topic Re: Site & Sea Level in Modeling

Site & Sea Level

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2023 14:59:16 GMT

Hi Guys,

I have a question to ask everyone which has been driving me nuts. Being a new Archicad user but a long time Revit user, in Revit I would usually use the toposurface tool and place point command to pick out the height points from a survey and would be able to set the actual levels that were provided by the surveyor. I would then change my elevation height to the RL that I want which would then elevate the entire model to the level of the toposurface. I'm trying to replicate this using Archicad. I have created my mesh using the spot heights from the imported survey and elevated each point in the Z direction by inputting the actual values for instance 10750. Once I created the mesh, it is not sitting above my model so I would like to set my ground floor level at a specific RL say 10750 and for the floors above to read the next height so if the ground floor is 10750 and it has a 3m ceiling then the first floor should read 10750 + 3000 so 13750.

Can someone kindly point me in the right direction with this? Please see attached image.

Re: Site & Sea Level

David Maudlin — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 13:15:34 GMT

GTR320:

You should take a look at Reference Levels (in the Help files : User Interface Reference > Dialog Boxes > Project Preferences Dialog Boxes > Reference Levels Preferences). In my work I leave Project Zero at zero, and change the Sea Level to the height from Sea Level to Ground Floor (Australia may have a different system). You can choose which Reference Level is used for input and display.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

Re: Site & Sea Level

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:01:10 GMT

Hi David thank you for your reply, I think that I understand what all this means a bit better now. However, if the sea level is only an aid for display and input and does not change the positioning of elements relative to the entered RL value, How can I position my building to the exact AHD or RL value relative to my mesh? I don't think dragging the mesh down or dragging the building up would be accurate and the cut and fill calculations will not be accurate.

I do apologies if its taking me a bit longer to understand the concept and thanks for your help.

Re: Site & Sea Level

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:33:05 GMT

Guys I also have another question, How can I change the input value to 4 decimal places rather than 6 as shown in the attached image. the ground floor level should read 11200 and the lower ground level should actually read 10750 rather than 111550 because in this case it is subtracting 45mm rather than 450mm.

Thank You

Re: Site & Sea Level

David Maudlin — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 12:54:18 GMT

GTR320 wrote:
However, if the sea level is only an aid for display and input and does not change the positioning of elements relative to the entered RL value, How can I position my building to the exact AHD or RL value relative to my mesh? I don't think dragging the mesh down or dragging the building up would be accurate and the cut and fill calculations will not be accurate.

First decide if you want to move the building or the Mesh, and determine the exact distance you want to move them. If the Mesh, select the Mesh then use the Elevate... command to input the exact distance you want it to move vertically. If you want to move the building, make all Layers visible and view it in the 3D Window, select all (except he Mesh) and Elevate... the model. Any 2D work in Sections/Elevation windows will have to be moved separately.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

Re: Site & Sea Level

David Maudlin — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:02:28 GMT

GTR320 wrote:
How can I change the input value to 4 decimal places rather than 6 as shown in the attached image. the ground floor level should read 11200 and the lower ground level should actually read 10750 rather than 111550 because in this case it is subtracting 45mm rather than 450mm.

Check Project Preferences > Dimensions > Elevation Dimensions (5th button from the left) to see that it is set to the correct units and decimals. These Dimensions settings (named list at the top of the dialog box) are part of the View settings, so also confirm that your Section or Elevation View has the correct Dimensions setting. The two levels need to be at the correct heights.

David

Re: Site & Sea Level

Erika Epstein — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:06:26 GMT

Another method is to set the z dimension in your element settings box, in this instance your mesh settings box.
You can set this when you first place the element/mesh or reset it later.
Be careful when inserting any element so that it is placed relative to the correct reference level i.e. furniture relative to its story. If you don't pay attention to this, and later raise or lower the building or change story heights the furniture won't move with the story.

Re: Site & Sea Level

Brad Elliott — Mon, 22 May 2017 16:54:51 GMT

Typically where I am my entry level is building 100'-0" which then needs to be tied to my elevation height say 7932'-4" above sea level. The only way I can figure out how to get the Building Elevation and Site Elevation to read correctly is to lower my elevation to sea level 100'.
Is there a way to get my Project Zero to 0, my 1st reference level to 100 and my sea level to 7932'-4" without setting it 100' lower in the project location?
To restate it, I want building 100 to equal my sea level elevation without adding 100' to it.

Re: Site & Sea Level

Brett Brown — Mon, 22 May 2017 22:12:22 GMT

Sorry, I don't know about anybody else but I can't work out what you are saying.

Typically your project "0" elevation to Sea Level is set in Options,Project Preferences, Project Location, under Altitude (Sea Level).

Then you can set your land levels to real world altitudes from the surveyor.

Assume you mean your project "0" is at 7932 and you would put that in there, or if 100, put that in there.

I can't see what your 7932 and 100 relate to project "0" its either one or another.

Hope that helps

Re: Site & Sea Level

sinceV6 — Tue, 23 May 2017 19:27:40 GMT

Hi.
Usually just keep Project Zero at 0. Set your Altitude (Sea Level) in project location with correct value. If you then check this value in Reference Levels, you should see it reads (-)SeaLevel.
To match this to your 100'-0" Project Level, just set your First Reference Level to (-)100'-0". This way you don't need to substract 100' to the sea level info.

Use the right hand arrow (Relative To column) to check levels. You should use "Relative to: Project Zero" to set up values.

Hope that's what you are looking for.
Best regards.

Re: Site & Sea Level

Stress Co_ — Thu, 25 May 2017 02:00:19 GMT

Like this:

Re: Site & Sea Level

Brad Elliott — Thu, 25 May 2017 03:05:01 GMT

Thanks for the responses. They get me close. I hadn't thought about the tie in to Story Settings. But I still have the problem of the default setting on the level dimension tool is 0'-0" when I want it to read 100'-0". I would like it to default to 100'-0" as it does now. Otherwise I have to change it every time I place the dimension and that opens me up to errors.

Re: Site & Sea Level

Stress Co_ — Thu, 25 May 2017 06:16:15 GMT

Change it in the default Dimension tool settings:

Re: Site & Sea Level

Brad Elliott — Thu, 25 May 2017 17:42:28 GMT

Thanks Marc, And this is where my head explodes. Not only do I have to open and adjust FIVE different windows to set this ONE feature it is one setting short of being fully useable. This is even worse than the Surfaces-Building Materials-Composites window waltz or the new Model Views-Renovation-Graphic Overrides confusion. And I also found a bug.
See the attached image. I open the file this morning to see the attached dimension read out. So when you make changes the Level Dimensions do not automatically update unless you move them.
And the missing setting is that while the Dimension Tool allows you to set dimension origin by default the Level Dimension Tool doesn't. Which means I have to manually change all those dimensions to the Entry Level. Because of the other useful benefits of these settings I will probably do it anyway but it is unfathomable to me that Graphisoft could so specifically program the reference levels for this purpose and then skip the most used tool. Or am I still missing something?

Re: Site & Sea Level

Stress Co_ — Thu, 25 May 2017 18:02:57 GMT

I see what you mean.
Forgot I made a wish a year ago.
Add Dimension Origin to the .....
(Skip down to David's Post for the workaround)

Re: Site & Sea Level

Brad Elliott — Thu, 25 May 2017 18:32:50 GMT

Thanks Marc, that will be added to my ArchiCAD Notes file for obscure workarounds.
I am obviously late to the game but have once again suffered the excitement and ultimate disappointment of discovering a useful ArchiCAD tool that does 80% and drops the ball. Is there a word for this? GRAPHIbotch?
Probably a good time for me to lower my expectations for the AC 21 stair tool.
The BUG however does exist and unfortunately survives the Select All and text change. You still have to physically move it. Hopefully my future projects starting with the reference levels set up correctly will help me avoid that particular bug. Off to change my template.

Re: Site & Sea Level

Stress Co_ — Thu, 25 May 2017 18:36:49 GMT

Brad wrote:
GRAPHIbotch?

... and always a good idea to report found bugs to GS.