Setup of standard designs with multiple options

[tomyg]

Hi all, i'm after some thoughts & advice on a smart way to setup a stand plan with different facade & inclusion options. Our plan range has approx. 33 designs with 8 facades & two inclusion levels which equals 528 plans setup. I'm not too keen on that, mainly because if the inclusions change at any point (which happens) then i need to update 528 sets of plans.

My best idea at this stage is setting up one file per design and using layer combos to change facades & inclusions. I know this is heavy at the inital setup but after that, updating will be easier done the track. This will bring me back down to 33 files. 

Has anyone else done this or have any better ideas? or know of any Archicad feature that will help facilitate a setup such as this? interested to hear what others have done in the past. 

[Gerry Leonor]

i don't know how complicated one design option is versus another, but if a design option isn't too complicated, i tend to use custom created Renovation filters where anything to do with, say, Option 1, is pinned to the Option 1 Renovation Filter:

Option 2 will have it's own Reno filter & anything to do with OPT2 will be pinned to the OPT2 reno filter, etc...

you may still have to create specific layers & layer combinations between the options, but you might not need that many files to set up. perhaps just the separate file to isolate the Design Options modelling & documentation away from the main model (if you need to).

[Marc H]

One piece of the strategy could include graphic overrides, if any of the design options are just color and/or texture alternates on the same shaped elements.  I could see a custom property or two set up within the elements (e.g., A/B pattern, or field/border, etc.) and values input accordingly .  Then, you run 'design option' GORs that respond to the elements and their values.

[Gerry Leonor]

^^ that's icing on the cake. it might also give you the freedom to do some comparisons between design options. where you can have OPT 4 as transparent & OPT 17 as active colours.

[Erwin Edel]

Different master layers for hotlinked modules might work for you. If you hide the master layer of a hotlinked module, it will hide completely. You can also change the layer intersection number of the hotlinked module in you layer combination to something that isn't used by other layers, to prevent it from interacting with the rest of your model.

[Algimantas Kuprenas]

Totally agree, hotlinked *.mod files.

[tomyg]

That's a lot of good advice so far, thanks so much for the input everyone.

[Gerry Leonor]

agree with using modules, especially when the design options get fairly complicated.

[jl_lt]

In order to mantain some mental health, i would also go for the module option. Kind of a hassle in the amount of files, but easy to organize and mantain.

May i ask why you need so many options?