ArchiCAD 16, customising default settings

[Anonymous]

We have used ArchiCAD for years now but recently moved offices and had a complete re-brand of our company.

I have set up a default template for our new logo etc. BUT, 1 thing which i have never been able to sort is if you can set the default settings for library parts from something other than always starting with pen 4 as the Contour Pen & pen 19 as the Fill & Fill Background pen colour.

These colours on our system are green (pen 4 & pink (pen 19), i have attached a screen extract to show what i mean.

Any help would be appreciated.

[David Maudlin]

WALtd:

The way to change the default parameter settings for a library part is to open the part (Open Object...), change the settings in the main library part window, then save the object. Another approach without changing the library part is to use Favorites.

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

[Anonymous]

David Maudlin

Thank you for the help, I have changed my signature, hope you don't mind i based it yours.

I do use favourites for items we use a lot such as single & double doors, windows, sofas, toilets etc. but I just wondered if you could somehow choose because presumably somewhere in the software or wherever the library is told to start in pen 4 & 19, and when you pick something out of the ordinary such as a billiard table it would be green/pink again!

Its not hard to change to black and white but when its every object its a bit time consuming and other staff members simply don't understand why it cant be black and white to begin with.

Is it the same with yours, I assume it will be? how do you get around this issue?

We can easily change pen 19 because we don't tend to use this, so i could change our standard pen set for the office (and template) to white, but pen 4 in green is what we use to mark floor levels and other standardised items in our drawings and it has a pen thickness of 0.35, so to change this would be quite difficult.

[David Maudlin]

WALtd wrote:
I have changed my signature, hope you don't mind i based it yours.

Thanks, looks good.

WALtd wrote:
but I just wondered if you could somehow choose because presumably somewhere in the software or wherever the library is told to start in pen 4 & 19, and when you pick something out of the ordinary such as a billiard table it would be green/pink again!

1. Select an object
2. Select command Open Object...
3. After the object opens, select the Parameters tab in the upper left corner of the main object window
4. Scroll down the Parameter(s) list until you find the parameter(s) you want to change
5. Change the parameter(s) setting to the preferred default(s)
6. Save

This will change the default settings for the object(s). It can only be done one object at a time, so repeat this procedure for as many objects as you want to alter. If the objects are in a Container file, the Container file will need to be extracted with the Extract a Container... command, then repacked using the Create Container... command. If Graphisoft updates the library, then this work will be lost. This procedure will need to be repeated when a new version is released.

So there is this way to alter the default library part settings, or changing your pen set (as you noted previously), or using Favorites; all have pros and cons, you just have to look at the options and choose the best method depending on your situation.

HTH,

David

[Anonymous]

David

That is excellent, thank you, i think this way for us will be better than favourites because we can just load the library and away we go.

thanks again.

[Laszlo Nagy]

There is just one thing to add to this: Unfortunately, when a library hotfix is installed it is looking for the original ArchiCAD Library Container File (LCF) to update it. If you modify it the hotfix will not be able to update it.
Just so you know.

[Anonymous]

BUMP

Is there STILL no way to modify the default settings and save it into your template file. Not by going into open object for each object. Just globally change the way all DEFAULT doors look in 2D, materials they have etc...

[Barry Kelly]

You have 2 choices to 'permanently' modify settings.
One is to modify the objects by opening their scripts and making the necessary changes to pen colours, line types and materials so they suit your template.
The other is to modify your template (pen colours, line types and materials) so they suit your library objects.

Or you can set up favourites which over-ride the default settings of objects - or an alternative to this is to have a file with all the objects placed in it with your amended settings - then you can copy and paste these to other files (you can even save them as .MOD files which you can merge into other files).

Basically the default Graphisoft library is set up to be set with the default Graphisoft templates.
As soon as you start customising your own template you either need to keep the same pens, lines and materials or also modify you library parts.

Barry.