topic Re: A "Smart" roof label in Libraries & objects

A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:36:39 GMT

I've searched this forum and can't find anything.

I want to make/get a label object that can be used in the following manner:

Click on a roof then click on the desired location for the label. The label needs to display the rise and run of the 'clicked on' roof.

Is this possible? and How?

Re: A "Smart" roof label

TomWaltz — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:02:22 GMT

sirduncan wrote:
I've searched this forum and can't find anything.

I want to make/get a label object that can be used in the following manner:

Click on a roof then click on the desired location for the label. The label needs to display the rise and run of the 'clicked on' roof.

Is this possible? and How?

The Label Tool could do this, if you change the "mode" on the Info Box from "independent" to "associative".

I do not believe any of the Archicad label objects to that. I know I've made a couple custom label objects that do that, but they are not perfect. (they almost nevr face the right direction when they are first placed and need mirrored/flipped.).

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Aussie John — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 22:52:34 GMT

I've been able to get a roof label to show the roof angle but not the slope direction and have an arrow that I can spin around to face the right way. This works fairly well as generally the direction of the slope doesnt change whereas the angle can easily change during a design.

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 03:01:58 GMT

sirduncan wrote:
I've searched this forum and can't find anything.

I want to make/get a label object that can be used in the following manner:

Click on a roof then click on the desired location for the label. The label needs to display the rise and run of the 'clicked on' roof.

Is this possible? and How?

OK guys you gotta "think outside the box" on this one...Below I'll share with you something from my bag o' tricks. Please don't get greedy on me and sell it. Follow the steps and you'll get a "smart" roof slope symbol that always points in the right direction and always indicates the correct slope!...It's actually pretty fun to place by clicking the desired locations all around your roof plan.

Please note: this is a skylight object and must be placed as such to work. There are a couple of small caveats like the tiny 1/4" hole it cuts through the roof showing up in bldg sections and the sometimes strange behavior of skylights warning they need to be fixed.

1.) create an object with "Roof Opening" as the subtype
2.) create a length type variable called "SL" and default the value to something like 4'
3.) create a text type variable called "CT" and leave the default value blank (you can use this to add custom text to the symbol later)
4.) Set the A & B values both to 1/4"
5.) lock the A & B values in the Master Script - see below

!!!Master Script
lock "a"
lock "b"
if glob_context #2 then end !!!this might not be necessary

6.) Add the following into the 2D script

!!!2D Script
!!!--- Standard Settings----------------------------!!!
FS1=16' !!!Font Size for Slope Text
FS2=16' !!!Font Size for Custom Text
FST1=0 !!!Font Style for Slope Text
FST2=2 !!!Font Style for Custom Text
FN="Arial Western" !!!Font Name

ARR=6" !!!Size of Arrow
PCLRT=2 !!!Pen color for Text
PCLRL=2 !!!Pen color for Lines
!!!-------------------------------------------------!!!

DEFINE STYLE "auto" FN, FS1,9,FST1
DEFINE STYLE "auto2" FN, FS1,7,FST1
DEFINE STYLE "text" FN, FS2,2,FST2

pen PCLRT

rslope=(tan(AC_roofang))*12
rot2 90

if W~>0 and W~<=180 then ROT2 180
SET STYLE "auto"
text2 0,0,rslope

!!!make slope text
SET STYLE "auto2"
text2 0,0,":12"

!!!make custom text
SET STYLE "text"
text2 0,0,CT

!!!Determines width of text and adjusts slope arrow length
CT2=STW(CT)/1000*a_
IF CT2>SL THEN
SL=12"+STW(CT)/1000*a_
ELSE
SL=SL
ENDIF

!!!makes arrow lines
pen PCLRL
if W~>0 and W~<=180 then DEL 1

LINE2 -SL/2,0, -SL/2+ARR,ARR
LINE2 -SL/2,0, -SL/2+ARR,-ARR
LINE2 -SL/2,0, SL/2,0

HOTSPOT2 0,0
!HOTSPOT2 -SL/2,0
!HOTSPOT2 SL/2,0

Ok you're done...now just go click and place, click and place, click and place....

HTH,
Dan Kunschik

Re: A "Smart" roof label

TomWaltz — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:24:55 GMT

Dan

what do you do if you want to hide this on a drawing? Say you have a roof plan being shown at multiple scales, and want it to show up at 1/8" scale, but not at 1/4"?

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:28:50 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
Dan

what do you do if you want to hide this on a drawing? Say you have a roof plan being shown at multiple scales, and want it to show up at 1/8" scale, but not at 1/4"?

The roof slope symbol lives on whatever layer you want...so you can turn it off as needed.

...or you could script it to "not" display at cetain scales...

HTH,
Dan K

Re: A "Smart" roof label

TomWaltz — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:37:16 GMT

Didn't you say this was a skylight, not a label?

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:53:59 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
Didn't you say this was a skylight, not a label?

Tom,
Yes, it is a skylight type of object.("...thinking outside the box...") I know it doesn't sound rational but it does exactly what it needs to do. Give the script a go and you'll love playing/placing it...as you drag it around the roof plan, it will update and rotate automatically...pretty cool.

Re: A "Smart" roof label

TomWaltz — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:23:37 GMT

OK, dumb question: Is a skylight an independent object, or embedded in the roof, like a window is in a wall? (you can tell I do not use them!)

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 21:07:42 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
OK, dumb question: Is a skylight an independent object, or embedded in the roof, like a window is in a wall? (you can tell I do not use them!)

Tom,
A skylight is an independent object but it does cut a hole in the roof like a wdw cuts a hole in a wall. Basically the skylight object senses the roof as you drag it over it and locates itself accordingly. Kinda hard to describe but you'll see what I mean when you try to actually place one.

Note: In this object I'm locking the hole size "A" & "B" down to about a 1/4" so you really dont see it. I tried making it infinitely small but it caused errors to occur in ArchiCAD.

Dan K

Re: A "Smart" roof label

TomWaltz — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 21:17:50 GMT

Sounds almost like the "Accessories" behave....

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 21:43:16 GMT

Dan,
Just curious about two things.
One, how did you make the hole infinitely small ?
I mean, how did you define infinity in your code ?
Two, you say you locked the the A and B size of the hole to 1/4".
Why so large ? I have found the GDL scripts containing dimensions
of 0.001" work fine.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 12:44:13 GMT

Peter wrote:
Dan,
Just curious about two things.
One, how did you make the hole infinitely small ?
I mean, how did you define infinity in your code ?
Two, you say you locked the the A and B size of the hole to 1/4".
Why so large ? I have found the GDL scripts containing dimensions
of 0.001" work fine.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Peter,
"Infinitely small" is probably not the best description of what I did. In my first few attempts, I tried makeing the "A" & "B" values less than 1/4" so they would not show up...they were something like 1/64". Everything seemed fine but ArchiCAD would unexpectedly crash. By trial and error, I figured out it was the size of this hole that was causing the behavior. I gradually increased the size until I the crashing stopped...so, 1/4" is what I ended up with.

I wish we had more control over this opening like "Wall Hole" but it doesn't seem to be available for roofs. Currently, the way skylights cut holes through roofs is a bit limiting. Maybe we'll have better ways of handling skylight scripts in ArchiCAD 10. I don't know if I've answered your question but hope I've better explained what I did.

Have you tried making this object? How do you like this technique for roof slope symbols? Please let me know your thoughts.

Dan K

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:23:05 GMT

Dan,
Thank you for your reply.
I must say the results of your investigation of the behavior of "skylight"
is very surprising to me. That one can make AC crash by changing
a dimension in a library part is a shock.
I never use the skylight tool because it cuts a splay in the head
and sill of of the roof hole which then has to be fixed.
Maybe this property causes the limit on the A and B size
(or mabe just the B size) of the hole.
I have not tried to make this object because I dislike the the autocratic
nature of this tool just like I never use StairMaker for the same reason
and now that you have found this A,B size limitation and it's
consequences I am even less likely to use this tool.
Your thinking "outside of the box" is to be commended.
A label apparently can't access the roof pitch value
so you used something that could.
Thank you for your valuable information.
Peter Devlin

Re: A "Smart" roof label

TomWaltz — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:31:10 GMT

A label apparently can't access the roof pitch value so you used something that could.

The label can access the pitch value. The problem is that it cannot tell the direction of the pitch.

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:05:51 GMT

Dan,
It occurs to me that maybe you could make a "roof accessory" object
for your label. As Tom Waltz and John Highland have pointed out,
the label tool can access the pitch of a roof but not it's direction.
A roof accessory object must be able to access pitch and direction
or they would not work. I have not tried this for a roof accessory object
but I have made a "label" for desplaying information about slabs
by making a slab accessory object.
Just a thought,
Peter Devlin

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 20:19:08 GMT

Peter wrote:
Dan,
It occurs to me that maybe you could make a "roof accessory" object
for your label...

Peter,
Yes Funny that you mentioned that because I just did it and it works perfectly!!! I still had to think a little "outside the box" to resolve how to keep it in position once its manually moved or the slope is changed...Anyway, I fixed it with a graphical hotspot. When you move it it stays put now...before I did this, it would always jump back to its original origin.

I'll post my results a little later - probably tomorrow.

Dan K

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 21:09:50 GMT

Dan,
That's great.
Which accessory parameter defines the direction ?
I was just looking at those parameters and it seemed
the likely candidate was ac_ref_coords but I haven't check it out yet.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Rakela Raul — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:48:01 GMT

The label can access the pitch value. The problem is that it cannot tell the direction of the pitch.

you can type 'down' in the available window...great thing to have. thx dan

Re: A "Smart" roof label

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:24:01 GMT

Peter wrote:
Dan,
That's great.
Which accessory parameter defines the direction ?
I was just looking at those parameters and it seemed
the likely candidate was ac_ref_coords but I haven't check it out yet.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Ok,
Here's the roof accesory version of the object. Peter, I didn't use any specific parameters to define the direction...look at the script and you'll see what I did.

This is by far better than the skylight version! The only thing odd is that I wasn't sure how to control the original location of the symbol as it is automatically placed by the roof accesory. The accesory always wants to place it a one end of the roof reference line. I've set up a graphical hotspot to allow the user to move the symbol afterwards and have it "stick" in place when the roof parameters change...without this, the symbol always jumps back to original position.

This object works great with automatically generated roofs. I have noticed ,however, that it can get confused, or backwards, on a manually drawn roof plane depending on the direction its drawn in. You just have to play with it and see.

Please let me know your thoughts or comments

Dan K