GET IT AUTOMATED, GET IT DONE RIGHT
Today I want to introduce the world of automated Schedules in ARCHICAD. This article is for those who are new in the BIM methodology and also for those who didn’t take yet the step of switching to BIM. If you are reading this and you belong to one of these groups then you really should understand what the automated schedules can do for you.
This is the first one of a series of articles about automated schedules and how to manage information in your model through them.
For advanced BIM users scheduling is a daily based feature that just makes our workflow faster, more accurate and in general it makes your life easier. In previous work experiences I had at offices that were not using BIM there was always someone taking care of drawing Door schedules, Window schedules and some other items of the project that needed to be described separately. It is the wrong workflow in my opinion because who ever was doing that job needed to keep updating them manually as the project evolved.
It is not only a matter of time, but what is more important is accuracy and precision. It just saves you unnecessary errors. As I said, if you are a BIM user you probably know what I am talking about and this introduction article probably won’t show you anything new. But if you are still not familiar with this automated schedules topic please consider reading for five more minutes.
So let’s get to it..
1. Let’s open a new file of ARCHICAD 20 with default template and work environment.
2. Schedules are located here in the navigator menu.
3. Let’s make a quick model that we can use as an example to have some items to input in our schedules.
4. This is how a schedule looks, in this case we selected the window schedule.
Today I won’t go deep in how to create a new schedule and how to customize them. I just want to show you the work flow.
5. Let’s make some changes in our model an keep adding elements to it.
As you can see the information of the schedule automatically updates. Some windows have changed their size and the new items are showing in our schedule.
6. First tip of the schedules: how to find elements in your model from them.
By clicking on that icon you will see your object selection in the 3D model. This may not seem too powerful to you yet, but when the project is advanced and big the amount of elements is huge and being able to select a bunch of elements is gonna make your workflow faster and smooth. In the next image you can see the objects selected in the 3D window.
7. Another useful tip is to set up automated dimensions on the 2D preview of the schedule by clicking here.
8. From a schedule you can edit some of the parameters of the elements displayed. Modifying information and parameters from a schedule saves a lot time. You don’t need to find the elements you want to modify in your model. unfortunately not all the fields are editable. We will talk further about this aspect in coming articles..
In this case we can modify the Fire Resistance Rating, for example. Also dimensions and other parameters can be modified in this default schedule.
I think you can start making an idea of how this data management tool can help you in any project. I hope this introduction is enough for anyone to start touching and tweaking around the settings of the schedules.
In this article I don’t want to do a tutorial of “how to use schedules”. There is a lot of articles and tutorials about how to manage them that Graphisoft offers and so do other ARCHICAD experts. This introductory article is to communicate advantages of a smart workflow for Architects that still are reticent to implement BIM. In the next articles of this series talking about schedules we will show some other tips that combine together can empower your workflow and deliverables.
As we always say BIM is not just for managing data and documentation. It is also a method that enhances the Design process. A project is a continuous workflow that involves a huge amount of data and that workflow starts with the very first Design. Never forget that.
Hope you like the article, thanks for reading us!
