Project data & BIM
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Managing Project Design Alternates

gdford
Advisor
How can I manage multiple design scenarios within one project model? 80% of the design might be global with 20% in flux as a design alternate #1, alternate #2.....ect. The only way I see to do this is by duplicating lots of layers for each alternate design. This also becomes problematic with schedules. Is there a clean way to handle this?
Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000
8 REPLIES 8
Erika Epstein
Booster
As you have found, managing the multiple layers as you describe is cumbersome.

Instead take the original file/design and save out each design option as a separate files.

When you want to compare them, each alternative can be saved as a module and placed in one file. This has the added benefit of being able to keep updating the modules as the designs of the alternatives progress.

HTH
Erika
Architect, Consultant
MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Yosemite 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OSX 10.11.1
AC5-18
Onuma System

"Implementing Successful Building Information Modeling"
gdford
Advisor
Yep,
Using modules for the design alternatives was the only clean way of dealing with this issue that I had thought of. I was hoping that there was a built-in feature I have yet to discover that would allow for design alternate versions within the model.
Thanks for the response Erika!
Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000
kevin b
Contributor
We do a lot of healthcare renovation work so the projects are usually on one story. We will typically use additional stories for design alternatives, using trace reference to see the fixed existing conditions or quick comparisons of schemes. Seems like it would get cumbersome too for larger scope, multi-story work though.
kevin s burns, AIA

massachusetts, usa



AC25 (1413), since AC6

Windows 10

Intel Core i7 -8700 @ 3.2 GHz~ 16 GB ram
Stuart Smith
Enthusiast
Up through AC12 we saved Teamwork draft files for different options. It was nice because once an alternative was chosen, we just sent changes from the appropriate draft file to the 'master file'. Also, work could continue on the parts of the project which weren't part of the alternatives.

Nowadays we just have multiple files and end up cutting and pasting more.

Don't get me wrong, Teamwork 2 is way better than the old Teamwork, but it would be nice to bring back the 'draft' concept and somehow incorporate as an 'alternatives' feature.
AC user since 8.1
Anonymous
Not applicable
FWIW

You can accomplish this with with a few view sets and layer combinations if you keep it simple. For example a remod with three explorations would require 9 additional layers or three for each option. Exploration 1 existing, Exploration 1 demo, Exploration 1 new, Exploration 2 existing, Exploration 2 demo, Exploration 2 new, etc. Each layer set requires intersection values that are unique to themselves and demo unique in each group (i.e. demo would be 500 while existing and new would both be 501 on one exploration set 600/601 on the next and 700/701 and so on). Everything goes on these layers (the 20%). The rest (80%) should be on their appropriate layers wether new construction or existing conditions.

Create three layer combinations for each exploration. One to create, one to print and one to transfer. If you choose not to transfer the original exploration drawings will be modified/lost as you progress. Likewise if they do not have unique intersection numbers you will have hidden walls intersecting with visible walls unless that has been changed/fixed since 9.

The create layer combo should only have the three pertinent layers unlocked with the demo layer hidden so as you select the items for "demo" the existing parts they will disappear from view cleaning up your workspace.

The print layer combo should have all layers locked and all other "normal" or pertinent layers visible.

The transfer layer combo should have everything pertaining to the exploration visible but locked and all other layers hidden and locked.

Whichever exploration is going forward into development select it's transfer layer combo. Place a thick marque around everything, making sure it encompasses everything on all floors, and copy. Go to the normal layer combos you use to create your project and paste everything to the ArchiCAD layer. Open the layers dialogue select all and hide then transfer all elements to their appropriate layers. As the items are transferred to their appropriate layers they will disappear. When the plan is empty select your usual layer combo again and continue working.

Once you get the hang of the transfer it's quicker than waiting for AC to open another project file and load the libraries and keeps the entire project in the single file.

Naturally if you are doing a new structure you can omit all the existing and demo layers.

HTH
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
kevin wrote:
We do a lot of healthcare renovation work so the projects are usually on one story. We will typically use additional stories for design alternatives, using trace reference to see the fixed existing conditions or quick comparisons of schemes. Seems like it would get cumbersome too for larger scope, multi-story work though.
If your work is primarily on one story, take a look at using the Mark-Up feature of AC. The negative of using markup for design options is that each markup group applies to only a single story, but for a single story project, this isn't a negative.

You can turn mark-up groups on/off independent of the usual layer structure (sort of like the master layer for a hotlinked module). When you want to incorporate the option, the you convert the mark-up elements into normal elements.

The other negative vs other work methods is that in 3D, the markup entries will appear in their mark-up color, rather than in their normal OpenGL texture mode, so you cannot quickly flip options in front of a client if that color coding bothers them.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sequoia 15.2, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
kevin b
Contributor
We have tried the mark up method, works great as far as managing the options, but the single color in 3D is a real deal killer there. It would be great if you could show actual colors, or be able to switch between actual and mark-up colors.
kevin s burns, AIA

massachusetts, usa



AC25 (1413), since AC6

Windows 10

Intel Core i7 -8700 @ 3.2 GHz~ 16 GB ram
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
kevin wrote:
We have tried the mark up method, works great as far as managing the options, but the single color in 3D is a real deal killer there. It would be great if you could show actual colors, or be able to switch between actual and mark-up colors.
Agree. I've only tried it on one project, and the coloring makes it hard for even me to evaluate the design, much less the client.

I just tried exporting to Visual Building Explorer, in the hope that the underlying materials might get exported, providing a workaround for this color thing. But, unfortunately, the marked-up elements show up in mark-up colors there as well. (I can see that as being useful though, when you want to have someone review changes and have the proposed changes really stand out.)

Would sure be nice to have a switch like you suggest. Want to start a poll?

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sequoia 15.2, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB