Is plotmaker worth all of this trouble?

[Anonymous]

www.imageshack.com

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
if you have a company template already (which everyone does, right?!).

Cheers,
Karl

I dont yet.

[Link]

And copy/paste? Yikes. I didn't hear that.

Funny stuff Karl.

My assumption has always been that if people aren't using PlotMaker, they simply don't understand it's power!

Cheers,
Link.

[Achille Pavlidis]

i think Plotmaker is absolutely worth the trouble for all the things already mentioned and for another one which is the possibility to archive your projects. If you produce all your sheets in archicad you have to save .pla files in order to have all the library parts you have used. And what happens with revision 1,2,... etc drawings? you dont keep track of those, or you make a new file (.pla) which is confusing and space-consuming. With Plotmaker you have your book with all the sheets organized comprehensively with all the various revisions, and you can work on the .pln file of your project while someone else is ploting from the book...

[Anonymous]

Yes I would agree, at first PM can be a wee bit frustrating. After further investigation, I think you will find that it can be a great time saver…., you have a pre-made office template, the sheets can be all set up, numbering is taken care, it's great way to setup CD's…..for both big and small projects….some of the cooler aspects, import any type of file you, autocad, microstation, renderings, etc…the Autotext knocks out Cover sheets and title blocks…..the inter-connectivity between AC numbering and PM is cool….I am discovering the full potential of the "fit all command", you can save a lot time by combing that command with layer combinations…I won't rant on …but I do have TWO MAJOR COMPLAINTS….the updates are SLOWWWWW…..please GS fix this….and I would really like to see more flexibility in the color table import department….but as a whole…it's a great tool

[Rakela Raul]

TWO MAJOR COMPLAINTS….the updates are SLOWWWWW…..please GS fix this….

why dont u use the publish to 'plotmaker' feature and when u open pm ur pmk's will be already all updated...(just dont touch/edit pmk's ever)

pm is fine to me; gs, just finish upgrading it (what gs didnt have time for on version 9) to look like and act like ac9 and add a couple o more drafting tools and of course integrate it to work within ac and if possible some features from canvas or corel draw in it.

[Anonymous]

PMK updates are fine...in fact thats instantaneous....it's AC View updates....in fact I have put a stop watch on PC to find out how much wait time there is in a day....average is about 35 minutes, some times more....not good....

[Haneef Tayob]

Test prints are basically the only times I print out directly from archicad.

The main reason for our office upgrading from ACv7 to ACv8 was the upgrade of plotmaker which combined all previously individual layouts into one layout book.

We recently had a joint project with another group of architects working on another cad system. Although very difficult, we managed to split the workload between the 2 systems.

At the end of the day, when it came to print out drawings, we were able to do it in a fraction of the time. Consistency of our sheet layouts was always there. It was difficult for the other team to keep the consistency. This quality was easily picked up by the client. (if a drawing was lying in the plotter, everyone knew from the consistency who had plotted it)

Conversion to other file formats like pdf is also a breeze with plotmaker.

There's still a lot we have to learn about plotmaker. It's just this year that I learnt about automatic titling - I can't do without it's convenience any more.

regards

[Steve Jepson]

Quoting Karl,
Wow. Interesting thread ... haven't heard printing from ArchiCAD advocated since the old escribe version of ac-talk ... anybody remember Mathilde K.? (PlotMaker was more combersome in those days.)

Certainly, Publisher in AC combined with special 'print' views that display title blocks/etc can get the job done ... but with all page numbering, section and detail number/sheet page references, and more all coordinated manually. IMHO it would take much more time to even edit those numbers than to just set up the PM sheet, if you have a company template already (which everyone does, right?!).

For your 6 to 8 sheet drawing set, Steve, I'll have my PM book completely set up, auto-numbered, auto-texted and linked in less than 5 minutes. Any future changes are fully automatic. If I need ot move a detail or section to a new page in the future ... still all automatic. I cannot imagine working any other way. Think outside of the box just a little. When you open an ArchiCAD plan for a new project of this size it already has all of the title blocks for each sheet in place, all of the layer combos are already set, all of the view sets are ready, all of the notes, details, window and door schedules, etc... Remember, i am talking about house plans here, not hundreds of sheets with scores of details. All of the details are already in the drawing. Probably already on the same sheet they are referenced from. If you need something different you just choose one from the bone pile on the side, or drag a copy to where you want it. Each story is for a different sheet. You can change the name and address etc...in the title blocks every where, and all at the same time in ArchiCAD. Why do you need AutoText? Which is faster, to type the words you want for the autotext in the Book Info, add the autotext to the master layout, go back to the layout to see if it fits, move it around a little in the master layout, view again, tweak to make it wrap around correctly, change the font to make it fit the designated area better. Accidently move one of the other autotext that was showing up on top of the one you were trying to edit because they are so close to together....you know the routine, it can take five min. just to place the Autotexts how you need them, or, why not just type it in ArchiCAD where you can see it? If you need to change it, you can make universal changes to text ArchiCAD.

Creating hotlinks and xrefs in order to get multiple drawings per page when printing from ArchiCAD is way more complicated and time consuming. I don't use any hot links. Again, which is faster, importing a drawing into PlotMaker, locating it, moving the drawing title around a little, tweaking the master layout grid for a better cell arrangement, etc...or xrefing a drawing into ArchiCAD? And copy/paste? Yikes. I didn't hear that. What could possible objection could you have to copy and paste. There is no faster way to get a detail or drawing into ArchiCAD than copy/paste. I have two or three similar ArchiCAD plans open all the time so I can copy and paste things in from other projects. Sometimes all I need to do is drag a copy from my other screen.



But, I hear Cole too: we have always complained about the AC documentation not explaining how to USE the software, but only what each command does. This has left the USE to extra cost training, books, or here.

Cheers,
Karl[color=


PlotMaker was made for ArhciCAD, not ArchiCAD for the Plotmaker.

[Stress Co_]

In a word.... Yes.

But, in my case, I needed onsite assistance to realize it's full potential.

Considering the time I wasted trying to get things to work...... Training and template setup was well worth the cost.

An option to consider....

[Djordje]

Steve wrote:
PlotMaker was made for ArhciCAD, not ArchiCAD for the Plotmaker.

Exactly so.

Therefore, it should be used - and, IF you set up your templates like you seemingly already have done in ArchiCAD, you will spend some time NOW, but save the same amount of time with EACH new project.

The key is in the templates - ArchiCAD and PlotMaker both. And IMHO no, it does not take more time to type something in ArchiCAD, especially cross reference data (which sheet is the elevation on for example) then to use a smart section marker.