As far as I can tell, ArchiCAD doesn’t have an elegant way to test out design alternatives without breaking the project off into a new pln. If the primary file has changed since I broke off the pln, it can be a lot of work to reintegrate any design changes made in the separate file. It would be a huge help to have a system for modeling design ideas *within the current project file,* and to be able to toggle these changes on and off to quickly compare design options. My office has occasionally resorted to using the renovation filters to simulate this, but it is a messy workaround and obviously can’t be implemented on a remodel project. This temporary solution inspired my idea for a wish:
ArchiCAD could implement custom filters that work similarly to the renovation filters, but allow any number of user-created categories (such as “Phase I,” “Phase II,” “alternate office,” etc.). Elements assigned to these custom filters could be Shown, Hidden, or Overridden in each viewset just as with the renovation filters. This would allow multiple schemes or phases to coexist in the same project without interfering with each other, and the user could easily toggle between schemes to test out design ideas.
Thoughts?
