Detail Text Disappears!

[Andy Thomson]

I have DWG files copied into ArchiCad floorspace. I place detail markers, making say 10 'independent detail windows'. The text and dimensions are native archicad objects/symbols. When I open the detail windows, everything (all 10 drawings coming from the same floorplan view) are there - except the text and dimensions.

Am I missing something?? Or is this a bug?

ART.

[Anonymous]

Is the layer set correct in plotmaker?

[Andy Thomson]

I haven't even gotten to that yet, I am just talking about within archicad, between a floorplan drawing with a bunch of 2D details (bubble markers) dropped over them, and opened in their respective detail windows, when the detail window shows, the text and dims are not there, rebuild as much as I like, they do not show. I have checked all layer and display option possibilities.

To duplicate, just write a line of text, add a dimension, make a detail of it, open window - no text, no dims.

Same on Mac and PC, California and Toronto....

Wasup???

A!

[Anonymous]

Oh....
Details don't carry over the text and dimensions from the plan view. I think it is assumed that for a detail that you would change the scale and would want a different text and dimension setting for the detail.

[Andy Thomson]

Well, that wouldn't be the best assumption since text scales, so do dimensions, plus any office doing production work is usually copying over details from a big sheet of them originally from autocad. It is also more productive to have all the details in one place (ie. one window, like floorplan view) to facilitate cut-pasting and other global/marquee/find-select operations...

The only reason for splintering them into 50 independent detail windows is from a document/drawing management perspective - so that plotmaker doesn't name them all the same with autotext.

I noticed this was a topic unto itself, but I wanted to have both, all details in a floorplan window for workspace considerations, and rebuild 50 independent details windows over that floorspace to be able to manage the drawings coming into plotmaker...

A.

[Anonymous]

andyro wrote:
Well, that wouldn't be the best assumption since text scales, so do dimensions, plus any office doing production work is usually copying over details from a big sheet of them originally from autocad. It is also more productive to have all the details in one place (ie. one window, like floorplan view) to facilitate cut-pasting and other global/marquee/find-select operations...

The only reason for splintering them into 50 independent detail windows is from a document/drawing management perspective - so that plotmaker doesn't name them all the same with autotext.

I noticed this was a topic unto itself, but I wanted to have both, all details in a floorplan window for workspace considerations, and rebuild 50 independent details windows over that floorspace to be able to manage the drawings coming into plotmaker...

A.

If you are trying to manage a large quantity of standard details that reside in one sheet, I would save each individual detail out as a module file that can be hotlinked or merged into a detail window in your building file. This way you can keep your floor plan detail sheet for modifications and still have the autotext within your plan file.

[Karl Ottenstein]

As Millard has said, the Detail Tool will not capture text or dimensions.

Modules give a means of managing the details ... and then merging them into different projects.

If you just have some DWG's that represent details and you want them as details in the current project. create an unlinked (independent) detail for each and then Merge the DWG into the detail window. You'll get all of the 2D information. If you need markers in your plans and sections, you can then create markers that link to this detail (see detail tool settings).

HTH,
Karl

[Andy Thomson]

Thanks Karl and Millard, I will eventually build a library of module details - as a workaround, but the person responsible for details here isn't crazy about managing a bunch of different files (he'd rather draw), especially as the base details are all edited for each project's requirements.

The desired workflow, and I am trying to accomodate his wishes, is to have an area that he can have all the details to work on, ie. floorplan view, and then a way to bring them into PM as independent drawings. If it is possible to save the whole whack of details as a module file, and then copy-paste the individual details into another file's detail windows, that is a step in the right direction.

The ideal workflow would be to have a bunch of bubbles over the big workspace, and just rebuild them all when ready to go to PM. Far fewer steps. I don't know why the asumption would be to not include text or dims, as they are easily deleted - at least more easily than they are added - plus those layer could be turned off for rebuild.

Having to save out individual modules, and then create independent details to paste/merge/hotlink them into seems like too many steps, as he (our detail guru) was complaining to me of even having to copy over text and dims from the floorplan view - which incidentally does not paste-in-place, hence requiring a hotspot (another step) to align.

I appreciate your respective consideration of the matter, and will try the hotlink suggestion.

Andy.

[Andy Thomson]

Finally, and this would ultimately be simpler, it would be just as good to allow a 'custom' drawing name over-ride in PM's drawing name tags, as it already allows a 'custom numbering'....

That way we can just open cropped views of the whole whack of details in PM, arrage them, shuffle the order as needed, and then rename them (as they all have the same name as they are all the same PMK).

But we can't rename them without exploding the name tags, can we??

A.