Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

ArchiCAD 18 announced

Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Find the official announcement and new features at:

http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/archicad-18/overview/
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
152 REPLIES 152
DGSketcher
Legend
mkopecky wrote:
To have multiple design and/or phase options with extra layers, create a Planned Filter option, duplicate it and rename it to Planned Filter Option 2 (or Phase 2), duplicate and rename as many as you want.
...
Pretty nice feature but not well documented.
Thanks for this. Hope you don't mind but I have reposted here...

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=228538#228538
Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thank you mkopecky!!! I had never properly understood / appreciated before what the "pin to renovation filter" button did. (another example perhaps of some of the already existing features / workarounds in AC that could be better documented / explained by GS? - Knowing / understanding this feature of the Renovation Filter could have saved me an awful lot of time messing around with separate model files for different design options) - Why isn't this feature being highlighted by Graphisoft (and just improved a little -surely it would take very little to tweak this one?)

Whilst Peter_h is correct - this won't work with phasing where elements need to be shown across multiple (but not necessarily all) filters. It does however go some of the way towards meeting my needs - i.e. being able to create different design options all within one model (without using complex multiple layer settings).

Peter_h wrote:
Likewise with design options -- an element may need to be present in multiple options, whereas at the moment, it can only be visible exclusively in one.
But you can "unpin" these particular elements (from renovation filter), and then they will show across all the different design options - No?
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks Rob,

What I meant, in regards to objects, was use of 'scenography' approach and not only BIM functional building parts that are becoming more available these days and therefore part of our building model.

In oder to explain myself bit better right now I am using Artlantis and all those 'rendering' object do not unnecessary clutter my model. I can imagine that layers will help in organizing the file but something like hot linked file may allow for more elaborated model that carries only relevant info.

Anyhow I would think that the best understanding will have to come from experiencing and learning this new challenging but very cool AC functionality.

Using C4D engine for animation within AC will need better controls although I admit that I didn't use this since 2002 (it was AC7, todays AC17 animation is probably the same).

So many new surfaces and materials, hopefully those are organized so to follow Master Format numbering system (I already spent quite bit of time to organize my building materials and ...far from being done).

Regards, Andy
Stephen Dolbee
Booster
With the introduction of C4D, does this mean bimx files/models will benefit as well?
AC19(9001), 27" iMac i7, 12 gb ram, ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb, OS 10.12.6
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Stephen wrote:
With the introduction of C4D, does this mean bimx files/models will benefit as well?
No. BIMx has its own separate render engine as now.
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
owen
Newcomer
peter_h wrote:

I have to disagree. IMO, this is another example of one GS's good ideas crippled by its bad habit of not following though and finishing things properly to make them REALLY useful (Take the Selections palette as a classic example).
The "pin" you refer to is the "Show on this renovation filter ONLY" button. Which means that a "pinned" element can ONLY be shown visible in ONE filter ONLY. It's a very inflexible one-to-one relationship. As an example of why this doesn't work, take the "building phases" example: phase 3 needs to include elements that have been "previously built" in phase 2 and phase 1. With the "pin button" used as you described, an element can only exist in one phase.

Likewise with design options -- an element may need to be present in multiple options, whereas at the moment, it can only be visible exclusively in one.

A the very least, it would have been way more useful if GS had changed this button to "Exclude selected element(s) from this filter" rather than "Show only on this filter". In which case the button could have been used to successfully implement phasing and design options (though it still feels like a work-around solution, compared to being able to add your own custom "tags").

As it stands, yet more frickin layers have to be added to the project -- including updating all your layer combinations -- a really 1990s solution, IMHO.
On the topic of the Renovation Filter although I think it is great for certain use cases it is also another of those (admittedly rare) cases where i think they could have looked at what the competition was doing and come up with a better (more flexible and powerful) solution. Anyone familiar with the power of Revits Filters will understand:

1. Filter elements by criteria (Layer, ID, Wall Type, IFC Properties like Fire Rating, Thermal Rating, etc)
2. Show/Hide or Apply overrides to that filter (Fill, Pens, Linetypes, etc)

Simple concept, super flexible. Can do everything the Renovation Filter can do but way more. Color code particular element types, Fire Rating plans, Thermal plans, Phasing plans, etc. Control the appearance of your linked MEP models based on their IFC properties (Cyan begone!)

Thats proper BIM and it would remove sooo many 2D workarounds and hacks we have to do currently
peter_h wrote:
As you can guess, I'm a big fan of the dream of adding custom tags to elements and implementing tag filters to define their visibility on any view. I think this should programmatically be an easy feature for GS to add, and would MASSIVELY simplify the current layer mess we have decended into. The more you think about it, the more you realise its potential, and wonder why on earth this wasn't a priority ten versions ago.
above would sort this too, but you can sort-of do this already if you are willing to do a little GDL scripting. We have developed labels that change their content/appearance dependent on the drawing type as assigned in the Model View Options (drawing type is another custom parameter added in our in-house Library Globals script).
cheers,

Owen Sharp

Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp

iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5
kevin b
Contributor
Dan wrote:

I too had really been hoping that Graphisoft would include some kind of Phasing or Design Options Filter. I would have thought all this really requires is an extension of the Renovation Filter (which I think is a great tool) - so as well as current Existing, Demolition, Proposed filters, you could have Proposed Option A, Option B etc.....Currently design options have to be modelled either by having duplicate models (a pain), or overly complex layer combinations (also a pain)
You can make as many renovation filters as you want. Name them Option A, Option B, etc then activate Option A filter, select any of the elements that are only part of Option A and click the show on current renovation filter only button. Then once you decide on an Option you can find and select only those elements and reset them back to show on all relevant filters. You do need to get a bit creative if you have some things that are part of say A & C but not B but it is much easier to control than all the crazy layers and better in the long run than multiple stories for Options due to view management.

Not sure if it is demonstrated or marketed this way but it is actually very useful. Now if we could just get the composite skins too...
kevin s burns, AIA

massachusetts, usa



AC25 (1413), since AC6

Windows 10

Intel Core i7 -8700 @ 3.2 GHz~ 16 GB ram
TMA_80
Enthusiast
kevin wrote:
Now if we could just get the composite skins too...
Why could not this be implemented as a hotfix ...
AC12_20 |Win10_64bit|
Anonymous
Not applicable
Dan wrote:

And why still no update to the Renovation Tool so you can set the renovation status of individual skins in composites - currently there is no (easy) way to add say a new external insulation layer to an existing wall, which is a pretty common requirement now for retrofit / refurb. works.

As a small architectural practice doing mainly residential works (ArchiCAD SOLO user), to be honest these kinds on basic productivity improvements would be much more beneficial to me than the integrated C4D Rendering (probably won't come with SOLO Version anyway?), or BIMServer Cloud, but maybe I am not Graphisoft's target customer anymore.
I agree completely.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I am sad to say I agree with the recent posts. It seems Graphisoft is only interested in the big end of town nowadays. However, most architects work in small or solo practices, and it is the Archicad core productivity issues that seem to be repeatedly overlooked (stairmaker anyone?).

However, thanks at last for the Revisions Manager tool. It is these are the type of things that matter to most architects who have to actually produce documentation for clients.