a set of rules, that you can put together in different ways. Rules can be something like “All cut elements are shown in green” or “All sliding windows are shown in blue”. On the left side of the window we have a list of those combinations, those are the ones available to apply to the views. When we click on one of them, we see on the right side the list of rules that are contained in that combination.

2.2. Creating New Rules

1. To create a new rule, click on Edit Rules…

2. Click on New…

3. Give it a name.

2.3. Criteria

1. The top section of this window shows the criteria used to select which elements are going to be affected by the graphic override. By default, we have this criterium that says Element Type is All Types. That means that all types of elements are going to be affected, essentially, all objects of our model, whether they are 2D or 3D.

2. If we want to narrow the selection, we can click on Add… and a list will show up.

3. We could choose, for example, Model View > Layer, click on Add and choose any layer from the list. That means that only elements from that layer will have its graphic appearance changed.

4. We can also click on the is button and choose is not. That way all elements will be affected EXCEPT for the ones in the specified layer.

5. In this case, we want all objects from our model to be displayed gray, so we are going to delete the new rule by selecting it and clicking on Remove.

2.4. Override Style

1. Lets check the changes that a Graphic Override has, by selecting from the lower bar the different options we got.

2. Select No Overrides and also B03 Floorplan 1:100 – 1:200 to see the reference.

3. That’s the main goal of Graphic Override, but we can imagine the multiple uses we got.

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3. Layer Combinations

3.1. B03 Ground Floor

1. Click on Cntrl+L to open the Layer window.

2. In the left side you can find the Layer Combination list, there are plenty of options depending on what information, scale, and plan are you planning to show. You can click on each one and see which layers are shown or hidden.

3. Our Layer Combination is the B03 Ground Floor, in that one you will find shown these main layers:

   • 201 Slabs

   • 202 Walls

   • 203 Roofs

   • 204 Structure

   • 205 Interior Equipment

   • 206 Interior Furniture

   • 207 Stairs

4. These are the Layers of objects and elements we are going to start to use to fully develop our architectural project.

3.2. Basic Volume

1. Go to the Ground Floor.

2. Draw a Solid with the plan measure and set height according to the section.

   • Extrusion Length: 5.40.

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4. Pen Sets

4.1. Thickness

1. The Pens are going to change in their thickness, to make it correctly printable when its displayed in the Layout.

   • 0.01 > 0.03

   • 0.05 > 0.09

   • 0.13 > 0.18

   • 0.22 > 0.25

4.2. New Element Types

1. The Element Types are the category that orders the columns of your Pen Set. In this scale we are going to start using these ones, that are the project details that are going to start to be developed:

   • Walls

   • Columns

   • Slabs

   • Beams

   • Stairs

   • Roofs

4.3. New Element Components

1. The Element Components are the category that orders the rows of your Pen Set. In this scale we are going to start using these ones, that are the project details that are going to start to be developed:

   • Structural Cut Lines

   • Non-Structural Cut Lines

   • Uncut Lines (Overhead) / Outlines

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