Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Layers

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello
My name is Ottorino Cassotta and i work with ArchiCad since the name was Radar/CH since 3rd version. (1984)-( for references see www.proarch.it and Cigraph Italy)
I always appreciated the software annual upgrade but I have a question about an element of the software that, perhaps, you did not thought of. The question is about the use of the layers.
The software has a layer gestion which can be grouped by extension, XRef and visibility.
But, in a complex project, layers are used also to define all of the elements that are part of the project.
For this reason I’m thinking that an important upgrade to organise the layer window could be the grouping of the layers in a gerarchy graphic folder which could permit the designer to find more easily the layers the wants to activate or disactivate with a great time saving.
I attached two sample shoot: the first is the actual shoot of gestion layers and the second is the shoot of my personal gestion layers.

An alternative method of managment could be the possibility to activate more than one layer combination at a time. This could possibly semplify the upgrade I described above.
23 REPLIES 23
DGSketcher
Legend
BIM generates lots of layers. GS needs to make them user friendly.
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Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Yes, I think it would be very useful to have hierarchical layer structure.
Provides better organization, plus you can expand or collapse the various levels of the hierarchy depending on how many layers you want to see.
Also, setting the Visibility, Locked, etc. settings of a Layer could also propagate this change to all layers under the modified Layer in the hierarchy.
For example 5 Wall Layers would be grouped under the Walls heading in the hierarchy. To hide all off them you would only need to click the Hide icon in the Walls heading row.
So this is useful stuff in my opinion.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
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Anonymous
Not applicable
Excellent suggestion! I also wish that layers could be "filtered" so that, for example, all layers with the word "wall" in the description could be listed. At present there is only a crude filter (the "extension" column).
Anonymous
Not applicable
Even Vectorworks has this!
This would be a welcome feature for me in Archicad
sinceV6
Advocate
Hello everyone.

This is quite an old wish, dating back more than 10 years. Yep. TEN years.
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=671
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=4367
and many more since then

Too bad wishes here stay only as wishes...

I'd like to chime in with some more suggestions I've had over the years, without trying to deviate from topic. In attachment:

1. Check box to activate/set a layer combo.- right now, you can't have a layer selected and edit its properties (lock state, view state, etc) in the available combos without making that layer combo active.
2. GREP search filter, immediate focus on settings opening.- open layer settings and type something to filter layer list.
3. Layer hierarchy, as proposed.
4. A layer combo editor.- right now you can only see a single layer's state in all combos or all layers' state in a single combo. To compare two separate combos you need to select each combo (and thus activating it). A spreadsheet approach to this would allow to see how a layer combo affects layers and how a layer is in each combo. Hope it makes sense...

Don't mind the old mockup.

Best regards.
LayerSettings.png
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
sinceV6 wrote:
Too bad wishes here stay only as wishes...
Do not generalize please and try to make it seem like no wish posted on ArchiCAD-Talk is ever granted.
True, this wish in particular and many other wishes have not been put into the program yet, but many other wishes were.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
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DGSketcher
Legend
I have already voted in favour of this but of course GS could take us down a completely different route given the big steps that have been taken with Building Materials and PBCs. There is always the engineering route of associating parts based on dependencies, which to some extent already occurs with openings. I for one would be interested to see my model as a tree with elements, sub-elements and components which is possibly a more natural way of designing. Navigating to find things should also be easier than trying to find something lost on an unknown layer with an alien name. Just have to wait and see what rabbit GS pulls out of the hat this time round...
Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)
sinceV6
Advocate
laszlonagy wrote:
sinceV6 wrote:
Too bad wishes here stay only as wishes...
Do not generalize please and try to make it seem like no wish posted on ArchiCAD-Talk is ever granted.
True, this wish in particular and many other wishes have not been put into the program yet, but many other wishes were.
I'm sorry, Laszlo. You are right. My apologies. Should've said "a lot"

Still, many won't deny that GS has a tendency to overlook user request's and focus more on new grand features following the industry heading and market opportunity. I understand the approach, otherwise why would anyone upgrade or stay with a subscription, and while I've always been supportive of their keen eye when implementing features that help the overall workflow, many user request's are based on everyday use and problem solving, and I would really like if the company paid a little more attention to the unresolved issues.

Best regards.
alemanda
Advocate
sinceV6 wrote:
...
4. A layer combo editor.- right now you can only see a single layer's state in all combos or all layers' state in a single combo. To compare two separate combos you need to select each combo (and thus activating it). A spreadsheet approach to this would allow to see how a layer combo affects layers and how a layer is in each combo. Hope it makes sense...
...
I like this table combos/layers
It gives you immediately the status of the layers along the combinations.
+1



Regarding the hierarchy of the layers I add a sintax number before the name of the layers. example 401 - floor finishings - 2D
where "4" means that we are in the field of finishings, 01 it is useful to find it immediately when assigning to it one element of the model typing 401 quickly, and then you the description of the layers' contents. And usually I divide 2D elements and 3D elements ...
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