Grouping Over Stories

[Anonymous]

I have to create an estate of 100 houses, however there are only 4 house types which are replicated in various rotations and positions. Is there a way of making a house a group because it's a nightmare moving a duplicate of the house as it covers 3 stories and I can't seem to select all of it at once.

Thanks,
Richard.
(am hiding behind my desk incase Djorde reads this post )

[Eduardo Rolon]

open the house in the 3D window make sure that it is on top view and save it as an object;

File-> Libraries and Objects -> Save 3d Model as…

This will create and object that you can place and rotate at will.

I will not tell Djorde.

[Link]

Don't forget to remove all the crap (read polygons) you don't need, first.

Djordje sees all.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, creating a object was so easy! Just in case this helps anyone else:

ArchiCAD help says that you cannot group elements stored on different stories (which to me is silly!); however if you open the 3D window then select the whole model then press Ctl+G, or 'Edit -> Grouping -> Group' it magically groups the whole model regardless of which story it is situated.

Hope that helps,
Rich.

[rocorona]

You could use the "bold" Marquee, to select (thus move, rotate, etc.) multiple stories while in Plan view.

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

In these cases I don't like the Object idea at all, especially because you lose control of layers and model view options for the model elements.

If all you need is a 3D walkthrough thing (no site plans at the 2nd story level, say, in which case I think you are stuck with multiple stories) you could hotlink the second story, or a module published from the second story, to the first story in your 'house module.pln' and elevate it as necessary.

If you want to hide it for floor plan representation or screen representation when moving things around, you make some floor-plan-hidden layer the control layer for that module.

After that you only need to insert a single module to your site plan, that looks great at ground floor level and has all the stories above that will show only in sections, elevations, 3D. You multiply, drag, rotate that module to create all the units just as you would with an object, but you get great looking drawing-suitable site plans and enlarged site plans, and any change you make to your home design will update pretty much automatically, much easier than if you had to create an object every time.

That way you get the best of both worlds

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

richgwilt wrote:
Is there a way of making a house a group because it's a nightmare moving a duplicate of the house

And I had missed that part. You definitely want modules and not groups --you don't want to have to redo everything the next time somebody makes a change to the design of the unit.

[Djordje]

Depends what you want to do.

Anyway, you should keep the model down in size if you want to keep it manageable. The best way to do it is with the objects, while you keep the house PLN separate, and pull the plans/sections/elevations from that one.

Alternatively, use modules.

The documentation problem will probably be the level of the each of the houses, the foundations and the connection of the unit with the ground.

So the best way would be modules, as they are easily editable and update nicely. Place a storey at a time if you want the stuff to behave and to show all the first floor (second, roof ...) plans at once.

Good luck ...

... your horrible all seeing Moderator