WCS and UCS in ArchiCAD

[Anonymous]

Hi,
After a long spell of absence in the forum I revert with a question.
I admit that ArchiCAD is not intended to be a full-fledged program for the 3ds drawing. Nevertheless, drawing and editing capabilities are available through the ArchiCAD and I would like to explore them more profoundly being backed by your advices.
As it is known, there are two coordinate systems: a fixed system called the world coordinate system (WCS) and a movable system called the user coordinate system (UCS). Though, all objects in a drawing file are defined by their WCS coordinates, however, it is often more convenient to create and edit objects based on the movable UCS.
Does ArchiCAD provide the drawing features for the purpose of creating and editing objects based on the movable UCS as it is possible in AutoCAD?
If it is possible in ArchiCAD too it would allow me to enter coordinate values as well as dimensions on the plane defined by UCS.

Thanks a lot!

Sincerely,
Enam Aliyev
Baku, Azerbaijan.
Designer, Construction Company

[Djordje]

Yes and no.

The WCS is always on. The UCS as you know it from AutoCAD is not available.

You can, however, reposition the WCS origin in 3D space and rotate the grid in the plan - as you probably already know. However, the XY plane stays horizontal.

The modeling methods in Archicad are tool based, not geotmery based. In AutoCAD, you assume that a set of spatial points and planes are a wall, door, roof, whatever - in some vertical solutions like ADT that intelligence is built it to some extent. Achicad treats elements in a certain way and you have to know what the constraints are.

I personally have not found anything that cannot be modeled or imported (organic shapes) in Archicad, this way or that way ...

Please add your Archicad version and OS details to your signature.

HTH,

[David Wylie]

As a former AutoCAD user I really miss the 'UCS' and 'Plan' commands in AutoCAD. I often work on plans where there are two or more main 'skewed grids'. In AutoCAD I used to set my UCS to whichever skewed grid I was working to at the time and then use the 'plan' command to rotate my view (note: not rotate the model, but the view) so that the x and y planes of the skewed grid were now vertical and horizontal. Believe me, it is a much more pleasant way to work on skewed grids. In AutoCAD you can save many UCS and flip between them easily.