topic The lowly line tool in Project data & BIM

The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2023 11:10:25 GMT

I've had the experience twice in the last two days of lines not being able to select lines on the drawing, even after turning on all layers. Once I was attempting to create a custom profile by drawing a series of lines, highlighting them and activating "offset" from the pet pallette. The offset line was achieved and highlighted, but I could not highlight the original line. The second time was today. I highlighted a line to drag it upward to a new location, which was successful. However, there remained the original image in the original location, which I cannot select because it does not respond. I am left with a line in a location that I do not want. Weird.

Re: The lowly line tool

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 20:53:11 GMT

Is there a chance that you have Trace turned on... and that the lines you cannot select are part of the Trace Reference?

A situation that can give a result similar to one of your examples is when the Trace Reference is the exact same view/viewpoint that you're working on. Since the Trace Reference is not automatically rebuilt ... you can move a line and yet still see the original until the TR is rebuild (refresh icon in Trace palette)... or turned off.

Since you mention 'custom profile', this may not be it at all if your profile is in the Profile Editor which does not support Trace...

?

Re: The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 22:39:16 GMT

Thanks, Karl for responding. While exploring, I turned on all layers to no avail. Then, on the layers palette, which was on the desktop, I unlocked all layers and the one line I didn't want disappeared. ?

And I don't think Trace was active, but then again I don't clearly recall.

Re: The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:28:14 GMT

I just had this happen to me today. I had four lines in a square all highlighted then hit intersect and then grouped them. A few operations later I moved the group and it left a ghosts behind of those lines that were unselectable. I tried to undo it but that didn't work but after switching a few views the lines went away.

I was debating saying anything but since this thread popped upped I thought I should share my experience.

Re: The lowly line tool

Barry Kelly — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:21:44 GMT

I think you both have trace and reference active.
The T & R palette may not be showing but the T & R can still be on.
Open the T & R palette and then turn the trace off (top left button in the palette).
Barry.

Re: The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 15:26:37 GMT

Yes, apparently I did have trace and reference active. Thanks. I will now pay attention to another thing.

Re: The lowly line tool

Karl Ottenstein — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:34:12 GMT

As Barry noted, if the T&R palette is not visible, you may not be aware that T&R is turned on. For that reason - and ease of access - I always have that palette docked with my other palettes as shown in the attached screenshot of my normal Work Environment. Any organization that works for you is a good organization of course. 😉

PS As a tangent / off topic... I continue to be frustrated that Graphisoft's default WE has the Info Box horizontally at the top of the screen... which let's you view... and modify... very few settings. I wish they would distribute a few Work Environments (WE) so that new users could try working with the Info Box at the side as shown here... where it scrolls vertically with the mouse 'wheel'. My experience is that most people just work with what is delivered, assuming that Graphisot delivered it as an example of 'best practice'. But, best practice is what works best for you... and exploring the Work Environment options is worth the time. OK; off my soapbox. 😉

Re: The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 17:20:52 GMT

Excellent, Karl. Nice thinking and it's all there instead of having to slide the bar back and forth looking for information. It now occurs to me to ask how you transferred the WE to vertical. I haven't yet tried it. It may be straightforward.

Re: The lowly line tool

Karl Ottenstein — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:08:18 GMT

Kenneth wrote:
how you transferred the WE to vertical. I haven't yet tried it. It may be straightforward.

[Apologies to others for being off-topic...]

Just drag and stretch. Also, for the Info Box, you need to change the header position. Not sure why it is not automatic... but right click the header of the Info Box and you'll get the attached pop-up. To save your revised palette positions and sizes (includes all dialogs such as Layers Dialog, Drawings, etc.) - save (with your own name, the first time) or update (subsequent) the Palettes Scheme in your WE.

Re: The lowly line tool

Link — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 20:47:44 GMT

Hey Karl

Couldn't agree more about the Info Box, but I noticed you still have your Navigator Preview on. I turn to turn mine off nowadays. Do you find yourself using it much?

Cheers,
Link.

PS. I may be passing through Bozeman on July 5th if you're around for lunch?

Re: The lowly line tool

Karl Ottenstein — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 21:55:12 GMT

Link wrote:
Couldn't agree more about the Info Box, but I noticed you still have your Navigator Preview on. I turn to turn mine off nowadays. Do you find yourself using it much?

I use it quite a bit... fast way to zip to different locations in a project at the same zoom... e.g., if I'm doing something in all of the corners of a building - zoomed in for corner boards, or structural stuff. Kind of used to moving the zoom box there for panning since it's so much like Photoshop / Aperture navigation when zoomed in.

Hope to see you on the 5th! 😉

Re: The lowly line tool

Link — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:08:22 GMT

I think ever since I got my new Logitech Mouse with the free spinning wheel which lets me zoom in and out like a crazy man, I've relied less on the Navigator Preview.

Have you tried one? They're very addictive. Not sure I could go back!

See you soon!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:15:44 GMT

I checked trace reference first thing and even rechecked it later and that wasn't it.

One thing about it was it responded to my layer settings. I shut the layer off the grouped lines were on and the ghost lines shut off as well and reappeared when I turned the layer on.

I think I went from plan to 3d back to plan to get it to finally go away.

Something like this happened a few years ago to me and it was a real issue then. Can't remember the details but the offending object was a wall with a complex profile applied to it. After sometime I went to delete the all instances of the profile and one of them stayed, wasn't selectable, had no hot spots, and keyboard commands had no affect. Had to copy my work to a new project to fix it.

Thankfully that wasn't the case this time. Trust me, when it happened I was seriously bummed out as I was just starting to draw a series of custom windows and doors for the project and the lines that I couldn't interact with were right in the middle of what I was doing. Made what I was doing unnecessarily confusing. And on the back of my mind was the possibility of having my current "template" corrupt and I would have to revert to an older project and lose work because of it.

But I also wouldn't be surprised if it was just a glitch on my computer and not Archicad per say.

Link, I have the Perfomance Mx mouse from Logitech.

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/performance-mouse-mx?crid=7

I agree, the free spinning mouse wheel is pretty much a must now for me. Hate using my other mouse, especially on long webpages where smooth scroll scanning works great with that mouse wheel feature.

I also have the two thumb buttons on mine that's like on yours set to up one story and down one story. Click it and anywhere in the project pulls me right to plan view. Very very useful for me. Wish I had two more buttons for up one layout and down one layout as well.

Re: The lowly line tool

Barry Kelly — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:20:44 GMT

zeropointreference wrote:
One thing about it was it responded to my layer settings. I shut the layer off the grouped lines were on and the ghost lines shut off as well and reappeared when I turned the layer on.

I'm still guessing you have a trace of the same floor plan view point from the Project Map.
It will respond to the same layers because anything in the Project Map uses your current layer settings.
Only a trace of a view in the View Map will not respond to you changing layers as the view has its own saved layer set.

Barry.

Re: The lowly line tool

Ernest Atanasiu — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:32:51 GMT

Karl wrote:
Kenneth wrote:
how you transferred the WE to vertical. I haven't yet tried it. It may be straightforward.
[Apologies to others for being off-topic...]

Just drag and stretch. Also, for the Info Box, you need to change the header position. Not sure why it is not automatic... but right click the header of the Info Box and you'll get the attached pop-up. To save your revised palette positions and sizes (includes all dialogs such as Layers Dialog, Drawings, etc.) - save (with your own name, the first time) or update (subsequent) the Palettes Scheme in your WE.

The info box header position is not visible if the palette is docked to the side of the screen. In Windows, this is automatic and that option has no effect, unless you have 2 monitors and you keep your Info Box on the 2nd monitor.

sorry for the offtopic

Re: The lowly line tool

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 15:25:35 GMT

Karl wrote:
As Barry noted, if the T&R palette is not visible, you may not be aware that T&R is turned on. For that reason - and ease of access - I always have that palette docked with my other palettes as shown in the attached screenshot of my normal Work Environment. Any organization that works for you is a good organization of course. 😉

PS As a tangent / off topic... I continue to be frustrated that Graphisoft's default WE has the Info Box horizontally at the top of the screen... which let's you view... and modify... very few settings. I wish they would distribute a few Work Environments (WE) so that new users could try working with the Info Box at the side as shown here... where it scrolls vertically with the mouse 'wheel'. My experience is that most people just work with what is delivered, assuming that Graphisot delivered it as an example of 'best practice'. But, best practice is what works best for you... and exploring the Work Environment options is worth the time. OK; off my soapbox. 😉

Im going to give your layout a go

What settings did you use to get the yellowish look for your cut section images by the way??

thanks