AC21 Update: Windows and Doors: Zone Name / Number

[Anonymous]

So, I have been using ArchiCAD quite effectively for some time now. I like to think that I pretty much get it.

We have a project that is pretty far along. We were on the fence about whether to migrate this project to AC21, or to simply finish it in AC20. We ultimately went ahead and migrated... And now, the vast majority of my windows and none of my doors are showing their zone name or number in their respective schedules. I have deleted and re-inserted windows, doors, and zones. Zone heights are accurate to match ceiling heights in each room. Is there some new checkbox within door/window settings I am unable to find?

For what its worth, I started a new project from scratch, and hammered out a quick cube of walls with some zones, windows, and doors, and am getting the same result. ZERO zone names or numbers.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any ideas? Am I really the only person who is having this issue?

[Richard Morrison]

This sounds like the sort of thing that happens when renovation filters are not set correctly, either for the zones, or the schedule.

[Anonymous]

Richard, and anyone else who may be interested:

Unbeknownst to me, Zones are one of a handful of elements that are not replaced with newer versions when you migrate a project to a new version, as windows, doors, etc do. In fact, I was so far in the dark by this that all of the zones in my template were still from AC17, despite my being fairly intentional about keeping up with new updates, maintaining libraries, etc.

I went back, created a new zone stamp favorite, ands recreated my zones with current AC21 versions. Sadly, I cannot seem to regain the ability to resize Zone Stamps live in plan view via the purple diamond handles. Bummer. If anyone knows how to regain this capability, I'm all ears.

Now, if only I could schedule window head-heights from wall-base, rather than closest Story below....

[Rupert Auerbach]

I made schedules in AC 20 showing zone names

In AC21 some zone names were there but a lot were missing.

I had to redo all of the zones automatically connecting to inside wall face for the missing zone names and flip some of the windows. This worked for our external aluminium schedule but not for internal timber doors which come from modules

Very frustrating.

Doors, windows, zones and schedules are all set to New construction.

Doors and windows used to connect if they were within a zone - not any more

To solve it I selected the relevant zones and hit the inside wall edge button,
then chose 'updated zone now'. I scheduled the doors from hotlinks inside the hotlink. It worked out to be a better solution in the end

[Rupert Auerbach]

Another problem with the schedules in AC21 is with hotlinks in the schedule scheme settings:
The hotlink criteria - is, is not – is the wrong way around (see attached)

The attached only picked up doors and windows that were IN hotlinks!!

[Daniel Kovacs]

Hi All!

I am Daniel Kovacs from GRAPHISOFT HQ Technical Support. Let me add my 2 cents to this topic.

Regarding the original issue, as I can see You have run into 2 different issues:
- smithmm1's problem was that his ARCHICAD 17 Zone Stamps haven't migrated to 21. That's because there were changes in the Zone Stamps and their migration in earlier versions, that made direct migration of certain stamps impossible, so it was cut and replaced with migration library parts. But in general, the migration of Zone Stamps work.
- Rupert Auerbach's original problem with his zones was a known bug we are currently working on fixing. The problem is that currently in 21, if the door/window is inside the zone, it will not be able to list the zone it is related to, only if the zone touches the edge of the wall it is in.

An additional thing that Rupert Auerbach mentioned was that in Schedule Schemes, the logic of the "Hotlink Module" criteria is reversed in ARCHICAD 21. This appears to be a bug in 21 indeed, so I have let the developers know about it. Thanks for pointing it out to us.

Best Regards

[Da3dalus]

We make extensive use of the Door Identifier NCS 21 marker and the automatic door/room number identification. Upon upgrading to AC21, we found that many door schedules ceased to pick up the Zone Number. The solution was to correct the Schedule View Settings so that it would use a Layer Combination with the Zone's Layer turned on.

It appears that, previous to AC21, the Schedules were blind to the layer upon which associated Zones were assigned. It would reference all Zones on all Layers. For this reason, we've adopted the policy to never overlap Zones. Now, it appear to be Layer-aware, based on the Schedule's View Settings. I have not found any documentation as such.

This opens up so potential opportunities. However, the exact logic is not perfectly clear. For instance, I recently had an equipment schedule that referenced the Zone each piece of equipment was located in. It was picking up the Zone Name from the Demolished Zone instead of the new. I don't recall this being a problem in the past (perhaps another change). I attempted to change the Demo Zones to a hidden layer, in hopes this would disregard them, but it did not work. So, this is not a 100% solution. Maybe it only works on Doors?

[Daniel Kovacs]

Hi Da3dalus,

We have fixed a lot of things in the criteria checks of schedules for ARCHICAD 21, but the layers shouldn't affect whether Zone informations are listed or not. I made some quick tests, and it works fine for me. If you really have a schedule that won't report zones and a "fixed" version with the Zone layer turned on, I would really like to take a look, as it might be a bug.

Regarding the issue with Zones in a hidden Renovation Status, this is a bug that we have just found. We are already working on the fix!

Regards,

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Hi Daniel,

Can you provide an update on the status of this Zone problem. It is a major headache here as Zones are used in the office less to define room boundaries for finishes, but rather as measured areas for Zoning compliance Gross Floor Area, Gross Area Deductions, etc.

In our case most Zone boundaries relate to the spaces as demised for the Building Authorities. That may be on a wall face or at the centreline of a wall.

Help! I don't want to have to create extra Zones and extra layers to deal with this.