Using Encina's Objective

[Anonymous]

Hi to all

I've been using ArchiCAD for a wee while now and have just come across objective. (An absolutely astounding add-on which has helped me out no end!)

The only issue is I'm trying to see if there are ways of grouping the elements together so once created they can be moved around the drawing as one.

The reason I ask is that I'm currently modelling a bowstring truss (using circular columns) and can't seem to find how to.

If anyone knows it would be a great help to me!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

OK So I haven't had any replies as this post hasn't been up long BUT... I have found out accidentally by clicking the grouping button at the top with the selected elements does the trick!

So onwards and upwards with the ArchiCAD learning curve

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what "objective" is. However, if you use more than one of these bowstring trusses you could save it as a library part. That way it would be one object, use less memory and you could easily modify the original object and resave in order to update all the bowstring trusses in your project. Does that help?

[Ralph Wessel]

Alejandro89 wrote:
I've been using ArchiCAD for a wee while now and have just come across objective. (An absolutely astounding add-on which has helped me out no end!)
The only issue is I'm trying to see if there are ways of grouping the elements together so once created they can be moved around the drawing as one.

Try using OBJECTiVE's Assembly tools. Select all the components in the truss and click the menu OBJECTiVE > Assembly > New. This not only groups the components, but recalls 2 spatial locations for the assembly. These are:

• 1. Plan home - the position of the truss laid out flat on the ground
  
  2. Model home - the position of the truss in the finished project model.

You can set the positions with OBJECTiVE > Assembly > Set Plan Home and OBJECTiVE > Assembly > Set Model Home, or move the truss between locations with OBJECTiVE > Assembly > Go To Home and OBJECTiVE > Assembly > Go To Model. Many framed assemblies are easy to model laid out flat, but very difficult to edit in the model. These tools make it very easy to toggle between these positions when you need to change the construction.

There's more information on Assemblies in the OBJECTiVE Reference Manual (PDF bundled with the software).

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much Ralph Wessel for your input I'll give it a read through! I've given it a shot and it seems to work much better! I'll definetely be making good use of this tool in the future!

Also Cheers to JCRarch I understand that saving library parts saves on memory in the project but Objective (as an add-on) has its own functions within the plug-in. I'd definetely give it a go as its a good substitute as GDL Coding might be slightly out of my league at this moment in time !!