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SOLVED!

Bug in dimensions 'Elevation' construction method, and with level dimension markers?

Paul King
Advisor

For reasons I have never been able to understand, the Autotext for Sea Level <toAltvalue> always gives the wrong figure in ArchiCAD cross sections, and in spot level markers

 

Below is a screenshot from a cross section through a slab, with top surface of slab set at sea level, and with default story markers enabled in section settings. 

This shows the story marker for sea level, vs a dimension line snapped to same story marker where the line dimension settings are set to 'Elevation' construction method, and with dimension text content set to <toAltvalue> (i.e. 'sea level' via drop down options)

 

PaulKing_0-1685336595856.png

 

Am I just going crazy, or is this a bug?  Height above sea level here is surely zero?

 

Same thing seen in plan, with a level marker snapped to slab and set to use sea level. 

Adjacent marker (blue text) has the default 'project zero' setting - which gives correct result, as top of slab = sea level =-21,425

 

PaulKing_1-1685336623447.png

 

My story settings below:

PaulKing_2-1685336929265.png

 

 

PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions
Solution
Barry Kelly
Moderator

Did you set 'Sea Level' up in the Project Preferences > Reference Levels?

It is a reference level and not a storey.

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

View solution in original post

Solution
Paul King
Advisor

OK, with thanks to Creative Innovation (my reseller) - we figured out that the problem is the default title 'Sea Level' parameter associated with Story Level 0 in the story settings dialog in the default GS project template is arbitrary.  It is not actually the same as the 'Sea Level' reference level parameter used in the Project Location dialog. 

 

In other words, one 'Sea Level' is a story setting, the other 'Sea Level' is a reference level setting.   There is no connection between the two, crazy counter-intuitive as that may seem.

 

Manually reconciling the two versions of 'Sea Level' resolved the problem.

 

This should be an easy fix for GS - there is no earthly reason to have two unsynchronised 'Sea Level' settings.

 

If nothing else, all reference planes should be viewable, editable and automatically coordinated from the same unified dialog - whether classified as  'story' levels, or 'reference levels'.

 

Concepts such as 'Sea Level' ,'Project Zero', 'Reference level 1', 'Reference level 2' etc only have meaning in relation to the positioning geometry and thus stories of the building.   No purpose is served by arbitrarily separating one type of reference plane from another.

 

 

PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
Solution
Barry Kelly
Moderator

Did you set 'Sea Level' up in the Project Preferences > Reference Levels?

It is a reference level and not a storey.

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Solution
Paul King
Advisor

OK, with thanks to Creative Innovation (my reseller) - we figured out that the problem is the default title 'Sea Level' parameter associated with Story Level 0 in the story settings dialog in the default GS project template is arbitrary.  It is not actually the same as the 'Sea Level' reference level parameter used in the Project Location dialog. 

 

In other words, one 'Sea Level' is a story setting, the other 'Sea Level' is a reference level setting.   There is no connection between the two, crazy counter-intuitive as that may seem.

 

Manually reconciling the two versions of 'Sea Level' resolved the problem.

 

This should be an easy fix for GS - there is no earthly reason to have two unsynchronised 'Sea Level' settings.

 

If nothing else, all reference planes should be viewable, editable and automatically coordinated from the same unified dialog - whether classified as  'story' levels, or 'reference levels'.

 

Concepts such as 'Sea Level' ,'Project Zero', 'Reference level 1', 'Reference level 2' etc only have meaning in relation to the positioning geometry and thus stories of the building.   No purpose is served by arbitrarily separating one type of reference plane from another.

 

 

PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop

Hi Barry, looks like you posted just as I did - yes that was the issue. 

Story level zero is titled 'Sea Level' by default in the GS template - at least in New Zealand.  

 

This would seldom if ever be changed in my experience, and few would have seen any other description for story 0 - so not at all obvious that 'Sea Level' might refer to two different reference planes.

 

This naming conflict aside, I would argue that reference levels and story levels belong in the same dialog for conceptual clarity, and ease of coordination between the two.

PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop