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Internal Elevations Documentation - Opinions

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello Everyone!

First time posting here, forgive me if I don't follow forum etiquette!

Wanted the opinion/experience of other experienced Archicad users on how they deal with laying out/documenting internal Elevations. Currently in firm, we use a 1:50 scale with a plan view and as many internal Elevations that we need to get across any necessary info. We use dynamic labels in the interior elevations for object labelling, surfaces etc. Pretty well anything that can be contained within the internal elevation viewpoint. We than overlay a worksheet over the interior elevation layout that contains data that needs to be coordinated on the page in relation to the other views, such as floor to ceiling dimensions, labels that cannot fit within the viewport and need to be laid out related to what else is on the page, set out lines, etc. In order to edit this worksheet, we trace the layout sheet which includes the internal views.

The useful aspects of approaching it this way:
- coordinating a layout page becomes much easier and clearer.
- reusing common elements such as floor to ceiling setout lines and such is much more efficient than jumping between views or sheets.
- a single worksheet can be used to provide alot of the documentation for all the internal Elevations within a project, therefore for items that need to be edited, it can be alot easier to get to and batch edit.

We get a few problems with this approach however, that is:
- when it comes to larger projects, the worksheet becomes very slow and cumbersome as within the trace reference its also referencing all the internal views.
- when labelling within the overlay worksheet, dimensioning is great, but you can't use dynamic labels (which I'm really trying to push using no 'dumb' text currently)

Any opinions on how other individuals/firms approach this or any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also I'm not currently at work, however, if what I've said isn't clear or requires some visual explanation, I can provide screenshots later.

Cheers everyone
1 REPLY 1
Podolsky
Ace
Hi!

Interior Elevations that the tool that didn't appear straight away in earlier versions. Before existed only Section/Elevation tool, after it been separated into two: Section and Elevation (this is why interface of these two tools are very similar). Later appeared Interior Elevation tool, that used same Section tool functionality, just keeping them into group of four.
This is the reason, why ArchiCAD do not generate all views on one page - you are getting each wall in separate window.
I noticed that many architects prefer to draw Interior Elevations - all four with a room plan and RCP - on one worksheet. But as you noticed absolutely correct - you cannot use automatic labels, that can show information they are receiving from live ArchiCAD elements.
I also notice that when project file is becoming quite big - using Trace & Reference slows down the program.

When I had reviewed this problem, I came to conclusion, that it's better to use original ArchiCAD tool for Interior Elevations and work on each elevation in separate window. Even if it's not so comfortable for manual drafting, it gives possibility of automation - that means the less you are draw with 2D the faster you are getting final result.

Please see attached images. I used here quite a lot of custom labels and well detailed 3D library parts, that make me absolutely happy about the result of the drawing.