Organizing Details for Easy Retrieval?

[Richard Morrison]

I posted this awhile back on the old forum, but never got a really satisfying answer. Thought maybe some creative ideas might have come out at ACU West. So here's the issue:

Does anybody have a good system for keeping track of a library of standard construction details that you've drawn over time, so that you can sort through them quickly and pull out the appropriate ones for placing into Plotmaker? Obviously you could draw one detail per file, put a paper copy in a binder and find it that way. Or keep all your details in one large file, use one view set per detail and send a live copy or a PMK to Plotmaker. This is how I'm currently doing it, but there must be a better way.

I'm wondering if there is anything more efficient, like maybe having a slew of PMK's already pasted up on layout pages, and sorting and dragging around details from there. My only complaint with this is that if you have 10 eave details (labeled eave-1.pmk, eave-2.pmk, etc.), you don't get the automatic title block feature to work as well when you only need eave-5.pmk. Seems like everything I've come up with is pretty kludgy. Any good ideas?

[Anonymous]

I'm toying with the idea of making a project template file that already has our standard details in detail windows. When you cartoon the set, simply delete the details you won't need. Then use the auto-numbering detail marker to reference your detail windows throughout the plans and elevations.

I know it's on the wishlist - the detail window ought to have the full functionality of all the tools, including 3d elements like walls and slabs. Why should we be prohibited from using a detail window to show a 3-d enlargement of how a few pieces of trim come together (for instance)?

If there was a way to make a tag that referenced name/number/display of any storey/elevation, then we could work around this crippling poor design of the detail tool. AC is so close to being able to integrate all the reference tags - maybe it will be fixed in the next release, as so many of us have wished.

wes

[Anonymous]

Erika wrote:
When I have a typ. eave detail, I'll use the detail marker when placing it in my section to reference the correct detail from my detail file. I then unlink them so my file stays complete for a project.

Erika,
How do you, in detail marker settings, reference the correct detail from an external detail file plan (the one you are not working on). I thought one can access only the detail (markers) in the open plan (one that you are working on)?
Thanks,
Joseph Harouni

[Erika Epstein]

Joseph,
You are correct. For a detail from another file you have to copy and past the info in. Alternatively you can place a dummy marker and then import the detail from another file right into plotmaker.

It is a wish that we could browse any ArchicAD file to bring in a detail. Easier file management if it is all in one.

Erika

[TomWaltz]

I have a topic on the wishlist that could make this all a lot easier

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=2702