GO of embedded layers

[stoneunturned]

I could be missing something, but i feel like the method of inserting a surveyor's plan onto a story with 'Place External Drawing' is missing a touch of functionality that would make it incredibly powerful (read: less clicking and less admin for the architect).

Having layer visibility control of the embedded layers is a stroke of genius; allowing those embedded layers to be controlled via GO would be perfect.

Currently I'm pasting multiple copies of the survey plans (as external drawings) directly atop of each other and, for example, to display the site boundary only, hiding all embedded layers but the appropriate one with the boundary data. The external drawing is placed on the non-embedded 'boundary' layer and this means i can chose where to show it, eg, upper basement, foundation, level 1 / in-place-of the whole survey. Same goes for contours, existing buildings, etc but is this really a good, low-admin method?

The current method of adjusting pen colours and width using the Drawings selected penset doesnt seem to have any advantages over GO.

Seems like if the embedded layers were visible to GO, we would retain the GO rules project-to-project and simply update the chosen embedded layer on the next project (this assumes the surveyor consultant is different, and therefore so are the names of all the layers).

On a related note, though may be too left-field, embedded layer visibility control from GO would be yummy, but maybe there's a whole other process which trumps what I've begun to describe here.

Operating system used: Windows 7xxx

[Jeff Galbraith]

We tend to just bring the Civil CAD into a worksheet and use that as a trace reference for modeling the site geometry with native archicad objects.  That way it's all visible in 3D as well as in sections etc.  I'd rather not spend any time at all trying to control the graphic visibility of Civil plans in our drawings.  Leave that to their sheets.  

On the flip side, I would LOVE it if Archicad had better site modeling tools (a mesh option with a fixed consistent thickness regardless of slope?) AND I would love it even more if my Civil engineers would provide 3D BIM quality site models!  But I have yet to find anyone who will...

[stoneunturned]

I hear you on the mesh tool front. There is a user made method of achieving what you're describing with the composite mesh object. Fairly simple process, but does introduce some extra admin.

I guess I'd like to see GO control of embedded layers for typical elements of the survey plans which need to be highlighted on every project. The boundary is the main one, but graphical control of a number of layers would allow a quick tweak of their plans and a very quick existing site plan for example.

The current method of altering the pens and creating a new layout penset is pretty laborious, but a quick reselection of the layer associated with the graphical rule would fly.