Archicad BIM Protocol

1.1 Opening a solo file

1. To open a Solo File, press Ctrl+O and select the file from regular server

1.2 Opening a teamwork file

1. To open a Teamwork File, press Ctrl+Shift+O and select the team work file.
2. Check if the teamwork is connected + if you are logged in with your username
3. Ensure the BIM Server system (BV DOSHI) is switched on

1.3 BIM cloud library

• Mostly Libraries will be preconnected in the template
• If that is not the case - you can connect to the BIM cloud library
• Connect to Offline Library only if there is a problem with the BIMcloud Library
• Offline library location \\FLWRIGHT\e\03_SOFTWARE & TUTORIALS\05_ARCHICAD\ARCHICAD 28\02-LIBRARYCopy path
• Adding / Removing a Library File can be done from Files>>Libraries and Objects>>Library Manager

1.4 Work Environment

• Work Environment Profile determines interface, arrangement of toolboxes, shortcuts etc.
• For ease of use - we have a pre-determined work-environment.
• To access Work Environment dialog box Options>>Work Environment >>
• Offline Work Environment Profile setting location \\FLWRIGHT\e\03_SOFTWARE & TUTORIALS\05_ARCHICAD\ARCHICAD 28\03-WORK ENVIRONMENTCopy path
• Select “AC28 Work Environment_APC”

1.5 Project Info & Location

• Update Project Info such as Project No., Project Name, Project Status, and Client Details

• Update Project Location Co-ordinates, Timezone, and North Point
• Click ‘Set Project North’ to graphically orient North Point. (Take North Point from topo survey or Google Earth)

2.1 Layers

2.2 Story Settings

• Establishes the project floor levels - First thing to do in any project
• Create Stories below the project story for Favourites and Modules
• Give placeholder stories for new Modules
• Project Zero will be the same as Ground Floor level
• All story levels will be FFL - Finished Levels. Accordingly leave offset for finishes when modelling structural elements

2.3 Home Story

• Always ensure that every 3D element is linked to a homestory
• If you have to copy elements from one floor to the next, do so from the floorplan. Do not copy and drag elements vertically in 3D window as it’ll not be linked to the respective home story.
• For full walls, columns, etc., ensure Top Link as the next corresponding story - Home+1 or Home+2 etc. This way, if the height of floors change in the project, all heights of walls etc., will be automatically adjusted.
• For short walls, you can keep the Top Link as ‘unlinked’ and type in the exact height of the wall
• Following the logic shown in the next scheme is important because it determines how the elements will show in floorplans and other drawings

2.4 Favourites

• Create Favourites for all elements (mainly structural elements) before starting the model.
• Ensure all settings such as Element ID, Material, Finishes, Load Bearing Status, Location (Interior / Exterior), etc. are saved with the favorite
• You can model all favourites in a separate story (below the main model)

2.5 Model View Options (MVO)

• MVO determine the Level Of Detail (LOD) to be shown in the model
• It shows how openings, structural elements, zones, etc. are shown and in what detail
• In our template, we determine the MVO based on project stages - Site, SD, DD, GFC, WEB
• More details on functionality from the online Archicad Help

Model View Options: Archicad Help

2.6 Graphic Overrides

• Graphic Overrides help change the appearance of elements in drawings and model
• We can get multiple drawing types by overriding the graphics (appearance) of the drawings or model
• In our template there are preset graphic override templates for drawing type and phase of drawing.
• The overrides can be changed based on rules and the hierarchy of those rules

Graphic Overrides: Archicad Help

2.7 Renovation Status

• To keep track of what is the existing structure, to be demolished, and new
• Site, surroundings (building, trees, pavements etc.), existing trees, etc., should be in existing layer
• New construction (our design) should be in New.
• Any building / structure to be demolished should be in the ‘To Be Demolished’ status

Renovation Status: Archicad Help

2.8 Origin Point

• Start the model on the Margin - indicated with the label
• Ideally, place the corner grid intersection
• If hotlinks are from a separate file, ensure the origin and story settings are the same as the base model

2.9 Organiser

• Create worksheets, drawings, sections etc. with the naming as suggested in the template file
• Add drawings in the viewmap under the respective folders. eg. 100 - Floorplans, 200-Sections etc. Check example project - ANJAC SF Block - to get an idea
• Always add drawings to Layout only from the Viewmap and not from the project map

Project Map

Raw drawings, views and documents

View Map

drawings, 3D, documents applied through a specific combination of ‘Layers, Graphic Overrides, Renovation Status, Scale, Model View Option, etc.’

• It is possible to generate multiple drawing quality from the settings saved in the Viewmap

Layouts

Compile the drawings saved in the Viewmap into layouts (almost all default are set)

Publisher

Layouts can be published in various formats including 3D, DWG, JPEG etc.

Always add layouts as a shortcut to the publisher set. This way, the publisher set remains up-to-date with new layouts as well. You can create a shortcut for PDF and another for DWG.

2.10 RCC elements

• Includes RCC slabs, columns, beams.
• Use the structural element number as element ID

Naming will be as follows

2.11 Walls

• All wall types
• For exterior walls, use the layers starting with the layer code 21 and for interior walls, use layers under code 22
• Each code as 2 sub-layers: load-bearing, & non-load bearing. Use accordingly
• Element ID will contain the material and thickness as follows.

For example for a conventional brick wall of 230mm thickness it would be:

Following are the material codes for various wall materials

2.12 PCC

• PCC layer will be modeled separately in the model depending on its location.
• PCC elements will be named as similar to other elements
• For eg., PCC-100, PCC-200 etc. These denote the thickness of the PCC

2.13 Finishes

• Finishes come in 5 types:

Element ID for the finishes (wall, floor, or ceiling) will follow the below format

Examples

Since we may not know the finishing material at the start of the project, we can fill in the details as per different stages.

Eg: At the Design Development (DD) stage, the details can be fewer compared to the Construction Documents (CD) stage.

Rest can be evolved as per individual projects

3.1 Model Views

• The same 3D model can be used to extract information and create drawings for various project stages SD, DD, CD, Presentation etc.,
• The View Settings can be used to show/hide/modify information on the drawings based on specific requirements

This is the view setting dialogue box where the visualisation and level of details are predetermined.

1. Project Map
2. View Map
3. Layout set
4. Publisher (Final Drawing)

3.2 Drawings and Scales

• All drawings that you generate from the model and which we print or make a PDF of.
• Drawings with details corresponding to the stage of the project - SD, DD, TD, or CD
• We have a certain scale standards for the drawings

3.3 Plans

• All floorplans can be taken directly from the 3D model
• Draft 2D information such as dimensions, annotations etc., in the respective 2D layers w.r.t. to scale. For Eg. for Floorplans,
  • Dimensions in layer ‘Dimensions, General’
  • Annotations in layer ‘Text, General’
  • Any element drafted in 2D such as hidden lines etc., in layer ‘Info-General’
• Set View settings as per drawing output
• Dimensions should be linked to the wall elements so that they change automatically when sizes change
• Floor level tags should be connected to the finished floor level
• Door/Window tags to be linked to the openings

3.4 Sections & Elevations

• For Sections and Elevations it is not easy to have all details from the 3D Model itself
• We do a 2-way approach. 3D model for the base + Worksheet for all 2D-data

The Linked Section (from the 3D Model) and the Worksheet are overlaid one over the other in the layout to get the final output

3.5 Fragments

• We follow a 3D (linked section/elevation) + 2D (worksheet) approach also for the fragments

3.6 Details

• We follow a hybrid method for Details
• The source drawing for the detail will be directly drawn from the 3D model. The actual detail will be done as a 2D copy next to the 3D generated detail
• Why this method? The detail connected to the 3D model will change every time we Rebuild Model or change something. This will affect the completed detail if we change something in the last moment, even temporarily.
• We’ll use Source Detail Markers for generating the detail and a Linked Detail Marker in any other drawing where the detail is repeated. This way, we can have the marker repeat in several drawings while linking to the same detail

Schema for Details workflow that we follow:

Step 1 Detail Markers

There are 2 types of Markers saved in Favourites

• Source Markers: They are drawn directly in the Section / Plan of the 3D model. They generate the Detail. This will be hidden in layer settings and when printing
• Linked Marker: These are markers that can be linked to the source marker and opens the linked detail. This will be used in any of the drawings where we want to show the detail marker. As a linked marker, its naming will be that of the source marker.

Step 2 Draw Source Marker

• Open main Section/Plan (connected to 3D) where the area needs to be detailed
• Select _Detail Source Marker from the Favourites
• Draw a rectangle around the area where the detail needs to be generated.
• Tip: Usually draw the rectangle to A3 size (4200x2970mm) so that all details are of similar sizes
• Detail ID and Detail Naming Conventions:
  • Details in Section (Vertical) will be named with a Prefix V. (eg. V.01, V.02, ...)
  • Details in Plan (Horizontal) will be named with a Prefix H. (eg. H.01, H.02,...)

Step 3 Generated Detail & Copy

• The detail generated is shown as 2D lines and fills. But if anything in the model changes, and we ‘Rebuild the Detail’ it reverts back to what is there in the model
• We therefore copy and move the generated detail and change fill type, add 2D elements, dimensions, annotations, etc., to create the final detail
• Use ‘Building Material Cut Fill’ wherever possible.

Step 4 Use Linked Marker in the relevant drawings

• Use Linked Marker from Favourites in the relevant drawing set - in the worksheet along with other annotations
• Link the Linked Marker to the relevant Source Marker. It’ll copy the Detail ID and Name from the Source Marker
• Linked Marker will be a Circle or an Ellipse to indicate the position of the detail

3.7 Automatic Texts

• Many text fragments would be repeated in multiple drawings. You need not have to type them repeatedly.
• You can setup automatic texts for projects that are pre-filled.
• Changing the mastertext will change the text block in all drawings where that occurs
• Certain texts that are similar across projects can be taken from other projects (check with project architect)

To know how to insert Autotext in a drawing: Autotext: Archicad Help

To access Autotext blocks: FILE >> INFO >> PROJECT INFO (Opens all the Autotext blocks)

4.1 Layout Book & Master Layouts

• A Layout Book contains all the layouts in the project
• A default book is already created in the template.
• Relevant folders for floorplans, sections, & other drawing types are pre-created
• Master Layouts are the sheet templates. Any changes to it will change the template in all layouts where the particular Master Layout is used.

4.2 Layout info

• Populating info in layout such as Date, Drawing name etc.
• Repeated information such as keyplans, door/window schedules, material hatch legend etc., can be added to the Master Layouts.

4.3 Adding drawings to layout

• Add from Saved Views only
• Ensure All View Settings (scale, layer settings, graphic overrides etc.,) are correct and not set to custom
• Drag and drop into layout
• Adjust the layout window
• Drawing title can be adjusted in the Drawing Settings (click drawing and then Ctrl+T)

5.1 Creating a Publisher Set

• You can create multiple Publisher Sets.
• This way, you can maintain Publisher Sets for various Drawing Stages (such as SD, DD, etc.), various formats (like BIMx)
• Publisher Sets can be accessed from Organiser Window

5.2 Adding Layouts to Publisher set

• It’s better to clone the layout book directly into the specified Publisher Set by creating a shortcut
• This way, any new layout added/changed will automatically be added to the publisher set
• It can be done from the Organiser tab
• The cloned layout book can be given different formats such as PDF, DWG etc.

5.3 Saving the drawings

• Right Click the publisher set to open ‘Publisher Set Properties’
• Check ‘Create a real folder structure’ - This will recreate the same folder structure similar to how you’ve organised all the layouts in the Archicad file
• Browse and select the destination path.

6.1 Types of Schedules

• Schedules are automatic lists extracted from the information in the model
• There are 3 types of schedules

Element Schedule

Used to generate list of independent elements such as doors, windows, furniture lists etc.

Component Schedule

Used to list information about each component of composite, profile or basic elements: walls, slabs, roofs, morphs, meshes, and/or multi-component profile elements. We use it to take material quantities

Surface Schedule

Used to generate list elements by their exposed surfaces.

• In our workflow we use pre-built schedules for certain things

Interactive Schedules: Archicad Help

6.2 Area Schedule

• Area schedule is derived from zones.
• It can be split based on zone category, layers, home story etc.,
• You can change based on the scheme settings

6.3 Door / Window Schedule

• Doors and windows can be done as a schedule with elevations & plans
• Dimensions and text can be annotated directly onto the schedule
• Any change to the Door/Window in the model will automatically be updated here

Pro tip

• You can select any of the Element (Door/window etc.) and use the feature on the Top Left of the schedule to select it directly in the 3D Model

6.4 Component Schedule

• Used to split composite elements as separate components (For eg. a composite wall into its separate components based on different materials)
• We use it to calculate the material quantities for each element

7.1 Graphisoft YouTube Tutorials

• Volume 1: The ARCHICAD BIM ConceptOpens the playlist on YouTube
• Volume 2: Conceptual DesignOpens the playlist on YouTube
• Volume 3: IntermediateOpens the playlist on YouTube
• Volume 4: Advanced ARCHICADOpens the playlist on YouTube

7.2 Reference Projects

• Some projects from our own works are good reference points

• 2311-ANJAC SF Block-Phase 1
• 2506-E-ANJAC West Canteen-CD-main model
• 2506-ANJAC East Block Ext-CD-main model