Pen Standards

[Anonymous]

Just wondering what pen colour standards people are using in their offices for documentation. It is easy to find standard pens using a black background, i guess from autocad, but i cannot find any info on the internet what other people are using for white backgrounds?

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if anyone has some ArchiCAD 10 Pen Standards that they can post. We are setting up our pens and looking for the best approach for our office. It would be helpful to see what others have done.

[Link]

There are many different styles to suit many different offices. Take a look here.

Cheers,
Link.

[Scott Bulmer]

Link,
Is that some kind of twisted comedy? Check your 'Here' button.

[Link]

Ha! I didn't even look. That'll teach me for posting before 7am!

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

Here is the Pen Table we use for AC10 at the moment....this is the 3rd generation in about 6 months. Keep in mind that we are dealing with multiple disciplines here and alot of DWG deliverables, so there are a few pens that exist purely for Pen to Layer conversion. Comments are welcome.

[TomWaltz]

PivoArch wrote:
Here is the Pen Table we use for AC10 at the moment....this is the 3rd generation in about 6 months. Keep in mind that we are dealing with multiple disciplines here and alot of DWG deliverables, so there are a few pens that exist purely for Pen to Layer conversion. Comments are welcome.

I like it. I think it covers all use different uses for pens while still allowing for both 2D and 3D content.

I'm assuming the "Section and Detail" pens are for 2D additional work on top of the model?

[Anonymous]

I am currently on the Third Revision of our pens and looking at yours I can see a few I still need to add. Also I like how you laid out the table. It gave me some good ideas for creating a table once I get the pens where I want them. Once I get them a little further along I will post ours.
Thanks for sharing.

[Andy Thomson]

I had a much more complicated approach to pens, but found they were not being adopted by the office. The simpler, the set, the better the uptake (familiar, aka autocad), I have learned. Pens 4, 19, 91 are the only relevent GS 'sacred pens' I have found are used with any consistency in the library parts.

ORIGINAL is for working with blackscreen background, ORIGINAL WYSIWIG is colour adjusted for white background. The first 10 pens are the only ones used for Architecture (1 = light, 10 = heavy, ALL other pens are zero weight), with pen 11 for MEP. The colour spread is for colour graphics work - which this set is used for extensively. I Will definitely be taking advantage of special pens for skins and pen-layer conversion now though - thanks for the suggestions.

[Anonymous]

I created this pen table after starting this topic. Thanks for everyones feedback.

I also tried to keep my pen table fairly simple, i just dont think users will follow a complex table. So the main drafting pens are restritued to the firs 11 "traditional" ArchiCAD drafting pens. Although in the process of doing this pen table i also set up a extensive list of favourites with all pens preset, this is particularly useful for all the new floor plan pens for walls, columns, beams.

- Top left 11 pens are the most commonly used drafting pens. These change to black in masterplanning/sketch mode.
- Top right pens are used in composites. They always print white but on screen help identify the funtion of a wall, particularly in residential acoustic walls.
- Middle row of pens for easements/setback
- 181-240 are all masterplanning, space planning pens, Thanks for your input here Tom.
- bottom row of pens for landscaping.
- everything else can be changed as the user sees fit.

[TomWaltz]

Mark wrote:
- everything else can be changed as the user sees fit.

Why do I feel a Dilbert moment coming?