topic Re: Item reference in Modeling

Item reference

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 12:59:25 GMT

Hello,

I am missing an option in Archicad very much. Maybe it already exists am I am just not aware.

Example: You create a chair. You create 50copies of the chair and position them as you like. You later realise that you want to change something on the chairs.
There must be an option to make a selection of elements as a reference unit for others to copy. So then if you change one, all would change. This way you don't need to recopy and reposition all chairs every time you decide to change something.

Is anything like this possible already?
Thank you for your help. Best Regards,
Primoz

Re: Item reference

Erwin Edel — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:13:15 GMT

Use find and select and add enough criteria to be able to distinguish the chair, once you have selected, give it a proper unique ID and it should be even easier to find.

In most cases a little forward planning helps. It takes 2 seconds to input an element ID when placing something and huge benefit after that.

You can also setup work environment to automatically increment an ID number every time you place something, provided the ID you start with has a number.

Re: Item reference

Erwin Edel — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:14:09 GMT

Also take a look at hotlinked modules, for repeating groups of similar things and only editing them once.

Re: Item reference

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 21:04:17 GMT

What you want to achieve reminds me of how things work in Revit. Revit has types where you edit the definition of the object type and all placed instances of the type are automatically updated.
Revit also has groups, which is a group of elements and if you modify one group all other instances of that group are also automatically updated.

In ARCHICAD these things work differently.
If you want to change the definition of objects, you need to use Find & Select as Edwin suggested. Select all instances you want to modify and when they are all selected, go to its Settings Dialog and change settings.

Re: Item reference

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 06:04:59 GMT

Thank you for you replies. I think what I had in mind is what laszlonagy described in Revit. I know how to select all library object with the same specifications,layers etc. using the ctrl+F tool and then change the items properties.
My problem is: I design a chair or a desk by myself for example, using multiple slabs, shells and morphs and then multiply these items across the room. After a while I realise that I need to make the back of the chair rounded. Now I have to delete all of the chairs, change one and multiply it all over again with all the rotations, which can prove as very difficult in cases where you need to make a visualization comparisson using the same positioning of different items, since you won't be able to place them exactly the same. This time I would need to select every single one of my models and change them by hand one at a time.

It would be so much easier if you could set a number of items or models (formed by slabs shells etc.) as linked, so that if you change one, all would change accordingly - saving tons of time.

Re: Item reference

Barry Kelly — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 06:18:25 GMT

Gizzox wrote:
It would be so much easier if you could set a number of items or models (formed by slabs shells etc.) as linked, so that if you change one, all would change accordingly - saving tons of time.

That is why you need to look at Hotlinked Modules as suggested before.

When you alter the source of the hotlink all the place hotlinks will update as well.

Barry.

Re: Item reference

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 06:36:23 GMT

Yup, looks like that's it This will save time. Thanks a lot.