!Restored: Printing Ghost Stories in Plotmaker

[Jacek]

As listed in the CD forum; I would like to be able to save a PMK file/print/publish with a ghost story showing -if chosen so.
Any other takers?

[aahatimo]

Jacek wrote:
As listed in the CD forum; I would like to be able to save a PMK file/print/publish with a ghost story showing -if chosen so.
Any other takers?

i agree in principle. i do not use pmk's myself, but see what you are after. choices are great. so i would like to also have the direct option for pm3.xx to show ghost stories.
this maybe yet one more wish, could we have a display options setting under the printing area: "show ghost story". that way we could do the same thing w/ direct linked plans. this is essential for floor framing & roof framing plans (and many others), where one needs a greyed out underlay showing lower floor plans. i realise this can be accomplished now by putting info on plan to be shown screened. i just want to be able to take full advantage of ghost stories!

[Jacek]

aahatimo wrote:
i agree in principle. i do not use pmk's myself, but....

I don't use PMK's either, but the only way to save the background layer is to save it as a PMK and layer it with another PMK to be able to view/print both. Another way to do this is to preview (Mac) and save as PDF.

Those are the two workarounds as far as i know, correct me someone if I'm wrong.
Jacek

[Anonymous]

The same effect is easily accomplished now. Simply overlay two drawings in PlotMaker and make all the pens in the "ghosted" drawing grey. (Remember to place hotspots for accurate registration.) This technique also allows the two drawings to have different layer settings making it much more versatile than including the ghost story from ArchiCAD.

I don't consider this a workaround but rather a best practice. To include a ghost story from ArchiCAD means you have to tell it which story. This means the ghost story settings would have to be included in the view setup. This all seems rather elaborate to enable a function which is inherently more limited and more complicated than what we can already do.

[aahatimo]

Matthew wrote:
The same effect is easily accomplished now. Simply overlay two drawings in PlotMaker and make all the pens in the "ghosted" drawing grey. (Remember to place hotspots for accurate registration.) This technique also allows the two drawings to have different layer settings making it much more versatile than including the ghost story from ArchiCAD.

that is how we do it now also, just looking for a single plan version.

Matthew wrote:
I don't consider this a workaround but rather a best practice. To include a ghost story from ArchiCAD means you have to tell it which story. This means the ghost story settings would have to be included in the view setup. This all seems rather elaborate to enable a function which is inherently more limited and more complicated than what we can already do.

not sure i agree regarding elaborate, limited & complicated. it seems like if we could save the ghost story and display setting w/ the view set one could get the same result. just like it shows on screen w/ ac.

[Jacek]

"Matthew Lohden" wrote:
The same effect is easily accomplished now. Simply overlay two drawings in PlotMaker and make all the pens in the "ghosted" drawing grey. (Remember to place hotspots for accurate registration.)

"Matthew Lohden" wrote:


In fact it is not easily accomplished when dealing with large sites and complex drawings; the file size is doubled and manouvering one drawing over another with possibly other elements in the Layout, is a lot more difficult, and has potential for unintended mistakes than simply selecting the desired Ghost story to show under/over the chosen view. The "ghosting" can be further manipulated by <Option> and selecting the desired color/intensity for the layer -generating a single file with desired appearance and no need for alignment and also reduced size.

Jacek

[Anonymous]

Jacek wrote:
...the file size is doubled and manouvering one drawing over another with possibly other elements in the Layout, is a lot more difficult...

The file size is not doubled. It is simply a choice between one large drawing and two smaller ones. Accuracy of placement is easily accomplished regardless of size or complexity by placing hotspots in the ArchiCAD views being overlaid in PlotMaker. If the drawings are so large and complex that redraw times are a problem, then just set them to display as black and white bitmaps.

Perhaps I don't understand some of the uses you need this for. In actual practice I have only used the "ghost" drawing in PlotMaker to provide a gray background plan for engineering drawings. And, more often, I use layers and pens within a single drawing to accomplish this more easily.

You mention large sites and complex drawings. How are you using the ghost drawing and overlays?

[Dave Jochum]

This is an interesting thread. There doesn't seem to be a consensus answer here, which points out the difficulties in creating and continuing development of a program as complex as AC. We each have our own preferences and styles of working. One of AC real strengths is that it accomodates various users so well. Sorry--I'm not really adding to the discussion here, but I can see both viewpoints.

[Jacek]

"Matthew Lohden" wrote:
Perhaps I don't understand some of the uses you need this for. ....
You mention large sites and complex drawings. How are you using the ghost drawing and overlays?[/quote

Matthew,
I am not using the the ghost Story for a greyed out underlay/reference only, often I use it as a referenced background information displayed as boldly (almost) as the 'front' drawing. It is simply a way of showing things from other stories, like; Lower floors, site contours, existing features, landscape, etc..
In this case, specificallly my survey drawing that I would like to reference to is 6.5MB! I know that I can change it, explode and resave etc.. but that requires a lot more work than merging the drawing to a lower story and selecting that story to display in ArchiCAD, saving as a view and publishing. Just that when I publish I will not see the Ghost Story -and hence, this post. Much too complicated...
So I save one view as a PMK and another file as a PMK and end up manipulating files in the 6.5 - and 1.5 MB range!
That is why I would like to be able to save/print a ghost story out of Publisher.

Jacek

[Djordje]

Jacek,

Jacek wrote:
So I save one view as a PMK and another file as a PMK and end up manipulating files in the 6.5 - and 1.5 MB range!
That is why I would like to be able to save/print a ghost story out of Publisher.

I feel that Matthew is right. If you do have your 6.5 MB file in the ghost storey, it will still be 6.5 MB of data to display. So whether you have one 6.5 MB and one 1.5 MB file, or one 8MB file is irrelevant.

I had a case where I had to superimpose the location's satellite photo with DWG survey data and "site plan" that was practically a view of the whole development model from above - each of the components was around 25MB. Putting them together in ArchiCAD and saving as PMK (this was in 7.0 days) or placing the PMKs resulted in almost identical file sizes.

Plus, the method with separate files gives better manageability and handling - the ghost storey still has to obey the layer combination you set for the "master" storey, and you can only switch more things off.

I would prefer to handle each on their own, and agree with Matthew. But, to each his own, of course!