I have just completed another in my series of free ArchiCAD video tutorials, which you’ll find on my ArchiCAD Tutorials YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/EricBobrow).

ArchiCAD Tutorial | How to Label Elements Automatically
http://youtu.be/s_8czLAbuJA

This 21 minute tutorial shows how to use the Symbol option in the Label tool to automatically label objects, doors and windows with their ID, ensuring coordination of annotation with schedules and other drawings.

Tips are included for how to apply this approach on plan to label furniture and equipment, and in elevation and section drawings to place markers for doors and windows.

There is also a demonstration of how to use ArchiCAD’s Element ID Manager to automatically number or renumber doors and window in any desired sequence.

Eric Bobrow

P.S. You’ll find more free ArchiCAD tutorials on my YouTube channel as well as here on this website.

If you like my free ArchiCAD tutorials, you’ll love my ArchiCAD training course – the Best Practices Course – a comprehensive training on how to use ArchiCAD effectively.

Included in Best Practices, and also available separately, is my ArchiCAD basic training – the QuickStart Course, a step by step training in the basics of ArchiCAD. It’s good for newer users as well as veterans who want to refresh their knowledge of the core principles in recent versions of ArchiCAD.

In June of this year I put together a powerful one hour training webinar with some of my best tips – things you can learn quickly and apply:

How to Unleash ArchiCAD’s Hidden Power

Over 300 people attended this presentation and the feedback was extremely positive. A lot of people asked me to schedule more sessions because they missed it, but circumstances prevented it at the time.

I have good news! As part of my Best Practices Course anniversary celebration, I’ve revamped this popular and powerful one hour training and will offer it FREE four times over the next 3 days on the following schedule:

• Tuesday December 13 at 4 pm PST
• Wednesday December 14 at 9 am PST
• Wednesday December 14 at 6 pm PST
• Thursday December 15 at 9 am PST

Now I know this is short notice, but the idea just came up, and I decided on the spur of the moment that this could be one more thing that I could give to you as part of this celebration. So I said to myself: “let’s go for it!”

It’s possible I may be able to record it and offer a replay, or schedule more sessions later this month, but I’m not sure. If you want to catch it, make sure you sign up for one of this week’s sessions on this page:

http://www.acbestpractices.com/webinar

THIS IS TRULY DYNAMITE STUFF

I’m really excited about this, since it’s probably the most audacious thing I’ve ever done.

After interviewing a number of the members of the Best Practices Course I was able to crystallize the most powerful things that people love from this course into a dynamic presentation that’s really going to open your eyes WIDE.
I’ve picked out the best of the stuff I teach, and I’m going to give it to you for free!
I was astonished to learn from my course members that many of them are now saving 25% to 50% or more on their production time, winning competitive projects, and generally having more fun with ArchiCAD – which they tell me is a direct result of what they’ve learned from the course.

I’ve been recording and analyzing their interviews and emailed comments, which have helped me to identify the key Best Practices concepts and ideas that made the most difference. I’ll be sharing with you some of the stories of their transformation as I teach you these gems.

HOW TO UNLEASH ARCHICAD’s HIDDEN POWER

Sign up for one of my live webinar training sessions this week to learn:

• 14 easy to implement methods that will help you reduce production time 25% to 50% or more
• 8 simple tricks to enhance your presentations so that you win your next project
• 5 common mistakes that are probably hurting you and how to easily fix them
• 18 great free resources that will help you improve your ArchiCAD skills

I’ll be doing this live one hour presentation on 4 different dates and times this week, so I hope there will be one that you can catch. I’m NOT planning on posting this webinar for on-demand viewing, so if you want to see what I’ve got to share with you (and you’ll kick yourself if you don’t), go NOW to this registration page, pick a time and sign up:

www.acbestpractices.com/webinar

By the way, when you attend the webinar, you’ll get a couple of free bonuses – just for showing up. These are pretty cool – you’ll like them…

I look forward to sharing this presentation with you, and getting your feedback. I just know you’re going to love it!

Eric

P.S. YOU CAN STILL SIGN UP FOR THE BEST PRACTICES COURSE AND SAVE $200 – THROUGH DECEMBER 16

To celebrate our first anniversary, and to thank you for subscribing to my emails, from now until December 16 you can steal a HUGE $200 discount off the standard registration fee!

Best Practices ArchiCAD training course – now on sale!

Come on in and get warm – baby it’s cold outside (at least in the northern hemisphere) at this time of year.

Check out our big FIRE SALE!

From now until next Friday December 16, you’ll save $200 off course registration, which was a great value to begin with.
And, for the first 50 who jump on the opportunity, I’m offering a special FAST MOVER bonus worth $125!

WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?

I started the Best Practices Course one year ago to fill a real gap for ArchiCAD users. I’ve been developing a comprehensive ArchiCAD training that goes over all aspects of using the program from a Best Practices perspective – the most efficient and effective ways to get your work done.

The course is comprised of 29 modules that form a coherent sequence. Each module consists of 3 to 5 video lessons of 10 to 20 minutes focused on a particular topic. You can watch them on demand, and these bite-size pieces fit easily into even the busiest schedule.

• Course members report they start gaining productivity quickly, more than enough to free up time for learning! In fact, I’ve received statements from many members that they are working 25% to 50% faster overall – some even say twice as fast, believe it or not! (These methods work.)

In addition to the video lessons, when you sign up for the Best Practices Course you get access to my ArchiCAD Coaching Program, a regular web session in which you can ask me any question you wish. This is designed to help you put all this theory into practice in your actual projects.

There’s lots more to tell you – so go to the website and find out more – and sign up while the blaze is burning bright!

Learn more about the Best Practices Course – grab the FAST MOVER bonus now!

COURSE MEMBERS ARE ALL FIRED UP

I have lost count of the number of enthusiastic comments I’ve received from course members. I try to file them away in my email system for later reference, and at last count there were 245 messages in that folder.

Here’s one of the most recent ones, which will give you an idea of what you’ll feel like after you sign up for the course:

“Eric, I have been blown away by The Best Practices Course.

For many years now I have attempted to become proficient in my use of ArchiCAD. There is no doubt that ArchiCAD is a powerful tool and that its BIM approach is hitting the mark for our present day constructability needs in architectural drafting. However, the full use of this powerful tool is only realized to the extent to which the user is knowledgeable and proficient in its use.

This course opens the door to that knowledge and proficiency. The course is extremely organized and your teaching method and style allows for individual growth at their own pace.

I have been amazed over and over again as this course has progressed. You have explained in great detail the “How To’s” and have left nothing to chance. You are an excellent teacher.

There is nothing like this course out there and WHAT A VALUE! I can’t think of any educational tool that I have every purchased that beats this value. You have provided more than anyone would ever expect. Thanks again!”

– Paul Fewell, Hemet California USA

Join the 540 members of the Best Practices Course and you’ll be “blown away” too.
I guarantee it.

Check out our Anniversary FIRE SALE – get in quick and grab the FAST MOVER bonus!

Eric

I’ll be sharing my own personal story next, in the post titled Turning Point, coming very soon. This time I’ll face the camera and talk about some amazing twists and turns in my personal and professional life, and how they relate to passion, the pursuit of excellence, and doing what you love. I just recorded the live video, and I know you’re going to enjoy it when I finish getting it ready!

I’m celebrating by sharing some of my best tutorials for FREE for the next little while. You can find them by visiting the web page for my 7 Keys to Best Practices ArchiCAD training series.

If you haven’t been there recently, you’ll need to opt-in to my email list to get to the videos, but don’t worry – I’ll only use it to send you more free ArchiCAD tutorials and information about the Best Practices Course. And if you’re already getting my emails, our system will make sure you don’t get duplicate notices.

In addition to my classic 45 minute training on seven key principles that will help you use ArchiCAD more effectively, I’ll also be sharing updated versions of some of my most popular and powerful tips and tricks. My “Quick Change” tutorial on changing Window and Door ID’s is only 5 minutes long, yet it saved one client over two hours work on a single project!

PLUS – there will be case studies on a number of ArchiCAD users who are doing amazing work after honing their technique using my Best Practices methods, and I’ll tell some personal stories as well.

So hurry on down to check these out while they’re posted, and tell your ArchiCAD-using friends!

He sent an email to Graphisoft Tech Support but contacted me to see if I could help since he was on deadline.

Ever happen to you? I think this is pretty rare, but over the years I’ve seen a number of clients have gruesome problems at a time when they couldn’t afford a delay. The particular error message this time was not something I had seen before: “ArchiCAD detected a cache corruption error and will be closed.”

I wrote him a lengthy email, giving some general advice on how to approach this situation. I thought that it might be of interest to other ArchiCAD users, so I’m posting it here.

GENERAL ADVICE WHEN AN ARCHICAD FILE CAN’T BE OPENED

1. Restart your computer, if you haven’t already. This clears some issues that otherwise linger once certain errors are encountered.

2. Open a different file in ArchiCAD, and see if everything works OK. If not, then you will need to fix the problem with ArchiCAD, as (in this case) there are problems in multiple files. Reinstalling the application may be necessary – see the ArchiCAD Wiki for guidance on this topic.

3. If ArchiCAD works OK on other files, then open the problem file. See if the error re-occurs now. Sometimes the restart and opening another file can clear things up.

4. If the file cannot be opened without crashing, occasionally I’ve had success by creating a new file (use the same or similar template to provide a compatible context) and using the File menu > File Special > Merge command, and then selecting the problem file and trying to merge its contents into the blank file.

5. If this succeeds (no crashing), you may have some or a lot of cleanup or reconstruction to do. For example, this will only bring in the model, it will not bring in the Views or Layout Book. All the data on the plan will come across (3D and 2D), but no 2D stuff from Sections, Elevations, etc. and no Detail drawings, Worksheets, etc. Obviously, this is only “practical” or usable if you are fairly early in a project, when there is mostly just a model and not too much other stuff.

6. If merging the problem file causes a crash, then there’s not too much you can do to access the data until Graphisoft steps in. They have certain tools that may allow them to extract data differently than what a user can do, or to clean up specific corruption in the file. The response time or turn-around time is not necessarily very quick; try to impress upon them the importance of the situation – be honest, but if it’s life or death, or means potentially losing a client and job, they will probably push it up higher than if the work is something you can reconstruct yourself or can wait for.

7. In cases when both the PLN and the BPN give the same errors, it’s good if you have an earlier versions to try to open. If you have Time Machine on the Mac, or certain backup systems on PC, there will likely be earlier copies you can grab; hopefully you can find one that is fairly recent and has not been corrupted. There will be work to do to bring the file up to date, but it’s far better than starting over!

TIP: I recommend that dated versions of a project be saved on a regular basis, and manually or automatically archived in a safe place for possible use in disaster scenarios such as this one. For simplicity, keep the current, active file with the same name throughout the process, but “peel off” or archive files along the way with names that indicate their origin (e.g. Smith House Nov 17 2011, Smith House city submittal 1, etc.). By keeping the active file with the same name, you’re less likely to get confused about which file is the most current, avoiding the “which file did I do that work in?” scenario.

8. Over the years, sometimes I’ve found that a file will not open properly because external references are damaged. These can be libraries, hotlinked modules, or files placed as drawings in the layout book. Occasionally this might have to do with a server issue  such as the server path changing, server unavailable, file damage, or even incompatible versions caused by others opening a linked file and resaving from their workstation.

Isolating the workstation from the server (disconnecting from the network), removing external hard drives, and even moving libraries or external files to the desktop (or changing their file path or folder name) may sometimes be attempted as a way to see if the problem opening the file is actually caused by external references. If one succeeds in opening the “bare” file with no external referencing, then one can add back in the references (moving them back in place) one by one to see if the trouble source can be identified. Once pinpointed, remedial action may be taken, including reinstallation of libraries, or repair or recovery of trouble-causing external files from backup.

EPILOGUE / UPDATE

My client’s story had a happy ending. He wrote to me:

Before I tried your solutions, I tried something that I had been afraid to do.  See below.  I deleted the file that was saved and hit “continue” and was able to open the file after that, albeit with a loss of a lot of information, but fortunately, I had saved the file a little earlier so I didn’t lose too much.  Thank you for the lengthy response to my problem.  I really appreciate it.

He included a screenshot of the standard Autosave dialog, which offered him the opportunity to open up the automatically saved file that ArchiCAD had maintained of his work session. It seems that there was a problem with the Autosave cache, since when he deleted the Autosave he was then able to open up the working file, losing only the work he did since he manually saved.

This reinforces my long-time guidance: Save often! Don’t rely on Autosave! Although it works most of the time (perhaps it’s well above 99%, but who knows…), hitting Command-S or CTRL-S periodically is a sensible habit that takes moments and may save hours.

Well, as it happens, I just answered that question in a recent coaching call for the Best Practices Course. We have several coaching calls each month, and members are invited to ask me questions about how to apply the Best Practices principles in practice.

I have just excerpted this short demonstration (from the recording of the 105 minute coaching call) and posted it on YouTube:
ArchiCAD Tutorial | Introduction to Tilework

In this 15 minute tutorial video, I show several different approaches to tilework, including:

• Drawing a simple 2D Fill on top of the Interior Elevation drawing
• Applying a tile material to an entire wall
• Creating a thin piece of wall with the tile material on top of the structural wall
• Embedding the thin wall into the main wall with Solid Element Operations

Along the way, various settings for the Interior Elevation tool are explored, including:

• 3D Vectorial Hatching
• Exclude View Blocking Walls
• Different geometry options

Since it is a “live” demonstration, there are a few missteps along the way. However, part of the fun in the coaching calls is to see me try to figure out why something isn’t working right – and then fix the problem by changing a subtle setting or option. This trouble-shooting is actually quite instructive, since these issues will often come up in real-world practice.

By the way, there are quite a few ArchiCAD tutorial videos on my YouTube channel for you to watch when you get a chance. To be informed when I post another free video, please subscribe to my channel.

Best regards,
Eric Bobrow

P.S. In 15 minutes, of course, I can’t explain everything about modeling tilework. I cover much more on this topic, and in general, how to get the most out of ArchiCAD, in The Best Practices Course, my comprehensive ArchiCAD training resource. If you like my free tutorials, you’ll love the course. It includes dozens of hours of easy to follow video lessons, as well as access to these live coaching calls.

For more information and to sign up for the Best Practices Course, please visit www.acbestpractices.com

Feedback from Best Practices Course members has been incredibly positive:

“…one day while searching the Web for lessons I stumbled onto this fellow called Eric Bobrow. Well this would have to be the best money I ever spent. I believe Eric’s course should be the tutorial that is supplied with ArchiCAD. The lessons are fun and very easy to understand…”
– Anthony Warburton, Hamilton VIC Australia

“[Eric's] is a unique and personal approach, as though he were right next to me, showing me all the tricks of the trade. If you are new to ArchiCAD, this will get you up and productive in just a few days. Veterans will also learn all kinds of wonderful new tricks of the trade.”
– Chris Ellis, Brewster MA USA

“I have been a very intermittent ArchiCAD user for some time and the Quickstart Course has been invaluable in getting me over a long frustrating phobia around CAD use.”
– Port Macquarie, NSW Australia

“I must say the QuickStart Course is exactly that, and much more. Very concise instruction on specific practices and procedures and I’ve been soaking up really good short-cuts and tips along the way! Has speeded my production in ArchiCAD and cut the frustration level in a big way.”
– William Buttmi, Dunedi FL USA

You can watch the first 6 lessons of the QuickStart Course – about 2 hours of videos – without signing up so you can get a good sense of the training style and approach. Go to the Course Outline in the member area to watch these video training lessons.

Oh, and there’s one more free video lesson you can watch there: an introduction to terrain modeling (module 7 part 2) which is a 49 minute exposition on what I consider the simplest and easiest (yet also best practices) method for building up a site mesh from an imported DWG file.

The QuickStart Course has an introductory offer good through October 31. Please check it out and/or recommend it to colleagues who may find it useful.

Eric

I haven’t gotten a chance yet to try it out, but I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl, and a pinch, and a double-tap. BIMx for the iPad/iPhone takes full advantage of the native multi-touch capabilities of the devices, and looks to be a lot of fun to explore.

I wrote a Tips and Tricks article about the original Virtual Building Explorer (the predecessor of BIMx) which explains some of the basic functionality of the desktop application.

A demo version of BIMx is now included with all installations of ArchiCAD 15, and a license code may be purchased from Graphisoft to activate all of it’s features. However, as part of a special promotion of the new app, all ArchiCAD 15 users may create full-fledged BIMx models and share them with their clients, either directly or through the new Facebook BIMx community site from September 20 through October 31.

You can check out Graphisoft’s entrancing demonstration on YouTube, and read their press release for more info.