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Additions: existing, new, demo walls in floor plan

I have my existing, demo, and new walls in separate layers. I would like the existing and new walls to read differently in the floor plan (such as existing walls outlined only, or existing walls as if they had a hatch on them, etc.). The only way I can think of is setting up new composites, which would mean duplicating every composite to have say '6in wood w/vent wd sid-NEW' and then '6in wood w/vent wd sid-EXST'. Or perhaps drawing fills on the existing walls in some other layer. Is anyone handling this in a way he is happy with?

I would also like to show the dotted outlines of the tore-down walls in the floor plan. Right now the only way I can think of is hiding the 'demo walls' layer (which I need to show in the 'existing' floor plan) and drawing the outlines with the line tool. Again, is there a better way?
6 REPLIES 6
Link
Graphisoft Partner
Graphisoft Partner
I reckon it would be easier to select these walls and edit their settings separately. In the Wall Tool Settings dialog, just override their 'Floor Plan and Section' settings. This will save you creating a bunch of extra composites and you can save them as Favorites, so next time you can just select the walls, then double click on your favorite!

Cheers,
Link.
Link wrote:
I reckon it would be easier to select these walls and edit their settings separately. In the Wall Tool Settings dialog, just override their 'Floor Plan and Section' settings. This will save you creating a bunch of extra composites and you can save them as Favorites, so next time you can just select the walls, then double click on your favorite!
[Is this love that I'm feeling?]

That is beautiful. Thank you *very* much.
Ignacio wrote:
I would like the existing and new walls to read differently in the floor plan (such as existing walls outlined only, or existing walls as if they had a hatch on them, etc.). The only way I can think of is setting up new composites […] Or perhaps drawing fills on the existing walls in some other layer.
Link wrote:
select these walls and edit their settings separately. In the Wall Tool Settings dialog, just override their 'Floor Plan and Section' settings.
Oh oh. I can't make it work. I can assign different pen settings for existing and new walls (that of the composite for one set of walls, and that of the tool settings for the other), but that will not affect the 'construction fills' display options ('no fills', 'uniform solid', 'bitmap mapping', 'vectorial hatching', etc.). So I am only getting the same effect in both sets of walls, only with different line thicknesses. Am I missing something?

[I am still on 7.0. Does that make a difference?]
Link
Graphisoft Partner
Graphisoft Partner
Don't change your new & existing walls - keep those as composites and only manually change the demo walls. They don't need composite info, so then it shouldn't matter right? You can still alter the new & existing walls' appearance, while still keeping their original composites. And these alterations will still be apparent with any display option.

If you had AC 8.x you could use intersection priority numbers to further enhance your output.

Cheers,
Link.
Link wrote:
They don't need composite info, so then it shouldn't matter right? You can still alter the new & existing walls' appearance, while still keeping their original composites. And these alterations will still be apparent with any display option.
Now I get it.

I initially understood I could somehow override the display option for a given wall and not lose the composite data. I can still fairly quickly custom select and manually return them to their original state, though, so overriding the composite and/or changing the outline pen type is good enough (and much simpler than the mess I was about to get into with duplicate composites).

Thank you very much again.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ignacio wrote:
I have my existing, demo, and new walls in separate layers. I would like the existing and new walls to read differently in the floor plan (such as existing walls outlined only, or existing walls as if they had a hatch on them, etc.)... Is anyone handling this in a way he is happy with?

What we do is use a non-composite wall style for both the existing and demo. I seldom care what existing walls are composed of (if I do I'll call it out with a note to "verify in field" anyway), and I really don't care what the demo ones are composed of.

So basically our existing walls are 75%, which allows for varying thicknesses without requiring extra composites. Our demo walls are empty fill w/ dotted pens (again, no need for extra info). And in 8.0+ the demo layer has a separate intersection number (or whatever it's called), and everybody plays beautifully together.

...and we're happy with it...