In many areas of Archicad you can limit the model vertically, but not horizontally, which is just as important.
- In a plan view I can't limit the extent of visible model.
- In a schedule I can't set the horizontal region of the criteria.
- In a schedule I can't display the X, Y values of an element.
- In Find & Select I can't select the horizontal region (well, I have the marquee tool, which is not permanent)
- In a plan view I can't place annotations outside a cropped view, only by mimicking it with cover fills (doesn't gel well with modules)
- In property expressions I can't filter based on horizontal position/location.
And I am sure there are many other aspects that I haven't included. These are core features. X,Y coordinate is the very basis of CAD, it is strange that I can't work with them!
For starters an X and Y ><= setting would be great in properties, view visibility limit, all elements other than annotations visibility limit, schedule, find/select criteria etc. It would open up a whole range of possibilities.
Moving forward there could be a limiter polyline** with an ID and that would be recognized in the areas I mentioned above.
Imagine I have 10 buildings on my site. I could set up automatic building location properties based on an approximate horizontal limit. I could schedule their elements per building without manually tagging each building with a custom property (prone to error!)
Imagine I have prototype buildings or units next to each other, not under each other*. I could publish them as individual modules (now I have to use save as, because I need to apply a marquee).
* I am aware of the iceberg concept. I use it to a certain extent, but placing 20+ units under each other is not reasonable. Placing 6 buildings under each other is not reasonable. Anyway, different discussion.
** Zones in a way have that option, but they are extremely unreliable, when you have overlapping zones on different layers (room zones, unit zones, building zones) and not all elements have the "related zone" property.
Open