2020 | 003 – Get Organized: Project Folder, Template Creation and Development

Hey, welcome, everyone, to the ARCHICAD Best Practices 2020 training session.  Today is Monday, January 14^th, 2019, and we’re going to be looking at how to get organized.  Let me know that you can hear me and that you can see my screen and where you’re calling in from.  It’s always fun to do that.  Now, if you already have connected up to Slack – let me just get my microphone set up where it won’t be in my way.  [0:00:33]

If you’ve already connected up to Slack, then do a greeting there, and if you don’t know what I mean by that, then I will teach all of you how to connect up to Slack.  So, let me just read off from those of you who are typing into the usual questions box.  Alright, hey, Stefan, Tracey, Tom, Susan, Gerald, Bob.  Alright, and then I see Scott is here in Slack, and Francisco from Spain.  Excellent.  OK, and Sherry from Missouri.  [0:01:14]

Alright, so to join on Slack, you’re going to go to the following location: bobrow.com/slack, and when you go to that – wondering who can read this.  Is it open to everything?  That’s fine.  So, this will give you an invitation to connect up to the Slack workspace.  So, I went over this in the coaching call on Thursday.  Some of you were on the coaching calls, and this is where we can have a conversation during the calls as well as in between.  You can use it to discuss things, and you can connect with each other individually because you’ll see on the left side here, direct messages.  [0:02:06]

You can actually search for people who are part of the course and send them a message.  If they made a comment or a question that you want to follow up with, that’s fine.  Hey, David Lohmeier.  I see that you’re there, and I see that Scott is here.  Now, the general is certainly available here.  I’ve set up a new channel called 2020, which is going to be for the training sessions that we’re running.  If you don’t see it in your Channels area once you’ve come into Slack, you can click on Channels, and you’ll see just a few channels.  [0:02:44]

Ultimately, there probably will be more channels added here to discuss particular topics, whether it’s outsourcing or some technical thing like solid element operations or hospitality projects or things like that.  So, this is a discussion tool that will definitely facilitate you talking with me as well as each other.  So, go ahead and join if you can.  Alright, hello.  [0:03:17]

So, Andrej was on the coaching call channel.  So, we’re going to try to separate this out a little bit.  The coaching calls will have discussion on this channel, and when we’re in the 2020 training, we’ll do it here, and by the way, you can see this thing called Slack bot because Slack is the conferencing or messaging tool, and Slack bot will give messages to you when something happens in the environment – maybe a notification, in this case.  [0:03:45]

Alright, so Kjetil just joined via the link.  David Settle, Stefan – so these are all notifications that some of you are saying, “OK, let me follow it through.”  So, when you do go to that bobrow.com/slack, you’ll get an invitation, or you’ll be able to put in your email address.  It will send you an invitation.  It wants to verify that it has the right email address, and then you get an email that gives you a link to complete the registration process.  [0:04:19]

Slack has both paid plans and free plans.  I’m using the free plan here, which will be just fine for what we need.  You can use Slack for your own projects and your own collaboration.  It’s a great tool.  I use it all the time.  In this case, we’re going to use it here in this workspace for ARCHICAD training questions and discussion and community building.  [0:04:45]

So, that was a little side note.  This is where I’m going to encourage you to use, rather than the standard GoTo Webinar questions – for a while, I’ll recognize things from both, but over time, I want to move it into this area.  OK, so I see Chris joined and made a comment on the GoTo Webinar.  Questions?  That’s fine, but do go here to bobrow.com/slack at your earliest convenience – perhaps even while I’m teaching, and in just a couple of minutes, you’ll be able to participate in the 2020 channel here and make some comments, questions, etc. [0:05:31]

Alright, now let’s get going.  So, let’s bring up the browser here, and I’m going to be talking a little bit at the end about how to access the training recordings here, but I’ll put that off till later.  Actually, no.  Let’s just do that right now, since we’ve taken time to go through Slack.  We’ll just sort of bunch up all these administrative things together.  [0:06:02]

So, I have set up a new website called ARCHICADtraining.com.  Right now, you can see that it has very little just on the front page here, but you’ve all been sent a welcome email with a login, and if you click on Log In Here, or you go to the link that’s in the email, it will take you to this page.  Now, I’m in what’s called an Incognito window. That means that even though I’m logged in normally as an administrator for this website, in this window, it doesn’t know who I am.  I’m anonymous, so I can go and show you the login process.  [0:06:36]

So, I’ve been given – I set up an account for my personal email here, and I can log in like this.  So, I click on Log In here, and I have the password, which was sent to me in that email.  Now, I’m in the Best Practices training area.  You can see it says 2020 Course, and it says Coaching Program.  They’re both going to look very similar right now.  Just the titles are different here, but you may notice on the side bar that this says ACP January 2019, so these are the two recordings from the coaching calls that have been held so far.  This is the 2020 course.  When I click there, you can see the headline changes, and these are the two recordings from last week for the course.  [0:07:24]

Now, in order to access these, I’m logged in, but I need to go and say, “Take This Course.”  So, this will allow it to start the recordkeeping for what parts you’ve seen.  So, basically when we say Take This Course here, it refreshes.  You notice that grey bar just disappeared.  Now, I’ve already been in, so I actually have a green dot here.  The way this works is that if it’s green, it means that I’ve already seen it and looked at it.  [0:07:56]

Now, I’m going to click on this.  By the way, here’s a little bit more information, and you can either click down below here or in this side bar.  I’ll go to number 2 here, which was the second presentation that I did.  Now, there’s going to be more stuff on these pages.  I’m going to be putting some more notes and things, but I haven’t gotten to that yet.  If you want to watch it here, you can just click the Play button.  [0:08:20]

You can also switch the speed here.  This is an interesting and useful thing.  You can switch it to – for example, I routinely watch things at 1.5x speed here, and so things that you feel like, “I probably know a lot of this stuff,” and you just want to have it playing and don’t want to take the full hour and a half, in this case, you can do it at 1.5x speed.  It would take an hour to watch it, or I will even do this for some parts. I will do it at double speed here.  [0:08:51]

So, you can do that.  It is smart enough to compensate for the frequencies, so you don’t get a chipmunk sound.  I sound pretty normal, and you can always change it in the middle.  You can say, “Oh, this is interesting.  Let me slow it down to 1.25x or to normal speed there.”  If you do want to download these videos, you can right-click on the video download link and say Save Link As or whatever is the command.  In your browser, it may say Save Target File As there.  [0:09:21]

Now, I’ve watched this video here, or you may say, “Yeah, I was in that session, and I just want to make a note that I’ve seen it.”  I’m going to click on Mark Complete, and you’ll see that it takes me back, in this case, to the top level because there’s basically – it would take me to the next lesson in the list, but that was the last one.  You see that now it’s got the green dots here.  [0:09:46]

If I go to the coaching program here, you’ll see that the coaching program is black, and it’s the same thing. If I go to one of these here, and let’s say that I watch this again.  If I click on these things, and I haven’t done the Take This Course, it will just refresh the page, so I have to go down here and say Take This Course.  You only have to do that once, and now I can go here and say, “Let me look at the January 3^rd one here.”  Here’s the video, and we are going to have some additional notes for the coaching calls.  [0:10:22]

I’ve announced that I’m going to be having these indexed so that you can easily find topics, maybe a question that you asked.  You want to find it, and you can see that it’s at an hour and 20 minutes into the call, or you’re looking for some information about solid element operations or creating a new library part, you’ll be able to do searches using that index. [0:10:43]

So, let’s say that I watched this, or at least as much as I want.  I want to mark that it was complete, so it’s going to take me to the next one.  You can see I was on January 3^rd, and now I’m on January 10^th, and of course, you can jump around.  These will accumulate over time, but now I can see which ones I have looked at and said, “I don’t need to look at it again at this point.”  So, this is how the progress works.  You can see that there’s some green dots up here, and hopefully this will make it easier for you to keep track of what you’ve seen, and the framework is going to be built up.  There’s going to be a lot more supporting material in addition to the videos, but I’ve got the initial framework there.  [0:11:31]

I want to ask how many of you have actually logged into the website.  I sent out the email about 10 hours ago, after I stayed up late getting the website set up.  Let me know.  Let me just see if we have – here, we’re in the 2020 one.  Alright, so let’s see.  David Lohmeier and Susan.  David says, “I’ve logged in,” etc.  Alright, Tracey, over in the other GoTo Webinar comments says, “Tracey’s gone in.”  Stefan did, and Tom says, “Yes.  Worked fine.”  [0:12:06]

So, if you remember the previous course or other courses, the login is going to be similar.  Right now, you get a random password, and you just have to make note of it or copy it, but I will be setting up a profile page where you can customize your password to something that’s easy to remember.  OK, so excellent.  I’m always interested in helping.  [0:12:40]

You see coaching calls here.  So, Chris, great, welcome, and Taren, but for today, during this session, please switch to the 2020 channel.  If you don’t see if in your side bar, click on Channels, and then just click on that.  That will take you to that channel.  It will also add it to your side bar here.  OK, and by the way, if you did want to communicate with anybody else that you see in here – maybe they make an intriguing comment, you may see them in the direct messages here, or you can click on the direct messages and pick someone, like Scott. I’ve been back and forth on different things.  [0:13:16]

I’m going to say to go here.  That actually takes me to the one that I already have, he was basically sending me some information in a file.  Now, I don’t really want to have support questions sent in this way.  It would just be a mess – very hard for me to keep track of, but feel free to use this with each other to communicate.  This will just make it easy to build our community and our connections to each other.  [0:13:43]

So, I’m going to put it back to 2020 here, and I’ll just be monitoring that as well as the GoTo Webinar questions as we move forward.  Alright, so let us look.  I’ll just hide this one here, and I’m going to say that this is the one or classic Best Practices website, and last week, we did a review of the Seven Keys to Best Practices, brought up to date and extended in a few ways.  This session, I’m going to be looking at the Getting Organized part and basically updating all of this, and we’ll be looking a little bit at the optimizing the template as well.  [0:14:27]

So, basically, in the next 45 minutes to an hour or hour and a quarter, I’m going to be covering these topics.  So, here is where I’m going to get started.  How do you get organized?  Get organized is a principle that we see in all aspects of life, and it’s definitely key to using ARCHICAD effectively, and the basic principles apply throughout the structure of your file system, your project template, and your project file itself.  [0:15:00]

Now, a key principle is that the structure should be clear and easy to understand so that when you look at it, or a colleague or staff member or someone else looks at the structure of your file or your computer folders, it should be relatively easy to understand.  There are limits to how easy things are, and of course, you have to speak the language to say that this is easy to understand, but overall, we want to simplify things by setting things up in a way that’s intuitive and natural and organized in a way that there is a place for everything, so everything can be in its proper place.  [0:15:43]

So, you’re not scrambling and saying, “Where should I file this,” or “What layer should I put this on,” or, in general, you want to minimize.  “I need to create that wall type.  Yeah, I did it in these other projects, but I’m going to have to create that wall type again – that wall composite or complex profile.”  So, in general, you want to have things that are in place to reduce the mental effort of, “God, I have to do this,” or “Where the heck is it?”  So, it speeds up doing things, like creating your design or documenting it, and it also speeds up finding things.  [0:16:20]

“Where would that view be?”  Well, that view is in my view map.  It would be here.  You want to be able to just know where it belongs as opposed to moving quickly and then going, “I have so many views that all have the same name, and I can’t find things.”  Alright, so we’re going to look at setting up a standard project folder, creating a project template file, and developing a template file.  [0:16:45]

Now, for those of you who have been with ARCHICAD for a long time, you’ve probably done these things, so this will be a review.  Sometimes, it is good to go over the basics, and hopefully I’ll give you a little bit of a different slant on it than maybe you’ve had, and you’ll find some nuggets here of things that you want to change or add to your system.  [0:17:11]

So, standard project folder is basically when you have a project, you’re storing a lot of files on your computer or on your network server, and those files are different types.  You have the project file.  Maybe you have archived versions or record copies of the project file or backup copies.  You may have some supporting documents, consultants’ drawings, contracts, cut sheets from manufacturers, .pdfs, notes, correspondence – all of those things.  [0:17:47]

Alright, so what can be helpful is to create a standard project folder.  So, whenever you start a new project, you can just simply create that folder.  It’s just got a whole bunch of empty slots.  Maybe some of them already have standard boiler plate contract forms or other things that you routinely refer to and just adjust for each project, but by having this already set up, it will speed up starting a project.  [0:18:20]

So, let’s take a look at just a very, very simple example of that.  So, in MasterTemplate, let me just close up these other folders here.  OK, so there is this folder here called MasterTemplate New Project Folder, and I have distributed it with previous versions of MasterTemplate.  I think that it may not be in the current MasterTemplate 22 environment, although I will post it.  It’s nothing fancy.  I’m just going to open it up a little bit step by step so you see what’s in there.  [0:18:55]

The basic idea is that if I were creating a new project, I would right-click on this and, say, duplicate it, and give it a name, and we’ll just say – what is this?  Smith House, and maybe you have some numbers 02578.  So, you have project number, etc.  Alright, now this is a folder that’s ready to have the Smith House project.  It’s exactly the same as the original one.  [0:19:24]

Now, I’m just going to delete this copy here, and let’s just look at the folder.  So, when you’re working on the project over time, you’re going to be exporting files.  You may export them for consultants in .dwg here.  You may export them for plot records.  Now, this is sort of historical.  I’m not sure how many people actually save .plt files anymore, because mainly you want to save .pdfs.  [0:19:50]

You notice when I click the little triangles here, there’s nothing inside them.  These are empty folders.  Zip, again.  So, all of these are just empty folders.  It’s just a structure, so when you export some .dwgs to send to your consultant, this is where you can file them.  Now, if you have lots of them, then you may have subfolders for different consultants or different phases of the project or archive versus current – all of those things, but this at least gives some framework, and if you’re looking – “I need to check. The consultant said there’s something wrong with the .dwg I sent,” you know where to look.  [0:20:31]

So, it’s easy to know where to place it and where to look if you need to refer to it.  What are project MOD or modules?  Again, nothing in this folder.  These might be supporting component groups – maybe a unit plan that you’re doing in a condo or in an office project.  We’ll be looking at hotlinked modules in detail during this course, but basically a module file is something that you can refer to.  You can import, and you can save out as a record of materials within a file.  So, if you’re working with .mod files, this would go there.  [0:21:11]

Now, as you create output images that you send over to the client, it can be useful to have a folder for the renderings.  Now, in the old days, Artlantis was a very, very frequently used and highly-recommended rendering tool, and it’s still an excellent resource for ARCHICAD users.  Nowadays, there are other ones – TwinMotion, and I don’t know.  There’s a whole bunch of different ones that people are using.  [0:21:39]

In any event, however you do it, whether it’s from an add-on program like Artlantis or you do it from ARCHICAD itself, this could be a place where you save it.  So, you can then easily go and grab them.  You can bring them up on screen when you’re meeting with a client, drop them into some promotional materials, so it’s just a place for it.  [0:21:59]

Well, a .pln – OK, so a .pln is your main project file. If you’re working in teamwork, you will have the equivalent of a .pln, but it will be on the server – on the BIM server or the BIM cloud service.  The .pln is, of course, your working file.  However, you may save, and I recommend that you save, backups.  Now, backups – we’re going to be looking at data safety and migration things in more detail later, but just as a general rule, I would recommend that you save sequential backups going back a little ways because if you have a problem with your file – if it gets corrupted or damaged, it can be very useful to go back to an earlier version, and of course it’s an insurance policy.  [0:22:59]

Like most insurance policies, we hope we never have to use it, but if you do have a disaster, these can be helpful.  Now, if this is on your only computer, maybe you want to have these backups copied into the cloud and Dropbox, so this could be somewhere else, or it could be copied regularly, but in general, as part of your hygiene for office usage, you’re going to want to maintain backups.  [0:23:32]

Now, another quick tip: if you were to save daily backups, you wouldn’t want to be changing – the way I recommend it is you don’t change the name of your project, your .pln file for Smith House January 14^th, Smith House January 15th – the active one.  I recommend that you just leave it as Smith House and that you periodically save copies.  You go to the file, and you say to duplicate – save that copy as Smith House January 13^th or whatever it is so when you start in the day, before you even open the project, you can do that.  It’s a good habit.  [0:24:13]

Now, you can take back the last few days, and then you can delete ones that are earlier than that.  A standard computer, IT-type of backup strategy is to have daily backups for a week, weekly backups for a month, and monthly backups going further.  You can have variations of that, and certainly you should have archival copies of your submissions.  In other words, if you submit for a plan check or for approval or for BIM set, it’s always good to save the .pln as of that point in time so that you can always go back and say, “Yeah, that’s right.  WE had this different back then,” etc.  [0:24:54]

So, archives may be in addition.  We may have backups that are archival, like those ones that I mentioned for a record of when you submitted .pla as a format that you should be familiar with.  If you’re not, it available when you go to the File menu, and you say Save As, there’s an option that says ARCHICAD Project Archive, and it will save it as a .pla.  What this will do is it will save the file with all the library parts that are in use, and we’ll discuss this in more detail later, but basically this is a great way for longer-term storage so that you can open it up in 5 years from now, and in theory, you should have most everything there.  [0:25:44]

Alright, so this project folder – if you just duplicate it for a new project, there’s now a filing system already there.  Now, this is just an example.  The best way to do this is to look at past projects.  So, basically, when you’re working on a project, and you accumulate your own system, we’ll try to keep it organized, of course.  When you want to really approach this type of organization, look at one or more of your past projects and create a folder structure that suits your needs.  [0:26:22]

So, maybe there’s some other types of materials.  Maybe you want to include the contract documents and the correspondence and the change orders and the RFI and things like that.  So, organize it the way you see fit, but getting a standard project folder will save you time.  It will make things easy to find because all of your projects will, in general, start to have the same structure, and everything has a place, so you don’t have to think, “Where do I put this?”  You just say, “Oh, I’m doing a .dwg export.  I’m going to put it right there.”  [0:26:58]

Alright, so that is standard project folder.  I’m going to check to see if there’s any questions or comments.  If you have an interesting observation on the way that you’ve set up a project folder or approached this, let me know.  I do see, in the message for Ken Brooks, “How do I use Slack?  I’ve signed in.”  So, Ken, and everyone else, I will be creating some short little videos to show you how to use Slack, but basically, once you’ve signed in, you’ll be probably in the General channel.  If you are in this training session here, go to Channels, select 2020 because that’s the course we’re in right now, and then just type into the field here, and when you type in and hit the Enter key, it will show up here.  [0:27:54]

So, I see Susan is typing here, so it’s interesting just to see that.  So, Susan, when she finishes and hits the Enter key – alright.  Would one put a copy of the basic office library in this folder?  OK, so the standard project folder is an organizing system for each project.  So, while copies of standard boiler plate things like contracts would go in there, you would want to have a contract specific to that client.  The .pln and the backups and the renderings are also for that particular project.  [0:28:34]

Now, let’s talk about the office library briefly because I’m going to be going into that in an upcoming lesson.  An office library is something that you want to probably maintain for use in multiple projects, and as you develop and add to it – refine it, you want to be loading it from all the other projects, so I would not put a copy of the office library into the project folder because I want that office library, let’s just say by definition, to be something that is updated and available to every project – at least every current project in ARCHICAD 22, for example.  [0:29:13]

So, I wouldn’t copy it in there.  The project should just load the office library somewhere on your computer or on your server.  Good question, Susan.  Let’s see, so coaching calls – somebody?  Hey, Tom, you went in here, so again, I’m going to say that’s fine.  No problem, but do go to 2020 when you have a question or a comment about the current topic.  [0:29:40]

Alright, I don’t see any other comments there, so I will proceed, and if you do have questions about how to use Slack, for now, just type in your questions to the GoTo Webinar standard area, and then over time, with a little bit of video assistance, I’ll make sure everybody is up to speed with Slack.  It’s pretty easy to use, and I see Ken Brooks just joined 2020, so you just figured out how to do that.  So, Ken, just type in something and hit the Enter key, and we should see it on screen in a moment.  “Hi all.”  Alright, so Ken, you are now a master of Slack.  [0:30:24]

Alright, and I see coaching calls here.  2020 not showing up in the side bar?  Click on Channels.  You’ll see 2020.  There are only a handful right now, but there will be more.  Just click on that.  That will join this into the sidebar, and you’ll be in that channel.  So, Taren, I see you joined it.  Tom, you are in, absolutely.  Kjetil – “Will you go through how to share ARCHICAD files on a BIM project?”  Yes, in a future lesson for sure.  [0:30:56]

OK, so I’m going to move on.  So, project template.  Let me just ask – how many of you have put in serious effort to optimize your template?  It would be interesting just to see how many of you type something in.  If you’ve put in serious effort, you’ve really worked it.  You’re aware that it’s an important part of using ARCHICAD effectively.  I’d love to just know that, and if you do type that into Slack, also mention where the template came from.  Is it from the GraphiSoft template that you just developed further?  Is it from MasterTemplate, or somewhere else was the original basis of it?  [0:31:42]

So, I’ll allow you to type in there while I proceed on with talking about these things.  OK, so you can start your project template from something that GraphiSoft supplies right in the box or a commercial template, like the one that I have developed and sell called MasterTemplate, or there’s another one out there called BIM6X. There’s some that are available publicly like Jared Banks makes his Open Template available for free, and you can also develop your own template file.  [0:32:20]

All of them are going to have a special ending.  The file extension is .tpl, template or template plan, you could say, but the file is actually the same as a .pln.  Now, when you go to the File menu in ARCHICAD, you say, “Give me a new file,” or “I want to create a new file,” there’s an option that says From Template, and it will only allow you to pick .tpl files because what it’s looking for is a file designated for that use.  [0:32:53]

It will open that .tpl file and then make an untitled copy.  Here, if I go to an ARCHICAD environment – here’s the U.S. template here, but basically you go to the File menu, you say New, and then submenu New, and then you say you want to work from a template, and it will give you a choice of templates that you’ve already referenced.  This is the standard U.S. template, and this is MasterTemplate here.  You can also browse and go find a template file on your computer.  [0:33:26]

Once you’ve done that once, it will show up in this list.  Now, once you select it, then you can say, “I would like to either close the current file and create a new one,” or “I’d like to launch a new instance and keep this file open while creating a new one.”  In either case, it will open this file then immediately change the name to Untitled, which is what we see here.  So, that’s the standard way to create a new project using a template.  [0:33:57]

Now, how do you save or create a template?  Well, let’s just say that this was a project, and I created a building in here.  To create a template, you can go to the File menu, and you can say Save As, and of course you can save it under a new name.  You can save it in a new folder.  So, this is a project I currently have open, but I can say, instead of a solo project, I’d like to save it as an ARCHICAD project template.  When I select that, you’ll see .tpl.  [0:34:36]

So, what it’s going to do is just change the ending, and of course I can name it here.  Now, once it’s been saved in that format, you could open it in either of two ways.  You can open it either as part of creating a new project, like I mentioned earlier, or let’s just say that we’ve done that, and now I want to work on the template.  I want to develop it further.  I would go to File, Open, and instead of opening one from the history or opening an ARCHICAD project file – here are some project files sent in by members of the coaching program last week.  [0:35:18]

I could say I’d like to search for ARCHICAD project template files.  Now, you see all of these become grey because none of them are template files. If I go into my MasterTemplate 22 here, you’ll see that here’s the international template, and where is the U.S.A. template?  It would be in here, so if I wanted to work on a template to develop it further as opposed to just open it and create a new file, it’s good to say File, Open, say, “I want to look just for template files,” and then open this.  [0:35:59]

When I do that, now I’m opening the template, and I can make changes to it, refine it, and resave it.  Just say Save, and it will keep it as a .tpl, so this is how you would optimize and develop your template over time.  Let me just go back to my notes because I’m jumping around a little bit here.  So, here’s how you create a template file, Save As, choose ARCHICAD template.  You could also literally go to any file on your computer that’s a .pln and change the ending to .tpl, and then ARCHICAD, when you go to New File from Template, will recognize, “Oh, that’s a template file.”  So, you can do that.  [0:36:43]

Of course, you just want to think about what you’re doing. One way to create a template is to take an existing project and just rename it as a template.  Let’s look at some ways that you have for creating a new project that doesn’t involve a template and talk about the pros and cons. So, if you open an existing project – let’s say you work on apartment buildings, and you know that this apartment building is going to be similar to another apartment building, ideally you would pick the one that is most similar to the project you’re doing – a similar style, wall assemblies, possibly similar number of stories.  [0:37:31]

If there’s a 2-story versus a 10-story, and this is going to be 8 stories, then you might want to pick the 10-story one because it’s already set up for elevators and things like that.  Alright, so you open an existing project.  We now have that project open, and then you’d do a Save As and just give it a new name.  Put it into your new project folder, and now it’s the such and such apartment buildings.  [0:37:56]

OK, now when you’ve done that, you would then want to delete the building.  Why?  Because it’s a different building.  Of course, maybe it’s really similar, and you might find it useful to just modify the building, but that would be sort of a rare case, where it’s really, really similar.  Sometimes, you might want to leave the building in place in simple cases and work to the side – create the new building next to the old building just because you can eye drop things, and that’s a pretty interesting and effective way to do certain types of projects.  [0:38:33]

Overall, having two buildings in the same project – one not related to your real design and the other one the real design, can get complicated and messy.  Your schedules are going to get messed up.  Your view map is going to have some issues.  So, in general, immediately or at some later point, you’re going to delete the old building, right?  When you do that, you want to keep the source markers.  [0:39:01]

What do I mean by source markers?  Those of you who have used ARCHICAD for a long time understand this, but if you are more of a newer user, you may not quite know what I mean.  Well, this is a section marker here.  It’s cutting through the center of our visual field, and it’s looking toward the right here.  I can open this section, or I can go to the view map and find the views that are defined for that section.  [0:39:32]

Now, right now we don’t have a building in here, but basically, this section is a source marker.  So, a source marker is the most common one.  When you just go and say, “Hey, I want to create a section,” you click on the Section tool, and the most common thing would be to create a new section viewpoint.  So, wherever you draw it, it’s going to create a new viewpoint that is the source of that viewpoint.  [0:39:56]

Now, later, you could place other markers that refer to it.  I mean, you can place them in a variety of ways, but one interesting way is that you have an elevation view, and you’re looking at the building, and there’s a section that cuts directly through in one particular place, and maybe you want to note and make it easy to go find that section – where it cuts through the center of the building versus the side of the building.  You have two sections you want to just show.  [0:40:24]

So, you can draw a section marker in the elevation view that is linked to the source, so when you say to place a linked marker, then it will say, “What do you want to link it to?”  Now, when you link things, and we’ll be going into more detail in later lessons, you can link it to a viewpoint like another section marker that’s a source of a viewpoint, or you can link it to a drawing.  So, you can literally say, “This marker that I’m placing right here – I just want to point to that drawing on the sheet.”  You’d actually use that very commonly when you’re placing a detail marker that’s a reference.  [0:41:05]

So, for example, that’s a worksheet.  If we go to the Detail Marker tool, we could create a new detail viewpoint by marking out an area, or we could place a linked marker.  If you do standard details on your sheets, you may have a whole sheet of standard details, and you’re just basically putting some callouts, saying, “Here’s this section that shows my foundation.  I’m going to put a marker that’s linked to a particular drawing that’s just a standard detail.”  [0:41:45]

You can also place a marker that’s unlinked, just to say that you’re going to call out something, but you haven’t created that detail.  You haven’t created that view, so that is something that you’ll later on want to go and link it to the view.  Now, I brought this up in a sort of quick description because if you have a building, and you want to delete it – and let me just give you an example.  I’m going to go and open the little sample project that I use so frequently here.  [0:42:18]

So, we’ll go the sample project here.  Say I want to go to All Files or just ARCHICAD project files, and I’ll go to the sample project 103 here, and I’ll launch a new instance.  So, I’ll do that while I’m talking.  So, if you wanted to save that project that I’ve got and say, “Hey, I’m going to do another project that’s similar,” then I could go and open up that project and just say Save As a New Project.  [0:42:51]

Before I do that or after I do that, I’ll want to delete the building, but I don’t want to delete the markers that are in there.  At least, I want to be very careful not to delete the bulk of them because the bulk of them will be useful because every marker has a view defined.  So, in the view map, each one of these sections has a defined view.  Let’s see.  So, we’re in the view map here, and we have sections, so I don’t want to delete the markers here because they already have views, and those views are placed onto layout sheets.  [0:43:39]

So, when we delete the building, we don’t want to delete those markers.  In a moment, we’ll have the sample project up, and I’ll just demonstrate one way that you can do this.  So, while that’s opening, let me just go back to my notes here and say – you’ll need to save the source markers.  You’ll also need to go through the view points and delete references to the original building.  In other words, when you have a front elevation view or a section view, while you can keep the marker, once the building is deleted and then you start putting in a new building, there may be 2D annotation that’s left over – things like labels would typically be left over.  Some text might be left over.  [0:44:26]

So, you would need to go through all of those places in the project file and just clean them up.  Now, here I’ve the sample project.  Let’s say I wanted to save this as the basis of a new project.  I can go to the File menu, and I can say Save As and give it a name here.  Let’s just say AMT 22 New Template or New Project Example. [0:45:04]

Alright, so imagine this is a new project. It’s not a template that I’m saving.  I want to save it as just a regular old project here, so I’ll actually just call it New Project Example here.  I’m just going to put it in my Downloads folder because I’m going to delete this later, but I’ll say Save.  So, this is now going to have a new name, but of course, this isn’t the building.  This isn’t the design, so I’m going to go and delete everything.  [0:45:31]

However, I need to do a couple of things to make this a really efficient process and to avoid deleting the source markers.  First of all, I’m going to go the Layer settings, and I’m going to select all the layers, Show and Unlock so that way I can delete everything, but then, I’m going to go and deselect everything and find the marker layers.  So, in this case, I might lock the marker layers so that anything that’s on those layers can’t be deleted, and maybe I want to just hide them.  [0:46:13]

You can do one or both of these.  If you hide them, you won’t inadvertently select them. If you lock them, then you definitely won’t delete them.  So, let’s just say that I know carefully the layers that are markers.  They’re organized in my project file well, and of course, in MasterTemplate, you can see how they’re set up.  I say OK, so now what’s going to happen is we’re going to see a whole bunch of stuff because we’re going to see that all the site information – all the building things, but the markers will not be there.  [0:46:45]

Just zoom out to Fit In Window.  Now, when I zoom out here, because this is MasterTemplate, we have a whole bunch of components off to the side. I wouldn’t want to delete that.  This is my actual project, so what I’m going to do is just draw the marquee around it and make sure it’s a heavy marquee, so it’s selecting everything in all of the stories, and then I hit the Delete key.  [0:47:09]

Now, if I did it right, it will delete everything there, and we can start from scratch.  Now, I could save the terrain mesh.  I could save other things that I might need, but in general, this is the way that we could start a fresh project.  Now, because I’m – by the way, you can see it’s empty, and it didn’t actually – let me just go back to my previous view here.  So, this is now the view of the area that had the building here.  Now, if I go to Show All Layers, we’ll see all of the markers are still there.  [0:47:58]

Now, if I had not turned off these layers and locked them, then I’m just going to show you.  If I were to be selecting things – let’s say I selected the whole building, and I had a marker or several markers selected, and I went to the Delete key. I hit Delete, and it will say, “Some of these are source markers.  If you go ahead and delete it, you will delete its viewpoint.”  So, that would remove the viewpoints in the project map and therefore all the views related to that viewpoint.  [0:48:35]

So, if you see this type of message here, tread very carefully.  In general, you want to hit Cancel. There are some cases where you do want to delete viewpoints because they’re no longer needed, and in some rare cases where you want to keep them independent, it will exist in the project map, but it won’t be linked to a marker.  [0:48:59]

Now, I’m going to hit Cancel.  Now, an interesting thing is that if we had left the – in fact, let me just do this.  Let me Undo back to where we have the building.  I’m going to see here.  You can see that I’ve undone the deletion.  This is an interesting little thing.  I’m going to zoom out a little bit.  Alright, so let’s just say we’re in Show and Unlock all Layers.  Everything is unlocked, and I’ve got the marquee around it, and if I hit the Delete key now, it will say, “Hey, you might be deleting source markers.  Do you want to do that?”  [0:49:43]

Instead of saying, “Oops, Cancel,” and having to do it again after turning off the layers, in general, I’ve seen that if you hit Cancel, it will go ahead and delete all the building stuff but leave the source markers, so in this case, Cancel is a shortcut because you’re saying, “Alright, go ahead and delete the building, but keep the markers.”  So, now this is ready to go in the sense that there are still some sections defined.  There are still some viewpoints or the sections here that are live, and essentially, we can move these over to the side, start doing the building, and then put them back into their proper or appropriate relationship to the new building.  [0:50:32]

So, this was an example of how you could take an existing project that’s well-developed that you want to use as the basis of a new project, and you save a copy of it under a new name, and then turn on and unlock all layers, use the marquee with the heavy border to select everything on all stories and delete, but use the option – the Cancel option to keep the source markers.  [0:51:02]

Now, on some of the drawings, if I go to, let’s say, I’m not sure which one. I think maybe there are some in the section here.  So, in this section, you notice that there are some 2D elements that were in that file.  This is an example file, so it doesn’t have all the notes that you would typically see, but basically, I would need to go through every one of these views and delete the stuff that didn’t make sense.  So, that takes a little bit of time, and what I suggest – just from the high level, is to do this once and save as a .tpl.  [0:51:48]

In other words, every time you start a new project, don’t take a project, save a copy, delete the building, then go to delete a whole bunch of stuff.  Instead, do it once, save it as a template file rather than every time.  Now, the pros of what we just went through is that it’s quick and easy – a little bit tedious because you do eventually need to go through the views or the viewpoints and delete stuff that isn’t there, and another pro is that it makes it easier to continually improve the template.  [0:52:23]

So, a lot of people have said, “Well, you know what, I’m always changing my template.  I’m adding layers.  I’m adding schedules.  I’m doing this.  I’m doing that.  I’m adding new wall assemblies, etc., and I’d rather just start from my most recent project because it’s the most developed environment that I have.”  Well, that’s a pro.  The con is that every time you do this, you have to go through all of this process, and ultimately this is going to win out over time.  [0:52:55]

You know, I could see for a certain part of your learning process and development process that Save As and delete the building could be faster and could have benefits, but over time, developing a consistent .tpl will be useful.  Now, you can do this.  There’s one other alternative, which is generally not a good idea, but sometimes newer users will do this, and it used to be something that we taught as a way to get started on a project, but it has a lot of mostly cons – mostly things that are not useful, and that is that you can go and say, “I’d like to create a new file,” and instead of using a template, you can say, “Use latest project settings.”  [0:53:42]

Now, you know that here, we’ve got just a very well-developed, extensive project map and a well-developed layout book as well.  When I do Latest Project Settings, and I say New, and I’ll say, “Don’t save this project example.  I don’t care about that.”  I’m going to create a new one. What will we have?  We’ll have a file with all of the layers, all of the attributes such as building materials and composites and complex profiles, etc.  All of those will still be there, but we’re going to see in a moment that the view map is empty, and the layout book is empty.  [0:54:25]

So, it’s a very limited option for doing that.  It’s still thinking about it.  It’s got a spinning beach ball.  There are some rare cases, and I’m just going to bring up my notes here. There are some rare cases where you may use this, such as developing supporting documents that have similar attributes, like all of the layers and wall assemblies, composites, etc., but these ones may not need any views.  [0:54:53]

Sometimes, you can use this for hotlinked modules – things that are going to be just referenced in, but they are not going to have their own layout book or views, and sometimes you can use it for favorites files.  So, you’re creating favorites, and you want to have an environment that is the same as your working .pln, but in general, we aren’t going to do that.  [0:55:15]

When you do it, it will also potentially miss out on some of the library stuff.  The embedded library will not be carried over, so that’s another limitation.  If we go to the Library Manager here, it’s loading the standard library that the other project had, but the embedded library, which had a bunch of stuff, is actually empty. It didn’t carry that over, and so the file here is an empty file.  When I say New, Use Current Settings, it has no views and only one placeholder layout and one placeholder master layout.  [0:55:55]

So, basically, it’s a shell.  It can be useful for certain rare cases, but in general, not what you want to do, and that – again, the thing to avoid and say no to is Latest Project Settings.  That’s just going to give you a very minimal, somewhat crippled, file.  Alright, so let’s look at my notes here and see if there are any questions on this section of the project template.   OK, so I see some comments from earlier when I asked the question about how much have you used project templates?  How have you worked on your templates?  [0:56:36]

So, I see Haraldur says, “Not enough.”  I guess you’re saying that you know that you could put in more effort, but that you know it’s effective or the importance of it, and it’s homemade.  Chris says, “I use the same template for every new job.  However, sometimes I save a job I’ve done as read-only to be able to use that as an alternative startup file, and I’ve set up layer combinations, which turns off the sources I want to retain before I marquee.”  Well, that’s good, just like I had there.  [0:57:07]

OK, so those are comments from Chris and Haraldur in the GoTo Webinar channel, and Michael Knapp says, “How do I get into Slack?”  You can go to bobrow.com/Slack, so let’s go back here to General.  Why is this – there it is.  OK, so if I go to 2020, this is where our discussions are.  If you go to bobrow.com/Slack, it will give you some instructions for connecting up to Slack.  Let’s just see some comments here.  [0:57:43]

Alright, so getting back to 25 minutes ago or so, Andrej says, “I’m still working on the template.”  David Lohmeier – “Starting to adjust MasterTemplate AMT to my company, title block, etc.”  Susan says, “Not much yet.”  Sherry says, “Have worked on modifying MasterTemplate.”  Ken says, “AMT is a lifesaver.” Tom, “I modified your structure years ago, and it’s been fine ever since.”  So, you use MasterTemplate and then just made it your own, which is great, and Scott says, “Certainly a must-have.”  He uses MasterTemplate and loves the project folder structure.  [0:58:19]

Chris, “I examined all the template options and built my own that suits my work preferences.”  That’s great.  Definitely, you want your template to suit you like a glove, so start with the one that gives you the best framework and build it there.  Gregor says, “I’ve modified MasterTemplate.”  OK.  Scott says< “Can you expand on the elements that will vanish when this plan is cleared?”  [0:58:46]

So, when I cleared the building, all of the virtual building disappeared, so what does that mean?  It’s all the 3D elements – walls and roofs and objects.  All the 2D annotation that is on the floor plans or the stories – it did not delete the things that are in sections, elevations, or detail windows unless you deleted those viewpoints, which as I showed you, if you said go ahead and delete the viewpoints, they would disappear.  Zones are annotation, so they would disappear.  In general, zones can be either associated with walls like automatically finding the boundary of the walls or manually placed.  [0:59:34]

In either case, when you delete the stuff the way I did it, they would disappear.  Now, if you think about what I did 5, 10 minutes ago with the sample project, I deleted the area where my building was, and I left the stuff off to the side that was the MasterTemplate kit of parts – the interactive legends, so you don’t have to blow up the whole thing, but whatever you blow up, you have to be careful and make sure you’re deleting the stuff that’s not going to be useful to you.  [1:00:07]

Tom says, “My comment was regarding file structure, not the template.”  OK, so you’ve been modifying the file structure.  OK, great.  So, Reg, welcome to 2020 here.  Tom, “I developed a couple of templates that keep getting modified over time.”  OK, so we’re going to talk about how to develop the template file and what you should be focusing on in that.  [1:00:31]

Thank you for using this Slack workspace.  This will be interesting because I can show it on screen.  I can’t show the GoTo Webinar questions that you type in on screen.  It just doesn’t relay it through the broadcast, and this is also good because you can all see each other’s comments and over time, you’re going to find that you’re going to be sharing insights with each other, both during the calls and in between sessions to some extent.  [1:01:02]

So, let me just move on to the next thing here.  So, Dennis says, “I tried to search bobrow.com/slack, but nothing found.”  You don’t search for it.  You just type in, so I’m just going to go here.  I’m going to go here to my browser, go in here to the address bar.  Bobrow.com/Slack.  Hit Enter.  It will forward you to the Slack workspace.  Now, if you’ve never joined yet, it will actually be – if I go to an incognito window, let me just go here.  If I go where it doesn’t know where I am because I put this browser into this special mode where it’s anonymous.  [1:01:52]

When I go here, you will see this sort of thing where it says, “Hey, this is Slack.  Would you like to join this workspace?”  It will ask you for an email address.  You click on Verify Email, and it will go and send you an email, saying, “Hey, you’ve been invited, or you’ve requested to join this workspace.  Please click this link to prove that that email address you supplied is yours.”  Obviously, they are doing that to prevent spam.  If somebody put in somebody else’s email address by accident or maliciously, you wouldn’t see it, or that person wouldn’t see it, and no one would join up inadvertently.  [1:02:35]

So, that’s what happens.  So, you don’t search for it.  You just put it into the address bar, so hopefully that answers your question there.  Green Duncan, hey, just joined.  Alright, and I had this.  “2020 not showing up in the side bar.” I think I answered that earlier.  Just click on Channels, and then you can pick 2020, and that will put you in this area.  In general, you all start out in here.  [1:03:02]

“How do you see Slack at the side of the webinar?”  Well, when you’re in any environment, you can have what you’re looking at take up the whole screen.  For example, on the Mac, I can click the green button, and now this is the only thing I can see, but if I go here, and I minimize this or reduce it, now I can make this only part of the window, and the same thing with the GoTo Webinar.  If you’re on a Windows one, it would be in the upper-right, the controls for maximize and restore there.  That way, you can have that.  If you have two screens, which I do, then I just move things off to the side, so I’m going to move this off to my other screen here.  [1:03:50]

OK, so let’s move onto developing a template file and some concepts here that you want to pay attention to, to get the most benefit out of your template file.  So, I’ll just do a quick recap of the Seven Keys to Best Practices that are my organizing principles that I’ll keep reminding you about in this course.  You want to be organized, which we’ve been talking about.  You want, in general, to do things once and have it remembered so you don’t have to do it over and over again every time you start a project or every time you work on the façade of a building or every time you do a detailed drawing.  [1:04:26]

You want, in general, whatever you’ve done once that could be saved and reused, that’s the idea, and one part of that is your settings.  There’s all sorts of settings within ARCHICAD tools that you want to save.  There are different ways to do that, but definitely keep that in mind as you’re developing a template, and you want to use ARCHICAD structure, and it goes without saying – or maybe I need to say it.  [1:04:53]

Keeping the view map intact and the layout book intact and using the structure of the navigator effectively will save you a lot of time and effort and just reduce stress instead of having things that are sort of misplaced that you can’t find.  So, these other principles like working from the general to the specific are always part of ARCHICAD work, but don’t specifically relate to the template.  At least, I’m not going to focus on them now, and the same thing with modeling as well as you can in 3D so that you don’t have to do as much drafting or annotation.  [1:05:35]

Again, these are things, as well as just having backups and understanding how to migrate projects. These are things that are less relevant to our discussion today.  So, when you’re working on your template file, you should certainly take whatever you start with, whether it’s MasterTemplate or the GraphiSoft file, and as you need to, add different layout masters.  So, maybe there are different paper sizes that you work with.  [1:06:04]

Certainly, in the beginning of any template, you’re going to put your title block on the masters.  So, that’s going to be part of your office template is that it has your company information and any variations that you like in terms of the way the title block is set up. The layout book structure – there’s general guidelines.  I can say, “Hey, it’s a good idea to do this,” but really, you are the master of your own projects, and whatever you need for outputting – whether it’s in the early stages of concept or approval, plan check, etc., or late stages for bids and construction, that should be built into your template.  [1:06:51]

In MasterTemplate, we actually have two layout books – two sections of the layout book.  One is for small projects, where the sheets are numbered sequentially from 1 through about 15 or 18, and another where they’re organized hierarchically like the A100 series, the A200 series, etc.  You may choose.  “Well, I never do projects that require all that complicated stuff,” so you may just have the 1-5, 1-20 sheets, but it may also be the reverse.  You always have the A100 series thing there.  [1:07:31]

I’m getting some notifications here.  Let me just see if I can turn off.  Oh, I see.  It’s probably because I’m in my browser there.  OK, let’s see if – I don’t want to have those little tapping sounds, which are indicating that there’s a message that I’ve received on Slack.  If you are in Slack, and you find that you’re getting messages, and you don’t want them, you can go to this little Notifications thing and say, “Do Not Disturb” or “Do Not Disturb for a period of time.”  You can also set your notification preferences to say you don’t want to be notified here.  Say nothing.  I don’t want to be notified here about that.  [1:08:19]

What that means is it will still show up if I’m in this.  I can still see things highlighted that there are new messages, but I won’t be getting any sounds or anything else on screen that shows that.  So, here’s a question.  Ken, “Does new favorites carry over to each project automatically, or is there a manner to achieve this?”  [1:08:40]

So, very very briefly, if I say Save As – so I have a file, and I say Save As a new file, the favorites are contained in it, or if I have a template, and I say, “Give me a new file from the template,” it’s the same thing.  It’s going to create a copy of your template, and it will include the favorites. In addition, you can do to the favorites palette, and you can export part or all of your favorites, and you can import them in a similar way to any other project in that version of ARCHICAD.  [1:09:12]

So, quick answer there.  Coaching calls here – Dennis says, “Thanks Eric.  Got there, I think.”  OK, that’s great, Dennis.  Just want to go to the 2020 channel for when we’re in the training lessons like this versus the coaching calls, which are the ones on Thursdays.  Green Duncan, “MasterTemplate.  Will it work in the UK?”   Yes, there’s a version that I produce that is international metric standards, and it’s widely used by people in the UK, Australia – everywhere else in the world other than the U.S. and Canada.  [1:09:49]

OK, so let’s move on here.  So, interactive schedules.  Well, when you have a door schedule, window schedule, furniture, equipment schedule, or reporting – maybe specifications reports, these are things that no template from me, from GraphiSoft, or anyone can possibly know exactly what you need.  The only time you maybe would not need to do that is if you work for a firm, and you go out on your own, and you say, “I just love the way we had our template set up.”  Maybe you don’t have to customize the interactive schedules because they’re already there.  You’re doing similar work.  [1:10:32]

Generally, you’re going to create your own variations of those schedules, and those should absolutely go in your template.  There are ways to bring in schedules from one project to another – the format, but in general, that should be in your template.   Same thing with composites.  So, you have wall assemblies, floors, roofs that are composites.  Anything that you define that you think you will want to reuse that that you might use in another project should end up in your template.  [1:11:00]

Same thing with complex profiles, so these are things that you develop as you’re working.  You can’t anticipate everything you’ll need in your life, but as you work and you say, “You know what?  I actually should have this available,” then put it into your template.  Same thing with favorites.  So, anything that you’ve said, “I’m going to save time by saving this as a favorite so I can then apply it to elements or create new elements using those settings,” those ideally will go into your template.  [1:11:35]

Now, all of these things that I’m talking about here – how would they go into your template?  Well, let’s say I’m working on a project A, and in project A, I develop some new schedules, and I create some new composites – wall types, etc., and I say, “Those should be in my template, so the next time I start a project, they’re there.”  I would suggest that you keep a notes file handy while you’re working to make note of the things that you’re doing that you’d like to remember to add to your template.  [1:12:10]

It can get a little distracting keeping the template file open on the side and copying and pasting into it all the time.  That is another option. You could just always have the template file open, and whenever you think of it, just grab stuff and add it there, but a simple way is just to have a notes file, and then whenever you have a certain amount – a handful of things or maybe 10 or 20 items that you say, “OK, let me spend half an hour to two hours and update the template.”  It’s sharpening your saw.  It’s giving you a really good tool to cut through your work that has all of the stuff that you need to work effectively.  [1:12:55]

In addition to these things mentioned above, we could have standard details.  So, if you think about it, this is so common in CAD practice, and probably going back to paper drawings as well.  I’m sure it must, where you have detailed drawings for foundations, roofs, wall assemblies – just all the stuff. You know about it far better than I do.  Maybe you have a whole library of details in your office that you reuse.  Maybe you have standard sheets for residential projects or commercial projects or hotels that a lot of the projects are going to use the same drawings, even organized the same way.  [1:13:44]

No particular reason to draw the detail over again if it really is the same structure.  What you want to do is a.) have those details easily available, and b.) in the project, call them out.  Say, “Over here, this is going to refer to drawing 3 on this sheet,” so to the extent that you can, you want to create those standard details.  Now, we’ll be talking about detail management later in the course, but ultimately, having those details within the template file will allow you, when you start a new project, to have them easily available.  [1:14:24]

Another alternative is just to have them in files that you can import from your hard drive, and we can say that’s part of your ARCHICAD office standards, separate from the template, but things that you want to quickly have access to.  Anything that you change in the view map – you just say, “I really need some views for working on roof framing,” or “I need some views for working on the road work of stuff.”  These are specialized views that may not be in the template beforehand, and you recognize you need them, so you put them in.  [1:14:59]

Same thing with layer settings.  If you have a good template, whether it’s MasterTemplate or something else, it should have all the layers you need so that you’ll have minimal temptation to say, “God, where do I put this?”  Well, if I put it on this layer, it’s going to show up with a chimney. If I put it on that layer, it’s going to show up on the roof, but I want to be able to turn it off sometimes.”  I’m sure you’ve gone through some of those thoughts.  “Which layer do I put it on?”  [1:15:24]

You want to think, ideally, as intelligently as you can so that you don’t willy-nilly or without thinking of the consequences, create new layers all the time, but wherever you say, “I just frequently run into this.  I need to have a layer for the chimney that’s separate from the eaves troughs or the other things that are outside the roof.”  There are certainly some reasons for creating additional layers, so those should be part of your template.  [1:15:58]

If you create new surfaces, new definitions of appearance.  If you like a particular wood siding or a particular type of grass or particular roof shingle, those should go into your template.  Same with building materials here.  If you do refine your model view options the way things are viewed, maybe there was a mistake in the template that you were using, and you would say – Oh God, I’ll tell you one example.  [1:16:26]

In MasterTemplate, when I moved from 21 to 22, and I started looking at the sample project, I saw that the staircases or the stairs were showing this funny little shaded volume above the stair.  I was going, “What’s going on here?”  I found that it was in the Model View Option where it was showing the headroom or the headspace or the clearance above, and it was in the Model View Option definition. I said, “Alright, occasionally you want that, but not in most of those views,” so I changed the Model View Option so that in MasterTemplate 22, we didn’t have that issue. [1:17:06]

Same thing with graphic overrides, if you create new ones.  So, your template should fit your work like a glove.  If you need to, or let’s say you’re working on very distinct types of projects, like residential versus commercial or possibly even new projects versus remodels, you may want to have more than one template.  The pros of that – the reason why you might do that is because you use different wall assemblies.  You have different – maybe the layout book is going to be different for these projects.  All sorts of reasons it could be different.  [1:17:44]

The negative side of having multiple templates is that as you improve things – as you add things to one, you have a little more overhead, saying, “Well, does this change I’ve done or this addition apply to my other templates?”  So, then, you will want to intelligently think about whether or not it should apply to your current project template.   Should it apply to this other one?  [1:18:10]

So, I mentioned what I feel is a good practice is just to have a Microsoft Word or Pages or Evernote.  This is Evernote right here. I use it a lot.  Just take notes of the things so that you don’t forget, and then dedicate some time, whether it’s once a month, once a week, every couple of days to reproduce the changes you’ve done in one project into your template so it’s always as sharp as it can be.  [1:18:43]

Now, long-term, you’re going to migrate your template from one version of ARCHICAD to another, so what happens when ARCHICAD 22 came out and you had 21, or maybe you were on 18, and you jumped to 22, etc.?  Well, you can migrate your template the same way you migrate a project.  You can simply open it up in the later version of ARCHICAD.  It will give you an option to say, “Do you want to migrate the office library or the ARCHICAD library?”  [1:19:19]

In general, that’s a good idea.  When you’re doing a long-term change rather than just opening a file to do a quick update or a printout or something, so the migration will load the full new library of that new version and support for the older library parts.  Many of the parts that have been stable or haven’t really changed over the years – of course, since the last year, the last version will automatically migrate to the new library references.   [1:19:50]

Some that GraphiSoft says, “This has changed a bit,” will stay with their old reference, and so you’ll have access to the old parts as well as the new ones.  It does take some expertise and some effort to go in and say, “You know what?  This old door or this door from this version – I really want to use the new doors because they have some new feature.”  You can intelligently swap them into the new version.  That’s something that we’ll be talking about in project migration in some detail, and you would do the same thing in a template.  [1:20:30]

It is one of the things that I do and spend a lot of time with in MasterTemplate because we have a whole lot of favorites and a whole lot of components in the interactive legends that are library parts, and so, in order to make them really work in the new version as simply as possible, I put in the effort to sharpen the saw, to get the template all set up so that it uses only the new library and the bare minimum of legacy parts that are no longer available or work very differently.  [1:21:08]

So, let’s see if we have some comments or questions.  We’re about to be finished with today’s session.  OK, so Chris wrote in.  Let me just bring this over on screen here so we can see it.  Alright, so Chris wrote a slash, so I guess you were just experimenting.  Iain says, “Did this message work OK?”  Well, I’m seeing it, and so others would have seen it.  Alright, Green Duncan.  “In AutoCAD, you use layers to control the content on multiple sheets.  Would this be the correct approach for ARCHICAD, or is it different than Revit?”  [1:21:47]

Alright, so quick answer to that is layers control visibility and editability, meaning can you edit something.  You can lock it, and if you lock a layer, then the elements on that layer won’t be able to be changed until you unlock the layer.  You can manually turn layers on and off, but generally, we use layer combinations to turn on and off different groups for different purposes.  So, a floor plan layer combination will show certain types of elements.  A site plan will show some site information and maybe turn off some of the interior detail.  A furniture plan will have a different layer combination, etc.  [1:22:34]

When you are creating your sheets, you’re placing views of your project onto the sheet as drawings.  Those views have a layer combination, so yes, layers in general will control what you see on the sheets, so we’ll be going into some great detail on all of that during the course.  OK, so Taren says, “Iain, your message shows up fine.”  Ken, “A separate .tpl file for standard details available for import into future projects?”  [1:23:05]

So, we’re talking about detail drawings.  There are different ways that you can have those details available.  I’m not going to go into all the variations in today’s session that could be in another template file or a project file, or it can be within the ones that you use all the time.  It could be built into the actual template.  [1:23:26]

David says, “What is the best practice for migration of template to new template without overwriting your file structure?”  So, when you migrate a file or a template, you’re opening it up in the new version of ARCHICAD, and you’re saving it under a new name because by definition, when we migrate, we’re not overwriting, or let’s say that I believe when you migrate, you should keep the original copy as a reference and not overwrite it.  [1:24:00]

So, you want to create a new version, and the file structure – well, are you talking about the structure within the project?  It will be retained.  If we’re talking about the file structure of the project folder, well, that’s something different, and just creating a new copy of the file won’t affect that.  Green Duncan says, “Are these webinars available for download?”  Yes, I went through that earlier, and if you check your email that I sent out this morning, there is a login for the new website.  Again, I’ll bring that up here.  [1:24:40]

The website, the ARCHICAD training website – so ARCHICADtraining.com.  You go to Log In.  I’m already logged in here, so it’s going to take – otherwise, if you haven’t logged in, you’ll have a Log In thing, and it will take you to the 2020 course, and you will see something that tells you that you need to take this course.  You need to click a button.  Since I’ve already done that, it’s not showing, but you would click Take This Course, and you can go view the recordings here.  [1:25:15]

So, it should be fairly straightforward because I’ve tried to make sure on each page that there’s some guidance so you won’t get stuck.  Alright, so all of these will be available for reference, and you can download them as well.  OK, so Diane.  “Did this message work?”  Yes, we are seeing it, and alright, so we are good, and I see a comment here on Coaching Calls.  So, Taren, click on Channels and select 2020.  [1:25:43]

Again, you click on Channels here, and then you can go to the 2020.  So, I think we are at a good place to finish. Let me see in the GoTo Webinar comments, which I will still pay attention to, but I’m going to encourage you to use the new Slack method.  Alright, so Daniela says, “How do I access your 2020 channel?  I’m on the GoTo Webinar.”  So, are you already logged into Slack?  If you haven’t logged into Slack, you go to bobrow.com/Slack, S-L-A-C-K, and then follow the instructions there to verify your account, and then you’ll be able to log in here.  [1:26:28]

You’ll come out in General here, and to see the 2020 channel for discussions about the training calls, you go to Channels, click on this.  That will add it to the side bar, and you’ll be in this particular one here.  So, Scott says, “Is this recording?”  Yes, I always record everything.  If you missed the beginning on how to get it set up in Slack, then yes.  I’ve been going over it a few times because this is brand-new for everybody, and all of this is being recorded and posted.  [1:27:00]

I am also getting transcripts done for all of these lessons, so they will be posted.  I’m just now getting this whole website set up, so that will mean you can skim through the transcript to just see where something was references, and it will have timestamps so that you can say, “Oh, this is at an hour and 6 minutes,” and then you can jump to that video section if you want.  [1:27:24]

Separately, I’m getting the coaching calls indexed. I’ve asked for volunteers on that.  I’ve gotten lots and lots of response there, so I’ll be doing sort of giving people a chance to do a coaching call as a test, and I’ll be picking out the best people – the ones that do the most detailed and interesting summary of the coaching calls.  It’ll be an interesting experiment, but ultimately I want to have the website – the ARCHICADtraining.com have just the most robust set of resources that I can possibly make to make your life easier, save you time when you want to find things, and obviously just to make you be as successful as possible with ARCHICAD.  [1:28:16]

So, here we are at the 90-minute mark.  I’m going to try like heck in the future to keep this down to 60 or 75 minutes if I can, but 90 minutes, I guess, is what we are today.  So, thank you.  I see a couple of last-minute comments in the GoTo Webinar from James Hill.  “Hi Eric, I’m currently in the process of organizing a number of projects a former employee worked on. There seems to be little consistency within the ARCHICAD files, self-made template, and folder organization.  Any suggestions on where to begin?”  [1:28:52]

OK, so depends upon how much work you want to do on those projects.  Obviously, if you’re simply going to be opening them occasionally to answer questions during construction, that’s very different than the employee left, and it was midway through design/development.  If it’s in progress, and you’re going to be working on it, then you probably want to think about reconciling that with other projects so that they have similar layers and other standards.  [1:29:29]

Ultimately, it could be a job for a consultant. In other words, if you want an expert to help you sort of make heads or tails of it, that can be arranged one way or another.  I would think that the first question is how much you need to just make notes on – here’s a few things that took me a while to figure out in this project.  Then you can refer to those notes versus, “This project is a mess or disorganized or not following standards.  I’m going to or have someone going to change it so that it follows the standards better.”  [1:30:10]

Obviously, the earlier it is in the project, to some extent, the easier it is, and the more useful or important it is to change, just because you’re going to get more benefit as you move forward.  OK, so I see a lot of thank you’s here, and OK.  So, thanks everyone.  I’ll get this posted later today or by tomorrow, and we’ll be carrying on.  [1:30:40]

Next session will be on Wednesday at the same time, and then the coaching call on Thursday, and all of you who are in this new course, the 2020 course, are in the coaching program.  Feel free to join whenever you want to ask me questions about your projects and your specific things that you need to figure out.  In the training modules, I’m going to try to focus tightly on a particular topic each time.  In the coaching, it’s anything goes.  [1:31:13]

Probably going to try to set up something where there’s a beginner’s section, just to encourage more beginner questions in one area, so that’s one change I’d like to do, but overall, any question is fair game.  If you’re new, you can ask really basic questions.  If you’re a veteran, and you have some weird thing happening in ARCHICAD, I’ll take a look at it, and then of course, the bulk of them will be more like intermediate questions where I teach it somewhere else, but here’s how we make it work in this project.  [1:31:51]

So, sending in your projects is a great option in the coaching program because I can then see the problem in context, and I can even fix your file and send it back to you.  So, thanks everyone for joining me today.  I’ll be back with more soon. Bye bye.  [1:32:11]