topic Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior etc. in Project data & BIM

Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior etc.

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:08:09 GMT

I´m new to ArchiCad and also CAD in general. So help is very much appreciated as to your experience and best practices in regard do what to put on what layers.

I´m drawing an extension to my 10 year old house, and feel sometimes there are lots of unwanted detail as terrain, parked cars, roads, pavement etc.

So how do you guys do this. Put eg. terrain on a separate layer? Please tell!

Re: Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior e

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:42:33 GMT

There is much to say on layer standards. The nutshell version...

Model layers are typically organized by discipline and element type. In the US we usually use some variation on the National CAD Standards (NCS) so layer names would be something like:

A-CLNG, A-FLOR, A-WALL

C-SITE

I-FURN

S-BEAM, S-COLS

Where A, C, I and S stand for Architecture, Civil, Interiors and Structure

The general rule with model layers is to combine elements that appear together (such as interior walls) and separate elements that appear together or separately in various (layer) combinations.

The other general rule with all layer names is to be self explanatory. It is easiest to instruct people to put walls on the A-WALL layer, lighting on the E-LTNG layer, and so on. Sometimes this means creating a few extra layers for things that are always on or off together as might be true for ceilings, lights and diffusers for example. It is also hard to anticipate these things so it is usually best to be somewhere between Spartan and Dionysian in the use of layers.

The other primary type of layer is for annotations. I make a strict rule of separating the model elements (what will be built) from the annotations (instructions for building it). The NCS standard is to use the abbreviation ANNO after the discipline code (eg A-ANNO). I often prefer to separate the annotation layers entirely by using a "+" at the start of the layer name (and thus skip the "ANNO" part).

In general you only need one annotation layer for each discipline but you may also need different ones for different scales in plan since these will have to be overlaid in the plan view (unless you use the Worksheet tool for enlarged plans - which I would do were it not such a pain to work in a 2D proxy).

There are other minor layer types such as: the SEO layer (or layers?) on which solid operators can be hidden, LINK layers for hotlink management, TEMP layers (which I usually precede with a "!" to put them at the top of the list) for various purposes, and so on.

So the short answer is, yes put the terrain on a separate layer.

Re: Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior e

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:02:19 GMT

Thank you!

So far for the layers.
How about floors?

Re: Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior e

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:58:35 GMT

palengh wrote:
Thank you!

So far for the layers.
How about floors?

Do you mean stories or floor elements?

In either case, what about them?

Re: Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior e

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:59:47 GMT

Stories...

Re: Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior e

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:12:03 GMT

Multiple stories are built into the program. One is visible at a time in the plan view.

Re: Best practices: Layers, terrain, exterior and interior e

rob2218 — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:10:32 GMT

...unless you show the "Trace reference" and then you can see a second story...or elevation..or section..or 3d model....or sheet...within the same screen.