TYPE of windows and doors

[Anonymous]

WISH: Make defined "type" of doors, windows, skylights etc.

OK, for me this is extremely essential.

STORY:
At the moment I'm working on a residential project of 500 apartments (35 apartments layout definitions) in 3 buildings, 40 000 sqm. Each building is divided into 2-6 hotlinks populated on 10 stories, external walls are outside hotlinks.
There are 5 architects working on this project using Teamwork project, hotlinks are PLNs.
There are more than 2500 windows and 4000 doors (including 2 story garage). At the moment we have something like 7 door types and 11 window types ( that is approximately 350 items each type) defined in Favorites.

Although Favorites are really handy they don't really do the job needed to have full control on what is happening with those basic for every projects elements.

The problem appears when it comes to change some door or window parameters of the same "type". It is nearly impossible to do it without a mistake. There is always someone having some walls reserved, not sended changes or simply someone changed some parameter of the door/window making it impossible to select it by the Find palette. Selecting all doors or windows in 3D sometimes works really slow since there are many elements to be shown in 3D (even when hiding in layer the rest of the model except walls) and not always is possible for several reasons.
Changes to all doors/windows of one type is usually made "by hand".......ughrrrr.

Also defining in AC the ID as "type" name is rather a strange way to work with windows/doors and in fact not working in most of the time or requiring to many workarounds.

Most architects think of door / windows using "types" of them, not individual items. A TYPE of door / window is something natural in any projects bigger then a small house.

SOLUTION:

Make an option to define door / window parameter set for a particular door/window TYPE, exactly as Favorites, but..... after inserting those items they are only a copy of this defined "type".... just as a Autocad block / Revit Family / Sketchup Component etc.


REQUIREMENTS / SUGGESTIONS:
- The TYPE has its own name allowing to select windows/door by the TYPE
- Any changes to the defined window / door TYPE takes effect in all items of this type placed in the project, no matter if they are reserved or not.
- Teamwork: each Type definition has to be reserved before changing its parameters
- this TYPE could be a part of Favorites palette for simplicity, or maybe a separate palette (?)
- maybe some parameters could be changed within types - for instance left/right doors are still the same TYPE.
- schedules work with TYPEs (selecting, quantities etc)
- editing TYPE of window / door "in place" so working with one door takes effect in the whole project including hotlinks
- TYPE definitions can be exported to other projects and hotlinks (!!!) by the Attribute Manager (or simple export in the TYPE Palette).


I can't imagine Archicad in the future without TYPEs (or whatever you call it). This is in my opinion a "must have".
Its not necessary to have TYPES when working on project even with 200 windows, but when it comes to thousands the window type becomes a major problem.
Architects industry is changing, projects become bigger and more complex every year. Grouping elements into inteligent hierarchy is what AC will have to deal with as soon as possible. TYPEs is the first but not last, big step.

[Barry Kelly]

Vahur wrote:

Barry wrote:
Not if you don't want it to.
Turn off the Auto ID Increase checkbox in the Options > Project Preferences > Miscellaneous dialog box.

Barry.

There is no such menu at this location, tried all profiles, including standard.

Sorry I got that from the Help guide for what ever version of Archicad I had open at the time (can't remember which one it was now).

In 18 it has been moved to the Work Environment.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Barry wrote:

Vahur wrote:
There is no way to change properties of elements by changing favorites.

True but if you have the type parameter in your door/window objects you can create a schedule that shows that parameter.
It can then be edited directly in the schedule.

You can even use the schedules as an advanced Find & Select.
Set up a schedule to find all windows that are - 1400x1200, opening inside, white colour, triple glass - use these as your search criteria.
Add a field that shows the 'Type' parameter and then you can edit them all to be the code that you want - either directly in the schedule (one by one) or you can highlight all of the windows in the schedule and use the 'show and select in plan or 3D' buttons to select all the windows and edit the parameter at once for all selected windows.

Now you can just change the selection criteria to find other window types.

Not the most elegant solution but until we get the option to Find & Select by object parameters this will have to do.

Barry.

Barry, You are absolutety right.
Now try to explain this to a person who works in Archicad no longer than a weeek... after your 3rd sentence he/she will look deeply in your eyes and start notting

Schedules are great but as I noticed something like 50% people around me working longer than 2 years in Archicad still find schedules to complicated.
Funny but Find& Select palette seems to be easier for them though the "engine" is basicly the same as in schedules.

The point of TYPES is to avoid selecting at all what allows to be sure all elements of the same type are exactly the same -> no place for mistakes.

[Laszlo Nagy]

There was a related thread and I posted some GDL examples of how to achieve this with what we currently have:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=49136

This is not to subtract anything from the validity of this wish, just to offer a solution for our current situation.
The example I give in the other thread modifies only the Width and Height parameters of Windows based on a WindowType parameter, but this can be extended to modify as many parameters of a Window as needed.

[Anonymous]

how is this not a thing yet??? 😞

[furtonb]

I'm thinking about combining this with Properties, but that leads to a more general question: is it possible to access Properties from the GDL Script?

Requesting a certain Property value that can be scheduled, or in the other direction, writing the result back to a Property, that was calculated in an object.

[Barry Kelly]

furtonb wrote:
is it possible to access Properties from the GDL Script?

Not as far as I am aware of.

Barry.

[furtonb]

Barry wrote:
Not as far as I am aware of.

Sad. Thanks for the info, Barry!