Which leads to users blaming on 'computer problems' issues which are really drafting problems. If they were drawing by hand, the drawings would still look flat. At the end of the day, you have to look at the paper. If something doesn't look right, find out how to fix it.
I just had that discussion with one of our associates, who is supposed to be in charge of "documentation quality." She and I (and another Forum member) are working on both the final look of the plotted drawing and the method to get there.
Unfortunately, in a company of our size (about 55 people), there are always those who just don't care what their work looks like. Before we switched to Archicad, much of our standards content was built into our CAD software interface (Arris). Our management has been very lax lately in dealing with such situations, since it is their belief that undera tight deadline, "we don't have time to fix it" and there are no penalties for those at fault. (I think they should be staying on their own time, off the clock, to fix the problems).
When we started the switch to Archicad last year, the number 1 complaint from users was that it took a lot of effort to get the same "drafted" look that we were used to in our CAD drawings. The number 1 complaint from the project managers was that the drawings did not look as good. It turned out that the users were under extremely tight deadlines, and taking every shortcut possible to get anything on paper in time.
So, the partners asked me to see what I could do to get the same level of quality and integration in Archicad that we had in Arris. They bought me CodeWarrior, a stack of C++ books, and the GDL manuals, and sent me on my way.
I've been working on a lot of simple GDL things, like Zone Labels that can be moved at varying scales, Labels that change in plan and elevation views, and Elevation/Section Markers than can be moved away from where the section line is. None of it is hard, it just needed a few hours to be accomplished.
I'm just now digging into the API, and am seeing the vast untapped potential of Archicad. I've only worked on administrative tasks so far, but see a lot more that can be done for modeling and productivity purposes.
Some of that includes giving users a "default" which complies with company standards.
Obviously, this only works because we have so many users. If each of 15 full-time users saves 2 minutes a day, I can spend 2 1/2 hours a week on this and the company breaks even. The "occasional" users can save even more, since they are not as likely to know the pen/layer settings off the top of their heads, and have to dig for answers.
Tom Waltz
