Freehand sketching is still an indispensable part of designing. In this lesson, I will insert the sketch that I previously scanned into the worksheet, in order to then use it as a basis for creating technical documentation.

Before that, it is necessary to create my new worksheet. To that end, I need to look for the item Worksheets on the right side and open the auxiliary menu by pressing the right button. After that I can run the New Independent Worksheet function to have a new frame appear on the screen. I am now expected to name the new worksheet, so instead of the proposed name (Worksheet), I will enter Sketch and complete this part of the work with Create.

In this way, I created a new view inside ArchiCAD into which I can now insert the scanned sketch. This can be achieved in several different ways, and the simplest method involves dragging the appropriate file. To that end, I will open File Explorer or Finder, but in such a way that the frame containing ArchiCAD remains visible in the background, and then look for the file containing my sketch (Freehand Sketch) in the folder with examples for the exercise. After that, it won’t be difficult for me to drag it into ArchiCAD with one move of the mouse and complete this operation. As you can see, the sketch has now appeared on the screen, so I will be able to use it as a reference to build the whole project.

Geodetic bases can be used in a similar way, but with them the most important thing is to ensure the accuracy of all dimensions. To show you how it is done, I will repeat the entire process, which involves opening a new worksheet (New Independent Worksheet) that will be called Survey. After that, I need to go back to the folder with examples and drag the file called Site Survey.pdf from it. Since I mentioned that for this purpose it is very important to preserve the right dimensions, I have to check whether the content of the inserted file has kept the appropriate scale. The metric system is usually used to make these types of bases, so I will draw a line that will help me determine the exact dimensions of this drawing. As you can see, although according to the attached dimensions, the distance from the left to the right edge can be expected to be greater than 68 m, in reality it is only 55 m. This means that the scale of the inserted drawing is not correct, so I will have to correct it.

To that end, it is necessary to first select the complete background with one click, press the right mouse button and select the Explode into Current View option from the auxiliary menu. After that, I can keep the original elements (Keep Original Element After Exploding), which means that I will be able to work with vector elements originating from the original document.

I’ll leave the scaling for the next lesson, because I wanted to first show you how existing sketches and other types of drawings can be easily imported into ArchiCAD and used to help create a new project.