Back in October 2009, Apple surprised us with a new introduction to the mac peripherals, the Magic Mouse the world’s first multi-touch mouse. In the past Apple hasn’t been very successful with its mice, but many are starting to come around now that the company has seemed to have nailed it.

The drawback has been for us CAD users that there’s one tiny thing missing..... the essential middle scroll wheel...! Without it to pan + zoom, and orbit around a model, it just takes ages to model anything really - thus rendering the device quite useuless for 3D design.

Well despair no longer, there is a way.....

Hold the presses, the day has arrived! It seems just in time for the release of the iPad - due this Saturday - a cunning developer has created what looks like the first BIM app for the iPhone + of course the iPad. (and no I promise...this is not an April fools gag)

A few weeks ago I had talked about the possibility of Graphisoft bringing out an iPad / iPhone app for viewing 3D BIM models - similar to their Archicad project viewer ‘Virtual Building Explorer’ - but it seems this guy has beat everyone to the punch.

It's called goBIM™ - write that down! ...or you know, just click the iTunes link at the end.

I’ve gone through a few computers in my time, from basic laptops to building my own super-PC with an NVidia powerhouse, moving onto a Macbook and now even growing slowly out of my superpowerful Macbook Pro. Though I do love my macs - as I am mad with multitasking - I do try and be objective when recommending a piece of hardware, or software for that matter, to be the best fit to the individual. There’s one thing that every designer has in common, we need POWER!

So, what’s the best computer for 3D, CAD and BIM?

David Fano over at Design Reform has written an article about just this subject, putting this question out to the PC and Mac community. Though his recommendations are mostly aimed towards windows users, the general concept of processor power, RAM + hard drive size and such are quite universal. It depends in the end if you feel comfortable with a certain setup and are happy with the final results....while not having to wait 24hrs for an image to render....!

The comments after the article are definitely worth a read, very interesting seeing what other powerCADers use.

This time we get a bit deeper into Archicad and go step-by-step how to draw up a simple building + get used to the tools of the workflow. It's a simple design, nothing very exciting, but a good start to get you on your way to Archicad mastery.

This is the longest video in the series - 22 minutes long - so get a nice cup of coffee ready. If you download the iTunes version you'll see I've added chapters into the video so you can jump back + forwards to whichever part you want.

Enjoy the show!



Stuff mentioned :

The Wall tool | Editing Walls + Settings | Splitting Walls | Material selection | Storeys + Settings | Slabs + Settings
The Roof tool | Polyroof + Manual | Stairs + Slabs | Doors + Windows | The Mesh Tool | Adding vegetation

+

Suspending Groups | The Cursor Tracker | The Pet Palette | The Magic Wand
The Eyedropper | The Syringe | General 2D + 3D views | Show All / Selection in 3D





Useful links
Graphisoft Archicad
Abvent Artlantis

If you found this show useful, a quick review on iTunes would be very much appreciated!
You can contact me if you have any comments, ideas for new shows, or would like to share any tips