How to Have Stacked Light Switches [USA] Show Properly in Plan?

[KOAN]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to solve a problem I've been having for years and was hoping someone here might have a viable solution.  Basically, I'm using the US Switch 26 object to depict/annotate light switches and I want the objects to display properly on both the E Plans and the Interior Elevations.

More specifically, I have trouble when we have a switch location with 4 or more switches; we always do a 2 over 2, and not a 4 gang.  It's easy to get the 2 gang objects to stack so that they look right in Interior Elevations, but then the 2d symbols are directly on top of each other and there's not way to properly draw the circuits on the Electrical Plan.

Is there a way to offset the $$ from the object on an individual basis?  That seems like the obvious solution but I can't find it.

As an aside, a request I have to Graphisoft is that I would like to be able to add text to each individual switch in a multi gang box.  Often we need to be able to label each switch with a 3 or a D; as far as I can tell, the current object only allows one text placement per switch object.  I know I can gang single switches, but it seems like this functionality should exist for the multi-ganged object.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Glad you asked this question, as I've not used the switch objects since they got improved to have the option to show the box in 2D and/or the plate in 3D vs using a 3rd party object.

There is a trick and a bug with moving the switch $$ symbol.

There is an editable hotspot (diamond shaped - magenta color in default WE) that lets you re-position the $$ - however the trick (and IMHO also bug) is that this hotspot is only visible if you show the box and wall plate in 2D by checking this box:

You'll then see an editable (diamond) hotspot at the wall side of the $$ symbols - in the middle in the case of 2 switches as seen here:

Here is the result after I dragged one set of $$ to the left and another to the right for a pair of stacked switches... I don't know the graphic standard for stacks, but if they should be in the same X position and different Y locations, that's possible too.

Now... here's the bug:  if you do not want to see the box and plate in 2D, the new position of the symbols reverts to the default if you turn that off (uncheck the box shown in first screenshot).  Yet, the new position is still saved with the object, since if you re-check the box to display the switch box and plate again, the symbols move back to where you had dragged them.

So... for now, unless someone jumps in to offer a fix to this object, the only way to get what you want is if you're willing to see the box and plate in 2D.   (Can't even fake-hide it by changing the box/plate linetype as the object uses the same linetype for the symbol.)

 

 

[KOAN]

Thanks for that workaround.  I suppose that could work, even if I'd rather not show the cover plate and box, at least the interior elevations would be correct.

It's a shame, I've been using Archicad for almost 10 years now and I seem to run up against little things like this somewhat frequently.  It's like 95% there, but that last 5% really keeps this from being the fully functional single-program-solution that I need it to be.

[Laszlo Nagy]

---

@KOAN wrote:

As an aside, a request I have to Graphisoft is that I would like to be able to add text to each individual switch in a multi gang box.  Often we need to be able to label each switch with a 3 or a D; as far as I can tell, the current object only allows one text placement per switch object.  I know I can gang single switches, but it seems like this functionality should exist for the multi-ganged object.

KOAN,

You should make a separate post for your wish in the Wishes forum. That way, people can Like it to support it and I can submit it to Graphisoft.