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Affinity for ArchiCAD User GuideSupporting Trelligence Affinity Version 5

and ArchiCAD 10,112008

©2008 Trelligence, Inc.1847 Branard St.

Houston, TX 77098Phone 713.867.9450www.trelligence.com

NoticeCopyright ©2007 Trelligence, Inc. All rights reserved. Trelligence, Trelligence Affinity and the Trelligence logo design are trademarks of Trelligence Inc. Autodesk and ArchiCAD are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other products and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Table of ContentsWelcome to Affinity..........................................................................................1

Value of Affinity .........................................................................................1Affinity Software Components......................................................................2Building Items in Affinity .............................................................................3Definitions Used by Affinity..........................................................................3

Getting Started................................................................................................5Installation and Startup...............................................................................5Licensing Affinity for ArchiCAD .....................................................................5Affinity for ArchiCAD Features......................................................................5About Affinity Templates .............................................................................5Opening a Sample File ................................................................................6Using Affinity Features in ArchiCAD...............................................................7

Working with Affinity Projects.......................................................................... 11Project Synchronization............................................................................. 11Affinity to ArchiCAD Data Mapping.............................................................. 11Entity Linkage.......................................................................................... 12Accessing the Affinity Menu ....................................................................... 12Open and Link an Affinity Project................................................................ 13Create a New Affinity Project ..................................................................... 15Editing and Viewing Affinity information ...................................................... 16Save an Affinity Project............................................................................. 17Close and Detach an Affinity Project ........................................................... 17Properties Mapping................................................................................... 17Synchronize............................................................................................. 18

Affinity Views ................................................................................................ 19Programming........................................................................................... 19Space Program ........................................................................................ 20About Requirements ................................................................................. 21View Requirements for a Space.................................................................. 22Add Requirements .................................................................................... 22View Stories ............................................................................................ 23Reports................................................................................................... 23Excel Reports........................................................................................... 23Custom Reports ....................................................................................... 24

Support ........................................................................................................ 25Contacting Support................................................................................... 25

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Welcome to Affinity

Affinity software and the documentation accompanying the software is targeted at professionals in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry with a desire to improve their ability to communicate and manage building projects during project programming and early phases of design. Whether you are a senior architect, a designer, builder, engineer or owner, our goal with Affinity software from Trelligence is to help you efficiently and enjoyably manage the planning and pre-design process for your building projects.

Value of Affinity

Trelligence Affinity consists of a group of software tools that help AEC professionals to consistently manage the processes involved in the project programming and schematic design phases of a building project. With Affinity you can define a set of building specifications that are applied to a functional knowledge base built on industry-standards for design.

Affinity is delivered as a useful set of computer-based tools that allow you to interact with clients in an iterative fashion, exploring possibilities for the program, spaces, initial costs and early design options before the laborious and costly work of detailed design takes place.

Whether you are a new designer, a seasoned builder, or a senior architect, the early parts of a building process are critical but hard to quantify. Many professionals use pen and paper or basic computer tools such as spreadsheets to keep track of program information. This information typically piles up and is difficult to convey to the production teams or the participants outside the design role. More importantly, from stand-alone lists and diagrams, data has to be reentered in the detailed design tools. Without a strong system to manage this important step of the project process, errors develop and rework is common.

Trelligence Affinity is intended to help design professionals in the following ways:

• Capture the requirements of the project owner and clearly illustrate the impact of various choices on cost and design

• Brainstorm more initial design scenarios in less time• Increase effectiveness and coordination of the design team with the help of

the innovative communication tools• Streamline your design/build process, thus shortening the cycle time between

design and completion of a project• Identify and reinforce best practices within your organization• Reduce costs by minimizing rework• Focus on more creative solutions instead of the mundane logistics of a project• Estimate projects with greater accuracy, and better set expectations

regarding cost with the Owners• Easily transition from schematic design to detailed design through tight

integration between Affinity and CAD applications

Affinity for ArchiCAD User Guide

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• Continuously reevaluate the current design, even during the detailed design work, against the initial requirements and track changes to alleviate misunderstandings

Affinity Software Components

Trelligence Affinity is a set of tools that work together to improve your architectural business processes. With these helpful tools integrated in the Affinity software, AEC professionals can streamline their processes, improve profitability and enjoy better communications across the project team extending to the owner client as well as contractors and internal team members. The primary components are:

Affinity —delivers a Windows desktop application interface that enables program information management.

Building Templates—integrates a data set for specific building types with Affinity that also allows you to customize Affinity for your purpose.

Project Program—provides an interface for entering and managing program information for the entire project.

Project Questionnaire—provides a ‘wizard-like’ interface using Flash technology for capturing details and requirements for the project that can be run over the Web or separate from the main application.

Project Programming Tools—deliver a way of capturing, tracking and validating properties and requirements for the project, site, building, spaces and objects in your project.

Space Planning Tools—deliver a way of defining the space program including lists of spaces with associated attributes such as grouping, areas and requirements for each space type.

Schematic Design Tools—provide a set of graphical and tabular tools and for creating spatial layouts in a simple, visual format for your project.

3D Viewing Tools—provide a way to visualize your simple pre-design in three dimensions including stacking and blocking diagrams.

Administrative Tools—allow you to further customize the Affinity software to fit your needs.

Reporting Tools—allow you to view and print project information in HTML or Excel formats.

Data Import and Export Utilities—provide a way to read existing project data from standard formats and to export data to other file formats, such as DXF, to be read by CAD applications.

Affinity for ArchiCAD—a bidirectional plug-in that integrates most of Affinity's features inside the Autodesk ArchiCAD software.

Welcome

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Building Items in Affinity

A project with Affinity is generally a building project with a certain set of entities such as the site, the physical building, the types of spaces, and the specific spaces and specific objects. You are able to create your program with a small or large degree of detail, depending on your needs and goals.

The following is a list of concepts used in this documentation with definitions as they apply to Affinity:

Project—unique entity defined by the information in the program and schematic design. The Project File encompasses all information stored about the project. Both the Project and the Project File can be named in Affinity and they do not need to have the same name.

Site—the physical location of the project with associated data such as size, address, characteristics and/or site survey as well as any buildings and objects added to the site.

Building—the structure(s) to be built on the site defined by characteristics such as the size, materials and characteristics including placement on the site.

Space Program—the conceptual use of space with associated characteristics such as allocation for various uses.

Stories and Basements—a specific floor of a building where “stories” are above ground and "basements" are below.

Groups – logical groupings of spaces in a space program. For example, groups can represent organizational departments and sub-departments in a building program.

Spaces—volumetric areas within the building that can be defined by properties and requirements such as size, relative location and other details.

Openings—objects that define an aperture such as a door or window.

Objects—things (such as fixtures, appliances, equipment, etc.) to be placed inside spaces, on the site, or to be attached to spaces

Definitions Used by Affinity

When working with a project in Affinity you can think of the items as having properties that describe the way your project meets your client’s needs. These are some important concepts that allow you to identify your project program:

Property—a characteristic of an item that can be reported on. Examples of properties are Street Address, Room Name, Building Color or Cost per Unit Area Goal. Some properties are combined with rules in the Affinity knowledge base to deliver calculated properties about the elements in your project. For example, when you define the length and width of a room, Affinity automatically calculates the area.

Affinity for ArchiCAD User Guide

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Requirement—a constraint that indicates you want to track and validate specific information as the project advances. A requirement may be relational such as requiring that one room be next to another room. A requirement may relate to a defined property such as a space must be larger than a specific area. Requirements can be reported on. When a requirement is not being met in the schematic design, it is flagged. The history of changes to requirements is available so you can see when requirements were added or changed by whom.

Validation—an action automatically carried out by Affinity to identify requirements not being met. Discrepancies are flagged in Affinity (in red) in the requirements views and in reports so you easily can see them. Affinity does not require you to comply with requirements but it does validate them.

Fill—a concept in which you can attach a recurring group of items such as fixtures per lineal distance or area to a space so that the quantity of items scales as you experiment with the space.

Story Footprint—a tool that helps with the layout of the spaces on a story. This is not a true "item" in Affinity in that it does not have properties. You can determine the size and shape, place a different footprint on each story (or copy and paste the same one to each story) and you can hide or show the footprint. It is similar to a ruler or guideline.

Background Image—a graphic image file loaded into a story that might be the floor plan of an existing building or another guideline for laying out the spaces on a story. Background images can be added to any story or basement in Schematic Design

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Getting Started

In this section you can learn about installing Affinity for ArchiCAD and how to usethis add-on tool from Trelligence.

Installation and Startup

To install Affinity for ArchiCAD, you must first have ArchiCAD installed on your system. Affinity for ArchiCAD must be installed on each individual workstation where it will be used. A separate license key per user is required or a floating license key.

Note: Affinity for ArchiCAD incorporates the core Affinity application and the ArchiCAD add-on / integration components.

Once Affinity for ArchiCAD has been installed, no other installation actions are required. Affinity functions and projects will be accessible from ArchiCAD.

Licensing Affinity for ArchiCAD

A license key for Affinity is required for each user workstation. One license key activates the Affinity for ArchiCAD add-on for a single user. The license key must be installed from the Affinity application. Please refer to the Affinity documentation for the process to request and install the key.

Affinity for ArchiCAD Features

Affinity for ArchiCAD provides direct access from ArchiCAD to most of the functionality found in Affinity. These include:

• Space Program• Item Requirements• Item Properties• Item Components• Item Notes• Reports

About Affinity Templates

Templates are an important part of the Affinity software concept. An Affinity project consists of a template file in which the types of spaces, and many other customizations can be added, and a project file that includes the specific spaces, properties and items. You can create many templates, for example, one for each building type such as a school, a hospital or an office building. You can add a great deal of detail to the template so that when you start a new project with a well planned template, the actual project definition is quick and complies with your practice's knowledge and process.

Affinity ships with several simple templates that allow you to see some of the power of templates. But until you create a real template to use on a real project, it will be hard to imagine what all you can do in the template.

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Read more about templates in the documentation for Affinity. It is in the Affinity application that you can create and edit templates as well.

Opening a Sample File

1. Launch ArchiCAD and select File / Open.

Affinity files can be opened just like any other Archicad project files. From the open dialog, select the Affinity project file type (.afx) from the File type list.

To open the sample Gallery File, navigate to the samples sub-directory of the Affinity for ArchiCAD installation (usually at C:\Program Files\Trelligence\Affinity 50\samples) and select the file Gallery Project.afx and click OK.

2. Select items to generateA message box will appear prompting for options to generate objects in Archicad:

Getting Started

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Select all of the check boxes and press OK. The Sample Gallery project will be loaded into Affinity. See the Site, Story 1 and Story 2. The generated elements can be edited like ArchiCAD elements created from within ArchiCAD.

Using Affinity Features in ArchiCAD

Several Affinity views and features are available within ArchiCAD.

1. From the Design menu, select Design Extras / Affinity.2. A sub-menu of Affinity features is displayed.

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3. For example choose Show Space Program. This will open a window into the Affinity project file and display the space plan for the project:

4. Show Item Details will give the user the ability to display the Affinity project Requirements, Properties, Components and Notes for the selected element (in the example below, for the Large Paintings Gallery space):

Getting Started

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5. Synchronize gives the user the option to synchronize Affinity to ArchiCAD or ArchiCAD to Affinity.

When you modify the layout in ArchiCAD and then re-synchronize ArchiCAD to Affinity, the Affinity project file will be updated with the modifications. These will be reflected in the Space Program actual (below) as well as the Affinity schematic design. Note: The Space Program view may need to be ‘refreshed’, by clicking on the Refresh icon (at the top left of the Space Program box):

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In this example, we changed the arrangement of the rooms overlapping the Large Paintings Gallery.

We then selected Show Space Program, which now highlights the rooms in red indicating it no longer meets the program requirements.

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Working with Affinity Projects

Affinity for ArchiCAD is integration that links the Affinity project information to the ArchiCAD project. This linkage is "live" meaning that the user can switch back and forth between ArchiCAD and Affinity and make changes in either one.

Project Synchronization

When you load an Affinity project within ArchiCAD for the first time, it performs two basic tasks: 1) it generates corresponding ArchiCAD elements, and 2) it stores a link between the ArchiCAD project file and the Affinity project file. Synchronization of the files after updates have been made ensures real-time access and analysis to the Affinity project requirements and information.

Once the linked ArchiCAD/Affinity file is loaded, you can save and manipulate it like any other ArchiCAD file. But the link means that it can access the Affinity project at any time and exchange and synchronize information. Thus you can query the requirements for a space in ArchiCAD and the appropriate Affinity dialog is displayed.

Correspondingly, you can save any changes made in ArchiCAD to the Affinity project file.

Affinity to ArchiCAD Data Mapping

When you first load an Affinity project, ArchiCAD elements corresponding to the spaces and items in Affinity are created. A “link” is also created between some of the ArchiCAD elements and the corresponding Affinity items.

The user can set a global setting to map ArchiCAD data properties to Affinity data properties, to apply to the project synchronization step:

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Entity Linkage

In addition to the optional mappings above, the opening of an Affinity project file in ArchiCAD will generate the following:

Entity in Affinity Entity in ArchiCAD LinkageSpace RoomStories Layer Automatically generated

based upon story name. Story multiples in Affinity are converted to individual story instances in ArchiCAD.

Walls Walls Generated and resynchronized using the resynchronize feature

Story Footprint Slabs Generated and resynchronized using the resynchronize feature

Space & Site Objects Objects Generated if the Model ID property is set in Affinity to match the ArchiCAD item type value. Resynchronized using the resynchronize feature

Requirements & Properties

n/a Accessed via the program and item properties pop ups

Space Program n/a Accessed via the program and item properties pop ups

Item Fills Only in Affinity Fills are not transferred to ArchiCAD at this time.

Accessing the Affinity Menu

Most of Affinity functions are accessed via the Design Extras / Affinity in the Design menu of ArchiCAD.

Affinity Projects

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Open and Link an Affinity Project

You can open an existing Affinity project file and, as you open it, create a linked ArchiCAD project. You are prompted to confirm generation of items in the ArchiCADproject.

3. Launch ArchiCAD and select File / Open.

Affinity files can be opened just like any other Archicad project files. From the open dialog, select the Affinity project file type (.afx) from the File type list.

To open the sample Gallery File, navigate to the samples sub-directory of the Affinity for ArchiCAD installation (usually at C:\Program Files\Trelligence\Affinity 50\samples) and select the file Gallery Project.afx and click OK.

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4. Select items to generateA message box will appear prompting for options to generate objects in Archicad:

Select all of the check boxes and press OK. The Sample Gallery project will be loaded into Affinity. See the Site, Story 1 and Story 2. The generated elements can be edited like ArchiCAD elements created from within ArchiCAD.

1. The project is displayed in the default view within ArchiCAD.

Affinity Projects

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Create a New Affinity Project

You can create an entirely new Affinity project within ArchiCAD. Spaces will be added to ArchiCAD as spaces are created in Affinity and vice versa.

1. To create a new Affinity project, first open a new project in ArchiCAD by selecting File and New on the ArchiCAD menu.

2. Select New Project from the Design / Design Extras / Affinity menu.3. The New Project dialog is displayed.

4. Enter a Name and select the Template to use for the new project. Click OK.

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Templates in Affinity provide a way of configuring the information and format of the Affinity interface so it best conforms to a specific project type or process. Templates cannot be created from within ArchiCAD, only from within the Affinity application.

A set of basic templates are available with Affinity and you can create any number of additional templates at any level of detail. Whichever templates are available, the list is displayed in the New Project dialog. Only when opening a new project can you select the template.

Read more about templates, creating projects and related topics in the Affinity documentation.

Editing and Viewing Affinity information

From the Affinity menu, you can view and edit a range of requirements and program information:

1. Select Show Space Program to view the space program for the project.

2. Select Show Element Details will give the user the ability to display the Affinity project Requirements, Properties, Components and Notes for the selected Element (in the example below, for the Large Paintings Gallery space):

Affinity Projects

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Each Affinity view is discussed in the Affinity Views section of this documentation.

Save an Affinity Project

When you save the ArchiCAD file, you should also save the linked Affinity project(this is not done automatically). This generates two files in the same directory that are linked. If you open the ArchiCAD file later, the linked Affinity file opens. If ArchiCAD cannot find the linked Affinity file, you will be prompted to help find it in the file system. If you want to share the project with another user, you must send them both files.

1. To save the ArchiCAD file, click File and Save (or Save As) on the main ArchiCAD menu.

2. To save the Affinity file, select Design / Design Extras / Affinity menu, then click on Save. This saves only the changes in the Affinity information.

Close and Detach an Affinity Project

You can close the Affinity project by selecting Close from the Design / Design Extras / Affinity menu. This closes only Affinity and detaches the Affinity file so you can continue designing the project using the ArchiCAD tools.

Properties Mapping

The user can set a global setting to map ArchiCAD data properties to Affinity data properties, to apply to the project synchronization step:

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Synchronize

The user can re-synchronize the project files whenever updates are made to either project file.

1. To re-synchronize, select Tools, External Tools and Resynchronize.2. Select the appropriate synchronization option.

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Affinity Views

Trelligence Affinity software includes a range of views for entering data about a building project and for viewing the building project as it develops. These views are available from the ArchiCAD Desgin / Design Extras / Affinity menu.

Programming

Affinity software includes tools for architectural programming including an interactive questionnaire and flexible forms that store your important project information. The program data includes project information, data about the site, the building and a space program. You enter program and space requirements and Affinity keeps track of when requirements are being met and when they are not. Properties can be tracked for each element in the building from detailed objects such as doors to rooms, stories and the entire building.

Properties are displayed in Properties views for each item in the project, accessible by selecting Show Item Details and clicking on the Properties tab. The details will reflect either the Affinity project building, or the selected space. In this example, the Large Paintings Gallery was selected in the ArchiCAD project file.

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The left column in the properties view is the field label and the right column is for data entry. Gray rows are calculated and generally cannot be edited. Some data fields contain drop-down lists, some contain ellipsis buttons that launch dialogs and most are text and number fields.

Space Program

The Space Program view allows you to see what spaces are required for the project and allows you to create space program requirements.

1. With an Affinity project open, select Show Space Program from the Design/ Design Extras / Affinity menu.

2. The Space Program view is displayed.

3. To add a program item, click the Add Program Item button.4. The Add Program Item dialog is displayed.

Affinity Views

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5. Select the Group and Item Type such as Space, Opening, Object or Person. Then select the specific type of object such as Exhibition Spaces, and an item, such as Large Gallery or Double Door.

6. The Group list and Object lists are determined by the selected Template when the new project was created. The template can be edited in the Affinity desktop application.

7. Select the type of Target (Quantity or Area).8. Assign a unique name to space if required.9. Update the default Size (ea) if different from the standard size displayed.10.Enter the Total Area for this space type.11.Enter data for all Phases as appropriate.12.Click OK and the item is added to the Space Program table.

You can continue to add space program requirements or select an existing one and click Edit Requirement to edit one. When the space program has been defined, you can also see the items in the Requirements views.

About Requirements

Requirements keep track of criteria about the program and can be associated with any item in the project including the project itself. Requirements are an important aspect of the Affinity solution because by defining the constraints and criteria for your building project, you can track whether your design complies with the plan and when it does not, you are informed yet you have the choice to design the building freely.

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View Requirements for a Space

1. To view the requirements for a space, select the space and click on Show Item Details in the Design / Design Extras / Affinity menu.

2. The Affinity requirements view is displayed in the first tab for that space.

Add Requirements

1. To add a requirement to a space, select the space and click on Show ItemDetails.

2. In the requirements window, click Add Requirement.3. Enter the requirement in the dialog and click OK.4. The new requirement is displayed in the requirements view.

Affinity Views

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View Stories

Stories in the ArchiCAD Project Browser / Floor Plans correlate to the Affinity project stories. In the example below, the sample Gallery Project in Affinity has two stories: Story(1) and Story(2). These were created in ArchiCAD when the project was opened in ArchiCAD.

Reports

Affinity offers a set of standard reports about the Affinity projects that are available in Excel formats. You will find reports on the schematic design, project program, requirements and cost.

Excel Reports

1. To view a report, open an Affinity project file in ArchiCAD and select RunExcel Report from the Design / Design Extras / Affinity menu.

2. A list of Affinity Excel reports will be displayed.3. Select the desired report.4. Excel is launched and the report is displayed. This example shows the

Schematic Design Summary for the Gallery Project in Excel.

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HTML Reports

5. To view a report, open an Affinity project file in ArchiCAD and select RunHTML Report from the Design / Design Extras / Affinity menu.

6. A list of Affinity reports will be displayed.7. Select the desired report.8. A browser is launched and the report is displayed.

Custom Reports

You can create custom reports with Affinity that can be opened from Affinity Desktop or from within ArchiCAD. Refer to the Affinity help system for information on custom reports.

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Support

Customers of Trelligence can receive phone and email support from their reseller or from Trelligence directly. The Trelligence Support team is available to handle technical issues in collaboration with your reseller. Trelligence is committed to providing outstanding customer service and welcomes your questions and feedback.

Contacting Support

1. Contact your reseller for product support.2. To contact Trelligence support send an email to support@trelligence.com or;3. Fill out a support request form at www.trelligence.com/report_new_issue.php.