a few questions prior to upgrading

[Anonymous]

howdy

we are looking to upgrade from v9 to v11 (all clients running either G5 PPC or Intel macs)

we have been testing on 1 station thus far and have the following questions/ issues.. we are hoping to roll it out to all 15 clients sometime this week

so any help/ insight would be greatly appreciated

we are creating a series of master archicad files, specific to each client, which will include partitions, general details, layout sheets, modified work environment, etc. Can this master file then be incorporated into the custom installer/ template?

Is there a limit on how many new instances of archicad can be launched?

Is there a way in 11 to easily copy view set details from one archicad file to another? Or is merge still the best way to go about this?

Some of the projects in our office are still executed with separate archicad files for each drawing (not to mention PMKs!). Do you recommend combining all these into one big archicad file? Or keeping the archicad files separate and just using the "place external drawing" command when it comes to layouting. If combining all the separate files, what is the fastest way to go about this? Launching a new instance of archicad each time and just copying and pasting?

dwg in/out:
When opening DWG files, is it ok to just use "02 For editable import"? When saving DWG files, is it ok to just use "03 For as is output"? Or do you recommend creating new translators altogether (or just using current ones)?

worksheets:
From reading the ref guide it seems that worksheets are 2D environments. Is this more for non-drawing elements? Not sure how worksheets are supposed to be used. We should still use the detail / section / interior elevation markers for drawings, right?

Schedules:
Have you tried these out? Are they worth using or should we stick with excel files? I noticed default door/frame and window schedules. Assuming these are customisable (I know when you add a door it automatically shows up on the schedule)? Can schedules be added into archicad from excel? Eg. Finish and responsibility schedules? (I know there was an issue in the past with excel/ word docs not being “hotlinked” on the mac side)... or is it just best to leave it outside of archiCAD and just save the files from the external app as PDF and link them in?

specifications:
we currently include specification sheets (sheet size usually 30” x 24”) which often run over 2 or 3 pages.. With each page having 3 or so columns.... What is the best way to deal with this..... A tool like inDesign/ quark allows you to link text boxes over multiple pages so that if something is added at the front of page 2.... Text auto repositions itself to flow correctly.... I assume that this is not really possible with the layout feature / text tools available in archiCAD.... So what is the best method for executing the above.. keep it in inDesign, save as PDF and hotlink?

trace reference:
Once I set a drawing up as a trace reference, archicad remembers it, even if Trace is turned off. Is there a way to remove a trace reference or reset it?

layout book:
placing drawings using drag and drop method, does it matter if you drag from the PROJECT map or VIEW map? It was my impression that the view map has the correct saved scale and layers and should be the one to use, but it seems that the project map is the same thing (the files in VIEW map are cloned, could that be the reason the project map has the same settings as the view map?).

I would LOVE to use the master layout grid setup so that numbering of drawings is automatic, but archicad isn’t smart enough to count the drawings in order. Drawings occupying multiple cells can be set to use the drawing ID at a specified corner, but if you have drawings larger than 1 cell, it doesn’t know to assign consecutive numbers 1, 2, 3... Is there a way around this?

palette schemes:
I’ve saved the palette scheme/ work environment to how I like it, but every time I open archicad from scratch, or launch a new instance, the QUICK LAYERS palette never shows up. I’ve tried re-saving the palette scheme, still didn’t work. Is there a bug?

project indexes:
Is it possible to format the SHEET INDEX so we can use it on the cover sheet? Eg. Add spaces between lines, type in additional MEP sheets, etc.

grids and background:
In order to have no gridlines show up as the default setting, is View > Grid Options > Grids & Background the only place to modify this?
When I brought in a 9.0 project into 11, all the detail windows had the grid and I to turn it off for each detail...

details markers:
I would like to set up detail markers such that the drawing and layout ID are automatically linked to the referred drawings, Can you modify Detail Part Marker_NCS 11 (The tail should be longer, there should be a line between the text and a break in the middle). The current marker also is a little awkward to use as you can’t rotate or mirror it easily. I think you have to open the dialogue box to do it and the text doesn’t automatically rotate.

multiple elements (TAB):
I HATE the new way of selecting and modifying elements when there are multiple things at one location!!!! Seems dumb to have to hit TAB and wait for the right element/info tag to show up, as opposed to how it was in past, where you just clicked the mouse and it would cycle thru the elements AND if something was already selected, the pet palette would show up.
Now, clicking the mouse at a node just cycles between all the different elements and I can’t get to the pet palette. Am I doing something wrong?

fills:
The Gypsum Board, Gypsum Board+Vapor Barrier, Gypsum Firecode, %25, %50, %75, etc. fills are showing up as solid, even though they have the same settings as in 9.0 (they were dots in 9.0), any clue on what the problem is?

sound effects:
is there anyway of turning these OFF.... drives me nuts... i know there was a "hack" for doing this in v9... is there someway of doing either within archiCAD itself now... or is there a hack for doing it?

operating system:
most of our machines are currently running 10.4... a couple have 10.3.9 installed.... will archiCAD run on the 10.3.9 machines GUARANTEED or do we need to upgrade the OS (which we should probably do anyway)

again.... huge thanks for any help/ insight you can provide

yukioMishima

[Thomas Holm]

The procedure how to get correct .shx font looks in Archicad, PC or Mac, is described here: http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=100533#100533

And thanks Djordje!

[Anonymous]

Don't upgrade to V11 it doesn't work
at least it's not working on my Mac G5 PPC machine
right now it refuses to plot on my equipment
and I know it's not my equipment because V10 works
and I have the latest upgrades
and I am in contact with tech support.
and until it is corrected by graphisoft, I'm investigating other programs,
I have no choice.
by the way the plotting is only one of a dozen unaddressed problems with V11

Thanks from a disappointed 15 year user of Archicad
Ron

[TomWaltz]

it worked fine for me on 25 Mac machines (and 25 people using them) and another 30 people or so using it fine on Windows, including 3 of them on Vista.