How do I keep groups within a group?

[Anonymous]

Is there a switch I am missing to allow ArchiCAD to keep subgroups within groups? Since AC9, whenever I group multiple groups (say to select and move them all at once) then ungroup the overall group all of the subgroups are ungrouped as well leaving one mess of ungrouped objects. What am I doing wrong here?

[Laura Yanoviak]

JaredBanks wrote:
Often because they are zoomed in and can't see the rest of the group or because other pieces of the group don't show in the particular view/elevation/section.

How close are they zoomed in? The selection node display should make it pretty obvious whether or not an element is part of a Group.

[JaredBanks]

I never really looked to notice that the info box tells me how many items are selected (I always used other methods to know how many objects were selected). I'll definitely add that into my bag of tricks for helping new users understand what they have/haven't selected. I've definitely found that the sooner I can get a new user to use alt/opt+G the better.

[vfrontiers]

Here's where I want the ubiquitous MS warning...

"Are you sure you want to delete with Groups Enabled"

or

"Are you sure you want to delete the contents of the Marquee". This happens all the time when there is a live marquee and you think you select something prior to hitting the delete key, but you really haven't.

Maybe this warnings can be WE'd in or out.

[JaredBanks]

That would be nice. Like training wheels. Until you (the new user) prove to me you won't do that, you'll have to deal with those types of warnings. I'd also like a big fat warning for when a new user doesn't option+command when changing between door or window objects in the settings dialog box (and as a result loses all the predefined pen numbers, linetypes, etc.). I'd love it if it were default that way and you had to try not to transfer settings. Guess this is turning into a wishlist!

Oh and as for how far are they zoomed in. I guess that varies, but I think it also is caused by just generally being overwhelmed by the whole process. There's so much for a new user to think about, that if group/ungroup falls out of the top ten, this problem can happen.

[Laura Yanoviak]

JaredBanks wrote:
Oh and as for how far are they zoomed in. I guess that varies, but I think it also is caused by just generally being overwhelmed by the whole process. There's so much for a new user to think about, that if group/ungroup falls out of the top ten, this problem can happen.

Ya, but the appearance of nodes is pretty basic stuff. Also, if the Element Information Pop-up is enabled (which it should be, especially with new users), it will inform you that the element is part of a Group.

[Anonymous]

Laura wrote:
A useful tip is to keep grouping ACTIVE at all times -- suspending groups should be considered a temporary setting, and one should get in the habit of enabling groups once the need for suspended groups is no longer necessary.

I'm sure this is the best policy. My problem is that I very often work on other people's drawings, and keep finding that (or so it seems!) every time I go to edit something, it's part of a group. So I suspend groups ....

We should refine our grouping policy.

What I really wanted to say was that I find it odd that the selection arrow tool which is supposed to select only items within the window will select a group if only part of it falls within the window. Isn't this wrong?

Keith

Archicad ver 12 on Mac 0SX 10.4.8