control interactive legends listing

[Anonymous]

I am using a method similar to the Master Template way ... of having a hotlinked file with all the standard elements ( walls, doors, slabs ..etc ) so I can just copy attributes and start drawing .. which works fine.

till we come to listing ... I don't want to list those elements ... ! what approaches will you use ?

- filter by layer : is not possible as those elements should have the layers that I am using in the project ( that is the point of linking the standards as a HLM)

- Filter by ID : it is possible to give all the elements in the HLM a specific ID lets say (000-HLM) . however when I copy attributes it takes the ID. so I have always to remember to run the ID manager on the file to be able to separate by ID.


What do you think ?

[Barry Kelly]

If you are running a calculation (element or component list) then you can place a marquee on the plan or select what you want to calculate.

But I don't think this works with the interactive schedules.

So you could delete all of the unnecessary elements and then hotlink them back in if ever needed again.
Or set up a whole bunch of favourites for what you need and you won't need the hotlinked file at all.

Neither is the perfect solution.
It would be better to be able to set aside an area that is not included in any schedules.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Hi Barry , thanx for your ideas ... I used to remember days when this forum was really active !

yes I am using interactive scheduling , I prefer Hotlink legends as it gives a visual feedback .

Now actually the only way I thought of , is to set the ID of the schedules to something weird ( say ZZXX) , and in the schedules I set a criteria ( "element ID Starts with D " for doors for example ) . so when you run the schedule for the first time it will be blank . and that will force us to run the ID manager to correct all the doors IDs .

its still not easy because after that if I added new doors it will not be included and I have to run ID manager again ( and that again allows errors ). and actually with doors and windows it is easy .. because anyone can notice the ID in the marker ... but slabs ? walls ? beams ? .. that is a real issue !.

I guess we will just have to set that as a rule .. run ID MANAGER ... then open schedules ! ..it sucks to be honest !

EDIT : now also giving it a second thought it might be kind of wrong also , not sure about the ID manager behaviour ! will it change the existing Id's when I run it for the second time ? as I just want it to add not to re-number everything ! otherwise I will end up with different names/ IDs each and every schedule .

If the hotlink layer can be excluded it will just work perfect !

[Barry Kelly]

Maybe another option is to have all of your visual favourites in a "Schedule" storey and then exclude that storey in the schedule criteria.
Just be careful then when ALT-clicking and placing the elements that they go in the correct storey.

I personally like to use the favourites list.
I may not have favourites for every conceivable window size or wall type for example but I will have 3 or 4 that get me close to what I want and then it is just minor tweaks of the parameters.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

specific storey is something I thought of , but I am here helping new users switching from ACAD, so trying to make it as easy as possible ... and adding a fake storey will just confuse everyone ! specially that it will totally prevent the automatic work flow ( clones , automatic layout sets ..etc ) . I tried excluding size / area based criteria, but again didn't work , as for slabs for example area is not an option that can be included as a criteria .

as you said favourites are the "natural / default " way of doing it. however trying to make it more "attractive" for the users here

Thank you for your comments Barry.

[Anonymous]

I was just looking into the new " Calculation Rules" .. and I couldn't find my way through it .. is it something I can apply in this case?

[Barry Kelly]

Calculations and the interactive schedules are two completely different things.
Calculations are a way of getting the data that you need in a format that you need (text or graphical) and even exporting to external files (i.e. Excel) for further processing.
It involves property objects and GDL scripting and can be quite tricky to get what you want.
You have complete control over the format of the output regardless of the claculation units set up in the preferences of Archicad.
One wall could give you the area, volume, surface area, opening area, materials and finishes based on the type of fills used in each leaf and even calculate the number of bricks if you want it to.

I never did work out the graphical listing part of the calculations - the closest thing to interactive schedules.
The schedules are far easier to use and much better than they used to be.

If you are trying to keep it simple for the end users and administrators then Interactive Schedules are the way to go.

Barry.

[Barry Kelly]

whatever wrote:
I was just looking into the new " Calculation Rules" .. and I couldn't find my way through it .. is it something I can apply in this case?

To answer your question a little better you could use calculations as the one good thing is you can select or marquee only those elements you want to calculate.
Anything not selected or outside the marquee will not be included (the user must still remeber to select or marquee which could be a problem if they don't).
But as you mentioned it can be hard to work it all out.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

I am totally aware of the difference between interactive listing and calculations, but sorry some times it get messed up in "english" in my head !

however the new features of "calculation rules" are actually applied to the Interactive schedules ... at least this is what the New features of AC 13 says

Not really going to do any calculations. interactive schedules are more than enough for me .. .