Link objects to walls - Toilets, Beds, etc...

[Ahmed_K]

Hi, 

I have an idea, out of the box, 

What if some objects from the library behave like a window, they can be anchored to a wall, when the wall moves, they follow on, 

here i changed the type of a bed inside the GDL editor t oGS-Window, so it appears in the window menu, 

Now it can be placed on a wall like a window, but it's turned and it has a Wallhole, 

the object keeps all it's parameters it's fully parametric like the original bed 

Does someone know how to fix this ? 

it can be used for toilets, washbassin, electrical equipments, all kind of objects that can be acnchored on a wall

[James B]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestion.

I've moved this to 'on hold' for now, as we'd need to investigate this area further.

I can understand that these elements would need to freely connect and disconnect - unlike windows and doors. I'm not sure what would happen if the Wall is deleted, if you'd expect the connected bed to also delete - like a hosted window does....

[thesleepofreason]

@James B 
There is a difference between positional and compositional relationship between model elements - although AC can't really handle either in a good way. What this wish seem to be about is the ability to create a positional relationship between elements like a bed and a wall. Move the wall - move the bed; delete the wall - keep the bed in position. As simple as that and really where you already should have gone and investigated with distance guides if they were properly developed instead of just for being a marketing gimmick. Almost all elements are placed in relation to another ( just as noted in Dynamic Array/Sequence tool ) and yet AC offers no relief for the user managing that. Unbelievable that this is something that can be put on hold.

[James B]

Hi @thesleepofreason 

Hope you’ve had a Christmas. I didn’t have more days off, so been trying to use some of this quieter time to respond, we know this has been a bit delayed. So appreciate your patience.

Ok I understand that the GDL example of a window, isn’t actually the wish here then. But a new concept and logic. What if you moved the bed (or whatever element it is) away from the linked Wall, you’d expect it to disconnect immediately? To avoid the two elements being in different places? If the element is hidden or locked, it could possibly moved without you knowing (like in a hotlink). In teamwork, if another user reserved the bed, but you moved the Wall, that could possible break the connection too… all area we’d need to consider too.

[Lee Hankins]

Hi James,

Hope you had a good Christmas. It’s a shame you didn’t manage to get more time off. 

I personally don’t think the element should disconnect on its own, obviously unless the element it is connected to is deleted. Maybe there could be an option to choose whether they are deleted or not?

What would be good is visual feedback to show that elements are connected to one another similar to grouping so the hotspots appear differently and the connected elements change in some way visually. There could be a little pop up similar to the square box for connected or trimmed elements where you can click on it to untrim. 

[thesleepofreason]

And the days one have just fly by 😑 .  For trying to evaluate the prospect of a future with AC it is positive to see some movement on processing of wishes - although I would preferer to get a picture of where to expect AC to be rather than not to be. But we work with whatever information we get. 

It should be noted that I'm commenting based on my understanding of the wish's objective and might be too elaborative on my part but I don't see the logic of incorporating an object like a bed in a wall element just to define a positional relationship. I think Revit has a feature called constraints which perhaps is better wording.

So if the user tries to move a constrained element it should be notified that the position (and thus movement) is constrained and prompted to either un/re-constrain the element or if possible move it in accordance with the constraint (if constrained in X, move in Y). 

The hidden/locked/reserved situation is perhaps a technical challenge but straight forward from a user perspective. The whole point of defining a constraint is to make sure that it hold without the user having to keep track of it - so if the element is hidden and the reference moved the element should adjust while hidden, locked or reserved in order for the model to be as defined.

As said - distance guides was looking like a good start but did they even leave the napkin? Imagine being able to lock the distance to finer grained reference points and take it from there take it from there.

[James B]

Thanks @Lee Hankins  and @thesleepofreason  for the additional feedback. When working on an area, we do refer to these comments, hence us asking for use cases and examples - because we want to better understand what’s behind the request, in this example it’s fairly clear though. Objects such as beds, toilets, sinks, cabinets, pictures, electrical power outlets, heat pumps or air con units etc…

Perhaps using a type of logic that the Opening tool uses may help here - rather than a new GDL hosting subtype. There are other situations like trimming the Wall, or splitting, or curving, or tilting, or the host is in a hotlink etc, which we also need to figure out and address.