The Section tool upgrade we all want

[peter_94941]

Hey guys!

I think a lot of us have in mind some small, but important tweaks regarding an AC feature that we would love to see in reality.

For me, one of those is about the Section tool. A lot of times, when we put our drawings on the sheets, the width of a section drawing, and the width of the section sign on the floor plan are not equal. For example, we have a floor plan where the end of the section sign is not visible, because it is off the area of the sheet, but when we shorten the section to show it on the floor plan, parts of the section drawing gets cut off. A possible solution is to manually draw both ends of the signs on the floor plan, but this is so silly.

I think a very user-friendly solution would be to treat the width of the section area and the width of the section sign separately, like when you toggle limited horizontal range, and you get a separate line to set the distance you want to show. This method would make this problem manageable in a cool, intuitive way. Hopefully, we can see it in the near future!

(If by chance this is already a feature, please let me know!)

Have a great day!
Peter

Operating system used: Windows

[Barry Kelly]

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@rakurs wrote:

Fantastic work, Yves! The only drawback is actually what I presume is an ArchiCAD limitation that you cannot have a continuous section line follow the markers when you move them further than they originally should be, or when you move them closer, the line is longer than it should be.

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So now you want to adjust the actual section line without altering the cut of the section itself?

That is why linked markers are great.

Place the actual section and adjust to cut exactly as you want.

If the lines and markers are in the way (not where you want them to be), place it on a hidden layer.

Now add a linked section and adjust it exactly as you want to see it.

The linked maker will look as you want it, but won't actually be doing the cutting.

Barry.

[Yves]

@Rakur
Indeed, the continuous line is part of the tool and not the GDL object. That's why I added a stretchable line on each side. So to use it, you need to set the segmented option and disable the left and right segments.

@Peter
To open an object from the integrated library, place it and then select Open Object... you can make a copy and modify it.

[rakurs]

No, I would want the line follow the marker. The section line's hotspot remains at the point where we want the section itself to end, but the graphical representation of the marker should force the graphical representation of the line to continue beyond the hotspot.

Yves' marker is now -100 from the position where ArchiCAD "wants" the marker to be. You can see that the hotspot (am I using the correct term?) for the section END is correctly placed, but even then the section line doesn't go all the way to the hotspot. In other words, the section line shown in the floor plan is just a graphical representation manipulated by things under the hood and doesn't actually represent the true section line by which the section itself is drawn. You know that placing hidden semi-linked elements can lead the errors in drawings (you move a linked section and forget about the real section or vice-versa and then you have wrong views) and whenever possible, things should be linked within one element.

I mean, we do have grids staggering and they're not changing the grid line position, or are they? By logic from your post, we should have linked grids? Of course not, because grids don't generate views, but they are generated IN views, such as sections and elevations.

[rakurs]

To furher elaborate, here's another screenshot:

With this display option turned on, it clearly shows where is the section line's end, but you can see that the graphical representation of the section line really ends early because it is dictated by the marker, not by the cut position.

I agree that linked sections are fantastic, and I use them extensively when doing formwork drawings (tens of sections per floor plan even for a small building) but I'm always anxious if I made a mistake when placing and drawing and naming and...

[Barry Kelly]

So you want a line extending from the marker to the actual section line end?

That doesn't affect the width of the actual section range.

It sounds like Yves has already done that in their custom object.

Barry.

[mthd]

Hi @peter_94941, I am having a hard time understanding your post without drawings or diagrams from you. Please provide some to help us understand what you are wanting and then you could make a wish in the wishlist forum. I am not reading the other posts yet until I see clearly what you are asking for. Thank you.