Symbolic View creates so many workarounds that are pretty maddening and creates a need for these elaborate menus. Some wish list improvements:
1. Consistency
Consistency is good, but All options should be available for All tools simply because I may use a tool in a way Archicad has not expected, for whatever reason or have a unique condition that requires it.
2. by Model View
I would love an object by "Model View". The options could be: "Home Story Only", ... "All Stories", "By Model View", | "Custom", "Edit Custom"
Where by "Model View" is a non-symbolic object as in sections & elevations. Frankly, I would put most elements (walls, slabs, beams, stairs, multi-story objects, boolean operated objects, overhead objects) in this category except for maybe toilets, symbols, faucets, etc.
3. by Model View Controls:
Ability to set universal appearance of Cut Objects Outline, cut linetype, cut pen, fill pens & patterns. (uniform heavy Outline cut, by material fill, uniform fill pens, etc.
Ability to set universal appearance of Overhead Outline object linetype, pen, fill pens & patterns. (uniform "hidden outline" dashed line, no fills, etc.
Ability to set universal appearance of Belowlines, object linetype, cut pen, fill pens & patterns (uniform light dashed line, no fills, etc)
Some of these are handled in various places (graphic overrides) but one place that is universal would be nice. It is hard to change settings on an object by object basis. Modeling things accurately, and placing things on layers and forgetting would be nice. It is frustrating to hide roof hips on plans when you only want the outline outside the walls (an RCP would never show roof hips over the interior ceiling planes).
#1 should happen today. Would be great... #2 & #3 would maybe prevent me from trying to learn Revit...
In Plan View, many hours burned trying to solve stair & handrail settings... looks bad and is not correct.... Lots of time tweeking settings of every object on page, still lots of inconsistencies....
In 3D View, stairs & wall are great. As Modeled...
Fills are "wrong", baed on object settings, not overrides... so Can't use this view either...
I can very much live with the stair in "real cut mode" Don't need to keep old diagrammatic architectural standard to be honest...
Im afraid I am a bit late to the party, but whatever...
Yes inconsistency is a bad thing, but what's even worse is to make a not too great solution consistent... In my view the floor plan visibility options are not just inconsistent, but complicated and ineffective.
If I were to suggest the best basis to control floor plan visibility of elements is the one used for the grid tool. It is simple and efficient. You just select which floors you want the element to be present and that's it.
No need to set complicated below / above etc. Just set up what you want! If you wanted to improve on that setting, the do this: Make it possible to - Chose the floor you want the element to be shown and
- Chose the perimeter line and fill option
The perimeter line can be set to dashed or whatever
The fill option can be set to cut / cover custom or as set in model view options or GO...
We don’t plan to remove the ability to have elements to appear and disappear based on the floor plan cut range (ie to vary their appearance per view), in order to simply the ui to only set which story an element is visible or not visible on.
We plan to improve the code to also uniform some of this behaviour in the background as well.
@James B I am not sure I understand your response. Maybe my post was not clear enough. I don't think I was refering to floor plan cut planes at all.
All I was trying to say (similar to others before me) that elements are often not used as their primary intended use, like a beam is not always a beam, a wall is not just a wall, therefore their plan view would be better controlled similar to the way it is done for the Grid tool, but with some added extras.
Many elements can automatically appear or disappear based on the floor plan cut range - so setting a fixed show on x stories like grid seems more restrictive, because view settings would never effect their appearance on different plan sets. Do you always use the show on stories as home or one story up etc and never all relevant stories? For all your element types (that have it that is)? And instead use layers to control their visibility on various plans?
The flexibility of tools for various tasks, is a key reason why we are trying to improve their consistency.
I see your point, however the show on all relevant stories is the one setting that gives us a lot of headaches. In most cases it works fine, but when it doesn't then that's a nightmare.
Railing is the most frustrating element from this aspect.
I may remain alone in this argument, but I find that it is better if I can fully control how an element is represented on each plan, in different views, rather than leave it to Archicad to decide. The Grid is a good example for that, however, that method would require the added features like I try to show in my little setting dialogue image above.
Please enable Graphisoft library elements to work with the "proper floor display" view range option. This feature is necessary for any plan containing lower elements such as roof plans or multi-story interior space illustration.
On roadmap