Customer Reviews

ArchiCAD: The User Handbook

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I have waited for this book for 11 months.
I finally got it two days ago.

I was anticipating receiving a book with
many tips and tricks on how to use Archicad.

Instead I just got a broad brush history,
no good how to's,a limited how firms are
using it, and an incredibly insulting
talk about stories and layers.

The whole text of the book could have been
contained in one large magazine article,
but the designers of the book choose instead
to double space the sentences and leave a
lot of white space in the margins.
The composition of the pages is fine, but
I bought the book for knowledge
(which it did not contain),
not a pretty page format.

Don't waste your time or money.

I hope some one else does write a
good archicad book.I'll gladly pay
for one, but they should have paid
me for looking thru this waste of good paper.

I have never written a review of any kind of
book or product before, but this book was sooo
baaad that I am writing one now.

Jack Rogers AIA

I got this book before the previous review was written, and boy am I sorry. It is essentially a nearly 300-page sales brochure. Fantastic examples of what can be done with ArchiCAD, but rarely does it give even the most rudimentary directions on how to do any of these things. No explanation of technique is found, just nifty examples of what you could do if you already knew how to do it. That any reputable author or printer would issue this bound joke is a point of lasting perturbation for me.

Save yourself the money. Save yourself the frustration. Don't bother with this overpriced, underwritten book.

While AutoCAD dominates the CAD field, ArchiCAD aims to do the same for architecture. The book has many examples of how traditional architectural tasks can be performed under ArchiCAD. You can see traditional floor plans being laid out. Plus a natural extension into different floors of a building. As well as 3d image rendering derived from the blueprints.

For large buildings, or a group of buildings, there is also a neat feature of being able to define terrain that the buildings sit on. The text also discusses how to organise interior space, aided by reasonably realistic renderings.

The problem with the book is that it has the format of a large glossy coffeetable book. You know, the artsy kind, with nice pictures on many pages. But if you want an actual user's manual, this text may be somewhat deficient. And that is the problem. The very title bills this as a user handbook. It does not live up to that.

A good book if all you need is several hundred pages of advertisements and booster talking points. Lots of nice projects and pictures, but no user information. Meaning, if you want this for instructional or how to purposes, you may save yourself a bit of frustration by just talking to yourself and saving the money. Don't be misled by the name.