Quickstart Guide

June 2009

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 6
CREATING A NEW PROJECT 6
THE MANAGER 6
CREATING A MODEL FILE: 6

A TOUR OF BENTLEY ARCHITECTURE’S DESIGN INTERFACE 7

PULL DOWN MENUS 7
PRIMARY 7
ATTRIBUTES 7
BUILDING PRIMARY 7
ACCUDRAW 8
VIEW GROUPS 8
TASK-BASED INTERFACE 8
COORDINATING WITH OTHER PROFESSIONS 9
CLOSING DOWN VIEWS 11
MANIPULATING LEVELS 12
GENERATING A FLOOR SLAB 13

COLUMN GRIDS 14
SETTING UP GRIDS 14
PLACING THE GRID 15
TURNING OFF THE GRID 15

MODELING THE EXTERNAL SKIN 17

DISPLAY VIEW 19
WALL CLEAN UP 19

CURTAIN WALLS 21
COPYING CURTAIN WALLS 22
ON-THE-FLY EDITING OF CURTAIN WALLING 23

DOORS 25
PLACE DOOR 25
MODIFYING DOORS 26

INTERNAL WALLS 28

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MODIFYING WALLS 28

.CREATING AN INTERNAL PARTITION WALL 30

OPENING DATASET EXPLORER 30
ADDING THE STUDDING 31
ADDING THE FINISH 31
COMMITTING THE CHANGES 31
DATAGROUP CATALOG EDITOR 31
ADDING VALUES TO THE INTERIOR PARTITION 32

SETTING OUT THE INTERNAL PARTITIONS 33

PLACING THE PARTITIONS 33
ARC WALLS 34
“ON-THE-FLY” EDITING OF WALLS 35
SETTING OUT ARC WALLS 36
MIRRORING WALLS ALONG A VERTICAL AXIS 37

SPACE PLANNING 38
SETTING UP YOUR SPACES 38

CEILINGS 40
SETTING UP THE CEILING TOOL 40
PLACING CELINGS 40

LIGHTING FIXTURES 43
SETTING UP THE LIGHTING FIXTURES 43
PLACING LIGHTING FIXTURES 43

VOLUME CLIPPING 44
RESETTING YOUR VIEW TO TOP 44
SETTING THE VOLUME CLIP 44
ROTATING THE VIEW WITH VOLUME CLIP 46
EDITING WHILE IN VOLUME CLIPPING MODE 46

INTERNAL DOORS 48
TURNING OFF THE CEILING AND SPACES LEVELS 48
PLACING INTERNAL DOORS 48
PLACING RESTROOM DOORS 48
PLACING STAIRCASE OPENINGS 49

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STAIRS 49
CHOOSING AND CONFIGURING A STAIRCASE 49
PLACE STAIRS 50
MODIFYING A STAIRCASE 50

INTERNAL FURNISHINGS 52
SHELVING 52
FURNITURE 52
RESTROOMS 53
PLACING TOILET PARTITIONS 53
BATHROOM FURNITURE 53

COMPOSING YOUR DRAWINGS 54

MODELS 54
CREATING A SHEET MODEL 54
ATTACHING THE TITLE BORDER TO YOUR SHEET 55
ATTACHING YOUR MODEL TO YOUR SHEET 57
SAVED VIEWS 57
ATTACHING SAVED VIEWS AND BUILDING MANAGER 58
CREATING THE ELEVATIONS 60
ATTACHING ELEVATIONS TO YOUR SHEET 62
CREATING SECTIONS 64
MANIPULATING SECTION AND ELEVATIONS 66
SECTIONS 66
FLIPPING DIRECTIONS 66
STEPPED SECTIONS 67
MULTI – STEPPED SECTIONS 68
ANNOTATING DRAWINGS 69
DIMENSIONS 70
SCHEDULES 72
GENERATING SCHEDULES FROM THE MODEL 72
EDITING THE SCHEDULE FOR EXPORT 73
CREATING A SELECTION SET 73
EXPORTING OUT AS MICROSOFT EXCEL SPREADSHEET 74
SAVING YOUR SCHEDULES 74
PLACING THE SCHEDULE 74
FILLING IN THE TITLE BLOCK 75

VISUALIZATION 75
OPENING THE LUXOLOGY RENDERING MODE. 75

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LUXOLOGY SETUP 76
RENDERING OUT THE IMAGE 76
ATTACHING IMAGES TO YOUR SHEET 76

PRINTING 77
THE PRINT DIALOG 77
GENERAL SETTINGS 77
PRINTER AND PAPER SIZE 78
PRINT SCALE AND POSITION 78
PRINTING VIA PDF 78
PRINT ORGANIZER 79
PRINTING A PRINTSET 79

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Introduction
Welcome to Bentley Architecture’s Quickstart. We hope you enjoy learning and using the industry’s most
versatile Architectural Building Information Modeling solution. Bentley Architecture adjusts to your working
methodology and business and project requirements rather than lock you into the ‘one-solution-fits-all’
mentality and one that has resulted in an ever-increasing ‘chain of pain’ for its users. It is therefore hoped that
this rapid, multimedia overview will provide you with an illustrative and instructional overview into how your
practice can build upon the BIM era. We will be tackling the design, revising and documenting of a project while
interacting, at all times with other design professionals.

Fluidity of design is one of Bentley Architecture’s greatest assets; allied with unparalleled technological
functionality provides an extremely solid and versatile foundation for your design options to take shape.

Creating a new project

Before we start using Bentley Architecture let’s begin with creating a new model file.

The ‘Manager’
When you start Bentley Architecture or any of Bentley’s BIM solutions (Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural,
Bentley Building Mechanical Systems, Bentley Building Electrical Systems) the first screen you are greeted with
is the Manager.
This is the centre point for your project and where we will be creating and utilizing all of the material in this
overview.

Creating a model file:

1. Click on the “NEW FILE” icon
(which is to the left of the Bentley
icon.
2. Name your new model file
“Architecture” and click the
“SAVE” button.
3. Then click “OPEN”

(Your model file is appended with

the extension “.dgn” – this is the
extension for ALL Bentley based
model files)

4. Your “Architecture” model file, for Figure 1 Creating new model file
this project is now ready for your
design.

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A tour of Bentley Architecture’s Design Interface
Now let’s take a look around the interface.

You’ll see the standard pulldowns at the top of the application.

Building
Primary

Views

View Groups

Figure 2 Bentley Architecture's interface

AccuDraw

Pull Down menus

At the top of the window is the standard Microsoft based menu bar. You can use this to access any and
all of Bentley Architecture’s commands.

Primary
The Primary toolbar contains toolsets that invoke constantly used and essential model file tools.

Attributes
The Attributes tool box contains menus for choosing and setting active symbology.

Building Primary
This is the central location for controlling the materials and constructions that are stored in your
database.

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AccuDraw
AccuDraw is a design aide that works in both 2D and 3D. It will help you input precision measurements
for any part of your model design. It also includes a calculator for quick offsets, addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division of any measurement that you might want to use.

View Groups
This toolset stores saved views and settings for model and sheet files for you and provides a highly
efficient method of switching between design schemes.

Task-based Interface
Task based interfaces contain all the toolsets for design and are grouped under or along with their
respective associative tasks. They can be easily manipulated and configured.

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Coordinating with other professions
We’re going to start by ‘bringing in’ or Referencing the survey/ civil data for our site. Once we’ve done
that and created our pad from which our structure will rise, we can then turn the survey/civil data off to
let us concentrate on what we do best, Architecture.

1. Open up your “REFERENCES” dialog by

clicking on the 2nd icon from the left in the
Primary Toolbar.

Figure 3 References

2. Then click the “ATTACH

REFERENCE” icon (2nd from the
left handside) and select the C-
SITE.dgn file and click “OK”.

Figure 4 Attach reference dialog

3. The “REFERENCE ATTACHMENT” dialog appears. Click “OK”.

4. Close the References dialog and now take a look at our model
file. our model file.
5. Now you probably need to zoom to the extents to have a good
idea of just what we have attached to our model.
6. Click on the ‘mountains’ symbol in the icon bar at the top of each
view

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We now have our complete survey/civil
information referenced into our model file and
this allows us to accurately start modeling.

Figure 5 Civil and survey data attached

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Closing down Views

1) You currently have 4 views open on our desktop and you can close a few to make our
working area larger.
2) Move your mouse to the bottom of your screen and over the horizontal list of numbers 1-8.

3) Close down views 2 and 4. Figure 6 Closing Views

4) Now go to your “WINDOW” pulldown

(at the top of your screen) and
select “TILE”.
5) We now have a Top or Plan
view and an Isometric view of
our model.

Figure 7 Top and Isometric Views open

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Manipulating Levels

1) Click on “LEVEL DISPLAY” in the Primary Toolbar (or press

CTRL+E) and select your C-Site.dgn.
2) You will see that your file name appears at the top and in the
field below all the levels that information is placed on in the
file, are visible.
3) Right click on the list of levels and choose “ALL OFF” and
then scroll down the list and select “C-Building” to turn
that level back on. (Fit view)
Levels can be turned off an on in individual views enabling you
to keep a global picture of your design or parts of your design,
at any time.
4) Experiment with the various options along the top of
LEVEL DISPLAY – such as “APPLY TO OPEN VIEWS”;
“APPLY TO SELECTED VIEWS” as well as the jump down
box on the far right hand side.
5) Drag the top of the LEVEL DISPLAY to the right hand side
of your working area – this will enable you to dock it and also
to resize

Figure 8
Manipulating
Levels in Bentley
Architecture

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Generating a floor slab
1) Select “FLOORS” tab on your task based interface.
2) Select the “PLACE FLOOR FORM” tool.
(This creates a floor slab to specific dimensions by flood
filling an area).
3) In your Building Primary bar, click on the first field
on the left hand side and select “ACTIVE FAMILY” to
“A1030 – default Slab on grade”.
4) In the “HEIGHT” field, enter 1.0 (1 foot thick)
5) In the OFFSET field, enter -1.0 (1 foot below the level of the object
we are going to flood.)
6) In the TOLERANCE field, leave this at 1.0 Figure 9 Creating a
floor slab
7) Now select the perimeter outline of the structure
(The internal area of the survey/civil data is now hatched.)
8) Click once with your left mouse button and then reset
with your right hand button.

You have now generated a slab 1 foot thick, whose finished

level is at the level you are going to base your design on.

(If you lose sight of your slab during placement you can always go
up to the View Controls at the top of your view window and click
the “mountains” to fit the entire view, or use your wheel on your
mouse)
Figure 10 The finished floor slab

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Column grids
1. Select the “STRUCTURES” tab on your task
based interface.
2. Click on the “COLUMN GRIDS” tool.
3. The Column grids dialog opens.
4. In the “NAME” field enter “Base Grid”
5. You can enter a description

Figure 11 Column Grid dialog box

Setting up grids
You are now going to set out your grid along the X axis, first.

6. Under the X-Guides section

a. “START LABEL”

(You can name your x-axis to either

letter or number.)

b. Change the default – “A”

to “1”
7. In the field “Left to right”
a. Leave this as the default
8. In the field below that enter:
a. 19;20;20;20;20;20;19
9. On the “Y-GUIDES” section Figure 12 column and row spacing
a. “START LABEL”
b. Change the default “1” to “A”
10. In the field below that, enter:
a. 29;29;8
11. Check the “BY AA”
12. Make sure the “ATTRIBUTES” radio button is checked
13. The “LEVEL” field is set to A-COLS
14. At the bottom of this section there is a field – “LEADER”
15. Set this to “8:0”

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 16. The “SIZE” field, set to “3.0”

Placing the grid

1. Click the “PLACE” button – at the top right of the dialog.
2. Your grid now appears as a square at your cursor tip.
3. To the top left hand corner of your slab and use AccuDraw to place your grid.
4. Using the “CHORD” function, place a temporary origin at the top lefthand corner.
5. Enter in “2” into the X field and “1” in the Y field.
6. Click once in your model (preferably in your Top view – but you could place this and anything in
any view). to place the grid at this place.
7. Move your cursor to the top left of the structure and click to place.
(You can use the combination of SHIFT+CTRL that gives you temporary AccuSnap capability.)
8. Your finished grid should reflect this:

Figure 13 your finished grid in situ

9. Now click “EXIT” at the bottom of the Column Grids dialog.

You may want to turn off the level that you have placed the grid on for clarity. To do this:

Turning off the grid

1. In your Level Display (CTRL+E)
2. Highlight “ARCHITECTURE.DGN” and de-select the A-COLS level.
3. With more than one View open you will see that this turns off levels in just that View.
4. To make this command work across all Views you will need to click on the “APPLY TO OPEN
VIEWS” icon, which is the first icon, on the left hand side, just underneath the heading.

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16
Modeling the external skin
Let’s start with modeling the external skin of your structure.

1) Select the “Floors” tab, on your task based interface. (if it is not
already available to you).
2) Click on “Walls”. –
3) The “PLACE WALL” dialog appears.”
4) Click on the jump box below the icons to expose
the list of available walls.
5) Scroll down to the “COMPOUND WALLS” section
6) In the next field, click and select “Assembly –
CMU+Brick+cav+Gypsum – 15 5/8in.”
7) Make sure you have the “PLACEMENT” icon set to
the left hand edge.
8) Click at the bottom left hand corner of the slab and moving the

mouse towards the top of your View: Figure 14 Walls

a. Click on the first corner – bottom left hand corner and
extend your wall to the top left hand corner..
(AccuDraw will aide you in your work in any view or elevation by
giving you direct 90 degree axis help.)
b. Return the wall along the top edge of the slab and type in 61
(for 61 feet) and click again. Figure 15
c. Moving the cursor down enter 10 AccuDraw and the
d. Click and then move across (to the right) and enter 18 AccuDraw
compass
you may also notice that AccuDraw gives you a prompt at it’s last entry.
e. Moving upwards towards the edge of the slab, (or type in “10”)
then click to set the wall
f. Then move your mouse to the top right hand corner of the slab and click.
g. Click to the bottom of the slab (a repeat of the distance of 61’).
h. Click to the corner return (or Enter “41”, click)
i. Follow the slab return now (or enter “8” – click.)
j. Moving right, click at the end of the run of wall – before we get to the arched section.
k. Up, 4, click
l. You are now going to use another very helpful trick, using Accudraw.
m. Move your mouse to the right to extend the wall (almost to the right hand corner
before the slab starts to arc).
n. Press ENTER
o. Now move your wall down to where the wall meets the arc (you should notice a
construction line appearing on your cursor to assist you), click
p. Down, 4, click

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q. Complete the external envelope of your structure by placing your wall around the
extents of the slab letting AccuDraw place it.
r. You are now going to connect up the last run of wall with the first.

Remember to click your right mouse button to reset after the last placement.

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Display View
1) In the isometric View, Click on the “VIEW DISPLAY MODE” icon. (It’s the second icon from the left
hand side)
2) Select the “ILLUSTRATION” mode.
3) Bentley Architecture supplies you with real world rendering capabilities without having to
export to a speciality package!

Wall Clean up
1) Choose the “WALL CLEANUP” tool on the third row down on your “Floors” palette
2) A dialogue “Connect Forms” appears.
3) Select the mitred joint or the third from the left icon.
(Make sure the
“Clearance is “0.0”)

Figure 16 Wall clean up via mitered finish

4) Zoom in to the bottom left

hand corner – (where your two
walls join)
5) Select a wall and then
select a point on the inner leaf on the return and click once more.

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6) Repeat with the external leaf.
7) The walls now clean
up.

Figure 17 The finished product

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Curtain Walls
1. Select the Curtain Walls icon, (9 rows down, under Design Floors (or press F)
2. Using the 01 Full Frame curtain wall – change the values in the right hand field of the
dialogue:
a. Frame Depth 0.4½” (enter
“0:4.5”)
b. Frame Thickness 0.2”
(enter “0:2”)
c. Height 12’ (enter “12”)
d. Mullion spacing Horizontal
3’
e. Mullion spacing Vertical 3’
f. Sense distance 1’
g. Width 14’
h. You are going to be placing
Figure 18 Curtain wall dialog
it by its right hand corner
so you may need to make sure that the green ball in the preview is on the right hand
bottom corner.
3. Move your mouse into the design and you will find a curtain wall on your cursor!
4. Click the horizontal wall and type in 3.6 – this will offset the curtain wall 3’ from the right
hand return.
5. Click the wall
6. Click to reset.
(right click)

Figure 19 Placing curtain walls

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Modifying Curtain Walls
Copying Curtain walls
1. Click and hold your right button over the curtain wall and choose ‘COPY’ from the menu that
appears.
2. Now choose the far right part of the frame and click to select it.
3. Type in “19” and click to place.
4. A second section of curtain walls is now
placed.

Figure 20 Right click context

menu to copy curtain walls
Now use the image to the right to position your curtain walls
sections, around the floor of your
structure.

Figure 21 Completed curtain walling

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On-the-fly editing of curtain walling
1. Hold down the CTRL key and click ALL of your curtain walls.
2. Right click and hold the right button of your mouse
until you see the contextual menu appear.

Figure 22 Right click contextual menu for

editing Curtain walling

3. Select “MODIFY INSTANCE DATA”

4. Click “OK” on the next dialog box
that appears and you will see the
“MODIFY USER DEFINED” dialog
appear.
5. You will see that some parameters
have check marks against them. This
means they are available to be
Figure 23 The Modify Curtain Walling Dialog
edited.
6. Click on the “14” in the height row and change this to 9

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7. Click in any view and the curtain walling now changes to 9 feet tall.
8. Now click the ‘CANCEL” button on the
Select Building Component dialog.

Figure 24 Edited Curtain walling with basic

rendering

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Doors
Now you are going to place the front and rear doors with a fire door at the rear entrance.

Place Door
1. Rotate your model into isometric view by clicking the
“View Rotation” icon in your View Control tool bar in
your current View. (You can change your view display mode to
whichever option you like although “WIREFRAME” might be preferable.)

Figure 25 View Rotation

options

2. Choose the “DOORS” tool.

3. In the jump down box under the preview
choose “HM DOUBLE DOOR 1 GLASS
CENTERED”
4. Click on the centre red cube to change it to a
green sphere.
5. Now place this in the centre of the rebated wall
section in your structure.
(Click to select the wall; click to locate it in the
wall; click to anchor it and then finally click to
place and reset.) Figure 26 Place door dialog

6. Right click and choose “COPY” and copy

this through as the front door of the
structure.
7. Now scroll through the door choices and
select “HM SINGLE DOOR FLUSH”
8. Place this single leaf door similar to the
image here.

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Modifying doors
1. The single door has been placed with the swing to the
inside of the structure and you need it to the outside
for emergency escape purposes.
2. Select the single door – you should see handles appear
in it.
3. Click and hold the centre handle and move your mouse
to the external leaf of the wall (remember AccuDraw is
there to help you!)
Figure 27 Modifying door swing

4. Alternatively, you can right click for a contextual menu and select
“MODIFY SWING”.
5. You can also see that you have a number of other door related
options to take advantage of in this menu.

Figure 29 Door placement

Figure 28 Right click

contextual menu for
modifying doors

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27
Internal Walls
Internal walls can be placed in the same way as you originally set out the external fabric of your
structure.

1. Choose “WALLS”
2. In your “Building Primary” toolbar chose “C1010 – Interior Partitions” as your active family.
3. Scroll through the “Active Part” list, on the right of the Active Family and choose “STUD-
ST:8_5/8+ll”. (You can also scroll through any wall construction in the wall toolbar jump down.)
4. We will now offset this wall by 30’ from our bottom right hand corner. (We’re going to invoke one of
AccuDraw’s least known features here.)
5. Using your left and right mouse buttons, press them
both (or chord using the left and right mouse button together)
over the internal bottom right hand corner of the
brickwork. – see image
6. Next press, “O” this gives you a temporary point
about which to enter any length or value.
7. Enter “30” – for 30’ (you may need to make sure your wall
height is 14’)
8. Then click and describe the wall across the whole
length of the building.
9. You may want to use “WALL CLEAN UP” and
“CONNECT TWO FORMS AS A T” to properly butt up the
Figure 30 Using AccuDraw to offset
walls against each other. walls

Modifying Walls
1. Click and hold on the “WALL CLEAN UP” tool - an extended
palette should pop out.
2. Choose “BREAK WALL:.
3. Click approximately halfway along the run of wall.
(Your wall has now been broken into two runs)
4. Select either of the runs of wall you have just created and
from their inner handle click and hold the handle and move
that end towards the external leaf.
5. Press “RETURN”
6. Move your cursor to one of the corners of the back wall
return – a construction line should now extend itself down from the
corner
7. Select the inner handle that appears on the wall and move it to the
Figure 31 using AccuDraw to
outer wall.
set out walls
8. Press the “ENTER” key and let go of the left hand button when the
construction line shoots out from the corner of the wall return on the back wall.
9. Repeat with the other side of the wall.

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 10. Your final result should look
similar to this:

Figure 32 Structural wall placement

11. Place other structural walls so that your internal structural walls resemble the image below.

Figure 33 Top view of finished structural wall placement

29
.Creating an internal partition wall
Creating any ‘part’ or construction that you need in a project is vital to your on-going success. This
section will show you how a part – in this case a wall construction – can be easily created and then
utilized across your team.

Opening Dataset Explorer

1. Click on the “BUILDING PRIMARY” toolbar and then press the space-bar. (Click the toolbar and the
“ACTIVE FAMILY” field should highlight)
2. The Dataset Explorer dialog opens.
3. Expand the
“US_NCS_COMPOUNDPARTS.XML” (if
not already open)

Figure 34 Dataset Explorer

4. Open the “B2010” folder. (You will notice that when you select this folder the right hand section of the Dataset
Explorer fills with wall constructions)
5. With the folder title highlighted, move your mouse into the right-hand side of the dialog and
right click and choose “NEW”.
6. The “NEW COMPOUND PART” dialog opens.
7. Enter the following values:
a. Family: B2010
b. Name: INTERIOR PARTITION
c. Description: GENERIC OFFICE PARTITION”
8. Next, look for the jumpboxes below the “SUB PARTS”
Figure 35 New Family dialog

section.

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Adding the studding
1. Expand the far left jumpbox and choose, “B2010”
2. Moving Right, the next filed should be used to select main component of your wall, “METAL
STUDS – 4in”
3. The next field, select “STRUCTURE”.
4. The field under H-Offset should be left as “0”
5. The field under the Thickness column should read “0:4” or 4 inches.
6. Under the V Offset column should read 0
7. The field under “HEIGHT” can be changed to 12:0 or 12’
8. In the field, “MAIN WALL THICKNESS” enter “4” and then press the TAB key. (This is important to
press the TAB key and not ENTER)
9. Now click the “INSERT” button.
10. You should now see your first entry and a graphical preview of the metal studding.
11. Click the “INSERT” button once more to add another line.

Adding the finish

You are now going to add a Gypsum finish to both sides of the studding, you’ve specified.

1. The Family should remain as B2010

2. Under part, click on the jumpbox and choose “GYPSUM BOARD – 5/8in”
3. Under the Function column select “FINISH”.
4. Horizontal offset should be “-0:1”
5. The value in the thickness column should read 0:0 5/8.
6. V Offset is still “0”
7. Height should be changed to 12:0
8. Hit “TAB” and then the “INSERT” button.
9. Repeat the instructions above EXCEPT in your “H OFFSET” field, enter “0:4”
10. Hit “TAB”
11. Click “APPLY”
12. Now click the “CANCEL” button and you will see that you’ve added a compound – or
construction – to your dataset.

Committing the changes

1. To complete the who exercise, close this window and say “YES” to the prompt to “DO YOU
WANT TO COMMIT YOUR CHANGES TO THE DATASET?” prompt.

Your new construction has been built, added to the dataset and saved to the values you specified.

DataGroup Catalog Editor

To make this new construction available to you and your team, you must add this to your catalog
1. First, select the “SCHEDULES AND REPORTS” tab on your task based interface.

31
 2. Click the “EDIT CATALOGS” option.
3. The DataGroup Catalog Editor opens.
4. Click the “WALL” entry on the left hand side of the dialog
5. In the right hand section of the dialog, Right-click on “STUD-WD:2x6__5/8
6. Select “COPY”
7. Now right click, once more on the “COPY OF STUD-WD:2x6__5/8” and choose “RENAME”
8. Change the name to “INTERIOR PARTITION”, then accept by hitting “ENTER”.

Adding values to the Interior Partition

1. With your Interior Partition highlighted move into the right hand side of the dialog to the
definitions and values properties.
2. Change these values to reflect your newly described construction (Compound Part):
a. Width 0:5 ¼
b. Height 12
c. Type WALL
d. Compound Wall Assembly Check this box
3. Click the “PART DEFINITION” value field.
4. The “PART AND FAMILY CHOOSER” dialog opens.
5. Under FAMILY>NAME click on the jumpbox and select “B2010”
6. Under the PART>NAME section, click on the jumpbox and select “INTERIOR PARTITION”
7. Click “OK”
8. Uncheck the “IsEXTERNAL” box (this makes Bentley Architecture know that your wall is an internal wall)
9. Enter in as much or as little other information as you would like in the other value fields.
10. Exit the DATAGROUP CATALOG EDITOR and click “YES”, when prompted.

You have created both a new construction and added this to your dataset and made it available to
anyone working on the team who is connected to this particular dataset of parts.

32
Setting out the internal partitions

Placing the partitions

1. Select your “FLOORS” tab on your task based GUI.
2. Click on the “WALLS” tool
3. Click the “DATAGROUP REFRESH”
icon.
4. Now select the jump box and
navigate to “COMPOUND
WALLS>INTERIOR>INTERIOR
PARTITION”.

5. Using this wall place the partitions in the

floor of your structure to this layout: (Try
completing one side of the structure and then using Figure 36 Saving New wall to local dataset
CTRL=left mouse button, select all the internal walls and
right click, select Mirror. Don’t forget to check the box, make copy and place the similar layout on the other side.
Wall clean up can be used to adjust any walls that don’t join correctly.)

33
Figure 37 Layout of internal walls in transparent mode

Arc walls
There are two instances in your structure that you need to apply a curved or arc wall. These can be done
individually or using commands such as “COPY” or “MIRROR”. In this section you will place one arc run
of wall and then mirror/copy it across and place it.

34
“On-the-fly” editing of walls
1. With the cursor as your active tool, (you can use your “ESC” key to return to the cursor. or if this
doesn’t work, by default click on the run of wall that forms the
parallel wall with the external construction near the ‘bottom’
of your model.
2. You should notice that standard ‘handles’ appear at either end
as well as in the centre.
3. You will also note that
dynamic dimensions appear
for you temporarily. This
allows for close control of
constructions, like walls, for
on-the-fly-editing.
4. Click on the numbers of the
run length of the longest run
of wall.
5. Now using your keypad, type
in “52’ 13/16” and then press
“ENTER”
Figure 38 The Mirror dialog box
6. Repeat this with the identical
wall on the other side of your structure.

35
Setting out arc walls
1. Select “WALLS” from your task bar (you can alternatively, press F4 and choose WALL TASKS)
2. Make sure that you have Interior Partition
selected.
3. In the Placement tab choose the drop
down arrow and select “ARC”

Figure 39 Using AccuDraw set out arc

wall

4. Select the placement by the right-hand Figure 40 Changing

wall type to Arc
side and also make sure the “BY CENTRE”
mode is active.
5. Select the wall and move the mouse ‘up’ the view and then press the “ENTER” key to invoke the
SMARTLOCK feature. (This locks
AccuDraw to an axis)
6. Click on the structural wall to and
then right click to reset.

Figure 41 Curved walls highlighted using Clip Volume

36
Mirroring walls along a vertical axis
1. Right click on the arc wall you’ve placed and choose “MIRROR”
2. The Mirror dialog opens.
3. Change the “MIRROR ABOUT” to “Vertical”
4. Also make sure the radio button for “MAKE A COPY” is checked!
5. If necessary, use the wheel on your mouse to zoom into where you want to place your copied
wall and click to place on the opposite side of the hallway.
6. Right click to reset.
7. You have now placed your curved walls and enclosed the two spaces that are going to form the
restrooms for the offices.

37
Space planning

Setting up your Spaces

1. In the “FLOORS” tab of your task based menu,
select “CREATE SPACE” dialog opens.

You are going to be placing dedicated space planning layout areas

in your structure which you can then generate reports on.

Figure 42 Creating a new space

assignment

2. Set the Create Space by “FLOOD”

3. Change the Label field to “OFFICE”
4. Change the Number field to “1”
5. Make sure the “LABEL PLACEMENT” is set to “CENTER”

38
6. Click inside one of the spaces on the right hand side of the structure (the area will appear
hatched)

Figure 43 creating space via flooding region

7. Clicking once more will set the space and the label with the information contained in the dialog.
8. To exit simply, right click and the spaces tool will reset.
9. Continue to complete the
space planning in your
model.
10. The two spaces, parallel
to the Reception

Figure 44 Spaces General Arrangement (the internal doors have been turned off – via Level Display)

39
Ceilings

Setting up the ceiling tool

1. Click to open the “CEILING PLANS” section on your task
based interface.

Figure 45 The Ceiling Plans options

2. In the dialog; choose “CEILING TYPE” as “GRID”

3. Change the ROW and COLUMN spacing to “2.0”
4. Elevation to “USER DEFINED”
a. In the value field below
enter “10:0”
5. In the “BY” field; choose
“CENTER CORNER”
6. Under “PART” select “LAY-IN
CEILING”.

Placing celings
1. Pass your cursor over any of the
spaces you have laid out,
previously.
2. When the text or the outline of
the space highlights, click once to
set the ceiling.
3. Click a second time to place the
Figure 46 The Place Ceiling dialog
ceiling you have described.

40
 4. AccuDraw appears along with the grid underneath it. This gives you the chance to orientate the
ceiling to any angle or position that you may require.

Figure 47 AccuDraw guiding the exact placement

5. Click once more and then right click to reset.

Figure 48 Ceiling in place with two Views and transparent mode

41
6. Now
complete
the rest
of your
floor’s
ceilings.
Your
result
should
look like
this:

Figure 49 Completed ceilings

7. Experiment with different ceiling finishes for different spaces.

42
Lighting Fixtures
Setting up the lighting fixtures

1. Select “FIXTURES MATRIX” in the Ceiling

Plans task menu.
2. The Stair Placement Settings dialog opens
3. IN the “# ROWS” field, enter 2
4. The “# COLUMNS” field, enter 2
5. In “ROW SPACING” change the value to 10
6. In the “COL SPACING” change this to 10
7. The “OFFSET” field can be changed to
“CENTER”
8. In the “ELEVATION” field use User Defined
9. Enter “10” in the field below this.
10. In “ACTIVE FIXTURE” click on the jump box
Figure 50 The Place Fixtures dialog

arrow and choose “2X4Fl”

Placing lighting fixtures

1. Click on the Spaces text in a
room; in this case the top
left office has been chosen.
2. Left-click to accept and then
click once more to begin
placing.
3. AccuDraw guides you in
orientating the lighting
fixtures.
4. Left Click once more to set
and then Right-Click to reset. Figure 51 Placing a lighting fixture
5. You can now arrange the
fixtures in the remaining floor.

43
Volume Clipping

Volume Clipping is a very useful way to very any part of your BIM model. Volume clipping enables you to
zoom into a dedicated area so that you can see, design, check or even render BIM data in 2D or 3D

1. We are going to use volume clipping to zoom into one of our offices and check whether the
ceiling height is correct.
2. Select the Volume Clipping toolset in the View bar at the top of your view

(It does not matter which view you are in as

Volume Clipping is view independent;
allowing greater ability of design
creation.)

Figure 52 The Volume Clipping dialog

3. Click on the third icon from the left, “APPLY CLIP VOLUME BY TWO POINTS”.
(make sure the “DISPLAY CLIP ELEMENT” is toggled, OFF.

Resetting your View to Top

4. Make sure, in this instance, that your View is set to “TOP” – if this is not the case then you can
do this:
a. Click on the “VIEW ROTATION” icon at the top
of your view.

Figure 53 View Rotation

b. Now select the “TOP VIEW” option – you can easily change any view to any orientation, including
custom ones, easily and quickly.

c. Now, reset your tool by right clicking once and you will be returned to the “CREATE
VOLUME CLIP” dialog. (This is a great function of Bentley Architecture!)

Setting the Volume Clip

1. Describe an oblong around an office.

44
 Figure 54 Setting up your clip volume

2. As soon as you place the second point your model is constrained to the boundaries you’ve set.
3. To undo clip volumes, go to the Clip Volume icon and click once to open the toolbar. Then click
on the last icon to the right hand side – “CLEAR CLIP VOLUME”
4. This returns your model to its original state.

45
Rotating the view with Volume Clip
1. Select the “VIEW ORIENTATION” icon again, in your view and choose “ROTATE VIEW”

Figure 55 View Rotation

2. You should now see a shaded ball in your

view.

Figure 56 The View Rotation orb

3. Click on the shaded area and while

holding down the left mouse
button, move your mouse around
until you’ve orientated your model
in such a way to get a good
isometric view.
Figure 57 Guide arrow showing you where you are
rotating

Editing while in Volume Clipping mode

46
1. To edit your ceiling (or any construction in Bentley Architecture)
right click on the item and choose the relevant
command…Move, copy, mirror, rotate among others.
(You can always go back to your VIEW ROTATION icon
and change the view to “FRONT” or “SIDE”)
2. In this case you’ll move the ceiling a little higher by
choosing “MOVE” and then ‘chording’ with AccuDraw
(using the left and right mouse button together) on the top of the
curtain wall, (you may have to alter the plane your AccuDraw
compass is on by pressing either “S” or “F”)
3. Now type in “2” and then accept in your model to move
your ceiling higher by 2 ft.
4. Now that you’ve finished with the alteration you can
delete the Clipping volume and return to your model.
Figure 58 Editing while in Volume
5. In the “CREATE CLIP VOLUME” dialog, select the last icon clipping

47
Internal Doors
Now that you’ve placed your internal partitions and walls, access is critical between all parts of the
structure.

Turning off the Ceiling and Spaces levels

By now your model may be becoming a little ‘busy’. To be able to accurately place our next part you will
need to turn off some levels.

1. Open your Level Display (if it already isn’t open).

2. Click on:
a. A-AREA
b. A-CLNG
3. This will turn off the levels in the view or view you require.

Now you can start placing your openings for the staircases and doors for the various offices and working
areas.

Placing internal doors

1. Again, open up the Doors tool and click the bottom left hand jump box, where the name of the
door appears.
2. Scroll down to the “SINGLE FULL GLASS”
3. In the Right hand side of the dialog – the Property and Value fields, scroll down to the bottom
section – It is separated by a grey bar with the last value above it being “WIDTH”
4. Click in the Value column, next to “ID” and enter “2”
5. Begin placing this door as your internal door to all of the offices, using AccuDraw to assist you.
6. Your finished layout should look similar to the image below.

Placing Restroom doors

1. Again, open up the Doors tool and click the bottom left hand jump box, where the name of the
door appears.
2. Scroll down to the “SINGLE SMALL LITE”
3. In the Right hand side of the dialog – the Property and Value fields, scroll down to the bottom
section – It is separated by a grey bar with the last value above it being “WIDTH”
4. Click in the Value column, next to “ID” and enter “3”
5. You will now place the restroom doors via a precise method.
6. You will be using AccuDraw to do this.
a. Hover your cursor over a return in the wall.
b. Chord to activate AccuDraw.
c. Type “O” to give yourself a temporary origin about which to work around.
d. Making sure the X-Axis is highlighted in your AccuDraw dialogue, move your mouse to
either the left or right depending to where you wish the offset and key in: “0:3” or 3
inches
7. Click to place the doors as shown in the image below.

48
Placing Staircase openings
1. On your Floors tab select “DOORS”.
2. The “PLACE DOOR” dialog opens
3. Select the HM- CASED OPENING
4. Scroll down the right hand side of the dialog (Properties and Values) and select “WIDTH” and
change this to “6”
5. Click in the Value column, next to “ID” and enter “4”
6. Now place this opening in the wall perpendicular to the front doors.
7. Right click and copy this opening across the reception area and place it in the other wall to
create the openings for the staircases

Stairs
You are now going to place two sets of stairs in your model and
edit them and look at some of the options available to you.

Choosing and configuring a Staircase

1. In the Floors tab, select the “PLACE STAIRS”

Figure 59 Place stairs

2. The “Stair Placement Settings” dialog opens. This is where
we configure our staircase.

Figure 60 Place Stairs dialog

3. You’ll use the “COMMON” stairs to begin with.

4. Click on the second icon from the left – the “STAIR CONFIGURATION” and choose “HALF TURN”
5. “STAIR ALIGNMENT” should be set to “Left BASE”
6. Width to “3:0”
7. Height By “HEIGHT (FIXED)” and “12:0”

49
Place Stairs
You’ll place two sets of stairs in your model – in the Reception area and then begin to edit them, should
they require it.

1. Click half way down the wall on the lower left hand staircase area.
(AccuSnap should assist you in this by placing a Yellow “X” at the midway point.)
2. Extend the line towards the corner (Press the “ENTER” key to lock the axis, to assist you)
3. Click once in the corner and go back along the return to the next corner.
4. Repeat these steps for the staircase on the other side of the atrium.

Your finished staircase layout should look like this.

Modifying a staircase
1. Click to select the staircase.
2. All the parametric data that controls your staircase, including:
a. Landing width
b. Staircase width
c. Length of run
d. Direction of stairs
e. The ability to add or delete stairs
3. These can be changed in any form or value.
4. Double click the stairs again and the “STAIRS PROPERTIES” dialog, opens.
5. Let’s start by changing the type of stairs we have placed before.
6. Click on the jump box in the “STAIR NAME” field.
7. Change this to “STEEL EGRESS”

(you may have to right click and ‘MOVE” the stair case into it’s position

8. If you wish to see a rendered view of your model, at any time, then select the second icon from
the left hand side of your VIEW CONTROL (at the top of every View window) and select one of
the rendering options.

50
9. You can combine this with clip volume to give a detailed, rendered representation of your
design.

51
Internal furnishings
Bentley Architecture presents a varied amount of tools for interior design and layout

To select and choose internal furnishings you can go to any one of the following tools that are inside
your “FLOORS” tab.

Shelving
Plumbing
Toilet
Accessories

Shelving
1. Open the “SHELVING” tool
2. The “PLACE USER DEFINED TYPE” dialog box
opens.
3. This dialog works exactly the same way as the
place door and the place window tools.
4. Use the Jump-box under the preview to select
your item that you wish.
5. You can also change any of the properties in the
right hand side of this dialog.

Furniture
1. Click on the fourth icon from the left in the top of
the dialog.
2. Select the second item from the top,
“FURNITURE”
3. You now have a comprehensive list from which to
choose any furniture for you structure.
4. In the image below you will see shelving and
desks for this particular office.

52
 5. Layout the offices and open spaces as you wish or similar to the image below.

Restrooms
Bathrooms require their own specific set of furniture. You are now going to layout the internal design of
the two bathrooms in the first floor of your structure.

Placing Toilet partitions

1. Select the “TOILET ACCESSORIES” from your “FLOORS” tab on
your task-based interface.
2. The “PLACE USER DEFINED TYPE” dialog box opens.
3. This dialog works exactly the same way as you have used it in
the past.
4. Make sure the “FURNITURE” option is selected.
5. Use the Jump-box under the preview to select your item that
you wish.
6. Select the “2803 TOILET CUBICLES (3)” and then place this
in your model in both bathrooms.
7. You can utilize AccuDraw to accurately place this object.

Bathroom furniture
1. Select the “PLUMBING” tool and complete your bathrooms
as you please, using sinks, hand dryers and any other
standard bathroom furniture.

53
Composing your drawings

To compose drawings in Bentley Architecture you are going to use a system called “MODELS”. These are
sections within a file with a DGN extension. It is convenient to think of a DGN appended file as similar to
a Russian Matruska doll, with the DGN the final, largest doll and the rest living inside of it.

In this section you will learn

How to create a sheet model that allows you to compose drawings.

Place a title block on your sheet model.
Compose that sheet to a scale.
How to compose your drawing using Drawing Views.
Place details using Saved Views.
Print your composed drawing sheet out via PDF

So let’s start with Models:

Models
You are going to create a model file that our drawings are

going to be laid out on for publishing.

Creating a Sheet model

1. Click on the “MODELS” icon in the Primary toolbar.

(you can also click on the triangle for a drop down
version)
2. The “MODELS” dialog opens
3. Click on the “CREATE A NEW MODEL” icon

This is the centre of model creation, editing and control.

54
 4. In “TYPE” make sure the “SHEET FROM SEED” is selected.
5. Now click the magnifying glass on the right
hand side of the “SEED MODEL” field.
6. Choose the “BB_SHEETSEED” option. Click
“OK”.
7. The Select Models dialog opens and choose
the “ARCH D” that is scaled at 1/8”=1’.
8. Click “OK”

(it should be the second from the top)

9. Enter “GA-Plan” for the name

10. Under Sheet Properties >Sheet Name enter,
“A100”
11. In Sheet Number, enter “1”
12. Then click “OK”

(You may want to fit the view to see all of your sheet border.Note
that the name you gave your sheet appears at the top of your
View)

Attaching the title border to your sheet

1. Open the “REFERENCES” dialog and click the
“ATTACH REFERENCE” icon.
2. Navigate through to the “BORDERS” folder and
open it and select the Architectural folder and
choose the “AD-BORDER” from the list.
3. In the Attach Reference Dialog click on the
Model field and select the “1:1FULL SCALE”
option
4. In the Nested Attachments; change this field to
“LIVE NESTING”.
5. Click “OK”

You now have set up your print boundary and the title sheet to a D sized Architectural.

55
56
Attaching your model to your sheet
Now that you have your sheet set up it is time to add you model to it in the various ways that compose
the drawing you require.

1. Open up the models dialog and double click on the “DEFAULT” model. (this returns you to your
design.)

Saved Views
1. Select the “CREATE VIEWS” tab on your task based interface.
2. Choose the second icon down, “FLOOR PLAN VIEW”
3. The “PLACE FITTED SECTION” dialog opens.
4. The first icon from the left “XY-PLANE” should be highlighted.
5. Click once in your model.
6. You should see a series of arrows and circles appear in your model along with a boundary
around the model. (This is the result when viewed in both the TOP view and the ISOMETRIC view)

7. You can manipulate your view in any direction and level of height or depth using any of these
arrows .

57
 8. Now select the “SAVED VIEWS” icon which should be the 3rd from the left on the PRIMARY
TOOLBAR.
9. Open the toolbar.
10. Now click on the second icon from the left (two hands).
11. The “CREATE SVAED VIEW” dialog opens.
12. Enter the following values here:
a. Method: “FROM VIEW”
b. View Type: “PLAN VIEW”
c. Name: “GA-PLAN”
d. Description: “1st floor outline plan”
e. Clip Volume: “FROM VIEW”
f. Associated Clip Volume: unchecked
13. Now click once in the model file to save the view.
14. You have now created a saved view: GA-PLAN VIEW

Attaching saved views and Building Manager

1. Return to your sheet model, GA-PLAN.
2. Open the “CREATE VIEWS” tab, if it isn’t already open.
3. Select “BUILDING VIEW MANAGER”
4. The Building View Manager dialog, opens.
5. You should see the recently created Saved View “GA-PLAN” listed in the field below the icons.
6. Select the “GA-PLAN” in the dialog and drag and drop it into your sheet.
7. The “REFERENCE ATTACHMENT SETTINGS” dialog opens.
8. Select the following:
a. Model: DEFAULT
b. Detail Scale:
“1/8=1’0”
9. Click “OK”
10. Click once in your sheet
model and you should
notice that your saved view
of your model is now
placed in your sheet.
(Any reference can be manipulated
via placing your cursor over the
reference and then right-click on the
plan and choose “MOVE REFERENCE”

58
 11. Your completed placement should reflect this final position:
12. You’ll annotate the plan, shortly.

You can turn off the labels from the Space planning portion by selecting the Architecture.dgn in Level Display – Ctrl-E - and
uncheck G-ANNO level. A-FURN;DEFAULT should turn off all but the construction elements you may require for a basic plan.

59
Creating the elevations
1. Now choose the “PLACE ELEVATION CALLOUT” from the Create Views tab.
2. The “PLACE ELEVATION CALLOUT” opens.
3. Enter the following values in the fields:
a. Detailing style: “DEFAULT”
b. Create Elevation View - make sure it’s checked
c. Name: NORTH ELEVATION”
d. Description: “NORTH
ELEVATION”
Make sure the icon with a letter
and a ruler is checked on.

60
4. Now, select the back wall. (not the slab)
5. An elevation symbol should now appear on your cursor.
6. Place the symbol and pull the cursor into the model.

7. Click once to set the direction.

8. You should see a series of “T”’s around the border of your plan.
9. Click on the bottom blue “T” and drag it upwards but leave the cutting line just inside the model
itself.

61
 10. Repeat this operation for all the other three sides of your model. Appending the title of your
Elevations to South, East & West, accordingly.
11. Your Building View Manager should resemble the Building View Manager below.

Attaching elevations to your sheet

1. Create a new model with the same properties as the sheet you made for your plan.
a. Let’s do one more check before we attach our elevations.
b. In your “CREATE VIEWS” tab, click on the “PLACE ELEVATION CALLOUT”
c. Make sure the Annotation scale option is checked in the “ON” position.
2. Back to the Building Manager and highlight the “NORTH ELEVATION”.
3. Drag and drop it into your sheet.
4. The “REFERENCE ATTACHMENT SETTINGS FOR ARCHITECTURE” dialog opens.
5. Change or enter the following values:
a. File Name: no change
b. Full Path: no change
c. Model: Choose the “DEFAULT”
d. Logical Name: “NORTH ELEVATION”
e. Description: “NORTH ELEVATION
f. Orientation: Make sure the “NORTH
ELEVATION” is selected (it should be by
default)
g. Detail Scale: “1/8”-1’0””
h. Scale: “1;1”
i. Level: NO CHANGE
j. Display Overrides: NO CHANGE
k. New Level Display: NO CHANGE
l. Global LineStyle Scale: NO CHANGE
m. Synchronise with View: Check this OFF
n. Drawing Title: Check this ON
i. Enter name: NORTH
ELEVATION”

62
6. Click “OK”
7. A dotted line should appear on your cursor in your sheet. (This is the outline of your elevation)
8. Click in the model to place your elevation.
9. Repeat this for the other elevations.

The finished composition should reflect the image below.

(The drawing symbols can be easily moved to the position or any position by right clicking on them and selecting
“MOVE” from the contextual menu.)

63
Creating Sections
1. Create a new sheet model and this time, label it “SECTIONS”.
2. Return to you GA-PLAN sheet model.
3. Select the “PLACE SECTION CALLOUT” in the Create Views tab.
4. The “PLACE SECTION CALLOUT” dialog opens.
5. Make the following changes:
a. Detailing style: “DEFAULT”
b. Flip arrows: leave this unchecked
c. Annotation Scale: Checked on
d. Create section view: Checked on
e. Name: Section 1
f. Description: East-West Section
6. Select one of the walls on the ‘east’ side (right hand side) of your model.
7. Now place your cursor slightly outside the external envelope of the model and create the
section by dragging the cursor across the model to the other side.
8. Click to place the section.
9. The green arrow in the view shows which way the section is “looking” when cutting through the
model.
10. Create a number of sections in this way.

11. Open up the BUILDING VIEW MANAGER

64
12. Drag and Drop your “SECTION 1” onto your sheet and attach it at the same scale as your
elevations.
13. Repeat the same moves for a “NORTH-SOUTH” section
14. The finished result should resemble the image, below.

65
Manipulating Section and Elevations
Sections
1. Click on the North-South section line in your plan.
2. With your left mouse still held
down over the section line, drag
the line left or right, (forward or
backwards) to the desired
position. (In the image, you see the
section line has been dragged to the left-
hand side.)
3. When you change your section
lines your placed sections will
automatically update for you.

Flipping directions
Any Drawing View can be manipulated in a variety of ways that
make it ideal for the fast, efficient assembly of construction
documents. Via the green arrow or by the blue “T’s” that
appear when you place a Drawing View. Other commands can
be accessed via right-clicking and choosing from the list that
appears on your cursor.

You are going to change direction of the section.

1. In your sheet file, select the ‘north-south’ section cut.

2. Handles appear when a selection is made
3. Place your cursor over the green arrow and right click.
4. The “FLIP DIRECTION” option appears.
5. Choose this and then refresh your elevation, using the
‘paintbrush’ icon in the top of your view.

66
Stepped Sections
1. Right-click and hold Section 2 (the North- South,
one)
2. Choose “CREATE STEP” from the menu
3. Click on the section line where you want to make
the step (This can be changed very easily)
4. Push your cursor as far back or forwards as you
wish to make it.
5. Refresh your View and see the changes.

67
Multi – stepped Sections
1. Select you stepped section from before and right click
2. Select the “CREATE STEP” option
3. Click on your section line, again and create a new step in
the section.
4. Refresh your drawing.

68
Annotating Drawings

In this section you will learn how to place dimensions and text on your sheet as well as complete the
title border.

You will use your Elevations sheet, created earlier, for this exercise.

1. Open the “NOTES AND DIMENSIONS” tab in your task based interface.
2. Select “PLACE TEXT”
3. The Pace Text dialog opens, as well as the Text Editor window.
4. In the Text Editor dialog, type in the name of you Elevation – in this case “WEST ELEVATION”
5. In the PLACE TEXT dialog make sure your values reflect the following:
a. Method: By Origin
b. Text Style: NOTES

c. Active Angle: 0.00

d. Height and Width should be locked
e. Annotation Scale should be “ON”
f. Apply changes to all text: checked

69
 6. Moving your cursor to where your west elevation appears on your sheet, place it next to the
drawing call-out.
7. Now right click the “WEST ELEVATION” text and choose “COPY”
8. Copy the text down to the Elevation below this.
9. Right click to reset your mouse (back to the cursor)
10. Now double click the newly placed text.
11. The “TEXT EDITOR” opens.
12. Change the west part to “EAST”
13. Click anywhere in your model file to see the results of this change.
14. Continue this with all of the elevations and any further text you wish to place on your sheet.

Dimensions
Bentley Architecture provides a variety of industry and time saving choices to place dimensions on your
drawing.

1. Staying with your Elevation sheet, select “DIMENSION LINEAR”

2. The “LINEAR DIMENSIONING” dialog opens.
3. Choose the “ARCH-TICK” style.
4. Click on the magnifying glass next to the jump-box.
5. This opens the “DIMENSION STYLES” dialog where you can control every aspect of a style for
text.
6. In the “STYLE” section, under the “TEXT STYLE”
7. Change this to “NOTES”
8. Close out of the dialog.
9. Use AccuDraw to help you place any and all dimensions.

70
71
Schedules
Generating schedules from your model is as vital as the model itself as one of the primary advantages of
the Building Information Modeling philosophy is to combine all this disparate information together.
Bentley Architecture keeps tab of schedules as you design and then allows you to report on them.

Generating Schedules from the model

1. Switch back to your model (most likely named “DEFAULT”)
2. Click on the “SCHEDULES AND REPORTS” tab in your task
based interface

3. Select “DATAGROUP EXPLORER”.

4. The DataGroup Explorer dialog opens.

The list on the left hand side contains all

the parts and families that you have
access to on this particular project. What
you need to do now is to parse these
down to the particular parts and families
that you’ve used in creating the 1st storey.

5. First, you need to filter through this

listing to only show the parts and
families that you’ve used.
6. Above the list is a jump box that has “SHOW ALL” in it.

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 7. Change this to “SHOW USED”.
8. Your list should look smaller now!
9. Choose “DOOR”

Editing the Schedule for export

1. The columns in the right hand field can be sorted and ordered as any spreadsheet can be.
2. Click on the header “INSTANCE OWNER” and drag it off the field.
You will notice that this column no longer shows up. This takes the column and effectively “hides” it
3. Do this for any of the columns that you feel you do not need:
a. Instance
b. Element ID
c. Parametric Type
d. Parametric File
e. Frame Depth Match Wall
f. Door Finish
g. Rating
h. Hardware Set Type
i. Hardware Set Name
j. Hardware Set Model Number
k. Door Material
l. Frame Material
m. Door Manufacturer
n. Door Model Number
4. Column headings can also be swapped out by dragging them and dropping them into the place
you want!
When doing this you will notice two red arrows appear.
5. In this case, you can end up with 9 columns:
a. Instance name
b. Width
c. Height
d. Frame Depth
e. Frame Thickness
f. Leaf Thickness
g. ID
h. Under Cut
i. Notes
6. Click on the “INSTANCE NAME” column to sort via this property

Creating a Selection Set

1. Right Click on the “DOOR” heading in the left hand field and choose “SAVE”
2. The “SAVE SCHEDULE LAYOUT AS” dialog appears (IMAGE)

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 3. Type in “HM – CASED OPENING” and click “OK”
4. You have just created a sub heading section under your Doors.
5. Select this new sub heading.
7. Now, select the first “HM- Cased Opening” and shift-click on the bottom instance to select all.
8. Right click and choose “CREATE SELECTION SET”
9. Now return to the jump box above the left hand field of the DataGroup Explorer window and
choose “SHOW ONLY SELECTION SET”
10. Expand the “DOOR” section and click on your HM – Cased Opening, sub heading.
(To see where each door is, in your model, right click and select the “ZOOM” option from the contextual menu that
appears.)
11. Repeat this for all the other doors in your model.
12. Your final door schedules may well resemble the image below.

Exporting out as Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

1. Select the “DATA” pull-down in the DataGroup Explorer dialog box.
2. Choose the “EXPORT” option (4th option down from the top)
3. Then select Excel from the options of Excel, Text, CSV, XML.
4. Name the schedule HM – CASED OPENING
5. Your schedule is exported to Microsoft Excel and Excel opens automatically.

Saving your Schedules

1. After formatting your spreadsheet, save your HM – Case Opening schedule into a new folder.

Placing the schedule

1. Create a new sheet model with a border (the same way you used in creating your first sheet
model) and call it “SCHEDULES”
2. With your sheet and title border in place, select the “EDIT” pull-down from the top of the GUI.
3. Choose “INSERT OBJECT” (It should be the fourth from last option, on the pulldown)
4. The “INSERT OBJECT “ dialog, check the “Create from File” button and then browse to the
Schedules folder.
You may also want to check the “LINK” button.
5. Choose the HM – CASED OPENING schedule and click “OPEN”
6. Click “OK” in the INSERT OGJECT dialog.
7. Now describe a rectangle for your schedule.
8. Attach any of the other Door schedules you’ve created to the sheet.

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Filling in the title block
1. Zoom into the bottom right hand corner of the sheet
2. Hold your cursor over the bottom left hand corner of the text box and right click and choose
“COPY”
a. (the text should turn a different
colour)
3. Follow the instructions in the text
box that you’ve highlighted - Click
twice
a. (this has now copied this to the
active file and now we can fill it in)
4. You must now change from the “ARCHITECTURAL”
interface to the “DRAWING” interface by clicking at the
bottom of your task based interface.
5. You will need to find the “EDIT TAGS”
tool, which is located five sections down
– next to the letter T.
6. EDIT TAGS is the second icon from the
left hand side.
7. After selecting EDIT TAGS, click on the
text you have just copied through in your
sheet file.
8. The “EDIT TAGS” dialog appears.
9. Fill in any or all of the fields and click OK.
10. Your title block should resemble the image below.
11. Continue to fill out your other sheet models using the same method.

Visualization

As you’ve seen, Bentley Architecture gives you the ability to work in every render mode possible – from
wireframe to fully rendered. Bentley Architecture allows you to quickly visualize your projects without
the need of other render-only software.

Opening the Luxology rendering mode.

1. Return to your “DEFAULT” model and rotate it back to an isometric view
2. Fit the model in your view.

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 3. Click on the “UTILITIES” pull-down and select “RENDER” and then select “LUXOLOGY” from the
pop-out menu.

Luxology Setup
1. Luxology is supremely easy to set up to generate stunning images.
2. Once the Luxology dialog opens click on the jump box that is next to “SETUP”
3. Choose one of the modes for output.
4. Change the WIDTH and the HEIGHT to the required sizes – a standard may well be 1024x768
5. Keep the View as ACTIVE
6. Check the “FITTED TO WINDOW”
7. Background can be left bank of by default “IMAGE”

Rendering out the image

1. Click the top left hand icon – the icon looks like a cube
2. The render icon changes from a cube to a red octagon with a hand in it.
Now depending on your settings and complexity of model the rendering will take a few minsutes or you can look at
taking a coffee during this time.
3. After rendering has completed, Luxology let’s you save out the image in a number of standard
formats.
4. You can also use the slider bar to adjust the contrast to your image before saving out.

Attaching images to your sheet

1. Create a new sheet model, and attach your image or images to your sheet via the references
dialog.

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Printing
At the end of the day, your documentation is still the official record of work and design intent. Printing
in Bentley Architecture encompasses virtually all methods in practice today.

In this section you will print out your sheet model(s) with Bentley’s PDF driver that has been developed
with Adobe specifically for Architectural and Engineering use.

The Print dialog

1. Switch to one of the sheet models you’ve made – in this case it is the GA-PLAN sheet model.
2. Use “CTRL+P” or go to your “FILE” pull-down and select “PRINT”.
3. The print dialog opens
4. The Print dialog is split into a number of sections;
a. The header – this is normally
set to your machine’s default
printer
b. The pull downs of File, Settings
and PenTable
c. Icons that include Print, Preview
and others
d. The General Settings, section
e. Printer and Paper Size
f. Print Scale and Position (this may
be hidden by default but can be
revealed by clicking the small triangle
under the Print Preview section on the
right hand side of the dialog.)

General Settings
Look at the following settings:

Area – this should be set to “SHEET”

View – This is the view that you will be
printing from, in this case VIEW 1 – Bentley
Architecture has 8 independent Views and by default
this is set to the View you are looking at when you
brought up the Print dialog.
Color – This should be set to “TRUE COLOR”, by default.
Pen table – should be set to “NONE”
The toggle to the upper right of this section “RASTERISED” should be unchecked.
COPIES, - allows you to print as many copies as you want.

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Printer and Paper Size
1. WINDOWS DRIVER – click on this field and you will see the choice of “WINDOWS DRIVER” or
“BENTLEY DRIVER”
2. Select the “BENTLEY DRIVER”.
3. Now select the magnifying glass icon to the right
of the field.
4. The SELECT PRINTER DRIVER CONFIGURATION
FILE dialog opens.
5. Double click on the “PDF” driver.
6. In the PAPER field, you should see the size of the sheet you chose when you created the
sheet model – ARCH D
7. Useable area – this shows the printable area on the sheet itself.

Print Scale and Position

SCALE; leave this as the default (which should be 8:0)
SIZE and ORIGIN donate the size of paper you are printing out to – D Size - and the
origin is the point where the print begins. Leave these both as their defaults.
MAXIMIZE –
this function
need not be
used with
sheet models
but maximizes the printable area
Auto-center – this allows for any print to be centered.
ROTATION: This allows for the print to be rotated as desired.

Printing via PDF

1. In the top left hand corner of the “PRINT” dialog there are a group of icons.
2. Select the first icon with a printer image
3. The “SAVE PRINT AS” dialog opens and navigate through to where you have placed your project.
4. In the FILE NAME, enter a new name for your print.
5. Click “SAVE”
6. Now, open windows exploder and navigate through to your project and double click on your
print.

You can now open your print in Adobe Reader.

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Print organizer
Print organizer is a feature that allows for multiple or batch sets of prints to be pushed or plotted in one
action. In this section you will be introduced to the basics of Print Organizer and how efficient it can be
for you when you need to print large amounts of drawings.

1. With your Architecture,dgn model open, go to “FILE” pull-down and choose “PRINT ORGANISER”
2. The Print Organizer dialog opens and you will see it consists of three parts.
a. Pull-downs and icons
b. A tree structure on the left hand side
c. A series of columns on the right hand side
3. Select the “ADD FILES TO SET” icon (7th from the left hand side)
4. The “CREATE PRINT DEFINITIONS” dialog opens.
5. Click the “ADD” button and navigate through to the folder where you have your project.
6. Click on the “ARCHITECTURE.DGN” file and click “DONE.
7. Click “OK”
8. Your sheets are now listed both in the left hand side and their values and names are sorted in
the right hand side, too.
9. You can right click any of the prints and perform a number of options.

Printing a printset
1. Now that your prints are organized and arranged, you can proceed with printing them
2. Clicking on the “PRINT” icon – 4th from the left hand side, brings up the Print dialog.
3. Your Printer set up may already read the Bentley PDF driver. If not then select the “PRINTER
SETUP” button to the right hand side and select it there.
4. In the “PRINT RANGE” make sure the “ALL” option is checked
5. In the “SUBMIT” area, select the “SUBMIT AS” jump-box and choose “SINGLE PRINT JOB”
6. Change the “DESTINATION” to where you have been storing your project.
7. Also, check on the “OPEN PRINT AFTER CREATION”.
8. Now click “OK”
9. The “PRINT ORGINASER STATUS” dialog shows you as to where in the process the print set is at
any time.
10. Adobe Reader should open to display the ‘printset’ you have just created in one file with all the
drawings all utilized forever.

In this tutorial; you have learnt:

How to attach references from other professionals

Utilize numerous Bentley Architecture toolsets to achieve a design solution.
Created new additions to your dataset to allow you to expand your ongoing datasets for
projects.
Generate schedules of items you’ve used in your model.
Generate visualizations easily and efficiently.
Create, construct and organize your plans, elevations and sections for printing.

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Annotate your drawings

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