Automatic Guidelines

[Anonymous]

How can I set up the guidelines to perform like Revit guidelines? Case in point: I installed a door and a window in the east wall of a garage. I want guidelines that snap to the center of the door on the east wall so I can place a window in the West wall that lines up center-to-center. I want to do the same with the window I placed on the East wall. Any suggestions?
My solution was to draw a line from the center of the window and the door across the West wall and use the line as a guideline, which I later deleted.

[Anonymous]

rhendrickson wrote:
My solution was to draw a line from the center of the window and the door across the West wall and use the line as a guideline, which I later deleted.

No way to do it directly like Revit, but there are other ways to do it nearly as quickly. If modular, brick or block, set grid snap and insert by edge. But the one that I use most often is insert the window, then move it because the alignment line works like Revit in the move (or copy single or multiple) function. With keyboard commands its nearly as quick. I find that going thru the design from start to finish no matter how carefully I initially insert door and windows latter on I always have to adjust some of the locations after dimensioning just to simplify the field layout process.

To save someone else from doing it, it's best to include your system profile(like mine below) so everyone knows what version you are using. They all work a little differently.

[Anonymous]

ArchiCAD guidelines don't work the same as Revit guidelines. They won't automatically find snaps and alignments from across the way, but there are a couple of ways to do what you want without drawing your own lines.

1. To use guidelines for the purpose: If the walls are orthagonal to the screen you can hover at the center point of the door and tentative guides will appear. If you then follow the line (basically just touch it with the cursor) it will become a persistent guide. If the wall is at an angle other than 0° or 90° you have to hover over the wall first then when you move to the center point of the door a perpendicular guideline will appear.

2. If the walls are parallel the easy way is not to use guidelines at all. Just grab the door by it's center and snap to the center of the opposite one.

While AcrhiCAD's guidelines lack some of the automatic features of Revit's I find they more than make up the difference by being far more versatile, especially when combined with the extensive and facile snaps locks and constraints.

[Stress Co_]

rhendrickson wrote:
My solution was to draw a line from the center of the window and the door across the West wall and use the line as a guideline, which I later deleted.

You can save a step by using the "Create Guide Line Segment" button (in the Control Box Palette). That said... I usually use Matthew's #1 method.