So many places to control what you can or can't see

[4hotshoes]

I spent a loooong time trying to find how to change the window and door opening lines before I broke down and asked on the forum. the answer was simple once I saw it, but that is my point. There are too many ways and places to change how objects behave or are seen.

It would be nice if each tool (ie the door tool) had a one stop place for all things doors. So the Door Default Settings dialog box has several drop-downs to control how a door is displayed, such as:
Internal Door Settings
Floor Plan Settings
Dimension Marker
Marker Text Style
Marker Custom Settings
Classification and Properties

But there is one other setting that effects what is seen and how it is seen, and that should also be a drop-down that I wish was available here and on every tool and that is the Model View Options. The MVO are more global in nature, but I wish it was accessible from here. I know that changing an MVO for a door does so for all doors, but it should be allowed from a single door settings box. At the minimum the current MVO settings should be viewable so the use can know what is happening from a single window that controls doors. There may be other settings that I cannot think of that mess with visual info, but i don't know them all yet, such as the current status of an object on a renovation filter, or a heads up on the current Graphic Overrides that may effect the selected object.

I am not a beginner user, but I am not experienced enough to remember where to find all of the settings that effect what I see on the occasion that I need to make an unusual change to the settings. AC is a great program that offers so much control, but it could use a little restructuring to help the newer users.

[Barry Kelly]

4hotshoes wrote:
But there is one other setting that effects what is seen and how it is seen, and that should also be a drop-down that I wish was available here and on every tool and that is the Model View Options. The MVO are more global in nature, but I wish it was accessible from here. I know that changing an MVO for a door does so for all doors, but it should be allowed from a single door settings box. At the minimum the current MVO settings should be viewable so the use can know what is happening from a single window that controls doors.

Yes MVO settings are global across the entire project and can be saved in different combinations (or schemes), so that you can use a different MVO combination in each view of your model.
So effectively you can have multiple views of the same part of your model (say a floor plan) and by using different MVO (as well as Graphic Overrides and Renovation Filters), you can achieve different looking plans but with the same elements.

If an object (or door/window) has been scripted properly, it should have an option to use the MVO settings or not.
If using the MVO then it will be controlled globally by the MVO together with all of the other objects set to do so.
If set not to use the MVO, then ideally you should then have the same settings (as in the MVO) in the parameters of the object so that you can control them in the object itself.
This is not always the case though - as I say they have to be scripted to allow this.

Barry.

[Brad Elliott]

Barry, I see what you are saying but I agree with Todd that the controls for a single use have gotten too dispersed throughout the program.
To stay with the window example I would like the settings box to say the actual MVO setting such as by MVO (Detailed) and then a way to directly open the MVO window for modification. Right now you can modify the floor plan display of a window through the Floor Plan Display in the window Selection Settings, through the Model View Options, through Graphic Overrides, through the Renovation Filter and through the Floor Plan Cut plane. Yet none of these items are accessible from each other and most of them don't even reference the other options. And this is only the window.
The program is now full of these discrepancies as they have added on features and assigned the new locations without integrating them in to the existing structure. Fills, surfaces, composites, building materials, 3d view and photorendering settings, and surface painter being another example. I would love to see the flow charts showing how different settings from different systems affect each object in the program. I was really hoping that this would be the next step after the graphic redesign of the interface but it doesn't appear to be the case. As someone who did training many years ago I would absolutely hate having to explain all this to a new user because I don't know how you would do it in an organized fashion.