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Layer Combination and Pen Set in the Layout Book

Brian Spears
Booster

Archicad should have a place in the Layout Book for setting the Layer Combination and Pen Set. The Layout Book has a different Layer Combination and Pen Set that is separate from those that can be applied to and saved with Model Views. I think that the Layout Book's BOOK SETTINGS needs places to apply and save both the Layer Combination and the Pen Set.

 

Particularly with the Layer Combination, we are finding that the Layout Book is not keeping applied the same Layer Combination for the entire Layout Book. We HAVE a Layer Combination (we actually have two, one with and one without an internal mark up / notes Layer visible) that is to be applied to the Layout Book prior to publishing, but with Teamwork projects in AC24 we are finding that the Layer Combination can drift to different (model) Layer Combinations across Layouts.

I understand that I am in the minority that does not just dump all Drawings and Master Layout content on the Archicad Layer. If everything on Layouts needed to be on the Archicad Layer in order to have it publish every time, there wouldn't need to be a separate Layer Combination (or Pen Set) for the Layout Book.

 

Related, we should be able to schedule the Layer on which a Drawing is placed in the Project Indexes, and we should be able to list the Layer on which a Drawing is placed as a column in the Drawing Manager.

Brian Spears
BIM Manager, Steele Group Architects
Winston-Salem, NC
AC26 USA on macOS
3 REPLIES 3
JaredBanks
Mentor

YES!

 

Setting the Layer Combination and Pen Set for Layouts (I could see layout, by subset, by entire layoutbook) is a missed opportunity. Having consistent and reliable control over pens and layers in the Layout Book would give us more control over the output of Archicad. A couple simple scenarios:

1) Layer control to easily and reliable turn on/off comments

2) Layer control to show/hide particular drawings (imagine the same layout book being able to be used for scheme A and scheme B or different variations of a house or apartment)

3) doesn't really matter what we think of, users will come up with a ton of great uses

4) this is all about reliability and control, both of which are lacking with the currant situation.

Jared Banks, AIA
Shoegnome Architects

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DGSketcher
Legend

I have said this for years, GS should be addressing this to at least bring some stability back to the Layout Book. For an aspect without a user setting Layouts can & do (bug reported) inherit & store values from Views leading to disrupted workflows & aborted publishing. If there was a user set value for the whole book then AC would have no reason not to check and ensure those settings were applied to each layout page when displayed or published.

Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)
Ro-Ra
Booster

100% agree! Perhaps the absolute most annoying bug/oversight in AC. Most ideal if pens/layers can be set per layout with the option of setting them in folders so that layouts within them can refer upwards into the folder hierarchy.