Defaulting Pens etc to Objects

[Anonymous]

Hi there everybody.

So my next question is this:

I am going to use objects as my focus here, for example a chair- is there a way I can set the default pens in all of my objects? When I put a chair in plan and in elevation I want it to automatically come in as "red" which is my pen "1" and I want most of my objects to do this, but intsead it comes in defaulted as "purple" pen "23" or something. Every time I want to put a chair in I have to change these settings?

My solutions thus far- though I don't want to do it these ways:

Change all of my pen sets so that "23" "purple" would be what is now my "1" "red" ect, (pain in the butt, and confusing to go through everything and set my pens that way)

My only other thought really would be to Make one chair in my drawing with the pens that I want, and then for evey object after that choose the chair and use the sucker tool to pick another object and keep some of the same properties, all though this creates problems and glitches, you can't really sucker a chair's properties into a sink and cabinet.

Thanks, hope someone has some wonderful solution to this!

[Anonymous]

I assume you are referring to to the pens defined in the parameter settings and not the single default pen.

You can change these defaults by opening the parts in the Library Part editor, resetting the values and saving the new settings. If the parts are from the ArchiCAD standard library you will need to save the parts under new names to your company standards library.

You can also use Favorites to save preset values of anything (walls, floors, etc. as well as library parts). This has the advantage of not fussing with editing the parts but trades that off for managing the favorites.

[Anonymous]

These are library parts that are from the Archi CAD Library- yes.
If I save them into my own company Library with the default settings I want , what do I do about updating the Archi CAD libraries, when updates are available? I won't be able to update my parts that I changed the pens for right?

[TomWaltz]

Jesikuh123 wrote:
These are library parts that are from the Archi CAD Library- yes.
If I save them into my own company Library with the default settings I want , what do I do about updating the Archi CAD libraries, when updates are available? I won't be able to update my parts that I changed the pens for right?

Right. You would have to re-do all your work.

[Andy Thomson]

TomWaltz wrote:

Right. You would have to re-do all your work.

Hence the advantage of favorites. I use pen 1 for all of my plan and section cutlines for most objects (except plumbing = 4). I thought there was a tool in the developer kit for doing this kind of global overwrite to common parameters. Is this correct?

[__archiben]

andyro wrote:
I thought there was a tool in the developer kit for doing this kind of global overwrite to common parameters. Is this correct?

it was promised back in the 10 beta when GS made a pigs' breakfast of the pens sets and legacy penset compatibility . . . it never arrived . . .

~/archiben

[Andy Thomson]

~/archiben wrote:
. . . it never arrived . . .

Still? (agape) WTF! I need it!!!!

(Note to Djordje, WTF means Without This, Frustration! 😉 )

[Anonymous]

My method of choice currently is via favorites. You need to open up your favorites palette to be able to manage these effectively. I save them out in groups based on either drawing sheets (floor plan, elevations etc) or by types (fixtures and furniture). When you are working on certain aspects of your project you import whatever group of favorites that is appropriate. This also has the advantage of setting the intended layer and controls all other elements besides library parts. In addition it is not as painful to update the favorites for library parts between versions by loading both old and new libraries and using the parameter transfer in the library dialogue box.

[Anonymous]

Mike wrote:
...In addition it is not as painful to update the favorites for library parts between versions by loading both old and new libraries and using the parameter transfer in the library dialogue box.

Well, kind of.....
The AC9 Standard Library does not "marry" well with the AC10. The AC9 SE Library was explained to me as being the library in AC9 that would translate over to AC10. Alas, the AC9 SE was very buggy, and when AC10 library (which was really a Fixed AC9 SE library) was released, they did not go back and fix the bugs in the AC9 SE library. So for me, I did not develope my favorites based on the AC9 SE library, and therefore for at least the trip from AC9 to AC10 will not be as simple in regards to Favorites.

[Anonymous]

Jay wrote:
Well, kind of.....
The AC9 Standard Library does not "marry" well with the AC10. The AC9 SE Library was explained to me as being the library in AC9 that would translate over to AC10. Alas, the AC9 SE was very buggy, and when AC10 library (which was really a Fixed AC9 SE library) was released, they did not go back and fix the bugs in the AC9 SE library. So for me, I did not develope my favorites based on the AC9 SE library, and therefore for at least the trip from AC9 to AC10 will not be as simple in regards to Favorites.

I was able to convert my 9 favorites to 10 objects relatively easily, but I don't use standard windows and doors which might be more problematic. The other big area of change was between the detailer objects that seemed to get a major re-work. I only loaded both libraries for the time that I transfered parameters from my 9 favorite to the equivalent 10 part and re-deffined the associated favorites.