In AC14, is it possible to build a multi-tiered hierarchy?

[Anonymous]

I am working on a subdivision and am trying to set up a structure
like this:

1.0 PRIVATE AREAS (zone category)

1.1 Low density residential (zone)

1.1.1 Phase 1 (sub-zone)
1.1.1.1 Lot 1A (sub-subzone)
1.1.1.2 Lot 1C

1.1.2 Phase 2 (sub-zone)

1.2 Medium density residential (zone)

1.3 High density residential (zone)

1.4 Commercial (zone)


2.0 COMMON AREAS (zone category)

2.1 Streets & roads (zone)
2,1.1 Paved area (sub-zone)
2.1.2 Sidewalks and curbs (sub-zone)

2.2 Public green space

2.3 Institutional

Eventually, I need the program to give me partial totals for each of the four tiers of data as well as a grand total which should check out with the parcel's total acreage.

In AC14, is it possible to add levels beyond the usual zones & sub-zones?
Are there any plugins that extend its capabilities?

If the answer is no, how would you handle this sort of situation?

And while we are discussing Zones, is there a way to isolate the urban-scale zones from building zones?

It just seems awkward and distracting to see all those zones called Living Room, Dining Room, etc. when you're working at an urban scale.

For that matter, I would go one step further and isolate the residential zones from commercial/industrial.

But I'm not sure Graphisoft has gone that far. If not, maybe I should submit it as a suggestion.

[Barry Kelly]

For a visual solution you will want to place the zones in separate layers, turning these layers on or off as necessary.
If you are trying to schedule information from these zones then you will need to include the layer names in the criteria for selecting the zones so only those zones will be included in the schedule.
Barry.

[Anonymous]

I understood what you said about the visual solution, but my core issue is still unanswered. Can I or can't I arrange my zones in a tree structure with multiple tiers instead of just the default zones and categories?

[Barry Kelly]

No zones only have a category code and category name.
So you could have a category for Private and another for Common.
But then the rest will have to just be zone category names.
Something like ...

Low density residential (zone) - Phase 1 - Lot 1A
Low density residential (zone) - Phase 1 - Lot 1C

Low density residential (zone) - Phase 2 - Lot 1A
Low density residential (zone) - Phase 2 - Lot 1C

Medium density residential - Phase 1 - Lot 1A
etc.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

That's what I thought. So, if I do it that way, ArchiCAD will generate areas for each individual lot, but not the totals for the various density or phase groups.

In other words, if I wanted to generate a Land Use Table to show alongside the site plan, I would have no other option but to set up an Excel worksheet?

I'd also like to know what you recommend about isolating an urban-scale zone list from an architectural list, and residential from commercial. Is that not possible either with ArchiCAD?

[Barry Kelly]

I really don't work with zones on this scale so maybe others will have more suggestions.
The interactive schedules can do any calculations so you will need to export to Excell.
Unless you want to get into the GDL side of things then you can use the calculation functions within Archicad.

Actually just thinking you might be able to trick the schedules into doing what you want.
In the schedule criteria you may be able to set it up so it looks for all zone names that cantain the the word "phase 1" or "medium density".
You will need to set up individual schedules for each group you would like the data for.
So long as your zone name cantains a description for all the relevent key words you should be able to set up the schedules to group the data by those key words.
Barry.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I will try that, although it sounds really complicated.

If anyone has a simpler solution, I'd appreciate your inputs.

[Karl Ottenstein]

lsavinon wrote:
Eventually, I need the program to give me partial totals for each of the four tiers of data as well as a grand total which should check out with the parcel's total acreage.

The schedule can subtotal by any scheduled field(s) ... but not partial fields (e.g., not the first digit prefix of your zone code).

So, the only (??) solution (short of export as suggested by Barry) ... is to add another field to group the zones to be subtotaled.

Every zone stamp has additional free data fields called "User Defined 1", etc.

Try this:

1. Create one schedule - which is purely for editing purposes - which displays the zone number (as you define in your post) first, marked to sort ascending, along with the User Defined 1 field for all zones.

2. Display that interactive schedule and tick the box (attached) to show uniform entries as a single item.

3. Now, go through that schedule, typing (pasting) the value "1.0 PRIVATE AREAS" into the USER DEFINED field of all of the lines beginning with "1." (you show 9 such lines), and "2.0 COMMON AREAS" into the group of '2' lines, etc.

4. Keep this schedule around for future editing as you add more zones to your model.

5. Create your subtotal schedule by scheduling the USER DEFINED 1 field as the first field, marked as sorted ascending and marked with the flag to create a subtotal. Add the zone area field. Generate this schedule - it should give you a subtotal for each of your 4 major areas.

6. Repeat, if necessary, with USER DEFINED 2, etc., to create other subtotal groupings of areas.

HTH,
Karl

[sinceV6]

There are many ways you can do what you want, and the flexibility of how you can arrange your zones and categories is great in AC.

In my experience, the last unit in your hierarchy should be your zone, and one of the above (usually the preceding one) your category, because usually the higher units can be scheduled to include lower levels more easily (in contrast to trying to exclude upper levels), so your zones would work like this:

1.0 PRIVATE AREAS (schedule)

1.1 Low density residential (schedule)

1.1.1 Phase 1 (Category)
1.1.1.1 Lot 1A (zone with zone#)
1.1.1.2 Lot 1C (zone with zone#)

1.1.2 Phase 2 (Category)

1.2 Medium density residential (schedule)

1.3 High density residential (schedule)

1.4 Commercial (schedule)


2.0 COMMON AREAS (schedule)

2.1 Streets & roads (schedule)
2,1.1 Paved area (zone)
2.1.2 Sidewalks and curbs (zone)

2.2 Public green space (schedule - that includes sub zones)

2.3 Institutional (schedule - that includes sub zones)

I've actually used this in practice (but with fewer levels) and it works for the partials and totals, per level and parcel total. The key is to keep every zone, well... er... individual, and use schedules to group them.

I also suggest you keep your schedules as simple as possible, and publish to .xls or something like that; and use the data as reference. You change something, publish again and just update. Then in excel work out the data (filters, etc) to get any partials, subtotals, etc. you struggle to get from AC schedules (which can be done).

The data in the attached was divided based on lot size, and included street, comercial, park & recreation, and others, in subtotals and totals; using the techniques described.

Hope this helps. Best regards.