topic Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying? in Libraries & objects

How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2023 10:25:07 GMT

I have a series of windows at 15' above the floor. How do I keep them from showing on the floor plan? Aren't the floor plans supposed to be cut at 4' above finished floor? This same question also applies to small windows above doors -- both of them are shown on the floor plan.

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

__archiben — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:19:29 GMT

not really 'best practice', but you could always just turn off 2D representation . . .

see attached.

(there are also bigger issues here that i haven't got time to go into right now, but all have been mentioned before somewhere on this forum: high-level anything really: stairs/landing in a stair core, wall representation at high level when different from the lower level, doors in a stair core at floor level that show on high level landings, etc... matthew's 'new working environment' wish, etc..)

HTH in the meantime.
~/archiben

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:43:27 GMT

~/archiben wrote:
not really 'best practice', but you could always just turn off 2D representation . . .

That leaves a big hole in the wall. I checked the display options but couldn't find anything that fixes that. We are probably going to build half the wall on the second story just for the high windows.

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

__archiben — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 18:19:14 GMT

Jay wrote:
That leaves a big hole in the wall.

ah. fatal flaw in the plan.

have a good weekend!
~/archiben

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

SeaGeoff — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 20:47:19 GMT

Isn’t it conventional to show high windows as dashed? This seems to be more a deficiency of the window objects. They need an option to display as clerestory (dashed) and the options to turn off both 2D and 3D display all together. Seems like this one can be solved with better GDL. Now the issue of doors & windows straddling two walls...

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 21:13:32 GMT

Geoff wrote:
Isn’t it conventional to show high windows as dashed? This seems to be more a deficiency of the window objects. They need an option to display as clerestory (dashed) and the options to turn off both 2D and 3D display all together. Seems like this one can be solved with better GDL. Now the issue of doors & windows straddling two walls...

Why not just set the line type to "Dashed" in the window settings? This means overriding any special built-in line types and may not look to good if the symbol is too dense, but it works for me in most such cases.

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 21:34:09 GMT

I have just finished doing this on one of my projects. I made a new window object, based on an existing window object. I think that the general principal below will work on most of the existing window objects, but I haven't tested it on a lot of windows.

You have to be somewhat fearless of GDL to do it.

Here is how I did it:

1) Place a window object that you wish to use into the wall. Of course, it displays in the plan window, which is not desirable. Don't worry about setting any parameters for the window yet.

2) Select the window object that has just been placed, select File>GDL Object>Open Object... from the menu. This will open the objects GDL editing window.

3) Select File>Saveas... from the menu, and save a copy of this object into your Project Library with a different name (i.e. if the original window was Fixed Panel MU 81, save the new object with a name like Fixed Panel MU Above)

4) In the GDL editing window, make the Parameter list active by pressing on the "Parameters" button on the left side. Add two new parameters to the list:

A parameter named "SillHtLimit2D", of type length, with the text "Hide when above:" in the name field.

A parameter named "LimitAdjust", of type length, with the text "Opening size adjustment:" in the name field.

These parameters can be moved to somewhere appropriate in the listing to make finding them easier.

5) Staying in the Parameter listing window, press the "Details..." button at the top of the window. Look for two edit windows that are labeled "X+" and "X-". At the end of the string in those boxes add "-LimitAdjust"

6) Now, in the GDL editing window, make the Parameter Script active by pressing on the "Parameter Script" button on the left side. Add the following text to the very beginning of the script:

IF WIDO_SILL_HEIGHT>SillHtLimit2D THEN 
	LimitAdjust=A/2 
ELSE 
	LimitAdjust = 0
ENDIF
PARAMETERS LimitAdjust=LimitAdjust

The inserted text is placed at the beginning of the script only because that seems the most likely place to insert it without breaking anything, you can place it somewhere else if your confident about its location.

7) Now, in the GDL editing window, make the 2D Script active by pressing on the "2D Script" button on the left side. Add the following text to the very beginning of the script:


IF WIDO_SILL_HEIGHT > SillHtLimit2D THEN
	ADD2 -A/2,WIDO_SILL
	LINE2 0,0,0,-WALL_THICKNESS  ! These two lines will display in the
	LINE2 A,0,A,-WALL_THICKNESS  ! wall to indicate a window above.
	HOTSPOT2 0,0
	HOTSPOT2 A,0
	HOTSPOT2 0,-WALL_THICKNESS
	HOTSPOT2 A,-WALL_THICKNESS
	del 1
ELSE

Then go to the last line*** of the script and add the following text :


ENDIF

***Caution: If the last line of the script is "RETURN" then the script contains subroutines. Look for a line prior to that that reads "END" and place the text above just before that line instead. Press the "Check Script" button at the top of the window to make sure the inserted code doesn't break anything.

8 ) Select File>Save from the menu to save changes. Close the GDL editing window and return to the plan window.

9) Reselect the window placed previously, open its settings dialog, and change it to the new object that has just been saved.

Now set the parameters of the window as desired, and provide a sill height and a value for the "SillHtLimit2D" parameter added above. If the sill height is less than the SillHtLimit2D parameter, a normal window should be displayed, if the value is greater, then the wall should be solid, with two lines representing the width of the window opening above. If the two lines are not desired, edit the 2d script inserted above to your liking.

The 3d version of the object should behave normally.

I hope I have remembered all of the steps. Comments and critiques are encouraged.

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Richard Morrison — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 23:53:08 GMT

Jay wrote:
~/archiben wrote:
not really 'best practice', but you could always just turn off 2D representation . . .
That leaves a big hole in the wall. I checked the display options but couldn't find anything that fixes that. We are probably going to build half the wall on the second story just for the high windows.

Couldn't you just use a zero-height matching wall to fill in the holes in the plan view? You might get a couple of lines at the jambs, but so what?

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 00:10:24 GMT

I have dealt with this problem in a simple way by creating
a line type called "Invisible".
It is very easy to make. Duplicate any dashed line type
and make the gap length the maximum allowable and the dash
length the minimum allowable.
This line will have a tiny dot at the beginning and at the end
and one in the middle but otherwise is invisible.
Do as Matthew says and set the line type to Dashed or Invisible
depending on your intent.
The only issue left is filling in the hole in the wall in 2D made
by the window.
If you want to have this all done automatically (make invisible in 2D)
then you have to do what I have done and build this capability into
the library part's 2D script.

BTW this line type comes in handy for all sorts of uses.
Peter Devlin

Re: How To Keep Windows From Displaying?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Jun 2004 15:39:37 GMT

Richard wrote:
That leaves a big hole in the wall. I checked the display options but couldn't find anything that fixes that. We are probably going to build half the wall on the second story just for the high windows.

Couldn't you just use a zero-height matching wall to fill in the holes in the plan view? You might get a couple of lines at the jambs, but so what?

I would use a fill instead of a wall since the zero height wall will still show up in 3D.