vblum wrote:
is there such a thing as a block (in autocad), that can be updated, that would work for a whole house?
[This is a multi-tip message! I just found out about the multistory .mod files today.]
1) Using objects is good and fast if you are generating them from very simple models either
- by making very simple models in order to create the objects, such as say a gabled pavilion made from a single rectangular mesh object with two points defining the ridge--it gives you control of the side and roof material), or
- by using for creating the object a layer combination and object settings that show what you need and not a lot more; if you are going to multiply the object in the masterplan, the multiplied zillion points and faces in the sash details in a window can pretty much defeat the whole approach.
The downsides of using objects are
- that the model may have problems with library parts, or geometry overlaps, or who knows what that produces the problems you are talking about, and you need to start cleaning up until you find the problem (which takes time);
- that they don't update automatically from your source pln, but need to replace the old object with the new updated object every time you make a change to the source pln;
- that you don't have layer and display options control of your houses in your masterplan;
- that in your source pln you can't Publish to object, so that each time you want to update your object you need to go to the 3D view and save as module.
2) If you want layers and display options for your houses in your masterplan the way to go is modules. Normally you would go for one for each story, but in your specific case you don't want to keep the first and second story as separate entities in your siteplan, you just want to drag the whole thing around in a single move and you don't need the ability to show first and second story site plans. So what you would do is Publish (create a 'Module Export' layer combination showing exactly what you want, and then create the First Story and Second Story view) the modules for the first and second story to a 'Story modules' folder, and then bring those two modules into a single story in a 'Single-Story House' pln --you bring in the first story module, then bring in the second story module to that same story and elevate it to whatever z you need, and it is this 'Single-Story House' with its nested story modules that you will bring into your site plan. It sounds complicated but it is not, and you do the setup only once and from then on the whole update process is automatic --Publish and update modules. It makes sense to work with more than a session of ArchiCAD open, so that you can handle site plan in one, house plns in other, and single-story house .pln or .mod (for updating, basically, because nested modules don't yet update automatically). In your Single-Story house file you can also add a fill to cover the outline of the whole multistory mess and give you a clean schematic site plan view in your site pln.
3) I just found out that you will actually create a multistory .mod file if an object from some other story is displaying in the view you are creating your story module from --instead of generating a single story module, it generates a multistory .mod file. This doesn't change a lot in terms of site insertion, because you still have several stories and can only hotlink to one at a time, but multistory .mod files simplify publishing and file management by giving you a single .mod file for each house (which doesn't contain unused attributes, and which you can control and update through the views setup and publishing from your source .pln). So that if you go this way the 'Story modules' folder gets replaced by a single multistory .mod file. [Agh: the other story will only contain the elements that are showing in the story you are publishing. It is still neat for roofs, but it is not as neat as I first thought it would be because many elements typically don't and sometimes (walls) cannot display in the story below.]
