E10 – CREATIVE PRESENTATIONS

About this course

The "E10 – Creative Presentations" course shows how to use familiar Archicad tools in unconventional ways to produce more expressive architectural presentations. Starting from already modelled projects, the course works with axonometric projection settings, 3D Documents, graphic overrides, fills and line types, ambient occlusion rendering and overlaying drawings on layouts. The journey follows the natural evolution of a project: massing diagrams, urban and site analysis, enhanced floor plans and sections, exploded axonometrics, 3D construction details and assembly drawings.

Course details

This course is aimed at architects, interior designers and professionals who already use Archicad and wish to improve the graphic communication of their projects for clients, consultants, competitions or administrations. It is an intermediate-to-advanced level course: no new modelling is carried out, but prior knowledge of axonometric control, graphic overrides, 3D Documents and basic rendering and composition concepts is required. The first part covers 3D projection settings (isometric, cavalier, military and axis distortion), creating conceptual diagrams and arrows with the Shape tool and gradient fills, the use of GIF images, blank model techniques, ambient occlusion rendering and its overlay with line drawings, urban height analysis using graphic overrides, vectorial surface fills in 3D Documents, enhanced sections through overlaying, and layout composition rules. The second part covers site plans using the vectorial engine and shadow copying, improving floor plans with line types, symbol and image fills and zone-based overrides, sections combined with 3D Documents, flattened elevations and axonometrics exploded by storey, construction details broken down by layers using Merge Elements, and assembly drawings highlighted through properties. The practice files are supplied in PLA format; the course recommends using the international version of Archicad and loading the PLA file itself as the project library so that surfaces are displayed correctly.

Learning goals

• Set up axonometric projections in Archicad using the angles and coefficients of the X, Y and Z axes.
• Create conceptual diagrams and indicative arrows by combining the Shape tool, 3D Documents and gradient fills.
• Apply blank model techniques and ambient occlusion rendering to highlight the project's geometry.
• Map heights and analyse the urban surroundings using graphic overrides and flattened axonometrics.
• Improve floor plans and sections with line types, symbol and image fills and zone-based graphic overrides.
• Produce flattened elevations, exploded axonometrics and construction details by layer from 3D Documents.
• Overlay sections, 3D Documents and renders on the layout taken from the same viewpoint.
• Apply layout composition rules: grid, balance, colour range and font size.

Curriculum