The Archipack addon for Blender 2.8 contains a collection of parametric primitives for ArchViz. You can manipulate these primitives with a realtime on-screen editing interface. Primitives like wall, floor, slab, windows, door, stairs and more are included. Some of them have presets, like type of roof, door and window.
Archipack 1.28x vs Archipack 2.x versions
There are two versions of the Archipak addon. While the build in version ( 1.2.8x series) in Blender has surely enough features to build your archviz scene, the Archipack 2.x version has extensive features. The 2.x version has more generators, better material management, sunlight and much more. To set clear expectations, the Archipack 1.2.8x is free and Archipack 2.x with extensive features is the version you can buy on Gumroad. Let’s talk about the free version first.
Quick overview of the Archipack addon
After enabling the addon in the preferences, you can find Archipack in several places. It’s will save you some time understanding the setup in case you are not familiar with the Archipak addon yet.
Three places the Archipack addon is active in Blender:
- Add menu. Press Shift + A, M, A. That is the quickest way to add archviz primitives.
- Create TAB in the N-Panel. In this tab you can add archviz primitives as well. And in this panel you have for some primitive more options. Like the Floor, you can here create a floor from the active wall and it will fit automagically.
- Archipak TAB. Here (N-panel) you find settings for the active archviz primitive. Those are settings like Length, Angle, With, Height, parts, etc.
Once you know this, it is easy to get the hang out of how the Archipack addon is organized. There are a few more tips I want to give that will save you time getting familiar with the Archipak addon. That is the on-screen editing interface. Let’s start with the wall.
On-screen editing interface
- Where you see two arrows, one to the left, and two the right, that is to make another side of the wall. In case you are surprised why the wall got extended to another direction, click on the 90 degrees symbol. You can then enter a value, probably -90. Then press Enter. (You can also flip the wall if need).
- Other arrows on the floor-level are for the lenght of each side of the wall. You can also click on the number and enter a value. And there is an arrow for the thickness of the wall.
- In case you don’t see the on-screen manipulators, go to the Archipak TAB in the N-panel and click on manipulate.
Autoboolean
Next is the auto-boolean. This is handy to make openings in the walls for doors and windows automagically. Here an exercise to get the hang out of it.
- Press Shift+A, M, A, W which will ad a wall primitive. Make the wall a bit longer with the arrow next to the value by dragging the arrow. (Or you click on the value 2.0 and enter a value like: 4.
- Shift and then right-click on the wall. Probably you have to do it again, to place the mouse cursor on the wall. Put the mouse cursor near the bottom (floor) of the wall.
- Press Shift+A, M, A, D. And this will place a door at the mouse cursor. Now you might want to rotate the wall 90 degrees on Z-axis. To do that, press: R, 90, Z.
- Click the wall, go to the Create TAB in the N-Panel, and click on the button Boolean. There you have your door in the wall, and in the on-screen interface, you can still manipulate the size etc, of the door you just created.
How to get the Archipack addon
The free archipack addon (1.2.8x series) is already build in Blender 2.80. To activate Archipack you go in Blender to Edit > Preferences > Addons. There you click on the button “Community” (on top). And then you type in the search field: “Archipack”. Enable the addon by using the checkbox, and render the preset thumbs which might take a few minutes.
For more information about the Archipack 2.x version, I recommend you to visit the Blender-Archipack.org website. Some more links to the Archipack 2.x version:
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