This blog post was originally published on 11/24/2014.

“I want to learn Archicad… what should I do?” I get this question ALL the time. If you’ve read anything I’ve written since 2010, you’ve probably come across much of this advice. But I don’t remember everything I’ve written, and I don’t expect you to either. In an effort to save everyone some time, here’s a list of things you should do if you want to learn Archicad (after of course downloading the free trial version, if you don’t already own Archicad). If you want to learn one of those other BIM programs, read on and just mentally replace Archicad with Revit, Vectorworks, or whatever software you’ve mistakenly choosen over Archicad.

1. Pick a good first project.

Take an old project and redo it in Archicad. With an old project you aren’t thinking about the design or the details. You’ve figured all that out. You therefore get to focus on how to work within Archicad.

Whether you rebuild an old project or start a new one, choose your first project wisely. The building should be a typical project for your firm. By recreating a project that is prototypical for your office, you’ll be focusing on what you actually need to learn and do. You’ll come across the challenges you need Archicad to be able to solve. If you do houses, it should be a house, not the random dentist’s office someone asked you to design. If you do tenant build-outs, it should be one of those, not the pro-Bono work you agreed to do for a former client. The project should be on the less complex end of your standard work. I once had a boss decide (against my advice) that a coworker’s first Archicad project would be one with a ruled surface roof and columns that were debarked trees the timber framer found while walking through the forest. It did not end well.

When choosing your first project, go with something comfortable and known. Show it to an Archicad expert and ask if they think it’d be a good one to start with. Remember your first project isn’t going to take advantage of every aspect of Archicad. The model will be ugly. The drawings will be okay. This is good. It’s just your first project.

2. Watch ARCHICAD YouTube Videos.

There are so many Archicad videos on YouTube. GRAPHISOFT has a lot of videos and as of late 2022 the Shoegnome YouTube channel has around ninety videos. Search YouTube for more. Videos are great because you get to watch someone work. It’s the next best thing to…

3. Watch over a coworker’s shoulder while he or she works.

I did this when I first started using Archicad. It was the best. I caught so many things that no one would have ever told me about, because the person doing the commands was doing them unconsciously. My tutorial videos are recorded with this concept in mind. When you watch them, you’ll catch me doing all sorts of things that are tangential to the primary focus of the video.

If you don’t have coworkers who know Archicad, search out local users. There are definitely local users. Chat with them, see if you can co-locate for awhile. You’re not necessarily looking to have them train you; it’s just nice to be surrounded by other Archicad users while you learn. Years ago when I was doing a lot of training, I’d offer to work out of someone’s office so that they’d have an Archicad expert just a few feet away from them while they worked.

4. Find a mentor.

This person could be in your firm, in your city, or on the Internet. Having a go-to person to answer your questions will make your life easy. Make sure to thank them (via money, dinner, good vibes, networking, or something).

5. Get training.

Some people can teach themselves Archicad. Most people can’t. Look into training options. Money spent on training is a great investment. With all the great video conferencing software out there, there’s a whole world’s worth of trainers available to you. GRAPHISOFT North America has full time staff that do training, and if you ask around the community there are plenty of experienced users who will be happy to assist you.

6. Find a template.

Download mine. You can have it for free, if you want. If you end up loving the Shoegnome Open Template and using it, you can always contribute to its continued development later. A good template will make using Archicad easier and help you understand an expert’s logic. Using Archicad without a good template is a mess, and stupid. Don’t waste your energy working without a template. As a new user, you are not qualified to make a good template. Use someone else’s until you have enough knowledge to build your own, or realize the insane value of taking advantage of someone else’s hard work.

7. Understand that there is a ton of Archicad content available on the internet.

Look at my Archicad Resources Page. Well maybe don’t look too close. It’s so old and outdated. One of the troubles of resharing old posts is that I can only spend so much time updating and fixing outdated content. Sorry. Knowing where to look for help, tutorials, add-ons, Objects, etc. is a big part of learning Archicad. There’s Archicad help everywhere. Search for communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, Discord, Twitter, Reddit, all the social media platforms that don’t even exist as of this article reposting. Use Google or whatever website you use to search for answers to questions. You’ll definitely come across things I’ve written and recorded.

ARCHICAD-Talk Forum has been reborn as the GRAPHISOFT Community. All the official GRAPHISOFT help and discussions are based there. As of late 2022, it’s not as easy to explore as the old ARCHICAD-TALK forum, but everything is still there. Don’t just lurk. Ask questions, and then when you can, answer them too. There are a lot of wonderful users on the forum who are happy to help, and a massive amount of great content.

8. Find events to attend, whether virtual or local.

Find a local user group. If there isn’t one, find local users and start one. If no one wants to run an official user group, meet up for some beers or coffee. Whatever you can do to get into a room with other Archicad users. We all need excuses to get together, socialize, and talk. Find or start similar online events. There are semi-regular virtual user groups, though they aren’t as beneficial as in person ones. Someday I’ll find an easy way to do monthly Archicad live streams. Maybe. I know they would be great to do and amazing for the community. I just don’t have the bandwidth or the knowledge of how to set them up. If you’re motivated to make that happen, email me.

9. Talk to someone at GRAPHISOFT.

Seriously. Just give them a call. I have met so many GRAPHISOFT employees and none of them are scary. Not one. There are sales people and technical people to talk to, depending on your questions. If they can’t answer your questions, they’ll connect you with someone who can, either within the company or outside of it. They’ll know local users who would be happy to talk to you (there are tons of users who love the software and are always eager to talk about it with other people).

10. Collaborate with existing users.

The benefits of BIM grow as one collaborates with others. Archicad is great for collaboration. Turn that into part of your learning strategy. Find an existing user and do a project together. Not only do you get to learn, you also get to see the benefits of high-level Archicad usage first hand. This also alleviates one of the biggest fears of switching to a new program: maintaining the quality and profitability of your first project.

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Those points will help you learn Archicad, but you also need to evolve your mindset. You can surround yourself, and pay for, all the right people and assets, but none of that matters if you have a bad attitude. Here’s four bonus points on mindset:

Read blog posts and articles about theory—both on Archicad and BIM.

You’ll find those all over this site. Reading about theory will give you better context about what you should pay attention to and why. For instance, just knowing WHY you want to use Archicad and/or BIM will help you focus on the aspects of the program that support that need. The order of learning is vastly different if you are primarily interested in beautiful 2D documentation, 3D collaboration with consultants, or energy analysis. You can do all of that and more, but each suggests different starting priorities.

Remember the switch to Archicad is about something much larger than going from 2D to 3D.

BIM is a paradigm shift. Keep that in mind. This post on BIM implementation won’t tell you how to properly model, but it’ll get you into a better mindset for what changes are upon you. Learning about BIM in general is also important because that will help you understand so much more about why Archicad is the way it is, and give you perspective of where you can take your firm in the future.

Stay Inspired. However possible.

Look for advice in your favorite band’s music. If you get down about how much you have to learn, look back over this list and find something to energize you. Maybe it’s as simple as looking at all the amazing work being done in Archicad. Maybe it’s just not trying to accomplish so much so soon. Maybe you are assuming you’ll do more right away than you really should be doing. Knowing what to model, or not to model, is just as important to a new user as knowing HOW to model something. Use the mantra “baby steps, baby steps, baby steps.”

Be Patient.

Look at these graphs and read this post. Remember, you might be the most creative, intelligent, experienced architect ever. You might be a pure genius wizard at your old tools. And someday you’ll be that good in Archicad. But when starting off, things will be hard, you’ll suck, and what used to be fun won’t be. That’ll change. And depending on your attitude and diligence, that’ll change quickly. But you’re at the bottom of the knowledge continuum at the moment.

What am I missing? What other advice do you have for someone wanting to learn Archicad? It’s so easy to bombard interested users with hundreds of tips. If you could only say three things, what would they be? Looking back over my lists I’d say: Template, Videos, Mentor. But argh, it is hard to pick only three!

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Between 2012 and 2018, I wrote about two-hundred blog posts for the GRAPHISOFT North America blog, BIM Engine. Around 2020, the GSNA website was revamped. All my articles disappeared. A few other websites I wrote for between 2012 and 2022 have also disappeared. Fortunately I have copies of all the articles. I plan to republish as many of the old posts as I can here. While some posts only need minor editing, others need a lot of updating. It’ll likely take years to complete this project.

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Do you use Archicad? Check out the Shoegnome Open Template for Archicad.

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