A "Smart" roof label

[Anonymous]

I've searched this forum and can't find anything.

I want to make/get a label object that can be used in the following manner:

Click on a roof then click on the desired location for the label. The label needs to display the rise and run of the 'clicked on' roof.

Is this possible? and How?

[TomWaltz]

Sounds almost like the "Accessories" behave....

[Anonymous]

Dan,
Just curious about two things.
One, how did you make the hole infinitely small ?
I mean, how did you define infinity in your code ?
Two, you say you locked the the A and B size of the hole to 1/4".
Why so large ? I have found the GDL scripts containing dimensions
of 0.001" work fine.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
Dan,
Just curious about two things.
One, how did you make the hole infinitely small ?
I mean, how did you define infinity in your code ?
Two, you say you locked the the A and B size of the hole to 1/4".
Why so large ? I have found the GDL scripts containing dimensions
of 0.001" work fine.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Peter,
"Infinitely small" is probably not the best description of what I did. In my first few attempts, I tried makeing the "A" & "B" values less than 1/4" so they would not show up...they were something like 1/64". Everything seemed fine but ArchiCAD would unexpectedly crash. By trial and error, I figured out it was the size of this hole that was causing the behavior. I gradually increased the size until I the crashing stopped...so, 1/4" is what I ended up with.

I wish we had more control over this opening like "Wall Hole" but it doesn't seem to be available for roofs. Currently, the way skylights cut holes through roofs is a bit limiting. Maybe we'll have better ways of handling skylight scripts in ArchiCAD 10. I don't know if I've answered your question but hope I've better explained what I did.

Have you tried making this object? How do you like this technique for roof slope symbols? Please let me know your thoughts.

Dan K

[Anonymous]

Dan,
Thank you for your reply.
I must say the results of your investigation of the behavior of "skylight"
is very surprising to me. That one can make AC crash by changing
a dimension in a library part is a shock.
I never use the skylight tool because it cuts a splay in the head
and sill of of the roof hole which then has to be fixed.
Maybe this property causes the limit on the A and B size
(or mabe just the B size) of the hole.
I have not tried to make this object because I dislike the the autocratic
nature of this tool just like I never use StairMaker for the same reason
and now that you have found this A,B size limitation and it's
consequences I am even less likely to use this tool.
Your thinking "outside of the box" is to be commended.
A label apparently can't access the roof pitch value
so you used something that could.
Thank you for your valuable information.
Peter Devlin

[TomWaltz]

A label apparently can't access the roof pitch value so you used something that could.

The label can access the pitch value. The problem is that it cannot tell the direction of the pitch.

[Anonymous]

Dan,
It occurs to me that maybe you could make a "roof accessory" object
for your label. As Tom Waltz and John Highland have pointed out,
the label tool can access the pitch of a roof but not it's direction.
A roof accessory object must be able to access pitch and direction
or they would not work. I have not tried this for a roof accessory object
but I have made a "label" for desplaying information about slabs
by making a slab accessory object.
Just a thought,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
Dan,
It occurs to me that maybe you could make a "roof accessory" object
for your label...

Peter,
Yes Funny that you mentioned that because I just did it and it works perfectly!!! I still had to think a little "outside the box" to resolve how to keep it in position once its manually moved or the slope is changed...Anyway, I fixed it with a graphical hotspot. When you move it it stays put now...before I did this, it would always jump back to its original origin.

I'll post my results a little later - probably tomorrow.

Dan K

[Anonymous]

Dan,
That's great.
Which accessory parameter defines the direction ?
I was just looking at those parameters and it seemed
the likely candidate was ac_ref_coords but I haven't check it out yet.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

[Rakela Raul]

The label can access the pitch value. The problem is that it cannot tell the direction of the pitch.

you can type 'down' in the available window...great thing to have. thx dan

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
Dan,
That's great.
Which accessory parameter defines the direction ?
I was just looking at those parameters and it seemed
the likely candidate was ac_ref_coords but I haven't check it out yet.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Ok,
Here's the roof accesory version of the object. Peter, I didn't use any specific parameters to define the direction...look at the script and you'll see what I did.

This is by far better than the skylight version! The only thing odd is that I wasn't sure how to control the original location of the symbol as it is automatically placed by the roof accesory. The accesory always wants to place it a one end of the roof reference line. I've set up a graphical hotspot to allow the user to move the symbol afterwards and have it "stick" in place when the roof parameters change...without this, the symbol always jumps back to original position.

This object works great with automatically generated roofs. I have noticed ,however, that it can get confused, or backwards, on a manually drawn roof plane depending on the direction its drawn in. You just have to play with it and see.

Please let me know your thoughts or comments

Dan K