topic Re: Several Houses on one Plot in Modeling

Several Houses on one Plot

ArchiVlad — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 07:27:24 GMT

I have a new project with a large, relatively steep plot and 19 or 20 houses (masterplan still to be finalised) including access road, retaining walls etc.. The houses will be divided into 3 types (A, B and C), whereas B and C are identical, but mirrored.

Given the steepness of the site, each house will have a different absolute 0,00 level. How do I go about setting up the levels? and is there a way to create somthing similar to Blocks (in Autocad) for the 3 individual types, where I can draw, make changes and add details to all instances of the same type?

Operating system used: Windows

Re: Several Houses on one Plot

CosminF — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 07:36:17 GMT

Hi,

What you are looking for, similar to blocks can be achieved by using hotlinks - you would have a file for House A, another for house B, another for C.
And you can place these onto the site plan in a different file. When you edit House A, it will auto-update everywhere.
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Project-data-BIM/Hotlinked-Modules/ta-p/303819

In regards to 0 level, you may decide if you choose to have one that is project-wide and then have each house base level in regards to that. You can annotate that in the main file where you have the hotlink inserted.

Hope this helps.

Re: Several Houses on one Plot

Lingwisyer — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 08:25:08 GMT

If your Type B and C are just mirrored, you can use just the single module for both. From memory, there were only a few niche things that did not mirror cleanly, though I do not remember exactly what...

Ling.

Re: Several Houses on one Plot

DamianW — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 06:20:30 GMT

In many cases it's better to document each house in a separate file and use a 'site model' to site houses, streetscapes, connection/ junction details between lots and produce benching plans etc.

Some tips:

1. if you want to produce a symbolic ground floor plan (plan showing all ground floor plans rather than a realistic cut) then you need to set walls and other elements to be symbolic. Otherwise, you will be fighting the cut plane when producing views.

2. Assuming you're producing symbolic plans - set the ground floor/ lowest storey to the lowest house on the site. Level 1 would be equal to the level 1 of the uppermost house. 3 storeys and above you may struggle with stair representation amongst other things.

3. Multi-storey hotlinks are very useful too, but be mindful about the cutting plane and don't adjust your building elements to the host file.

Re: Several Houses on one Plot

karsten_bauschert — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 07:52:30 GMT

Hotlinks are the way to go. The process has a learning curve but is the only way to be effective at handling large projects with repetetive elements.
With the use of the variant options one can also have Type B.1. B.2 and B.3 in the same module to chose from.

One big issue might be keeping the attributes synchronized among the different files (new layer, new materials etc ).

Re: Several Houses on one Plot

Lingwisyer — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 01:23:18 GMT

Regarding attributes, I find it best to only create new attributes in the site file, or in a dedicated attributes file, which you then import into each Hotlink.

In terms of masterplanning, I find it useful to inlcude a Building Type layer for a zone bound to your external walls to show on the masterplan. Good for keeping track of numbers and for easy identification.

Ling.

Re: Several Houses on one Plot

jl_lt — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 06:45:02 GMT

if the houses have only 3 variants with no aditional details needed (retaining walls, etc), doing a grading plan (the platform on which each house will seat), will be of great help as each prototype has the same relationship to its grading level; certainly easier to prepare than a plan with all the different levels for each individual house.