I love working in the BIM environment and helping other architects work in a smarter, more efficient manner. I started using ArchiCAD in 2006, founded the Minnesota ArchiCAD Usergroup in 2009, and began blogging about ArchiCAD in 2010. I'm always looking for guest bloggers who also want to share their experiences with ArchiCAD and BIM.

Korean Professional Video Game Players & ArchiCAD

Posted: July 10th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Short Posts | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Can you make a living playing video games? If you work hard. It also doesn't hurt if you're South Korean. Want to hear more about that lifestyle? There's a great Tech Stuff podcast about it. What does this have to do with ArchiCAD? Keyboard short cuts. I've talked about them before and I'll talk about their importance again. Watch the following video. The entire thing is pretty mesmerizing, but all you really need to watch is the first 10 to 15 seconds. Seems sped up, doesn't it? It's not. If you want to be the best at Starcraft 2 or some other competitive real time computer game, you [Read More...]

Bass Lessons

Posted: November 1st, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Long Posts | Tags: , , | No Comments »

I’ve been a bassist for over 20 years (over two-thirds of my life). As college approached and  I was deciding what to do with my life, I had two options: professional musician or architect. Much of my life could be described as a balancing act between musician and architect. The tipping point from one to the other happened during my junior year of college, though I didn’t notice it for another few years. Currently my bass playing is approaching a nadir (at least that’s what I tell myself). Between being an architect at SALA Architects and running Shoegnome, my bass playing has all but vanished. [Read More...]

I find 3.5/ is the Easiest

Posted: July 28th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Short Posts | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments »

Whether you’re using the the coordinate box or the tracker, there are a lot of ways to write a number.  Some are easier than others.  A quick rule of thumb is that ArchiCAD recognizes fractions as inches, whole numbers and decimals as feet.  So… a couple of ways to input three and a half inches:

  • .2916667′
  • .2916667
  • 0-3.5″
  • 0-3.5
  • 3.5″
  • 3 1/2″
  • 3 1/2
  • 3.5/1
  • 3.5/
  • 7/2″
  • 7/2

Benchmarking and the Endless Path of Improvement

Posted: July 18th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Long Posts | Tags: , , | No Comments »

Below is an excerpt from a draft of a document I’m putting together for my role as CAD / BIM Manager at SALA Architects: Competencies: Outside of the office standards, users will not learn or use the program in an identical manner. As a result, tiers of users are differentiated by having competency in a certain quantity of skills within the program, rather than specific requirements. The intent is that these various groupings of skills will produce an equivalent level of speed across a given tier. All speeds are relative to a user’s previous non-ArchiCAD production method. Trainee: [Read More...]