The Power of a Pre-Linked ArchiCAD

Template, Part 1 – Viewpoints

AECbytes Tips and Tricks Issue #73 (June 10, 2015)

Link Ellis
ArchiCAD Technical Director, BIM6x

There’s no disputing that using a powerful template is an essential part of being successful with
ArchiCAD, or any other BIM application. If you’re not using one, you need to. If you’re just using a
previous project and starting new projects from it, you need one. If you’re using a poorly made or
maintained template, you, also, need a powerful template.

But what is a powerful template? It means many things to many people. Some templates are very
specific to one business or market, some are highly customized with very unique attributes and
settings, some excel with data extraction, and some contain highly detailed library parts or even
add-ons.

One thing often overlooked is “pre-linking’” your template. A pre-linked template offers huge
benefits in easy adoption, consistency, and of course automation. Once created, it also offers
flexibility and scalability, both of which can be achieved far more quickly than traditional ways of
building a project structure from a base template.

A pre-linked ArchiCAD template has all the viewpoints of a project linked into sets of deliverables
before a model is created. This includes all types of floor plans, sections, elevations, interior
elevations, worksheets, 3D documents, 3D views, schedules, project indexes, and lists. With the
entire template pre-linked this way, when you start to model and annotate, your deliverables will
start populating themselves automatically. The connection between the model and the
deliverables typically follows this process (although the layout book can be skipped):
Viewpoints> Views> Layout Book> Publisher Sets.
This series of articles will explain some of the fundamentals of creating a pre-linked template
based on these four steps. I’m sure by the end of the series, you’ll be excited about the
possibilities! All in good time. We’ll start with Viewpoints, but first let’s take a look at some of
ArchiCAD’s tools and palettes.

Tools and Palettes

To make it abundantly obvious from the outset, in ArchiCAD, we model buildings in 3D. For those
coming from a 2D background, that means, for example, that we don’t draw two lines to
represent a wall in plan. We use the Wall tool that represents a wall as two (or more) lines in
plan, but also creates a 3D wall that automatically appears in the 3D window, sections,
elevations, details, 3D documents, schedules, etc. We use the Window tool to place 3D windows
into walls. And the Door tool to place 3D doors, all of which effectively become part of those
walls. We draw the outline of a slab in plan using the Slab tool, which creates a 3D slab, and so
on. ArchiCAD provides all the usual architectural elements as 3D modeling tools, available in the
toolbox.

As we create our virtual building, we use ArchiCAD’s 2D tools to annotate over the top of our 3D
model. Some of these can be associated with the model, such as dimensions and labels. When
the model changes, the dimensions will update to reflect the new sizes. The data that we enter
into 3D elements can be pulled out by labels automatically. The more automation the better, but
we can add static 2D elements too. For example we can use lines and fills to embellish a large
scale details.

And it’s not just the 3D model that gives us free sections and elevations, or the 2D elements to
annotate them, but equally, if not more importantly, it’s about the data that we can extract from
the model. This ranges from the automatic labels to schedules and indexes of information that
ArchiCAD instantly provides to detailed IFC models that contain all the geometry and all the data
to be shared with users of a multitude of other software packages. The data is a very important
part of your model.

To begin getting our 3D model and all its data into a deliverable format, we need to view it from
different angles, capture those views and either place them onto virtual sheets of paper for
publishing, or just publish them directly. There are many ways of looking at the model and data,
and many formats in which we can deliver this information.

The first step is to understand ArchiCAD’s terminology and tools. To view the model and data, we
can create viewpoints using ArchiCAD’s viewpoint tools: the Section Tool, Elevation Tool,
Interior Elevation Tool, Detail Tool, Worksheet Tool, and the Camera Tool.

Viewpoints

ArchiCAD’s viewpoint tools are quite self-explanatory, and although they each work a little
differently, it is important to note that once you use them, the resultant viewpoint will appear in the
Project Map of the Navigator or Organizer. There are also viewpoints not created by an
ArchiCAD Tool, such as Stories, 3D Documents, 3D, Schedules, Project Indexes, Lists and
Info.
Whichever way these viewpoints are created, it’s good to think of them, as obvious as it seems,
as points of view. Using the Navigator or the Organizer, you can navigate freely between these
viewpoints quickly by double clicking on them. Doing so will not change anything but the point of
view. It will not change the layers, or the scale or anything else. Just the direction you are looking
at the model. Or in the case of schedules, indexes and lists, the way you look at the data in the
model, and the data of the project structure itself.

At this point it’s a good idea to become familiar with ArchiCAD’s Navigator and Organizer. The
Navigator is basically just a smaller and simpler version of the Organizer. ArchiCAD 19 also
introduces a new Pop-up Navigator, designed to save screen space. All of these can be used
for navigating around the model, but the Organizer is better used for creating views and placing
them onto layouts.

The Navigator and Organizer both have four modes as shown across the top:

1. Project Map: Contains a tree structure of viewpoints

2. View Map: Contains a folder structure of views
3. Layout Book: Contains a folder structure of layouts
4. Publisher Sets: Contains sets of views or layouts for specific publishing purposes

For now we’ll focus on the Project Map.

When creating viewpoints for a pre-linked template consider following the 90% Rule: Create
viewpoints that you will use 90% of the time for any type of project. This is based on the fact that
it is easier to create more pre-linked views in your template than you’ll typically need in any one
project, one time, than it is to create them individually as you need them. Once your
comprehensive pre-linked template is established, you simply delete what you don’t need as you
start each new project. This subtractive methodology is quick and efficient, as there are always
common items to remove, such as excess viewpoints, views, layouts, masters, etc., allowing you
to develop your own simple cheat sheet for starting projects.

I have created templates that have just a handful of pre-linked views to huge templates with 2500
pre-linked views, designed to be used for a whole range of project types from high rises, to
industrial, to institutional, to residential, to interiors. Apart from very large complex projects, this
system works extremely well. And adjusting the template to suit each type takes just a matter of
minutes.

Here are some tips on each viewpoint type:

Stories
When creating story viewpoints, create as many as you think you’ll ever need in your biggest
project type, keeping in mind the 90% rule. For simplicity, set your story heights to something
typical or rounded to a simple measurement; they will need to be set when you start a new
project anyway. Consider naming your stories with all CAPS to make view naming easier – this
goes for all viewpoint names. Keep your Main Floor/Ground Floor story as story no. 1 (US) or
story no. 0 (INT) and at an elevation of 0 and build your other stories above and below it.
Uncheck the Level Lines for stories that won’t require them in section or elevation.

Sections and Elevations

When creating section/elevation viewpoints, make your standard front/left/rear/right elevations
and sections A, B, C, D, etc., but also make extra auxiliary elevations, building sections and wall
sections. Any extra section/elevation markers should be placed on a hidden layer outside the
main drawing area until they are required. The extents of the sections/elevations will be
determined by your typical layout size, the story level markers you use and the height of the
building. As a start, it is helpful to trace reference your resulting layout or master to help
determine their extents in plan. Duplicate section/elevations may be required if you want the
option of having shadows on and off, or markers referring to specific documentation sets.

Interior Elevations
Interior Elevations should also be placed on a hidden layer outside the main drawing area until
they are required. They should have their Reference ID set to <ZoneName> so that they
automatically pick up the zone name of any room they are placed in. This name will transfer all
the way through to the name of the drawing on the layout. If the marker is set to show on stories
partly in range, then when the vertical range is set for a room on a different story, the marker will
show on that story only. If you find you don’t need all four interior elevations in your group, you
can use the pet palette to remove segments.

Worksheets
Worksheets are particularly useful for things like north points, location maps, notes and legends.
Create as many as you need! If you use them for legends, you can also trace reference them to
build your plans. Let’s take an electrical legend, for example. It can be pre-linked onto a layout,
but while you’re working in in your electrical plan, you can trace reference the electrical legend
worksheet and use the eye dropper to pick up the properties of the objects on the worksheet, to
place them directly into your plan.

Details
Pre-linked detail markers can be created on the floor plan, but are even better placed on a
worksheet, where they are out of the way. Create details at the varying scales you need. Once
they are pre-linked, you can simply cut them from the worksheet and place them into your model
(plan, section, elevations, etc.), rename and rebuild them and your detail layout will be completely
updated.
Independent Details (details with no markers) can also be pre-linked. These can be used for
“standard details” that don’t need a bubble.

3D Documents

3D Documents are a little trickier to pre-link, simply because their extents are unknown until the
model is built. Nevertheless they can be created to include a larger part, or indeed all of the
project, and simply redefined to the appropriate part of the project once the model is in place.

3D

3D viewpoints consist of Generic Perspectives, Generic Axonometric and Cameras, all of

which can be pre-linked. It should be noted that cameras are currently only required to set BIMx
Gallery Views. Typical 3D views do not require use of a camera. Instead set your 3D projection
to look approximately towards where the model will be. If you later realize the view is not angled
correctly, simply navigate in the 3D window to get a good angle and redefine the view.
Schedules, Project Indexes, and Lists
These can include legends, schedules, sheet indexes, issue registers, cut lists, zone lists – all
manner of data-rich viewpoints. And all can be pre-linked onto layouts or into view sets that can
be published directly, such as to Excel spreadsheets. Make as many as you need, but an
important consideration when creating these is to keep them consistent. So get the first one set
perfectly according to your office standards and duplicate all the rest from that. If they will be
placed on layouts, adjust the column widths and row heights then check them as you go to make
sure they fit nicely.

Take the time to create your viewpoints and next time we’ll cover how to make views and view
sets from them. To give you some food for thought, here are the viewpoints from the BIM6x
Power Template. To see these templates in action, please visit the BIM6x YouTube Channel.