topic Re: Specifications on Drawings in Modeling

Specifications on Drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:59:16 GMT

As a smaller office occasionally we locate our specifications on the drawings. This allows us to make sure that the contractor has all the information he needs in one place. Our office edits specifications in Word. I found that if I make a PDF of the specifications i can place them directly on the layout. I apologize if this is redundant for people but I searched a long time to try and figure this one out so I thought that I should share with the class.

There is a little set up but once it is done updating the information is relatively easy.

1. Format the Word document so that there are no margins and the width that you would like to see on the drawings. 6"x11" works pretty good for me. You can do 6x sheet size but I find that if i want to edit in word sometimes it is nice to print a hard copy out and edit, call me old fashion.

2. Create a PDF of the spec, making sure that all pages are within one document.

3. Place the document on the layout, ArchiCAD will have you place each page separately. Arrange them so that it reads continuously. See attached image for how I did it for a 24"x36" sheet.

4. When you need to make changes to the PDF Just republish with the correct format, the same name, and same location. it will update the pages that you placed on the drawing when you re-open the drawing and update the layout.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

Erich — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:59:16 GMT

Just an FYI...

If you set your page size in Word to something larger, you can reduce the number of imports required. In Pages (a mac program) I can make the page size match the drawing sheet size and only have 1 import on each page. Then you just adjust the number of columns to match what you want to see. In Word I was not able to make this work because my version of Word (older) was limited in how large a page could be but you could match the sheet height and cut your number of imports in half.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:00:59 GMT

This is a good summary of how to do this so I am copying it to the Tips and trick section.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

Steve Jepson — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:06:43 GMT

Erich wrote:
Just an FYI...

If you set your page size in Word to something larger, you can reduce the number of imports required. In Pages (a mac program) I can make the page size match the drawing sheet size and only have 1 import on each page. Then you just adjust the number of columns to match what you want to see. In Word I was not able to make this work because my version of Word (older) was limited in how large a page could be but you could match the sheet height and cut your number of imports in half.

Eric, would you happen to know what the max page size for the latest version of Word is? Pages sounds like a good progam. I think I wish I had a mac.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

Erich — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 05:28:26 GMT

Steve,

Sorry I don't know if this has change with the latest versions. I dumped Word when I started using Archicad and could use a Mac at the office rather than the PC. Since I have been using it since version 10, this has been awhile now.

I was very pleased with Pages when Microsoft changed to the .docx format. My version of Word on the PC would not open it but Pages on the mac would!

Re: Specifications on Drawings

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 05:30:57 GMT

Steve wrote:
Erich wrote:
Just an FYI...

If you set your page size in Word to something larger, you can reduce the number of imports required. In Pages (a mac program) I can make the page size match the drawing sheet size and only have 1 import on each page. Then you just adjust the number of columns to match what you want to see. In Word I was not able to make this work because my version of Word (older) was limited in how large a page could be but you could match the sheet height and cut your number of imports in half.
Eric, would you happen to know what the max page size for the latest version of Word is? Pages sounds like a good progam. I think I wish I had a mac.

Last I checked it was 24x24. That was a while ago though. I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't changed. Pages is cool but you can get similar results from any program that will do the large sheets.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

vistasp — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 07:16:01 GMT

Steve, does Word give you the option for a "user" size page? Just tried a 24"x36" page with 6 columns in Open Office Writer and printed it to PDF. Works great.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

vfrontiers — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 08:06:44 GMT

Ok... you made me go the "way back" machine for this one... but...

Yes... word sticks you to 22x22... But if you're tricky, you can set up your page 12 x 18 (for example)... 6 columns with "half size" font... make pdf and place @ 200%... There are filters (mac/ pdf) and other tricks to get resolution back to acceptable (actually, I am not sure that it will be unacceptable as I am presuming the fonts are "vectors" and not pixels in the resulting PDF file)...

Re: Specifications on Drawings

vistasp — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 12:36:12 GMT

Nice work-around, Duane!

It seemed like a strange limitation (that excel and powerpoint do not suffer from) and a quick search mentions that it has something to do with a unit of measurement I'd never heard of before: "twips". See the 9th post in this thread.

I'll stick with OpenOffice/LibreOffice/Whichever-fork-of-Ooo-works-best.

Re: Specifications on Drawings

vistasp — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 12:53:03 GMT

Just checked. The max page size in any OpenOffice document (or spreadsheet/presentation/drawing) is 3mx3m (almost 10'x10'). Whoa!