Project Origin Question...

[Anonymous]

I know how to move the user origin as I please....
How about moving the Project Origin? Any ways of achieving this?

Thanks in advanced.

[Anonymous]

Junior,

Not 100% sure if there is a way but my guess would be no. If no one contradicts me take alook at the link below to see the best way to move the project to the absolute origin.

http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/archiguide/relocatetoabsorigin.html

Doug

[Gerald Hoffman]

Junior,

AFAIK you can't move the origin. It is fixed but you can of course chose at the start where you will have it in relationship to your project. If in the course of the project for some reason you think you need to have it in a different spot you can move your whole project by turning everthing on and using the heavy marquee through all your stories to drag it to where you want it.

But you probably knew all this. Just wondering why you think you need to move it.

[TomWaltz]

That link is a little misleading. It's more of a way to move your model closer to your project origin.

The project Origin in Archicad is not movable in any way I've ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Good point Tom,
In this case you would want to place the hotspot exactly where you want the project origin to be or maybe move the project by an established landmark that you want to be the origin.

Doug

[Anonymous]

Gerald wrote:
But you probably knew all this. Just wondering why you think you need to move it.

Yes indeed. As to why I would want to move it, ...there are times when I start a new project from an existing pln file as supposed to a template file because of design similarities, special gdl parts...etc.. and find it a tad bit more convenient to copy/drag parts from within the same file... and I just wanted my project origin to be placed some where more relative to the new design (using the existing model as a reference guide until I don't need it anymore and erase it). So in that case....rather than turning all layers on and doing what you mentioned (which is the way I do it currently) ...I guess it would be more convenient if we had the choice to move the project origin instead of the entire project and all the things that go with it (like seo's, hotlinked elements..etc).

I don't do it too often, so I could live without it, but it would be a cool feature given enough people would like to move the project origin (somewhat I doubt this...but you never know..)

Thanks for the responses ArchiCADians!

[Link]

There's three (coordinate system) origins in ArchiCAD; The Project Origin, The User Origin and the Edit Origin. Only the latter two can be moved. You can use the User Origin button in your toolbar or coordinate box to relocate them anywhere, or you can hold down Alt+Shift to relocate them to a node. And you can double click the User Origin button to return the User Origin to the same location as the Project Origin, if necessary.

Whilst the Project Origin can't be moved, I have never come across any issues with having the User Origin in any location other than on the Project Origin. Keep in mind that the User Origin can be in a different place for any viewpoint.

I always centre my templates around project origin. It used to be especially important for anchoring drawings to layout, although with the introduction of new drawing anchoring methods, it's not quite so critical.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

Do you guys have any expeience in working with real world coordinates?

I'm facing lately a collaboration issue based on WCS vs. UCS.

Normaly I have my building close to the project origin in ArchiCAD. Now our consulants want to use the real world coordinates (WCS) that means I need to place my building several tousends of kilometers from the project origin. Of course I can place my user origin than wherever I like...but is there a nicer workaround for this.
What can I do beside draging the whole building across the globe virtually when I figure where the actual WCS zero is just later in the project? This dragign would messup all the saved view I have prior in the project...


Thanks for any suggestion.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Not sure how you can address this for coordination - hopefully someone else does...

BUT, you can NOT move your model too many thousands of km from the AC origin or bad things start to happen to your model, most notably in 3D where the view becomes quite distorted. There are various old threads here showing screenshots. Apparently some issue with the number of digits of accuracy for storing coordinates behind the scenes. But, maybe this is not an issue now that AC is 64 bit?? Don't know ... haven't seen the issue reported in several years. Again, hopefully someone else knows / remembers something to help here...

Ah. Found some old support information which says this (partial quoted content)... not sure how much is still correct in 15:

A single model can be placed ~10^8 = 100 000 000 m far from project origin

Multiple models receive a 'local origin' that is generated in the centre of weight of all model elements. This case you can experience the following coordinate transformation or display problem:

• distortion when zooming in a long way in 2D
  creating Arc/Circle
  flickering when orbiting/moving in 3D Open GL view (~up to 2-3 000 m)
  rendering with Lightworks Engine (~up to 10 000 m)
  drawings disappearing or displaying as empty on layouts

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Hi I'm writting to explain how and why we should always work close to project origin.

The project location dialog is very important.

We work far from project origin mostly because we get surveyor data according to our National Datum. And we need our coordinate dimension object to show the right numbers.

to do that properly we need:

1st translate the list of points to wgs84. If you live in USA you probably work in NAD83. I live in Greece and here we use GGRS87. To do the translation there are many websites that do the job.

2nd choose one point on that list to be your project origin 0,0,0. To do that copy paste the list of points in excel and deduct the values of that point from all the points in that list including the one you chose for project zero. So this point will get values 0,0,0 and the rest will have relative values to that point.

3rd translate the WGS84 values of the chosen project zero to Lat/Lon and use these values to define project location

4rth import relative coordinates you prepared in excel with import mesh from surveyors data. Now your site will be imorted on project origin.

5th open coordinate object. On select Coodrinate system dialog use Project Coordinates, and check set custom origin. In set custom origin use the values of the point you have chosen to be 0,0,0 , in the form of your national datum but NEGATIVE.

NOW WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR COORDINATE OBJECT ON PLAN IT WILL NOT SHOW RELATIVE COORDINATES NEITHER WGS84. IT WILL SHOW THE CORRECT VALUES OF YOUR NATIONAL DATUM.

The advantage of this method is that on plan (drawings) you will have your national datum information. And you will be able to place your project on google earth correctly because the project location will have the correct info for lat/lon.