Flexible Level Marker (Plan)

[Anonymous]

Hi -
Another one out of the east:
I am in desperate need for a better Level Marker.
Some of its wished for properties have shown up in
AC10's S/E tool under "Story Levels In Section", so I
am hopefull.
In the attached file you can get a quick idea of what I mean.

A. The simplest upgrade would be to have the ability to add
any user defined text before or after the retrieved level,
and have the ability to set both the level, line and the label
ANYWHERE around the marker hotspot.
In ARCview, a GIS application, we have a huge veriaty of
label placement options governed by a rather simple matrix
and proximity/priority engine.
Same logic goes for the font attributes of the Level text and
Label text - have 'em at different color, size & typeface you like.

B. The Second upgrade would be to be able to displat TWO
Level strings within the same symbol, each with its own
prefix (as in A), while the 1st level would be the directly
retrieved one, the Second would be calculated by addition
or subtraction from the first based on
1. a user defined value, or
2. the thickness of the dimensioned element
This would allow us to automaticaly annotate Finish Flooring
AND Sub Flooring with the same Level Marker.

C. Last but not least, any one of the two calculated level slots
could be set to retrieve "Level to Project Zero" and
"Distance to 1st/2nd Reference Level".

It would be nice to also have a calculation feild one can fill with a simple VBA script, if its not beyond most users.

And for god's sake, let us have more control of the marker shape itself!

More to come -

Gil

[Bruce]

I will add my 2cents:

I would like to be able to justify the text differently for either end of the line i.e I like to justify right for the left marker, and justify right for the left marker.

Also, I find it bizarre that the only shape available to use on the Story Level Marker is not actually available for use in the section/elevation window itself!! How does that make sense?

Sometimes I like to do a 'local' level that would look messy and out of place if the level was included in the Stories, but the marker style isn't available to me. Wierd.

[Geoff Briggs · Accepted solution]

Your topic title is "Flexible Level Marker (Plan)" but it would seem that you're talking about level indicators in section/elevation. If this is indeed the case much, if not all, of what you ask for can be achieved with an object. The downside is that it will not associate to other elements so must be moved manually when building elements are modifed, but that's the case will all your other notes anyway and is a simple matter. The screenshot shows an object I made for this purpose. It has leading and trailing text but not the dual elevation you mention. If it's close to what you're looking for I'm happy to share it and you could modify it as needed.

[__archiben]

[OT] geoff, are those detail call-outs replaced by 'archisketchy-ed' details at that scale? [/OT]

[Geoff Briggs]

Ben, this is a live section at 1:24 scale. The call-out points to a 1:4 detal cut from the section. It's main purpose is a roomier place for notes and dimensions. Since I presumed (correctly) that the structure described by the detail would change a few times it made sense to model everything so I wouldn't have to redo much after a rebuild. Because all the elements were modeled the detail needed only minor tweaks (e.g. more accurate profile of the spa and cover) which I put in a special layer so they would not be overwritten on rebuild. Thus the rebuild process become a simple matter of (re)deleting unwanted lines. Note, the break lines are objects with masks so I don't need to chop all the lines and fills or mess with an imprecise clipping polygon. Does this answer your question?

[andyro]

Another possible method is use a stretchy grid object (includes gridlines and story levels that you can snap dims to) for your sections, change the text in the level dimensions (NOT story markers) to 'custom' and then append your preferred prefix FF, etc. And get the dim to call the desired Autotext reference levels...

You will see the autotext allows you a number of level options, and the hotspot lets you shift around its location...