Linked moduls and stories

[ananas]

We have a main Archicad file and a hotlinked Archicad file where each story is a different modul in the main File.

Each new modul has to come on a new story above. 

Sometimes it would be better to make a new story in betwen (to organise it better), but then all moduls move up and they are not linked anymore correctly.

Is it possible then the modul would always be connected to the modul with the same name, even if we move the story up or down?

I hope the question is understandable.

[Erwin Edel]

For (amongs others) this reason we have a different workflow with a module 'workspace' which we have organised on the side of the main model on the ground floor in one PLN.

To exclude these elements from our normal model views, we have a special 'module workspace' renovation filter that we use to 'pin' the elements to ('show on current renovation filter only' button). If we need to make changes to the module, we open our saved module workspace view, select the elements that belong to that module and 'unpin' them with that button.

Pros of this method:

• no need to maintain project attributes among multiple PLN files
• you can use trace and reference to check the module in direct relation to the model
• You don't need to open a separate file to edit the module, which makes editing faster

Cons of this method:

• you can accidentally hide a layer, save the module and possibly lose dimension strings that related to the dimensions. So be sure to double click your tab or check the layer combination, before you select elements to save
• If you forget to 'show' your module before saving or 'hide' it after saving with the described renovation filter method, you may get unwanted things shown or wanted things not shown. So it does require a bit of sharpness on the side of the drafter.
• If you forget to hide your modules with the renovation filter, you mess up your quantity take off and similar schedules.

For us this has worked great on projects that use a lot of modules. We typically have the floor plan modules on ground floor and things like balconies etc on 1st floor, giving us two workspaces that we have as saved views at the top of our view map.

hope this screenshots helps explain a bit

[ArchiMind]

Hello,

It looks interesting approach for HLM, but I do wonder what happens when you have multiple stories for example 10 story building, does your performance with the model decrease, being that HLM imports everything that is on that floor? All the variants and the main model Do in that sense model become very "messy", and maybe user difficult to handle what to turn off, and what to pin down?

Cheers?

[Erwin Edel]

Why would the module import the entire floorplan? You select the elements you want to save and then save them as .mod file.

If you need a module that spans more than one story, that is also possible with this method with a multiple floor marquee around the elements, but then you run into problems again once you start changing your story settings.

I did list that you need to be aware of the renovation 'status' of things (pinned or not). In that sense, it does require some effort on the user end. However for us, not having to mess with attribute management weighs up to occassionally saving modules a 2nd time after noticing you forgot to unpin elements. Layers are generally not an issue, since we work with saved views.