Archicad, Plotting Ghost Stories?

[Anonymous]

I would like to make all of the lines and text for an electrical plan pop out and have all other information recede. Is there an option to make all layers that are not on the electrical plan layer the same line weight, or at least grey out?

AC9

[Anonymous]

This has been discussed before. You may want to search the archives.

In a nutshell, there are two common methods. Both involve resetting pens in PlotMaker.

1. Overlay two drawings on the layout. One background with all pens changed to grey, and the one with only the electrical layers overlaid with pens set to black (make sure the drawing background is transparent). You can place hotspots on the drawings to get accurate registration.

2. For a single drawing, use specific pens for the electrical drawing elements and set all the others to grey.

[Anonymous]

1. Overlay two drawings on the layout. One background with all pens changed to grey, and the one with only the electrical layers overlaid with pens set to black (make sure the drawing background is transparent). You can place hotspots on the drawings to get accurate registration.


I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING EXACTLY LIKE YOU SAY BUT MY IMPORT THAT I WANT GREYSCALE IS NOT COMING OUT GREYSCALE..... IT IS STILL COMING OUT BLACK....NOW WHEN YOU SAY RESET PENS IN PLOTMAKER IS THIS GOING TO CHANGE ALL MY PENS IN ALL MY LAYOUTS?

LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO... JUST LIKE THE GUY WHO POSTED THIS....I AM DOING MY ELECTRICAL PLAN AND I WANT EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE WORK THAT WE ARE DOING GREYSCALE....WHAT I HAVE NOW ARE TWO IMPORTS. IN MY ARCHICAD FILE I HAVE A VIEW SET UP FOR MY GREYSCALE AND THEN I HAVE A VIEW SET UP FOR MY ELECTRICAL WORK. IN PLOTMAKER I HAVE THEM OVERLAPPING. THE VIEW THAT I WANT GREYSCALE I WENT TO SETTINGS AND CHECKED THE GREYSCALE BOX. THE IMPORT THAT I WANT BLACK I HAVE THE ALL COLORS BOX CHECKED. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? IM USING ARCHICAD 8.1
THANKS MICHAEL

[Anonymous]

WhiteTiger wrote:
....NOW WHEN YOU SAY RESET PENS IN PLOTMAKER IS THIS GOING TO CHANGE ALL MY PENS IN ALL MY LAYOUTS?

The drawing pens need to be set for each drawing, and make sure you are not using "Uniform Pens & Colors for Drawings and Book" (Options>Preferences>Drawing Attributes)

...and BTW, no need to shout (turn off your caps lock).

[Anonymous]

If I change the pens for one view its going to change the pens for all views right?

[TomWaltz]

No. Think of pens as parameters. Changing pens for one view does not effect other views, even other instances of the same view.

[Anonymous]

I want to say thank you for all your help..What i did was go to the drawing settings in plotmaker and edit the pens there. Im sure that was what you guys were trying to get my way but i wasnt understanding. the pens changed just for that view so hopefully it will work
Thank You
Michael

[__archiben]

WhiteTiger wrote:
What i did was go to the drawing settings in plotmaker and edit the pens there. Im sure that was what you guys were trying to get my way but i wasnt understanding. the pens changed just for that view ...

yep! that's the most common way and what the guys were trying to explain. we could really do with this functionality in archiCAD to be able to save it with the view (and indeed work on it within the model as more of a what you see is what you get style . . .)

~/archiben