Object ALWAYS displays solid line in Sections...Why?

[Anonymous]

I've created an object that represents my "building height control envelope". I made it from meshes and then, from the 3D window, created an object.

Now that I have it added to my project, I want to set the linetype it displays in Sections to "Triple Dashed". Despite having "Enable Object's Linetypes" unchecked and the "Symbol linetype" set to "Triple Dashed", it always displays as Solid in Sections. In Plan, it displays correctly as "Triple Dashed".

Am I able to make it "Triple Dashed" in Sections? Maybe even edit the GDL scripts of the object manually? (No idea how to do this, so would appreciate instructions )

Thanks

[David Maudlin]

Pete:

Yes, as you discovered, the object's linetype works for 2D, not 3D (to be fair, the Symbols Lines is under the Symbol section of Parameters, not Cut Surfaces).

You will need to add GDL code to get what you want, and it is not as simple as calling for a linetype in the script, the "line" needs to be scripted as a series of individual solid lines with gaps to replicate the appearance of the 2D linetypes. An example of this can be found in the da_oplines_10 macro found in the AC 12 Object Library (AC 12 Library > MACROS 12> D-W Macros 12 > D-W Accessories 12 > Door Accessories 12 > da_oplines_10, should be a similar path for other versions of AC).

What would be best is to write a macro that creates the line type you want for parametric distances, so you could set the direction then call this macro with passing along the length. Then move the origin to the next point of your object, change direction then call the macro, etc.

David

[Anonymous]

Thanks David, for the reply
Unfortunately, my GDL knowledge isn't good enough yet to follow along. I'm not up to GDL programming yet in my learning curve.

However, first things first...

Am I right in assuming then, from your explanation, that the sections and elevation viewpoints are derived automatically from the 3D model, unlike the plan view (which is derived from a separate 2D script belonging to each object)....? (If so, this may explain why the 2D drafting capabilities are so different between the views - sections are soooo much better to draft in sometimes than plan, when all the lines of objects are "hot" and the cursor detects them for guidelines, slicing, etc. I've only just discovered this, and now I can use Objective, for example, for horizontal joist framing, but edit it all in section view (via its "assembly" function in its "plan" view), in order to have hot lines and not put up with the AC's painful plan view limitations of only snapping to pre-programmed hotspots when it comes to drafting & modeling objects within a 2D view.)

So - an aside... why doesn't AC also have a 2D plan view option that is actually a true slice of the 3D model, so we can have hotlines of objects during editing, and multiple plan views without resorting to faffing around with storeys and cutting planes? Just like a section view, but horizontal! It may not be as useful for con-doc, but for modeling it would be very useful (Or am I missing something again?)

[David Maudlin]

Pete:

For a short answer: the plan view has always been a somewhat a symbolic representation, while the sections have been more 3D based (and here I am referring to pre-CAD which determined many of the conventions for CAD).

ArchiCAD does offer a true 3D cut of the plan, it is called the Floor Plan Cut Plane, and each View can have its own FPCP settings, so multiple slices are possible, but this involves more parameters and settings than the Symbolic view, and so is more complicated to manage. There may be more options for FPCP in ArchiCAD 14 than 12, so you may not have all the current bells and whistles. Objects (with their GDL scripting) may or may not acknowledge the FPCP, so that is a negative.

David