Where's your title block?

[James Murray]

Djordje made the admirably resolute comment in another topic that the title block should exist solely in PM.

I am as just as resolute (not as admirable) that the title block should be built in an AC detail window, and imported to a master. We use an object for our title block, obviously not an option in PM. I think the autotext in PM has a long way to go before it has the flexibility of GDL. Of course, one can place autotext placeholders in objects, so you can still take advantage of that feature.

What do you do?

[Anonymous]

James,

I am still putting the sheet title block in PlotMaker (on the Master sheets now) but I am also still putting the drawing titles strictly in ArchiCAD. (I guess my drawing titles could be considered cousins of the ones you use.)

Have you started putting your sheet title blocks in ArchiCAD or are you just referring to the drawing titles?

Anyway I doubt that I will ever switch over to the PlotMaker drawing titles since I size and annotate the drawings in ArchiCAD anyway, and, as you point out, GDL provides so much more control and so many more options.

[James Murray]

Both the title block and the drawing title are objects. You would recognize the drawing title, yes. We've added a lot to it. I think the last thing was to automatically make the underline extend to the end of the text.

We do use the <DRAWINGNUMBER> and <OUTPUTSCALE> placeholders in the drawing title, which is great. I can't see using PM titles until PM takes GDL. For titles, it's automated enough now. They need to make the drawing and layout numbers more transparently available for all views. Custom autotext fields would also be nice.

[Djordje]

James wrote:
Both the title block and the drawing title are objects. You would recognize the drawing title, yes. We've added a lot to it. I think the last thing was to automatically make the underline extend to the end of the text.

We do use the <DRAWINGNUMBER> and <OUTPUTSCALE> placeholders in the drawing title, which is great. I can't see using PM titles until PM takes GDL. For titles, it's automated enough now. They need to make the drawing and layout numbers more transparently available for all views. Custom autotext fields would also be nice.

You have the best of both worlds; however, for proper tracking, and using the Book info, your approach does not use the facilities in PlotMaker. For a developed system like yours, it is better to make a cocktail - for any new implementation, it is better to go the PlotMaker way.

IMHO, of course ... 😉

[Anonymous]

For me it depends on the title block or the client. Pre PM 3 I wouldn't even consider creating it in PM because of the inferior tools. For the most part now even if the line work is created in AC all the text is placed in PM and I'm converting my templates to take advantage of the auto text for everything available. The only issue that seems to exit is the inability to have the length of the lines in the drawing title shrink or extend to the length of the text so I've had to create a number of "different" titles in PM to accommodate the different lengths required now that thats done I only have to change the title size if I change the drawing name which rarely occurs as consistency is my goal throughout all my projects.

[Anonymous]

Interesting topic - A few months ago while investigating the NCS stuff, I decided that if there was ever a standard that made some sense, the NCS sheets were close enough to allow use. I customized the book info and inserted via cut and paste into the master the firm name etc. This sheet set up went extremely soothly and actually looks pretty good.

Along with the numbering and divisions that come with the set up, the organization seems logical. I'm just a one man op so don't have the difficulties that a larger firm has about adoption, training and all those other considerations, but think a look at the NCS Standards is worth a few minutes.

Lew Bishop
AC8.1,P4, 2.8 XPhome

[Jere]

sorry to bring up such an older thread, but i'm a relatively new AC8.1 user, so these older threads apply to me.

Simple question (i think), how do I create custom titles for use in plotmaker? In our office we're of the opinion the ones in Plotmaker are fugly, but we're enjoying the automatic numbering and titling. Thanks in advance.

[James Murray]

Jere wrote:
custom titles for use in plotmaker?

You mean drawing titles, not title blocks for a sheet, right?

In the Navigator, right click on 'Title Types', New Title Type. Then open it. You basically draw them. The important is using autotexts for the title, number etc. Start drawing a text block, then on the Edit menu, choose Insert Autotext, then the item you want. This will create something like <DRAWINGNUMBER>, which gets interpreted in the layout.

(If you're talking about title blocks for sheets, you can use autotexts there too. If an autotext is placed in a master, it will show the data for the layout.)

I may have missed a detail; 8.1 was a while ago.

HTH,

[Jere]

Thank you very much James. I have so much to learn.

Yes, i was talking about drawing titles. But now I can play around with my titleblocks too.