Multi - Building plots. Create differenct building in the same site.

[vm1992]

Hello everyone, 

I am not a new Archicad user, yet not old and i wanted to make a question about the strategy i should use, in order to make the architectural plans (both 2d and 3d) of a multi building project in the same land. There will be 4 buildings in the same plot, each building will have its own ground floor level. For example Building A's Ground Floor will be at +43m height from sea, Building B will be at +44,3m height from sea, Building C will be again 43,5m from sea etc. What is the strategy i should use to build this project? In my opinion the possible ways i could work are the following

a) Create a separete pln file for every Building and one pln file for the plot and environment and then hotlink the Buldings into the plot's file.

b) Create everything in the same pln with different storys. For example: Unit A Basement, Unit A Ground Floor, Unit A Second Floor.. then Unit B Basement, Unit B Ground Floor etc.

My conserns with every option: 

Option a) Every time i make a new pln from the previous files template, i will need to create in the new file possible new materials or components i will need to use in every file, and then i will need to go back in the other files to import them. This is not gonna happen in option b because in case i realise i need one more material or layer or whatever i will have it for all the buildings inside my pln. Another big disadvantage is that i will need to create the plot's land in every file and the manage to hide it through layers in the Main plot's file, in order to have the environment control in every Building..

Option b) I consern i will lose controll of the  project will all these different stories, and some stories will be conflict with other probably.. ( Units B Ground Floor may-be very close or same absolute level as Units A Basement for example..) 

Attached image of an example of what i need to do.

Thank you, 

[Mahmoud Qenawi]

Hi @vm1992 , I never dealt with this issue but I see it’s better to build all in one file and adjust and rename stories’ levels as every story in every building so you can manage every story solely as it will be documented as a view and if you like to get unified floor plan for the whole project you can use Document Floor Plan Cut Plane to get the viewpoint you need, I hope it’s a right way.

[Lingwisyer]

I save out Modules when ever I have finished making changes to a building. I also have a separate Layer Combination for exporting the Modules which means you can exclude layers such as your common terrain.

Attribute management is always a pain... I included a whole lot of placeholder Surfaces in our template but our last project went way over the number of placeholders I had included...

The biggest issue I have found with projects with multiple ground levels is your Story Heights and their markers. Height wise I have tried to average them out in order to not end up splitting a modules stories between multiple host stories... Marker wise, in one project I used an External View which only contained the story levels which was placed over Internal Views of the relevant Sections and Elevations. This made updating the Views faster and centralised the 2D work but introduces more possible points of errors. In another project I used External Views of entire sections. Archicad needs to open the file containing said External Views each time you want to update them, so unless you already had them open, this process could take quite a while... The upside was that all changes to a building were contained within a single file.

Ling.

[Lingwisyer]

Will your buildings be connected or isolated? Are there repeats? How many buildings are there? If you do only have buildings A, B and C, and they are relatively close to each other, I would be tempted to do them all in a single file.

[Karl Ottenstein]

This is a tough one based on your attached image.

Normally I would recommend your option "a" if you need separate construction drawings for each building as well as a site plan / master plan.  This is because your template will require very little modification per-building.   There will be 4 (or whatever) elevations only, building sections, plans, etc all linked to your layout book for that building.  Each building's file will be clean and produce its own documentation.

If you attempt to do all four buildings in one file, then you will be adding so many additional, width/height/depth-restricted elevations, sections, etc - to say nothing of the story structure - that the file would become unwieldy.  Exporting just each building for a structural engineer would become a headache. (Even with bold marquee saved with a view.). Etc.

The reason I'm not sure if the simple "a" solution works in your case is the image you give shows concrete work connecting the buildings... which suggests, rather than a campus of distinct buildings, that the structure engineer needs to analyze the whole, and that most likely the same contractor will need to do it all (or a least do all of the concrete work).

One key thing to keep in mind if you did this with 5 PLN files is that you would need to keep all attributes in synch so that when you hotlink the buildings into the site plan, everything will appear in all views as desired.  For example, if you need to add a new surface material in Building A's PLN - you must also add it to Buildings B, C and D as well as the site PLN - all manually (by using Attribute Manager to copy it to those other PLNs).  All attributes "match" by the internal index number seen within Attribute Manager, NOT by the name.  So, it is important to not add something to A, add something to B, add something to C and then hope you can resolve the attributes.

[DGSketcher]

@vm1992 Go to learn.graphisoft.com and download the Workflow Guide for Hotlink Management. Even if you don't use it, it will be a useful thing to know. You may also find some other guides there that will help you including site plan creation.

The last time I tried to do multiple buildings in separate files the problems with attributes put me off working with separate plans for life.

[Mahmoud Qenawi]

Here are the 2 guides as @DGSketcher recommends to use

[Laszlo Nagy]

Mahmoud,

The two mentioned Workflow Guides (Hotlink Management, Site Plan Creation) can be found on this page of the Graphisoft Learn Portal:

https://learn.graphisoft.com/class_catalog/

These are NOT free materials. Anyone who wishes to use them needs to pay their price, which is 19 euro in case of each of these two Guides.

Please do not again post such paid materials on the Community.

[Mahmoud Qenawi]

I apologize for the community admins I’m so sorry, sure i won’t.

[Karl Ottenstein]

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@Laszlo Nagy  wrote:

Mahmoud,

The two mentioned Workflow Guides (Hotlink Management, Site Plan Creation) can be found on this page of the Graphisoft Learn Portal:

https://hu.learn.graphisoft.com/class_catalog/category/8918

These are NOT free materials. Anyone who wishes to use them needs to pay their price, which is 19 euro in case of each of these two Guides.

Please do not again post such paid materials on the Community.

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To clarify:  these Workflow Guides are FREE to anyone whose license is under a SSA/ArchiPlus (software subscription) agreement.  Add the indicated coupon code to your shopping cart during checkout and the price will be zero.