How to setup a site plan?

[OBERMEYER]

What is the best practice to setup a site plan view?

I've been looking online for the answer for the past two hours.

[Anonymous]

I typically set up a storey for use as a site works storey as I find it quicker and easier, but this is not necessary. I then use layers, layer states and saved views to set up for differing drawing types (locality plan, site plan, site setout and coordination plans, hard landscaping plans, soft landscaping plans, irrigation plans).

For a locality plan view I would just have on the site boundary and locality / context layers with the annotation layer for these elements.

For a site plan view I have on the site boundary, hard landscape layers and annotation layer for site plan with fill display overridden to empty fills. I also place a copy of the roof plan view with the annotation turned off on the layout.

Regards,
Scott

[OBERMEYER]

Thanks (much belated) for the tips. I'm working on another project (our second in Archicad) and I still don't get some of the logic. Revit for example simply views the model from top down for a site plan. Much easier. Archicad quickly becomes a settings management nightmare. I'm surprised more users have not responded to this post given that there is little information available online regarding site plans in Archicad. Your explanation is helpful but I'll have to lose another day(s) of my life testing out settings. Can anyone reply with a tutorial reference? Or detailed instructions for site plans?

[Richard Morrison]

You are probably not getting a lot of replies because most people are not understanding what your issue is. (I certainly don't.) You are overthinking this. Put everything you want to draw on a site plan on a layer called, oh I don't know, "Site Plan." Set the scale correctly, turn on & maybe lock the other layers you want to display along with the site plan, and when you are finished drawing, save the view as "Site Plan". Save the currently shown layers as a layer set called "Site Plan" so you can use it on the next project. Send the view named "Site Plan" to a layout sheet. What's the big deal?

If you have multiple types of site plans, as Scott does, you can put information that is specific to that type of site plan on its own layer. You can also speed up the next time by saving things as Favorites. The Active Layer tool is also a major time saver to avoid checking layers as you're drawing.

BTW, you can also try typing "how to create a site plan in ArchiCAD" in Google and will see all sorts of tutorials. I just tried it and it took, all told, maybe 10 seconds to find. Make Google your friend.

[OBERMEYER]

Thanks for the help Richard but perhaps next time try to dial down the sarcasm. I made it very clear that I'm a new user to Archicad. Also, most of your friend Google's results are incomplete or possibly outdated. By asking the community for input on the "best practice" I was hoping for a dialogue to weed out any obsolete techniques.

Anyhow...I have more issues and questions regarding site plans. I'll post a separate reply.

[Anonymous]

Hi Obermeyer.

You might have caught Richard on a bad day ! He does make a good point though...the more information you can provide about your problem, the more likely you are to get specific replies to help you out.

Anyhow, Scott's approach and advice is a good one (I believe he works on some fairly substantial projects so he has probably set up his system with quite a few layers).

You could probably add 'Existing Site Plan', and 'Demolitions Plan' depending on the type, scale and complexity of the project you are working on.

It is certainly worth spending the time setting up a template that works for you and suits your workflow....and you can always tweak it a little....I am constantly adjusting mine as I adopt other peoples ideas and as I learn more, and as I discover what ultimately suits the way I work.

[Anonymous]

Is there any way on how to manually draw/sketch property line/ site boundary? Can anyone tell me how? I'm a new user of Archicad 21. Thanks!

[Barry Kelly]

Robinhood wrote:
Is there any way on how to manually draw/sketch property line/ site boundary?

Sure, but it may depend on what information you have for your site.
i.e. do you have boundary lengths and the angle between boundaries at each corner?
Or do you have some other form of boundary information (compass bearings) - I think they refer to it as Northings?


Barry.

[Anonymous]

There is an over simplification going on here with layers.

For example. I have a model that is distributed over two level both with exterior elements that need to appear on both the ground and upper floor. Slabs, walls and other such elements that need to appear on one story in the floor plans and the site plan needs element from both stories to be displayed. THIS ISN'T A LAYER ISSUE. It's an issue with showing elements across two stories in 1 view (Site plan) and not displaying them in the other.

Site requires - slabs from both floors fences from both floors

Floor Plan requires - slabs from one floor, fences from one floor.

Specifically I cannot make the exterior slabs work unless I allocated a layer combination for each story.

So how does one show the roof with fill while also depicting whats on the ground floor with fill?

[Richard Morrison]

The easiest way to do this is to have a layer for the upper story and one for the ground story for anything that is going to appear on more than one level. So, your fences would have "Fences - Upper" and "Fences-Ground". All of the upper floor entities should be set to display on "Home Story and One Floor Below". If you need a lower fence to be shown from an upper level view, set the fence to display on "Home Story and One Floor Above". Now you have total flexibility with Layer Combinations. (I'm not sure why you are resistant to making a layer combination for each floor.)

For fills and line weights, you should use Graphic Overrides.