archicad stuff

26 July, 2014

Free Textures for Cinema4D

Now that ArchiCAD v18 has a whole new rendering engine, it's time to update our texture libraries. In this thread at AC-Talk, user Bricklyne Clarence has listed some:

So far, I'm unfamiliar with C4D so I don't know if the libraries below work as intended but here are some more that I found:

If you know of others, please share then in the comments.

Image courtesy Pixabay

05 June, 2014

How to un-jog a section line

This post on ArchiCAD-Talk led to a quick animated image telling you how to remove the offsets from a section line. Make sure you choose the correct icon from the pet palette when it pops up.

You will see that, the side to which you move the segment will determine where the section line finally ends up.

26 April, 2014

ArchiCAD 18 coming up

It's official! We have got some details about ArchiCAD 18 and here are some of the salient new features:

Maxon's Cinema4D Render comes built in. This is a huge jump over the ageing (and crippled) Lightworks.
BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) support (in addition to the existing IFC)
Revision Management. (What about design options. I want design options!)
Direct PDF-A export which allows layer control in the output among other things.
Natural Constraints that link building elements together.
BIM-Cloud integration (this had been announced some weeks ago).

So now that Lightworks is gone, I have to set up my surfaces (earlier called materials) again. Should be worth it, though!

More here: http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/archicad-18/overview/

11 December, 2013

Upgrade to version 17 finally processed

I've spent much of the last few weeks desperately trying to get my Wibu key updated, and it finally got done last evening. It's a long and tortured story that began about fourteen months ago but, as I said in my previous post, India finally has a distributor for ArchiCAD and I was probably the first one in line. Now, I can finally concentrate on my actual work again.

Oh, and coincidentally, the latest hotfix for ArchiCAD 17 was also released yesterday. This release, as Jared Banks says in his blog, is unusual in that it actually adds a new functionality.

25 October, 2013

ArchiCAD India gets its 200th member

This is just a quick post to say that the ArchiCAD India User Group reached 200 members today. Now that we finally have an authorised distributor for our country after a long gap, I hope this will lead to faster growth and some real interaction between users here.

23 August, 2013

Bamboo chik object - work in progress

The blinds can be translucent

I've been meaning to make this object for quite some time. Today, because I needed it so badly for the ShKo project in Karjat, I finally put my head down and did it. Didn't take much time but it still needs some bug-squashing.

Should I make an .lcf a rather than just single object because the bamboo chik material with its alpha transparency is not part of ArchiCAD's default library. Tell me in the comments -- and if there are no comments, I'll assume nobody wants the object.

For future reference (and in case it helps someone else) here's the formula for determining the radius of the rolled up portion of the chiks:

I added a looseness factor to this formula, though, because such blinds are never very tightly rolled.

02 July, 2013

First Steps in GDL

Djordje's post on a Facebook ArchiCAD group reminded me of these old gems. If any of you wants to create your own GDL objects but doesn't know where to begin, these books by David Nicholson-Cole will explain the basic concepts in ordinary language and teach you how to make your first objects.

Introduction to Object Making - [approx. 4.5MB]
http://tinyurl.com/oswp3jd (direct download)

The GDL Cookbook - v.3 [approx. 26MB]
http://tinyurl.com/pkwul2e

The GDL Cookbook - v.4 [approx. 17MB]
http://tinyurl.com/q8rjvp8

Note that the fourth cookbook covers some different stuff from the third, so don't skip the latter.

30 June, 2013

A new way to search for help in ArchiCAD

Search Results from the
ArchiCAD Help Centre

Almost a year has passed since I last wrote on this blog which is shameful.

I've been posting regularly to the ArchiCAD India Group on Facebook which has slowly grown to just over 150 members, but I really should post my likes and rants here as well.

Version 17 has been launched and, with it, a revamped website from Graphisoft. One of the interesting things is the new Help Centre that searches not just official GS websites but, much like the search box on this site, others on the web as well. What I absolutely love about it is the way the results are displayed. See the screenshot on the left to get an idea.

I don't know for certain which sites "on the web" the search covers so if it fails to provide me an answer, I find myself falling back to my now-primitive-looking-but-still-effective solution. I don't know if GS got the idea for such a search from here but I'd certainly like to think so!

29 May, 2012

ArchiCAD India User Group on Facebook

ArchiCAD India User Group on Facebook was started on 27th May 2012

There are a bunch of country user groups on Facebook and, as of Sunday, India has one too. ~~Just 5 members in the first two day but I hope it will grow with time.~~ Edit: Just over 50 members at the last count. I'd like it to be a few hundred at least.

Please join ArchiCAD India User Group [ACIUG] if you are, well, an ArchiCAD user in India.

There is also the worldwide ArchiCAD User Group with over 1,600 members.

27 January, 2012

Loft plugin for SketchUp

I don't have AC 15 with the fantastic new shell tool so if I've got to do some complex shapes, (mostly objects - I don't do blobitecture) the fall-back is old SketchUp. Of course there will be lots of polygons and the process is cumbersome but beggars can't be choosers.

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=28586

Have a look at the videos to see what the tool can do.