!Restored: Dealing with Stories

[Anonymous]

I'm new to AutoCAD (no, no, no, oops.... ARCHICAD) and need some help figuring out the program. I've tried using the tutorials but they always use trace elements and I need to be able to start from scratch.

I've drawn the first story of a house (basement) and added a second story. I want to be able to control the parts of the first story that are viewable from the second floor plan. When I first created the new story above the current one, the first story wasn't visible at all. I clicked around (not sure what I did) but soon the first story was visible, though gray (just like I wanted it). I drew the second story wall, then viewed it in 3-D. My elevations were off so I went into the story settings and made adjustments. Actually I think I ended up doing some adjustments in 3-D mode. Now when I'm viewing the 2nd floor plan the 2nd story wall is gray just like the first story wall. Here are the settings on the wall:
Home Story: Current (2. Main Floor)
Floor Plan Display:
* show on all relevant stories
* Floor plan display - Projected w/ Overhead
* Show Projection - Entire Element (also tried to Floor Plan Range)
Wall Priority on the four second floor walls are set to 6 (basement wall is set to eight.)

I think it has something to do with Trace and Reference. If it is ON then all elements are gray. When I turn it OFF, all elements are dark and active. I want to have all 2nd floor elements dark but still see the 1st elements, gray in the background.

Please help!

[David Maudlin]

Cindy:

It is a bit hard to follow what you are trying to accomplish. If you want each wall to be displayed and editable only on its own story, then change Floor Plan Display from Projected w/ Overhead to Symbolic (first change Show on Stories from All Relevant Stories to Home Story Only). This will not effect the ability to see the other story via Trace & Reference. If you are trying to have some (or all) walls display and be editable on multiple stories, then you will need to familiarize yourself with the Floor Plan Cut Plane, which is part of the control system of how walls that span multiple stories are displayed on each story. Screen shots of what you are trying to do would be helpful.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

[Chazz]

techinstructor wrote:
I'm new to AutoCAD

Sigh.....

[Dwight]

Chazz wrote:

techinstructor wrote:
I'm new to AutoCAD

Sigh.....

Yeah. i don't even have a joke for that.

[Chazz]

Dwight wrote:
Yeah. i don't even have a joke for that.

See, that's what so great about this forum and our colleague, Mr. Maudlin. He looks past little typos like that (OK, huge typos... edit: OK, pretty much the cardinal sin of typos, the kind of typo that makes you wonder about the validity of the whole post, the kind of typo that makes you consider just dropping out and giving up) and wades right in with a nice competent, helpful answer.

I need to be less negative and more "solutions-oriented". But at this point I think I'm being defined by my sig. There's just no going back......

[Anonymous]

Oops....Sorry about the error -- yes, I meant ArchiCAD. I experimented with several applications before settling on this one. I'm probably in over my head but determined to figure this out. What can I say!

Thanks for the explanation from Mr. Maudlin. I was able to fix my problem so that I could use the 1st floor plan as a reference to draw the second. He was correct in the assumption that I only wanted to edit the walls on the current story.

However, I still wonder if there is a way to view the plans so that the selected story would show up as active (dark lines) while other stories could be overlayed in gray. When I activate Trace and Reference all elements on all stories show as gray. It seems to be all or nothing. I'm sure there is a setting somewhere to change this.

Thanks for you patience with folks who know little.

[Chazz]

techinstructor wrote:
I still wonder if there is a way to view the plans so that the selected story would show up as active (dark lines) while other stories could be overlayed in gray.

When you say "plans" I think printed output (as you have learned here already, precise language is crucially important). Stacking and differentiating stories on the printed page is very doable in the Layout environment by compositing views with different pens sets, thou I have to say, I never do this myself.

[Chazz]

Going further.... the active story can be any color of your choosing or the original pens colors. Same for the trace reference. See the attached. click on the dropdown button under the Reference or Active buttons.

[Anonymous]

techinstructor wrote:
When I activate Trace and Reference all elements on all stories show as gray. It seems to be all or nothing. I'm sure there is a setting somewhere to change this.

The Trace/Reference allows you to independently set the display color(s) for the active view and reference view to their own colors or override with a single color. They can also both have a transparency setting. And there is a button for choosing which is to overlay the other.

Do you have the Trace and Reference palette open? These functions (and then some) are all right there. There is quite a bit about this in the manual.

Also, If you are near SF there is a user group meeting on August 6:

ArchiCAD User Group

Hosted by ARCHVISTA
Date:
August 06, 2008 | 6:00PM - 8:00 PM

Location:
San Francisco AIA
Hallidie Building
130 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
Facility Phone#: 415-362-7397

[David Maudlin]

Chazz wrote:
... and our colleague, Mr. Maudlin...

techinstructor wrote:
...Thanks for the explanation from Mr. Maudlin...

Ouch. When did I become my father? ; )

David