How To Efficiently Create Site Topography | ArchiCAD Beginner Tutorial

hello everyone welcome to the mesolite visual there are numerous side topography tutorials available that essentially teaches the same material in this video I will explain how to efficiently design a side topography so that it will appear neat and presentable in both 3D and 2D information for your site plan drawings if you watch the entire video I'll show you how to use the material I created for you in order to improve and enhance the quality of your side plan drawings and many other tips and tricks for the mesh tool if you are just starting I understand that this could seem intimidating but don't worry this is the appropriate video for you foreign [Music] open here the first thing is to import the information of the site to about to create normally it comes as a DWG file but it depends on on the sharing of information so how do you load that information in this case I have it as a DWG file I will go to file at the top corner there and then let's go to the interoperability match merge from file and then from here it will locate the file that I want to select my topography information from in this case it's the site plan topography and what I need to do is go down here there is a file type I need to set it to the right file type which is DWG in this case depending on yours it can come as a DX f or as a PDF whatever you have to change to accommodate that so in this case I've got to DWG and then I'll select the file hit on open and then this information will pop out for how do you want to match your file or how do you want to place your file in your your architect so in this case I'll just use merge content for model space into current view then I'll hit OK and this comes also for placement so in this case I'll say I would specify the placement on the screen how not to use the XYZ coordinates to place that so in this case it is just got a down and say match how to place it somewhere here let's say match day then hit okay there we go now we have our information about our site ready to start let's see let's analyze the information first I'm going to ungroup at the tops by suspending group like that so that I can have this individual lines separately like that okay second stage is to place our mesh and then we can transfer this information into our mesh so go down to the left um side of your interface and then open the design tool palettes there is a mesh tool here let's activate it and then what you need to set first before you place it it's let's operate settings here and then I want to change or to remove sorry the cover fills because this will make your file heavy trust me fields are very critical when you're doing architect files you need to have minimal fields in your in your project so in this case I'll just take out the cover fill and then hit okay let's go into let's how you can place it with this file I'm gonna use a geometry method of a polygoner let's click on that one and then I'll just draw along the geometry of my sight just like that perfect now if you check on 3D this is just a this is just a mesh without any information about topograph so let's select this mesh I'm gonna set it to to the height to be maybe 30 meters something like this okay let's go back to the sorry to the plane view now I want to transfer this information into our mesh so to do that you select or activate the mesh tool in your tool palettes and then select uh sorry we start first by selecting the the mesh in your your project and then that's where you can activate the mesh to from here you have to press and hold the space bar keyboard you know in your keyboard sorry and then to activate this magic wand two so from there you just click on one of the the control lines and then this mesh points will pop out make sure it's on fit to um all ridges fit to oranges it means all the points will be affected along the control line that particular control line here and then hit OK as you can see we have many points in this or along this um control line I will do the same to this the next one and just like that let me just do that [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] okay now I'm done with all the controls information so if you go to the 3D now you would start to see let's go down here and activate the orbit or hit or in your keyboard a shortcut for orbiting so you can see now the information being transferred to the the mesh it's flat at the moment because we haven't input or defined the height of this contour lines so that's the next stage but um let's just select this and open in settings go down on the floor plan and section uh area and then I want to change the uncut pens to be something like 0.18 which is black color or black pen so that we can have something like that okay now let's define the height of this Contours we'll go back to the plane view as you can see here we have the values of each Contours but in between that means it's a it's a gradient slope don't worry about that so for example in between two meters and three meters so there will be this one will be around 2.2 2.5 2.7 2.8 and then 300 that that that that will be the criteria I'm going to use for the in between control okay let's start with the this one the one meter or one thousand millimeters one so let's select it or we select first the mesh like that and then we pick the control one of the points in the control line just one of the points doesn't matter which one you pick and then on the pet palette this information for the Elevate mesh tool pop out let's select that and then key in 1000 the most important thing is to key in apply to all because you selected one point so if you don't apply to only to only um Define that point you've selected so in this case you want to apply to all the points along this control line that as you can see now it goes along all the points for this then I'll go to the next one which is this this is going to be 800 and then at all we have another one this I'm going to set it to 500. and then select another one on the next one this offset it to 300. lastly on this area I'm gonna have it around 100. okay so this is how accurate represents by default represent the 2D um the 2D controls in your in your mesh this is a ridiculous way of doing that you can have to have drawings represented like that so just wait until the end of this video I'll show you how to get rid of this information because these are necessary lines this triangulated necessary lines that I'll show you both in the because if you look at also in the the 3D it's also represented here but you don't want to see your mesh like that okay let's go let's make sure we finish first this I'll move on to the next um line let's pick this one okay this one is already defined so let me just move in okay that is the one select it and Elevate this is going to be 800 I know 2.8 okay and then we move to the next one as well this is going to be two point six just like that this is going to be 2.4 2.2 and then we have oh sorry we have our two meters height just like that this is going to be 2.2 I think I didn't I made a mistake by this information the previous um let's just say undo undo undo undo I'll show you where I've made a mistake it's okay this was supposed to be 1.2 and this was supposed to be 1.5 just like that let's select this one one point eight and I can leave 1.6 this is going to be 1.8 and then we have our two meters okay and then uh move move one this is going to be 2.2 2.5 2.7 2.9 30 meters now we're decreasing the height so it's going to be eight two point seven 2.6 is going to be 2.6 as well and this one no this we're going to make it 2.5 and also fine you can see the difference where the controls are are on the same height you do you don't have this unnecessary triangulated lines you see from this end that one so let's move on to this one this is going to be because we're decreasing two two meters I want to say two when four sorry two point three [Music] one two this is going to be 2.1 and sorry and two thousand well also decreasing to 1.6 so it's going to be 1.8 1.8 .7 so one point of 1.7 as well 1.6 finally now we are moving up to up to 2 meters or two thousand so let's see 1.7 1.8 sorry one point nine 1.950 and finally two meters meters okay we're still going up to 2.5 so this will be 2.1 and then 2.5 also going up to three meters so this will be 2.6 or 7. plus seven 2.8 2.850 and then we have lastly our three meters okay if we check on 3D that's your mesh okay so let's get rid of these lines on the 3D first what I'll do select it and then open it settings we go down here under the model our parameters we're going to say this should be 3D appearance should be all Regis smooth then hit OK to get rid of this unnecessary lines so now we have a clean model as you can see okay so we have these edges that are not captured as you can see from this area so what we need to do go back to the ground don't worry about this on the floor plane I would share with you as well how to get rid of this so in this case let's select the mesh and then I'm going to define it I'm going to define the geometry around the points around the control so I'm just going to say select that and then instead of using an Elevate this time around cancel and use subtract from polygon oh let's do it again pick one of the points and then use subject from polygon what I'm going to do is to subtract by using the points of my controls like that from the edge of the Contours you have that one there you go let's just move here if you watch this video Until the End I have also a gift to share with you just hang on a bit I will I will give you the the right things guys let's just do the and okay that we yeah and then I can draw outside because I'm get reading I'm I'm removing this uh this side like that perfect and then if you check on 3D you would find the edges are being defined nicely according to the height of our Contour so let's do the same to this area and then there's two sides as well okay in this area I have this line that who helped me reduce that so I just need oh I need just to move this point to there and then let's select it and subtract I will press and hold the spacebar the spacebar key and then click on this area here to get rid of it perfect and then this side it's going to be different so let's just do the same I can use the inters insert new Point here point there just like that let's pick another Point here another point then and the point we have another one let's move this one too here because this was supposed to be here sorry about that and then on this area as well I'm going to bring this to here and I can subtract this like that we can still do the same to this area let's just subtract from here and it's quite a bit cumbersome but hey it's very important there we go where did I start there we go then lastly this area here move this point so here at another point there another one here move this one to e okay basically pretty much what we want let's see okay if you come here there's a bit of um discrepancy here as you can see there's more like a stream or river there is because we have this control line that we didn't Define its height because we it's not going all the way to the edges so that's why we've missed we've missed it so there are different ways you can select it on the 3D window like that we pick the point somewhere here and then you can elevate the weights like that but this you don't if you do this it won't change all the points along this contour line that's the the reason why I don't like to use or to do this in a 3D window so I'll hit Ctrl Z to undo and then go back to the to the plane view let's see identify that contour line that's the one it comes all the way from this Edge and then when it gets here it stops so I need to select it here as you can see it goes all the way today let's I think it's in between two meters and 1.6 should be around 1.5 feet 1.550 and then let's go back here you go now it's been defined oh so we still have a bit of a problem here to address let's select this point and we have too many points here I thought it would be one point so I'm gonna get rid of other points by moving the point to one location and then I cannot now elevate this they do the same to this point and that one okay it's pretty better now yeah 100 percent okay I'm pretty much impressed with the final result it came out nicely as you can see it's clean the challenge that we have is on the floor plane we still have that triangulated mesh let's get rid of this so having it being selected to open its settings like that and then under flow planning section parameters let's scroll down here this is one of the um the parameter that we don't access or we don't do it more often so you see the rich selection if we change this by default it says show already so if you click on the Arrow of it by selecting it it has show user defined release just like on the 3D appearances you can Define that then select and then hit OK it will disappear now you have a clean and perfect nice mesh that you can also be part of your drawings the plan here is to have your side plan that will represent the true contour lines of your topography so if you don't have if you have triangulated mesh that would be a ridiculous way of representing your your site topography so that's what I've um [Music] of recently discovered okay and then um the next stage is a giveaway I have created a library for the 2D object 2D trees for enhancing up your drawings your site plans so if you go to file and libraries and objects let's open the library manager I would hit add the library there um that's the library let's choose it and then hit okay then let's um if it's if it's zipped or it's an a Windra or a compressed file make sure you um you uncompress it first before you load it as a as a labrador folder in your library's manager so if you want it Go Down Below guys in the description you'll find it there for free I've just created it for you because this is a month of love so we need to be sharing our our extent our family so that's important so um because it's been loaded what I need to do is to go to object two let's activate that and then open its settings and let's click the folder views up for the library like that and then if I Collapse this default Library we should have a linked Library there where is it okay I've not loaded the right um library or the right file so let's go back to file libraries and objects let's open the library manager this is not the right folder it's the folder that I'm working on for this demonstration let's just delete it by deleting the library here or the file select it and then go down to the remove selected Library so let's add up a proper one so think should be I didn't uncompress or unzip the file so the first thing to do let's minimize that let's open it we don't have it here okay here's the fan to decide plant trees so let's right click and and uncompress it I'll extract files here so that you can have the folder like that let's go back to our archicad under file library is an object let's open our library manager so get rid of this topography and then add our newly um 2D side plane trees fire just like that and then hit OK now from the object tool let's open its settings and let's collapse the library like so you see under link libraries the folder for the new library who appear here so let's select that so we have quite a number of um the 32d3 Styles so I want to show the preview and positions that you can preview them they are nicely done as you see let's start with the blend01 place it there move another one you can also try to combine the two you can scale by stretching it how long along the x-axis like that okay let's bring another tree this is the one placing the okay and then you can play around with the side to combine just have some combination of this scale I can also duplicate this maybe combine it with this one just to have something like that perfect now you'll cite um starting to take a shape as you can see let's drag this copy somewhere here and then I'll combine it with this one in this direction okay pretty interesting um as you can see now we have pretty much a presentable side plane outside topography that was it guys for this tutorial make sure you download all the files for this video down in the description so the 2D objects um for trees is available for free just go down there and make sure you get it for yourself and then also the DWG file for the TWD file for the site control lines it's also available there for free and then they the project file which is this mesh you can find it also in our patreon account just find the link on the description as well make sure you subscribe share comment guys if you don't if you don't want if you didn't like whatever this video was to offer make sure you hit that dislike button if you liked it make sure you hit the like button this will help us for the algorithm for YouTube so that we can um have this information available for many people so thank you guys I'll see you in the next video bye

Channel: Mesolight Visual

Views: 30,330

Keywords: archicad 26, archicad 26 tutorial, efficiently design, archicad efficiency, site plan drawing, site plan rendering in photoshop, site topography revit, site topography, site topography archicad, mesh tool, site design civil 3d, site design archicad, archicad course, archicad for beginners, Create Site Topography

Id: 7b1EOQvh-zs

Length: 35min 37sec (2137 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 14 2023