Design, Architecture, Interiors, Remodels, Additions

American Design

2011-12-01T00:45:00.001-08:00

Do you live outside the US and wish there was someone who could help you with a project involving your living spaces that understood your desires, need for functional spaces, ideas about how kitchens and bathrooms should work, and just in general the way you would like to live. If so why not contact me, I have over 30 years of experience designing homes for the rich, the middle class and the poor. Even though I am in Italy most of the time I continue to do projects in the US and together with my wife who is an Italian architect we have done projects in the Czech Republic, Mexico and Switzerland as well as Italy. Most of the work we have done in these various countries is done over the internet so we can easily work with you even though we may not be able to meet face to face.

REVIEW OF VECTORWORKS 2012

2011-11-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

Vectorworks 2012 Review

By John Helm - Architect

Now I have to say that my first thought is that the yearly releases should be done closer to Christmas as it seems that the elves at Nemeschek land work all year long fulfilling the wishes of all the good little boys and girls in the real design world. Really 100 improvements and a bunch of new features, what more could one ask Santa to bring us. Well they do charge for these presents so one still has to ask wither or not they are worth the added expense.

In this review I am not able to address all of the improvements, added features, etc. There are too many. I am just going to sort of randomly pick out a few and comment on some that stand out at first glance. The best way to see them all is to go to this site. http://download2cf.nemetschek.net/www_misc/2012/VW2012_whats_new_brochure.pdf And you will notice that my comments are directed mostly towards the use of the features by an architect, because that is what I know best and of course some of my comments might not be the last word as I am not pretending to be the total expert.

The first new feature that I noticed with affection is the ability to select a working plane by just clicking on it and then being able to work directly on it, adding text, cut outs, new parts and so on. I have up to now been too lazy to really use working planes choosing instead to sort of work around them. This is a great new feature. But on my computer at least I have noticed a bit of a time lag as the changes get updated in 3D. This is one of the many issues that come up as a program gets more complicated. Older computers have a harder timekeeping up.

The Handwriting in on the wall, that is if you select the working plan then type some text it will be on the wall or plane selected in 3D, this I believe could be done before but now it’s much easier. Also dimensions can be added in a 3D view so it is much easier to show the height of an object for example.

Pushing and pulling, this is not really new from 2011, but by easily selecting the working plane it also becomes easier. One thing I thought would be fun and useful was to draw a curved line on a working plan in 3D and then pull it up to a height and turn it into a wall by extruding it. That didn’t work. Then I tried to change my curved object by offsetting it. That didn’t work either. What does work is to draw any shape in 2D then offset it using the close open curves (also works with straight lines) mode then use the push pull tool to stretch it up to whatever height you want. It could also just be extruded at that point. The thing that makes this interesting is the ability to easily create curvilinear shapes that can become walls or maybe areas of glass. You could do the curved wall thing by drawing a polyline and converting it into a wall using the create objects from polyline tool. That works but when I tried it with a rather complex set of curves the result was some disconnected pieces.

You gotta love the ability to change the size and angle of tiles and hatches on the fly; wow this one is cool. It’s great for anyone who does layouts of paving for example. I almost made myself crazy doing this a few versions back working on the design of a small piazza in Italy.

Collaboration, one of the complaints I’ve seen often is that VW is not the greatest program for larger offices with several people working on the same project. Of course there are many large offices using the program and it is fairly easy to coordinate several designers working together on a project using viewport referencing. But this seems an area that has not been improved in this release.

Since I do most of my designing in 3D all of the improvements to this area are more than welcome. The revised stair tools come to mind here. In the past in order to have stairs show up on both 2D and 3D views one had to fiddle around with the stairs. I would generally put the stairs in a separate layer that could be turned on or off. Now that stairs know what floor they are on that won’t be necessary. They also adjust themselves to the height between floors, so if we change floor heights the stairs change as well. The only problem is adjusting the floor plan to for the added horizontal space required, but at least it will be obvious that a change in the floor plan may be needed. This is something that might be forgotten otherwise.

VW still remains a multipurpose tool. That is it is not just designed for architects, so one might find that it is not as automated as some other programs. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. If we want a tool that allows tremendous flexibility then we have to accept the fact that it is not going to do everything automatically. However, VW does do a pretty good job in this area and with some tweaking an office that does a lot of repetitive design, apartments, production housing and so on can really set up the program so that anything that is used more than once can be part of the office standards. The improved standard notes, easier to find symbols, scalable and save-able hatches and tiles, Renderworks styles that can be modified and saved, and improvements to worksheets among other improvements all make for added efficiency.

One problem is that whereas a final renderworks render can take just a few minutes some of the styles as they come preloaded can take hours to finish and as you can see below they don’t always produce useable results. Of course this depends a lot on the computer being used. Sometimes I think programmers should be made to spend a week using their programs on at least 5 year old computers, with little memory and a slow graphics card.

The two examples above are the exact same image the first rendered with final quality renderworks and the second with the pre-set artistic renderworks exterior setting. As you can see the second one isn’t really useful with those odd spots on the floor. Where they came from I don’t know. It could probably be fixed with some setting changes. The glass wall is cool. I made it by offsetting a polyline and extruding it then applying a clear glass texture. It worked fine on this fairly simple polyline.

How many of us are really into BIM, or even really working in 3D, not that many but that is the future. What will make it work is being able to coordinate the architect’s drawings with all the others involved in a project. The IFC export import option is what will make this work. And Vectorworks is pushing ahead of many others in this area. The real power of this comes when even a small firm can tie together all the various parts of a building project into are true building information model. Often the whole modeling concept is one which the client is not all that excited to pay extra for, but as the process becomes easier it will become just part of the work not really requiring a lot of extra input or time spent.

The space planning set of tools are really useful and a feature that I think is sometimes overlooked. It has been around for years but is now getting more attention and has been improved. Now the spaces for example are defined as polylines so they can be easily changed and they can be any shape including curves. With this tool you can roughly layout the spaces you need in a new design, push them around manually to come up with the best arrangement or use the matrix tool to define relationships and the tool arranges the spaces for you. Then when satisfied with the layout use the walls from polyline tool to create walls. Add windows and doors, use automatic dimensioning and you have at least a pretty good preliminary floor plan which also has room labels and areas listed and is if you set up your model properly already a 3D model. One thing I noticed is that the create wall tool is not smart enough to know that walls already exist so if you change the layout after making walls the tool just creates a whole new set of walls. You can work around this by putting the new walls on a separate layer or erasing the old walls first. Also it seems to work best when setting the walls to center-line mode, otherwise some walls that ought to line up don't.

Above is a quick space layout done manually. The room labels can be changed to include sizes, area and room numbers. All of the spaces can easily be changed, moved around or new ones added.

Here is the space layout with polygons converted to walls and automatic exterior dimensions. Adding windows and doors would be the next step. Or what about rendering it with a sketch format so the client doesn’t get scared thinking it’s the final plan.

And then a simple 3D with an automatically created roof and some texture added.

One more feature I want to mention is the georeferencing or GIS. We recently designed a 100kw photovoltaic plant on the ground. Being able to easily locate the site on say Google Earth would have been very handy as we had to produce aerial photos with our 3D model located on it. Of course location is the all important aspect of photovoltaic for shadow studies, sun angle, etc. This would have been much easier than the way we had to do it. And here besides the GIS aspect this project was another good example of the universal uses to which VW can be put. Panels were made into symbols, as were the pieces of the frame work to enable us to easily create an overall model of the project as well as all the plans required. We did it with version 2011 but this is also an example of how version 2012 would have probably paid for itself in one project.

I guess I could go on about features, but that would take a small book; hopefully this gives you a taste and inspires you to read more on the VW website. But I have to also conclude by saying that VW has really become a fantastic design tool that gets better and better. It is as I have written in previous reviews a one stop shop, that architects and designers can use to design just about anything. It remains intuitive and easy to learn. For architects and other designers it is the tool that lets them focus their attention on design while at the same time not forcing them to turn the CAD work over to CAD operators. It is a tool that feels comfortable and fits easily into the hand, like the classic cabinet makers tools that only got better with age.

Finally are the improvements and added features worth the cost to upgrade. If you are not into 3D at all and are using the program in a kind of old fashioned drafting sort of way then maybe it’s not worth the move. You have to decide if the 2D improvements are going to save you time. I think they will if you use them. If you are into 3D, want to get going with BIM integration into the broader community then it’s a must to keep up with the technology, buy it and spend some time learning all the new features as well as the old ones you never learned how to use. Actually I think all designers should be designing in 3D. After all what we design is not only two dimensional and being able to see it in 3D in other than our minds is a big advantage unless of course you don't want your client to really understand what it looks like until it's built.

The disclaimer, I am a fairly longtime user of Vectorworks and I like the program, also I got my copy of 2012 gratis so I could write this review.

Ideas for the main Plaza in Belluno, Italy

2011-10-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

Above are some of the 3D images we did for a competition to present ideas for updating the main plaza in Belluno, Italy. All of them were captured from one 3D model created with Vectorworks.

Our goal was to make a plan that would enhance the commercial activities in the center of Belluno and at the same time to provide a plaza free of traffic and available for a large variety of activities. We felt that the success of the downtown businesses is vital to having a strong and healthy central area of Belluno. Without that the old towns die. Architects tend to think that people should park away from the center so it can be preserved, and walk to their destinations. But the reality is that most people will sooner get in their cars and drive to the shopping areas that are convenient. And without the income generated from downtown businesses and the continuing flow of people in and out of the city the city center withers and dies. But we also considered that the plaza is a great asset and must be enhanced. We designated some areas for particular activities and provided a new tribute to those who died there. The concept is the thing that is important. If a final design is done that can actually be built much might change from what we proposed, however, I believe that our idea to provide a safe plaza separated from traffic while at the same time enhancing the traffic flow around the plaza is the best solution for everyone.

What's growing on the farm

2011-03-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Our new crop is electricity generated from the sun. The first picture is our rendering of the design done with Vectorworks. As you can see it very closely reflects the actual constructed project. VW is quite the design tool, you can design most anything with it.

Photovoltaic Plant a Great Investment

2010-11-27T00:56:00.000-08:00

After some months of bureaucratic processing and as soon as the land dries out a bit we will start the construction of our 100kw photovoltaic plant. This is a ground based project, a good contribution to clean and safe energy. The thing that is really interesting about this is that it is such a good investment. Briefly it will have an internal rate of return of around 21% over a 20 to 30 year life span, when done on land already owned. And the income is guaranteed by the Italian government and ENEL a large European power company. A big portion of the income comes from incentives. There is a positive cash flow from day one and the initial investment will be paid back in around four years. The incentive is for 20 years and the life of the panels is around 30 years or more. So power can be sold even after the incentive ends. This also based upon 30% equity and a loan for 15 years.

Our role in all of this has been to be the architects of the project for clients who are family members. We will manage the plant over its lifespan, assuming ours is the same. Through this process we have become pretty much experts in the overall picture. We have done the paper work, the overall plans, the hiring of the contractor/supplier, and the electrical engineer. Now we will oversee the construction.

We now know that this is a good opportunity as an investment, but at the same time it is not so easy to implement. We realize that our knowledge could be of use to others and though it is not exactly architecture it is the kind of service that we could offer as architects based upon our own experience not just in this project but in all phases of dealing with government agencies and taking something from the idea to the final construction. This after all what we do as architects. So contact us if you any interest in such a project anywhere in Italy.

Review of Vectorworks 2011

2010-11-24T05:50:00.000-08:00

Vectorworks 2011 – Architect & Renderworks

Review by John Helm

Architect with Helm & Melacini Architects

www.hm-architects.com

I write this review mostly from a personal level as someone who has been using VW for 15 years or so. I am an architect so I focus mostly on how it relates to architectural work.

First a few notes about Vectorworks (VW)

Vectorworks is the all-around cad program for architects, landscape architects, civil engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, theater lighting designers and design in general. From the standpoint of graphics VW can be a one stop shop, for an architectural office. It’s a design tool, a production tool and a rendering tool that can also be used for most of the graphic layouts an architect might need. The learning curve is short and the way of working with it is the way architects work. Design can be done all in 3D and those 3D drawings will be or can be the same drawings that become the 2D drawings making up the production drawing set. Client presentations can be rendered printouts, animations, walk trough’s, or even real time views of a 3D model taken on one’s laptop to a client meeting. And if one needs to do a graphic presentation, a competition board for example, pictures, text, 2D and 3D drawings can all be composed and printed right in the program.

Vectorworks 2011

I have had the program for a few weeks now and have used it to do one new project and to continue on with a project previously started in version 2010.

Nemetschek the parent company of the Vectorworks program changed the name this year to Nemetschek Vectorworks. I take that as a good sign; a sign that they really want to identify with it and thus make it the best they can. In announcing this year’s upgrade they are calling it their biggest ever. I can’t be a judge of that but it does sound good, and tends to make one think it’s a must have upgrade. So let’s think about that for a moment.

The biggest bit of news is that they have replaced the rendering engine in Renderworks with CINEMA 4D. And they have created an easy integration with the actual CINEMA 4D program. This is a really big improvement especially for anyone wanting to take their models to a very high level. At the level I work at the major difference I have seen is the speed of rendering. VW claims a 5 to 7 times increase in speed; I just know it is faster. One can set several levels of rendering quality for custom Renderworks. So setting it at the lower levels helps those who have slower computers get a good rendering in a short time. One problem I have had is that importing from version 2010 windows made with the window tool don’t render. I had to remake them. That’s something I think needs fixing. With yearly upgrades one ought to be able to just install the new program and continue working on older files. Other than this one problem I haven’t had any other issues importing version 2010 files.

The other big thing is what they call 2D/3D integration. VW has for a long time been a very flexible program allowing one to create just about any 3d form. But now with this integration of 2D and 3D the program is even more flexible and easier to use for preliminary design. I know there are people who design in Sketch Up and import into VW. Now I think the Sketch Up part can be eliminated. It’s just as easy to design in VW. 2D objects automatically become 3D as well. One can use the new push pull tool to stretch objects to whatever size they need to be and then change them interactively. And there are many other 3D tools that have been added or improved to make working in 3D from the start of a project easier.

I received the full design series gratis to enable me to write this review. The package arrived with three small books including DVD’s which are for the most part tutorials for each of the main sections: Architect, Spotlight, and Landmark. They also included a DVD with various movies and descriptions of the new features. What is missing is a book describing all the features and how to use them. The tutorials are great for someone learning the program or someone who has the time to go through them. I was surprised to see that only the Spotlight book talked about the modeling features. I’m not sure what one gets if one doesn’t buy Spotlight. I’d like to see an old fashioned book (or at least a cd version of one) for those of us who have to or want to just get to work and read about new features as time permits without having to go through a bunch of lessons. The built in help feature does make up for this to some extent and so does the included DVD.

I won’t try to describe every new feature. One can find them on the VW web site. I will just touch on a few that stood out for me. I mentioned the push/pull tool -very handy. Extract planar objects has tons of uses. For example I made a pretty complex model then my partner asked me to calculate the surface areas of some odd shapes. I just extracted a polygon from the surfaces then in object info found the area. One can also use this to put hatches on various 3D objects.

The new slab tool, improved automatic sections and 3D wall components takes VW to the next level of BIM. One can create a realistic slab and it integrates with the walls. Also the slab can be made automatically just by selecting the perimeter walls and fitted to the inside or outside of them. Have you ever needed to show a wall with a wainscot or layer of brick on the outside that was not full height? Now you can by adjusting the heights of various wall components. That is a big time saver. Here is the reason I have not used the wall tool in the past except in its basic from – two lines filled. When we do construction drawings we dimension to the outside of the framed wall, not the outside of say a layer of plaster or brick, because those are the dimensions the framer needs to do his layout. Now one can set the wall control line relative to the core component, that is for example the framed wall. Both horizontal and vertical dimensions can also be made to show up in a final rendered view.

I like the way they made it easier to access symbols, textures and other resources. Now there are shortcuts that take one directly to the VW libraries, workgroup or user folders. No more hunting around each time one needs a new resource.

Another thing I found very useful is the ability to link a camera view to a viewport and to be able to create a viewport of a 3D view directly from the drop down menu. One can change the camera view right from the viewport. This is great for making up a sheet with various views of the model in 3D.

I’ve read that there are more than 70 improvements in usability and that many long-time wishes have been addressed. I can’t write about all of them; in fact I don’t know what they all are. It’s best if you go to the web site www.vectorworks.net/2011 where you can look at the new features for each product as well as view feature movies.

Do I think this is the must have upgrade? Yes, I think it is because it really is a leap forward and an improvement in these areas:

· 3D rendering and presentations using the CINEMA4 rendering engine

· Improvements in BIM that make it even more a real BIM program

· Integration of 2D and 3D

· A big list of 2D design and drafting improvements and time savers

I also say this even though I’m not a big believer in the yearly upgrade idea. If a program does the job, why should one have to repurchase it every year. So, buying the upgrade then depends on what one gets for one’s money. It seems to be worth it this time.

If you are considering updating or purchasing Vectorworks I would suggest having a look at:

· the videos on the VW website, http://www.nemetschek.net/library/index.php

· Jonathan Pickup’s website http://www.archoncad.co.nz and his videos on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/archoncad

· and you can have a look at many 3D models I’ve created (done with older versions) on my website www.hm-architects.com.

2010-10-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

Review of Cameramatch for Vectorworks 2011
From Panzercad http://www.panzercad.com/

By John Helm
Helm & Melacini Architects
www.hm-architects.com

How’s business? If it’s good or bad you may want to consider buying this add on for Vectorworks (VW). If you are busy then it will save you time and if business is not so good then it might just give you an edge up on the competition and help you get more work.

Every project that we architects do has a site. The site might be an empty field or an infill property with existing buildings all around. It could also be an existing building with work done on the outside or the inside. These days many of us are designing in 3D creating nifty little models of our work that often just float around in space with no reference to the actual site other than of course the 2D site plan. Or we may create the site and its surroundings virtually. But for the client and for the completion of the design process what could be more illustrative than to see the new structure on a photo of the actual site.

This can be done using VW importing a picture and then matching the exact angle/perspective of the picture with a 3D view of the VW model. It’s not too difficult if we know the exact position of the camera, the angle, the focal length, etc. of the imported picture. But I can tell you from my own experience that what might not seem too difficult can take hours of messing around and trial and error to get a result that even seems close to reality. This is assuming you know the details of the imported photo listed above, but what if the client just hands you a picture taken from some random location.

Cameramatch solves all of these problems and once one learns how to use the program the “photo” of the site combined with the model of the proposed project can be accomplished in minutes using just about any random photo not hours. Time savings on just one of these should more than pay for the $100 cost of the program and from then on it’s just more money in your pocket.

Now I have to admit that I have had a few start-up issues. The instructions, who wants to read instructions, are detailed and one must read them and fallow them. One must also be familiar with the base program, which in this case is the latest version of VW. Cameramatch is also available for earlier versions. I have been at fault in both cases. I just got the new version of VW and I don’t really like fallowing instructions. I know I’m not alone otherwise they wouldn’t have a quick start guide in just about everything we buy these days.

As an example here are before and after photos of a little house we are working on in the Czech Republic. It’s actually a teardown and rebuild of an existing structure attached to another house. The photo used was taken at random by the client. We have not even been to the site.

This was just my second attempt at using the program; so don’t think that it’s the best that can be done with the program. Go to the site www.panzercad.com and look for some examples done by others to get a better idea of the true potential of the program.

The program, as is VW, is available for both the Mac and the PC. As with all the latest versions of most software, the more computer power you have the more smoothly the program will work. Cameramatch and VW are no exceptions they both seem to like my new laptop using Windows 7 with lots of ram a lot better than my older XP PC. But I am able to get the same result with both computers; it just takes longer on the old one and it gets a bit fussy when it starts to run out of ram.

So the bottom line is that this program provides you with an additional tool that will help you with your design, give your client a true picture of how his project will look on its site when finished and save you time and money. So buy it; it’s a bargain.

I close with a quote from Matt Panzer and suggest that if you really want to get a good idea of what the program does visit his website; you can also download a free trial version:

“Some CM (CameraMatch) users have made CM part of their normal workflow for every project. The clients love it because they immediately understand how the design fits into the existing structure or site. And early stages of the project benefit since the designer only needs to model the proposed parts in detail.”

Vectorworks 2011

2010-10-24T23:35:00.001-07:00

Coming soon my review of Vectorworks 2011.

Review of "Remarkable Renderworks

2010-06-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

“Remarkable Renderworks” by Daniel Jansenson

Review by John Helm, Architect
www.hm-architects.com

Renderworks is the rendering program that runs within the Vectorworks CAD program which is available for both the pc and mac operating environments. I have been using Vectorworks and Renderworks on a pc for something around 15 years and I have done some pretty decent rendering with it. So I feel fairly qualified in the program and not so much in need of a book aimed primarily at the new user of the program. But, having said that, I found myself reading it page by page, going through the examples one at a time and along the way learning a few new tricks and about some features of the newer version of the program that I had not already picked up.

Jansenson has done a great job of breaking down the program into its components and taking the student of the program step by step through all the basic features. He provides examples already drawn on a disk included with the book and refers to them so that one does not have to draw and then try but can simply open a file and fallow his list of steps. He also passes along realistic tips on such things as how to keep a rendering manageable time wise. It’s great to have a program that can do highly realistic rendering which this program can do, but in the real world most of us don’t have the computing power nor the time to wait hours and hours for our rendering to appear on the screen.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone looking to move beyond the 2D and basic 3D to produce beautiful rendered CAD drawings. Of course it only works with Vectorworks which by the way I feel is one of the best CAD/BIM programs on the market. I also feel it is a good reference for those of us already familiar with the program who may need a refresher once in a while.

The book can be purchased online at:
www.nemetschek.net/training/guides.php

Vectorworks websites:
www.vectorworks.net

Daniel Jansenson can be found at:

www.family-architect.com

Review of Vectorworks 2010

2009-11-10T02:04:00.000-08:00

Vectorworks 2010
Review by John Helm
Architect with Helm & Melacini Architects
www.hm-architects.com

CHOSING A CAD PROGRAM

My first thought on writing a review of an update to an existing CAD program is that the readers of the review won’t just be those already dedicated to the program and wanting to know if the upgrade is worth the expense and time to learn new features, but they might also be those looking to change programs or even those architects and others just starting out in their use of CAD. So I’ll first address some issues regarding the choice of which program or programs one might use. I’m also limiting most of my comments to the use of a program by an architect because that’s what I am and it’s what I know.

My approach to the use of the computer is that it should be a tool that makes ones work easier and allows one to be more productive and more creative. An Architect should be able to focus his or her attention on the business of being an architect and as not have to spend months or even weeks to learn to use a new tool. I also believe that in an office there should not be a huge separation between those who know how to use the most important tools in the office, for example the CAD program, and those who don’t.

This brings me to what I consider the most important factors in choosing a CAD program. That is that the program should be easy to learn, intuitive, and available to everyone working on any particular project. It should be available and easy enough to use that the principals, who don’t have a lot of time to spend getting competent on a CAD program, as well as the drafters are able to learn it and use it. And in short it brings me to why I selected a program like Vectorworks some 15 years ago. I can’t really comment on other programs which may or may not do the same things as Vectorworks because I only have second hand information on them and only a limited use of the most popular program Autocad. I should also mention that in order to fit the above criteria one should not have to use several programs to accomplish the goal of producing a drawing or drawing set containing 2D, 3D, text and pictures. That increases the time to learn, adds too many layers of complexity and creates inefficiency in the office.

Here is where we get to my choice of Vectorworks (VW). From the standpoint of graphics it can be a one stop shop, for an architectural office. It’s a design tool, a production tool and a rendering tool that can also be used for most of the graphic layouts an architect might need. The learning curve is short and the way of working with it is from my experience the way architects work.

VW is a complex program and to take advantage of its many features does take some time. But if one is at all competent in using a computer, familiar with Mac or PC graphics programs, word processing, etc. one will find many of the same commands, and procedures. So it presents a familiar face in a way. Starting out just using the basics is simple enough and gives one a feeling of confidence that moving beyond the basics can’t be that hard.
Rendered Site Plans

Design can be done all in 3D and those 3D drawings will be or can be the same drawings that become the 2D drawings making up the production drawing set. Client presentations can be rendered printouts, animations, walk throughs, or even real time views of a 3D model taken on one’s laptop to a client meeting. And if one needs to do a graphic presentation, a competition board for example, pictures, text, 2D and 3D drawings can all composed and printed right in the program
Create almost anything

In other words, why burden yourself and your office with half a dozen programs when one will do it all. Yes there are other programs that will do some of the individual parts as well or better, but VW can compete with most of them and the results are more than adequate for the majority of what we do as architects.

Complex Models

I’ll talk for a minute about how VW works. Initially we set up a project file entering basic information about floor heights, wall heights, roof etc. Then we set up basic project parameters, dimension style, meters, vs feet, things like that and then from a drop menu we select the various sheets of drawings needed. That would be things like floor plans, site plan, elevations and so on. We don’t have to do this in any order and they can be changed later. But by doing this the program does a lot of the work of preparing the drawing set for us. We draw on design layers, we put things like electrical outlets, and windows in classes that can be turned on or off as needed. We use the layers as overlays to create various drawings. Drawings are then transferred though viewports to sheets for the final composition of sheets of drawings to be printed. All of this is done in one file which saves a lot of confusion and makes things simpler. If more than one person needs to work on a drawing set, this can be done through the use of references to other drawings called referenced viewports. When drawing a building plan we draw walls, not just lines, that have characteristics such as height, thickness, and finishes, which means that as we draw the 2D plan we are at the same time creating a 3D model. I can go on here but this isn’t an instruction manual it’s just a brief idea of how the program works.

Finally one thing I always hear is, well we had to choose the program our consultants use or that everyone else uses. To this I say who’s in charge here the architect or the consultants. And do you really want to burden yourself with an inefficient program just because most everyone else is using it. Why not get a step ahead and increase your bottom line with greater efficiency. Of course you can also convert your VW drawings to a format useable by your consultants so it’s not such a big issue anyway.

Paste up Graphics

Construction documents with plans, elevations and renderings.

Note that the renderings and plans show above were all done in our office using various previous versions of VW.

VW 2010 THE LATEST VERSION

Before moving on to the details of the latest version we might discuss the reasons why one would want to upgrade from previous versions. I’ve already recommended VW as a good choice or even the best choice, so if you are not already into CAD the choice is easy; buy the latest version. But if you’ve been using the program for a while then of course there ought to be good reasons to spend the money to upgrade. From a purely economic standpoint I think there are two factors to consider. Will the new version save you time, meaning money, and do you have enough cash flow during the current slow down to justify the extra expense. Only you can answer the later question except that you may justify the expense by considering the time to learn new features and the fact that if work is slow you have the time to do it. For the first factor I will discuss some features that are in the new version that I believe will more than justify the purchase by time saved. It’s interesting to note that some of the most significant time savers are perhaps the least note worthy in terms of technical development or progress.

As an example of what may be a simple change (not being a programmer I admit I don’t know how simple this was technically) is the ability to change the origin, the rotation and scale of a hatch. On a recent plaza project in Italy we had a variety of hatches all at various angles and scales. We also needed to use the hatches in the detail drawings. And the project underwent numerous changes in the pattern layouts. As a result hatches were not associated; every hatch had to be redone for each area and each change which was a several step process requiring significant time. Most of this time will be saved in the new version. But I am disappointed that they haven’t made a way to make hatches three dimensional. This would be very useful since as it is now one must copy the area hatched and then add a texture to make it show up in a 3D rendering.

Once you get used to using the dimension constraint manager it can save time and also potential mistakes. Walls can be moved and their dimensions update automatically. You can also change the dimension and the wall itself moves, while at the same time the other dimensions in a string of dimensions also changes, as does the overall dimension. One overall dimension changed and not forgotten as often happens when doing it manually might be worth the cost of the upgrade by itself. You can also lock a dimension and its associated walls so that it can not be easily changed. This would be very useful for those areas like hallways where minimum dimensions must be maintained. Also one can save time in layout and design when starting a new project. Walls can be placed in their approximate location and easily adjusted later, with adjacent walls updating automatically.

I think another big time saver will be the unified view tool which replaces the old stacked layers tool. If you do a lot of 3D modeling then this is big. Basically a unified view can be a model of the complete project. From this view one can access any layer, and modify objects while in a 3D view. There is no need to constantly switch back and forth from a model view to a design layer to elevations views etc. It can all be done within a single unified view just switching between 3D, plan and elevations views.

In place reference editing can be a time saver but it depends a lot on how one uses the program. It does not allow one to change referenced drawing files it only works on referenced resources. I think this might be a big help in coordinating drawings on a large project and also on say an apartment project one might turn individual apartment plans into symbols which could be referenced from a master file and changed as needed.

There are several other features which when added together will allow additional time savings. In viewport crops one can now see the entire drawing so there is no more guessing about where to put the crop lines. I like the find resource capability, as I seem to spend lots of time finding symbols and other resources that seem to get placed most anywhere. There is a new connect combine tool for multiple objects. The automatic coordination of sheet numbers seems pretty cool. Sheet numbers are coordinated with drawing numbers and updated automatically if changed in one instance.

So my answer to the first question of economics is a pretty strong, it’s worth it. Now what about some of the other changes and new or revised features?

Here I see a lot of good stuff. And I don’t see anything changed for the worse, (a very important feature) but I do find some of the changes or new features somewhat of a work in progress. For example file referencing has been updated. From my testing of this feature, I see that it works pretty well in 2D but in 3D it seems unpredictable. I tried to reference a floor plan onto a site plan in one case in the same file so it could be rotated. It showed up fine in a 2D view but when I switched to a 3D view the referenced floor plan disappeared. Another interesting thing is that when I referenced the same floor plan to the site plan in another file the same thing happened but also curiously when I turned off unified view and set it to active layer only, then changed to an isometric view, the dimension text showed up on the 3D view. That is a good feature but one that is not supposed to happen. I suspect that part of the problems I’ve had here are due to a lack of computing power, graphic card issues or not enough ram to handle larger complex models. I have seen it work fine on a much simpler model than the one I made. I see the new planar graphics feature as a work in progress as well. It would be much more useful if one could also project text and dimension callouts in 3D. But the ability to see a 2D site plan for example with a 3D model placed on it is very useful. The active layer plane and screen plane views will take some getting used to and I’m guessing a bit of swearing. The good news is that items made in one can be changed to the other with one mouse click. This is one place where the new “magic wand” or select similar tool can be very useful. You select the parameters from a list then click on one instance and all similar items are automatically selected. The problem I have had with this is that I could not get it to select dimensions. I had to revert to the old custom selection tool. It may just be that I don’t know how to use it properly or that it’s not intuitive enough – isn’t that a great excuse for not knowing how to do something.

The wall sculpting tool is useful. I was more excited about it before I tried it. But I still like it. I thought one could stretch the sides of a wall to, for example, fit it to some of the old odd shaped walls one finds in remodels. That can be done but one has to build a 3D object and then combine it with the wall rather than change the wall itself. The result is the same. So far the new stair tool seems great. One has many more options as to how the stair will be constructed. But on my first try, making a spiral stair it placed the railing across the upper end of the stair. I haven’t yet figured out how to remove it, but there must be a way. Corner windows are a nice little feature that I have wanted many times. Cutting holes in walls has gotten much easier.

One thing that I think we worry about is how well our old drawing files will convert when opened in the latest version. So far I can see no problem here. I have opened up some fairly complicated version 2008 files without any problems. In fact I was pleased to see some tree symbols updated and looking much more photo like. There also seems to be a decent increase in rendering speed.

Renderworks is one of the most important aspects of the program at least in the way I use it. There have not been a lot of changes but the ones that have been made are important. They have improved texture mapping and one can put one or more textures on top of each other to create labeling, signage and layered material effects.

Finally I think it’s important to address the issue of being able to transfer files to consultants and clients who need them in a format usable by Autocad. So the question is does this upgrade make that easier. The answer is a qualified yes. One can batch export several sheet layers as individual files which when viewed in Autocad present themselves as formatted sheets that I believe could be printed easily. The problem is that all the VW layers are stacked on top of each other so sorting them out for the Autocad drafter could be difficult. The other option is to export VW saved views. This seems to be a practical option if one needs to send say a floor plan to a consultant. The resulting dwg file looks pretty clean.

There are many other changes and additions that can best be reviewed by looking at the list on the VW website. For example working planes are much easier to access, 3D snapping is improved and so it’s easier to select, modify and align objects in 3D.

Overall this is very much a useful and worthwhile upgrade. There are enough time saving features to justify the cost. And the other improvements will just make one’s working life more pleasant. That is of course after one learns to use them and gets over habits and work around’s used in past versions.

If you are considering updating or purchasing Vectorworks I would suggest having a look at the videos on the VW website, http://www.nemetschek.net/library/index.php Jonathan Pickup’s website http://www.archoncad.co.nz and his videos on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/archoncad and you can have a look at many 3D models I’ve created on my website www.hm-architects.com.

Finally here is a bit of a disclaimer. I have tried to write an honest appraisal, but I will admit to wishing there were more users of the program I use in my practice because that would make it easier to work with consultants and to find employees who are already trained in using it.

Passive Solar Heating and Cooling

2009-10-23T05:41:00.001-07:00

PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING & COOLING
and energy saving ideas.

By John Helm

These days all the talk is about saving energy and there are a lot of new as well as old systems to take advantage of the sun for heating and even cooling. Since my years in university I have been aware and have studied the various ways to take advantage of this free source of energy. The problem is that while the suns energy is there to be taken and used for free, the actual ways that we collect it and turn it into a form which is useable are generally not free and sometimes very expensive.

Over the years I have made many proposals to my architectural clients to implement various ideas into their projects. For the most part when the costs came in they resorted to the time tested and much less expensive standard forms of heating and cooling. The initial cost of the equipment can take many years to pay for itself and in the US at least where people tend to move often they don’t consider it a wise investment.

Therefore, in this short article I will restrict my comments to the things that we can do in our existing homes that require little or no costs and then I will discuss a few things we can do in our new homes to maximize the collection of the sun’s energy for heating and turn that around for cooling.

Existing Homes
We will start this little journey at the front door. Do you know that just putting a good door mat outside and a rug inside the exterior doors can save energy? Yes it can. Approximately 80% of the dirt we bring into our homes comes from our shoes. So just cleaning them before entering saves the extra time we would have to use the vacuum cleaner. Taking off the shoes and putting on house shoes or slippers will save even more.

Now I’m going to tell you some things you probably already know but I bet you don’t do them. Since I said no extra expense, I will stick to the things we can do just to maximize heating or cooling and minimize heat gain or loss without spending any money. The windows are generally the major tool here. They represent a hole in our walls when it comes to energy gain and loss. So they need to be managed. Assume you have curtains and better yet shutters that open and close. In the morning when the sun is out in the winter, open the south facing curtains or shutters while keeping the windows closed to let in the solar energy and open the doors of those rooms to the rest of the house. Keep the others closed until the outside air temperature warms up or you just can’t stand having them closed. As the sun passes reverse the process. At night shutter everything up.

If you have a fireplace, close the flue when you are not using it. Heat rises the open flue sucks the heat right out. On the subject of heat rising remember that it will rise to the upper floors on a two story house. If those floors contain the bedrooms, close the door leading to the stairs if you have them during the day or if no stair doors close the bedroom doors. There is no need to heat rooms not in use.

In the summer we reverse the above. Keep the south facing windows shuttered. Open the flue and open second floor windows that don’t face south.

Also keep in mind that hard surfaces such as tile and concrete absorb heat. This function can be used in winter and summer. If you have a tile floor for example expose it to the sun in the winter it will heat up a radiate the heat back out in the evening. In the summer protect it from the sun; you might even cover it with a rug but only in the summer. In the summer we can open all the windows in the night to cool the house and then promptly close them in the morning.

New Homes and Remodels
The most cost affective way to minimize energy use in new homes, when we remodel or make additions is to use the things we would build anyway in a way that is energy use conscious and does not add any or little to the cost. As before we start with windows for natural light north facing windows are great but that’s the worst location for heat loss or gain. They don’t see the sun. So it’s best to minimize them unless we are building an artists studio or they face a beautiful view. South facing windows are the one’s we want with hard surface floors facing them and concrete walls inside the house to absorb the heat to be radiated out in the evening. Skylights that can be opened bring in natural light and when opened in the summer allow the heat to rise out of the house.

Those big south facing windows are great in the winter as long as the sun is out; they are not so great when it’s not. So we should make some provision to cover them and of course they should be double glazed as should all the windows, even triple glazed in harsh climates. And what do you do about them in the summer? In the summer they must be shaded. This can be done several ways. We can shutter them, put up louvers or roll up awnings. Permanently shading them will eliminate their use for heating in the winter so don’t do that. One way we all know is to plant deciduous trees near them. Those trees will shade them in the summer and allow the sun to shine in during the winter as well as provide a nice appearance in the view and the yard.

Fireplaces can be a good source of heat if properly designed using outside air for combustion and some form of providing circulation of the heat generated. Glass doors allow radiant heat to pass while minimize the amount of heated inside air that rises up the flue. In the summer open the glass doors and the flue to allow the heat to flow out. Fans can be placed in the attic at little expense to draw out additional heat.

Let’s also not forget insulation, perhaps the very most important addition. Blanket insulation made of fiberglass is the least costly and in fact adds little to the overall cost. If one objects to the glass fiber there are also natural products made of wood and recycled cotton. Increasing the thickness of walls in wood frame construction allows increased insulation but at added cost though not that much in the overall picture. Another item to consider is using one of the modern house wrap products instead of the conventional tar paper. They seal the walls, but allow moisture to pass from the inside to the outside.

Finally let’s not forget the lighting. Windows, skylights and solar tubes can minimize the amount of lighting we need to turn on during the day. Proper placing of lighting for general purpose lighting as well as task lighting is important to minimize electrical usage. The use of fluorescent light wherever possible can reduce energy use by 2/3rds and as they become less expensive LED lights will bring consumption down even more.

So I have just touched a bit on the overall subject perhaps you, your architect and your contractor will be encouraged to use these ideas and think of more on your own.

Copyright 2009 by John Helm may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author.

Adding space to or remodeling your home.

2009-08-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

Room additions are a very poplar way to increase the size and value one’s home in the US. Here I will discuss the reasons why they are so popular and the various possibilities and uses for the added space.

First let’s think about the value of a home. Homes are typically priced based upon their size, the quality of construction, finish materials, number of bathrooms, size of the kitchen, and often most importantly the location. But size in any location is the final determining factor. When adding on sometimes the prime consideration is the cost of the new space. An advantage in this area is that the new space can be a type of space that adds substantially to the size and therefore the value of the home while at the same time being the least expensive space to build. Let me explain, the most expensive spaces one can add are bathrooms and kitchens, any thing involving plumbing and household appliances. So it fallows that if a home already has the basics, obviously they all have kitchens and bathrooms, then the most cost effective way to add value is to add simple spaces, for example, bedrooms, offices, family rooms and play or hobby areas.

Of course there are many other factors influencing one’s desire to remodel or add space, not the least of which would be the desire to have a nicer bigger kitchen, or perhaps a beautiful master bathroom. These items when one considers value do not generally give a full payback when one sells the home, but of course they do make it much easier to sell at full market value.

What are some of the additions that people tend to make to their homes. I will talk about a few of them. As in the above example simple spaces can be added to make a home more comfortable to live in and provide space for children, guests, hobbies or just everyday family activities. These rooms might be universal, that is adaptable to various uses that might change over the years as the family composition changes. Maybe a guest room before kids are born, a child’s room later and finally a room for elderly parents. These rooms might be accompanied by the addition of a small bathroom. Or one might add a large room adjacent to the existing living room that is open to the kitchen and becomes a family room. Another idea is to add a room above an existing garage or turn attic space into useable space. A space can be added most anywhere even if not made an integral part of the existing living space. This space might serve as an office for those who work at home, an artist’s studio, an exercise studio, a home theatre room, or just a universal space adaptable to needs as they arise. One might also add an enclosed patio for semi outdoor dining and entertaining; call it an indoor outdoor space.

Finally we can talk about the idea of adding a separate or semi separate apartment. These can take many forms. Perhaps one is just anther bedroom with a space for a small kitchen unit and a bath room. It could be a space where an elderly relative can be independent but still living within the main family home. Or one can add an apartment that is totally separate, maybe above the garage or in the back yard. Of course this apartment would have a multitude of potential uses, form being a work studio, to a rental unit or an apartment for an adult child or grandparents.

In the US it is also very popular to remodel an existing home with or without adding space. The remodel itself can take many forms. I will try to cover a few of them. The main reason people do it is to make an existing home more comfortable, more livable, better looking or perhaps to decrease overall energy consumption.

To make a home more comfortable and livable one might add or increase the size of windows, change flooring materials, put new cabinets in the kitchen along with new sinks and appliances. The same might be done in bathrooms. Built in bookshelves, closets and cabinets can be added. New lighting might make it easier to cook in the kitchen.

Making a home better looking which might also increase its value can include new exterior paint, revised trim on windows and doors, new exterior railings and new landscaping. In the interior one could do the same along with new floor coverings, new cabinets, etc. In fact many of the improvements in livability might also add to a homes value and appearance.

There can also be a big overlap in the area of energy consumption. When artificial lighting is improved the light fixtures used can be those that consume less. If windows are added or increased in size they might also reduce the need for artificial light during the day and they might also contribute to passive solar gain for heating purposes. Adding shutters to the exterior of windows can reduce the energy loss through the windows if the shutters are functional and closed, particularly during the night. Replacing carpet with tile can provide an energy storage base. High density materials like tile and concrete absorb heat and radiate it back during cool periods. Windows placed in an area where sunlight can heat the tile during the day makes this work. Shading devices over windows and exterior walls that can be adjusted or operate naturally during hot months can save on cooling costs or just help in providing a cooler interior. Landscaping functions here as well. Deciduous trees provide shade in the Summer and let the sun shine in during the Winter, if placed in front of South and West facing walls. Then there is of course the option of adding insulation. It’s most easily done in attic areas but can also be added to walls.

Finally one might wonder how does one accomplish any of the above changes and who should one ask for help. The simple solution is to hire a competent architect. One might think well I don’t really need an architect to do most of the above. I could just hire a contractor who will do the work or an interior designer, or maybe just go to a cabinet company to design my new kitchen or bathroom. There are two major reasons why the architect is the best source for all of this. The first is that the architect works for the client and only has his best interest at heart, he or she is not trying to sell anything other than services to the client. Sometimes the interior designer can fill this role but here often the designer is making his money by selling stuff, furniture, flooring, etc. and therefore profits most by selling lots of stuff. The other reason for hiring an architect is that the architect is trained by schooling and experience to be the most qualified person to see the overall picture. That is what architects do. They understand, planning, traffic flow – how spaces are used and connect to each other, construction, uses and functions of materials, peoples needs and desires for their living and working spaces, and they have a general understanding of mechanics, heating cooling, electrical, appliances, lighting, solar energy, etc. In general the architect is the one who can put all the pieces together. The architect may not do all of this himself, but he or she, knows enough about to be able to know when another expert, consultant, contractor or designer is needed and can coordinate all of their efforts.

Good Design

2008-11-12T01:26:00.001-08:00

Il Serchio,

As an architect I just can’t resist writing about this. This last Monday night we stayed at Il Serchio a camper site in Lucca Italy. At first glance the concept of the place seems great and it looks new and clean. It’s dedicated to campers, has electrical and water hookups at each site, free wifi internet, showers, laundry and dumping station. The price is very reasonable at 18 euro per night and it’s pretty close to the old town center. We rode our bikes into town the first afternoon then the next morning took a nice bike ride along the river bank just up a little hill from the camp.

But it’s one of the best examples of poor design I’ve seen in a while. It’s probably one of those cases where the owner’s didn’t think the services of a good designer was worth the cost of hiring one. The parking spaces for the campers are too short being more the size for a car so the camper sticks out into the road/drive area, it’s a big wide gravel drive with tiny short green spaces for the campers. They put the baths at the farthest corner rather than centrally located, the internet connection is intermittent, goes off and on, and can really only be accessed if one parks closet to the entry. The showers seem like they were designed by someone who never took a shower in a camp of any kind. They are directly across from the toilets, there is no dressing area or place to put ones clothes, turn on the shower and water sprays out into the hall area as the heads are fixed and there is no door just a curtain half of which were torn. The water stays on for something like 30 seconds then has to be started again. It was dark when my son and I went to take a shower and the lights also on timers went off 3 times causing me to have to go into the sink area naked, wet and cold to turn them back on, of course this area was also exposed to the outside through large uncovered windows. Finally, they have a nice dump area for grey and black water. But it’s right in front of the entry to the men’s bath area. In fact the black dump tank (that’s the stuff from the toilet) is right on the walk to the bath so one has to walk across the area where people dump their toilets on the way to take a shower.

As I said above the concept is great, a simple campsite dedicated to the needs of campers/motor homes, with just the things they need and nothing more at a good price in a good location. It’s just too bad it couldn’t have been designed properly.

Antique Wood Floors From Italy

2008-07-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Green architecture, recycling of used materials, that's what we need these days. We are now representing in the US and any other English speaking country an Italian company that produces beautiful wood flooring from recycled wood. They use wood mostly from old buildings in Italy some of it hundreds of years old. There is a good variety of species and finishes, from modern to distressed. All production is based on orders, but production time is just 60 days. They are located very close to our home base in Italy and we are able to follow the production to insure it's on schedule.

Send us an email john at hm-architects dot com or call our US number 858 345 1068 for more information.

Architects ready to help

2008-05-27T00:15:00.000-07:00

I don't post here often as the main intent was to let people know we are available to help with projects big and small and to answer questions about design, architecture, construction, etc. That is what I have done in previous posts. So this is just a reminder.

Straw Bale Homes

2008-02-08T05:03:00.000-08:00

We are doing our first straw bale home, but it's not the first for our associate Juergen, he has designed many. What is it, well, yes the walls are actually made of bales of hay. The real structure is a wood frame with prefabricated shear walls in steel and wood. The bales are a sort of infill wall. The advantage is great insulation, a natural renewable building product and a product that can be installed by unskilled labor. The walls are finished with cement plaster inside and out.

Have a look at this 3D model.

Online Architect

2007-12-19T23:46:00.000-08:00

We offer architectural services online. It may sound strange to work with an architect that you can't meet face to face, but it is possible. The internet and the many graphic tools available now allow for great communication. And we have free phone service to most of the world along with email, and the possibility of video conferencing.

Us in the news

2007-08-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well not big time news but a story online about our bell tower project. See it HERE

Big projects - Big houses - Commercial Centers

2007-07-06T23:44:00.001-07:00

Yes of course we can do them, have done them. If the projects big enough we will come to you or come to Italy where we are most of the time and spend a week of intensive design work say in the morning while touring the Dolomites in the afternoon.

Do you have a really big project? We also work with other much larger firms in the US and Italy and can coordinate the work between countries and languages. We have the American attitude towards getting the job done in a functional and cost effective way while including the Italian flare for good design.

House Plans Online

2007-07-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

At this time you won't find house plan samples here. What we offer are custom plans to fit your needs all done by communicating over the internet, and personal meetings if your project is in So. California or Italy. Send a sketch, a picture, or a plan from a book, or just a list of the things you want and we will prepare an estimate of the cost of our work. Generally if we do the plans this way the total cost to you will not be more than you would spend buying ready made plans online then paying someone to bring them up to local codes. With over 30 years experience in designing homes there isn't much we haven't done so it's very easy for us to understand what you want and make your ideas a workable reality.

Currently we are working on projects in California, Canada, Mexico and Italy, so location is not a problem. We use a voice over the internet (voip) phone system so we can be reached by our California phone number wherever we are and there is not extra cost to you.

Italian Style

2007-06-17T04:04:00.001-07:00

Don't know what else to call it. Anyway you saw the design for the bell tower, that's in Italy. Now we are doing some 3D and drafting work for a designer in the So. California area and this picture of the elavtor car will give you the idea. In some ways Italians are looking forward and Americans looking backward. One can speculate on the reasons, Americans without a long history long to have one and Italians maybe have had too much of a good thing. It's interesting.

By the way we didn't design this, just did the 3D which is very difficult to do. We use a CAD program called VectorWorks for all of our work from preliminary design to 3D modeling to construction drawings. Just having to learn one program makes life much easier. Actually the other program we use for design is called pen and paper, the old fashioned way of sketching ones ideas on a piece of paper is still the most efficient way to develop a basic idea.

Good News

2007-06-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

We entered a design competition for a bell tower at one one the large churches in Belluno and our design was chosen. The actual project will just be the tower and it's base. We had designed an addition of a large plaza covering an existing parking area, but ownership issues of the land for parking would prevent the plaza being built as we designed. For the project we kept the design simple as the church is rather complicated and we wanted to unite the elements existing in the church rather than add to them. Using our CAD software we are able to capture pictures of the existing materials and use them in the 3D model.

Designer Invoices and Purchase Orders

2007-05-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Over the years I've developed several spread sheets for our office use. Now I've started to make some of these available for sale. The first one is an Excel workbook for Interior Designers that creates and somewhat automates the creation of a client estimate, to give to the client for inititial approval, a purchase order for the vendor and the final Invoice to be paid by the client. I think it's a big time saver.

If you would like to purchase it just look at the Item listed to the left of this and click on the buy now button. Once you've paid we will be notified and will send it to you by email. Don't forget to give us a current email address. Don't worry we will not share your email address with anyone, or email you again unless you ask to be put on a list for future products or notices.

Design, Additions, Remodels

2007-04-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Low cost design service for remodels and additions: We will review any sketches you send us and send back to you a revised sketch and written comments for $75 to $150 depending on the size of the project. This could be the best spent money on your project. Why? Because after 30 plus years of doing this as well as actually constructing some of our projects ourselves, we know what we are doing.

Mortgage Loan Costs Compare

2007-04-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Confused about which loan to take, hi points, low interest, or low points higher interest. Plug in the numbers in our home loan calculater and compare loans. Click on this link:

http://www.hm-architects.com/home_loan_calculator.htm

Think you might only stay in the house a few years the calculater will give you an idea of actual monthly costs over various periods of time. You can change all the variables to see which makes the most sense in your situation. Email us if you would like the excell spread sheet for a small fee. john@hm-architects.com

Remember the numbers are just estimates so the actual costs may vary, but the comparisons are real.

Home building costs

2007-04-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Often we talk with clients or potential clients who have some idea of the square foot costs of building a new home. So in their planning they take the size home they want and multiply it by the square footage costs they have heard from friends or contractors and believe that should be the cost of their completed home. Of course most people would also include the cost of the land and some would remember to ad in the cost of a loan. But their are other costs. If you click on this link you can get a pretty good idea of the total costs and even see how much you would have to sell the home for to make a profit on your construction.
http://www.hm-architects.com/homecosts.htm

It's an excell spreadsheet, you can plug in the numbers shown in red that fit your situation. I've refined it over many years so it has become pretty accurate. If you would like a copy that you can use on your computer and print out, email us and for a small fee we will send you one. john@hm-architects.com

Help U Design

2007-04-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Why not get the advice of a hightly experienced architect without having to pay for the full service. We can show you how to ad a room, rearrange your kitchen or help you put your ideas into a plan that can actually get built.

Building a home in Italy

2007-04-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

There are choices for building a home in Italy, they mainly involve building on vacant land or rebuilding one of the many older and sometimes falling down structures.

Which is more economical rebuilding or building new really just depends on the total cost of everything. In general to rebuild an existing but unlivable structure costs at least as much as new and usually a bit more. I think I'll write more about this on my blog in a day or so. The deciding factor would be the cost and availability of vacant buildable land.Our experience in rebuilding part of the Luisa's paternal family home in Pradipozzo was that getting the permit to rebuild was fairly easy, but since it is agricultural land we could not add even a square meter. We were allowed to rebuild even the torn down stable into a subtantial building. And then there were also the design issues, the design had to conform to the original, no big windows etc.Here in Belluno when we rebuilt the villa on Luisa's maternal side we had a big legal battle over rebuilding a large area that had been torn down many years ago. At first it was denied then after a law suit was filed with the region we have now more or less been given permission to rebuild it - more or less because leagally we are allowed to but we have not submitted plans and don't know what will be the next reaction. Rebuilding the structure that actually existed was relatively easy though getting the permits took a while as the city considers it an historical structure. It's interesting that having to raise the roof for structural reasons created an additional floor and additional sq. meters.So there are several ways to build, the safest is to buy vacant land that is certified buildable and make sure that the seller backs that up. Another is to buy a property that has basically a ruin on it, a third is to buy an existing building and rebuild it, a forth would be to buy an existing building that was not residential and convert it to residential. The fourth is risky unless the seller has already converted it use (destination) to residential. I would not advise anyone to buy vacant land that is not certified as buildable and hope to make it so. That could take 10 years as in the previous response or even longer or perhaps never happen. Italians are rightly very protective of their open and agricultural spaces. Who would want to visit an Italy of urban sprawl.

Who Needs An Architect?

2007-03-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

The architect is one of the last generalists in the professions. His training generally includes an overall view of all the trades and professions connected to the planning, design and construction of our built environment. The architect’s education in the United States for example is relatively long and rigorous consisting of either a 5 year bachelors or 6 year masters degree. That is followed by 3 years of internship and then several days of exams in all the fields. So he or she is in a unique position to give advice and consultation in a variety of areas. This is what distinguishes the architect from for example the contractor-builder, building designer, the engineer or the interior designer, all of whom are focused on their more specific areas of expertise. In fact in the management of the overall project the architect will call upon the expertise of others as soon as he realizes the need for them. And it is his overall view that allows him to know when that need arises.

So no matter the size of the project the architect is able to see the overall picture. The well educated and experienced architect will consider all the pieces of the building puzzle from the flow and relationships of spaces to the soundness of the structure and the environmental impact of the construction process and finished building.
This overall view can make a huge difference in the functionality, cost and lifespan of any project from the small remodel to the skyscraper.

Room additions cheap plans

2007-03-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Working with a non local architect

The idea of offering a service to people who need architectural services for small projects but are not in our local area occurred to me some time ago. We were helping my partner’s brother with a room addition and remodel for a home he just purchased. The home is on the East coast of Canada and we were in Southern California at the time. The project worked out so well that decided it must be a good service to offer to others.

Here’s how it worked. The client, in this case a family member, took pictures of his house. He made a rough sketch with dimensions that he took himself. Then he told us what he wanted to add to the house, the problems with the house as it existed and some ideas he had for changes. Now, my partner and I have a combined experience working with clients in all areas of housing of close to 50 years, so it’s very easy for us to understand the needs of a client. It’s also easy to determine how to solve problems, revise the plan of a home and make additions. So in this case we quickly made two or three sketches of possible plans and a list of ideas. These were emailed to the client. He then sent back to us his own ideas and some preliminary decisions about which of our ideas he liked the best. From this we were able to make a semi final plan sketch. This again was emailed to the client, then sent back his final comments. From these revised sketches we prepared a simple set of construction drawings. The drawings were sent back to the client who toke the to a few local contractors to get preliminary bids. At the same time he was able to find a local structural engineer to finalize the drawings for local codes and get a building permit.

You might be asking yourself what is the advantages in doing a project this way. There are many. In this case of course working with a close relative lent a large amount of confidence to the client in knowing that the project would be done well. But for all clients, the ability to hire an architect with a large amount of experience and a good reputation can be very costly and time consuming. By working over the internet and minimizing the time we have to spend on a project our fees can be minimized while the client at the same time has the advantage of the services of a highly qualified professional. Once the design is finalized the client can use the services of less qualified and therefore less expensive locals to finish the job and get the required permits. In fact many times one can go directly to the contractor/builder with a finalized design and he can take it from there.

There are other alternatives as well. For example one may have some ideas or a sketch of what one wants to add to ones home. An experienced architect can take that sketch and in a short time revise it and or point out the problems with it. This could be a tremendous time savings and a potential prevention of future problems. Using the internet we can also provide that service in an economical way. For a fixed fee or hourly charges we can take the plan ideas of the client improve them, or determine that they are fine as is giving the client confidence to proceed and take the sketches to a local drafting service for final drawings.

The truth of the matter is the legally in most areas plans for room additions and even whole houses do not have to be prepared by a licensed architect. There are many drafting services offering this service and much lower fees than the architect can charge. But going directly to these services is dangerous as far as the final result of the design is concerned. There is much that goes into the design of a home that can only be done properly by a true professional. So in most cases the design of a complete new home should be done by an experienced and licensed architect. But what about the room addition or remodel? In many if not most cases the architects with the proper amount of experience are too busy for such little projects or too expensive. That’s were we think this service of helping the client with their small projects over the internet and getting their ideas into a format that can then be taken on by a local drafting service or engineer comes in.

Get Started

2005-03-13T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ask your questions or post comments here.

2005-03-13T08:27:00.000-08:00