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Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Cannot Snap to Trace Reference

Anonymous
Not applicable
I am working on a wall section and would like to draft it over a trace reference of the wall section view. In the view, I turned on the trace reference and dragged it to the side to draft over. For some reason I cannot snap to the trace reference with lines, fills, etc. Could someone tell me if there is a way to turn snapping on/off to the trace reference? Or, what else might be going on?

Many thanks!

Using Archicad 21
17 REPLIES 17
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
I have tried this and for me it is possible to find nodes and edges on the Trace Reference. So it works correctly for me.
One thing you could try is update your graphics card drivers. Sometimes such driver errors can cause such behavior in display.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Anonymous
Not applicable
I have checked the same file on another computer with the same graphics card and I am able to snap to the trace reference in that file without a problem.

There are a couple exceptions to this problem:

-snapping to a trace ref. in a plan view works fine, however the I have the same issue with building section and elevation views.

-I am able to snap to the 2D elements and elevation benchmarks in the trace reference.

Not sure what this might mean... It seems that the issue might only be with modeled elements.

Is there any way to disable snapping to a trace reference? Could I have done something inadvertently to turn it off? (Snap to Grid is turned off)
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks Lazlo for your previous reply. Is this the appropriate forum for this question? Should I repost elsewhere?
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
LOUTRO wrote:
Thanks Lazlo for your previous reply. Is this the appropriate forum for this question? Should I repost elsewhere?
This is the correct forum. If you are using the commercial (non-student) version, you have free tech support - give them a call to perhaps screenshare with you and sort this out. 😉
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Stress Co_
Advisor
laszlonagy wrote:
I have tried this and for me it is possible to find nodes and edges on the Trace Reference. So it works correctly for me.
Hi Laszlo.
Did you test it using a section (or elevation) as the active with a section (or elevation) as the trace reference?

Under those conditions, I can snap to all 2D elements in the trace reference,
but cannot snap to any 3D model elements.
If I use a story/plan view or a layout as the trace, with a section or elevation active, it snaps to everything.
Pretty much as LOUTRO described.

Also, works fine in AC20 files.
Marc Corney, Architect
Red Canoe Architecture, P. A.

Mac OS 10.15.7 (Catalina) //// Mac OS 14.2.1 (Sonoma)
Processor: 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 //// Apple M2 Max
Memory: 48 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 //// 32 GB
Graphics: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB //// 12C CPU, 30C GPU
ArchiCAD 25 (5010 USA Full) //// ArchiCAD 27 (4030 USA Full)
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Hi Marc,

No, I have not tried it like that.
But I tested it the way you write it and I am getting the same behavior as you describe: when the active Viewpoint is a Section, and the Trace Reference is another Section, I cannot snap to model elements in the Trace Reference. If the Trace Reference is a Floor Plan Viewpoint or a Layout, I can snap to all elements.

I also noticed another thing which I think is a bug: in the Trace Reference Palette, there is a right-pointing arrow button to the right of the Reference opacity slider. It takes you to the pop-up Dialog where you can define which element types should be displayed in the Trace Reference. In the list I can see all Element types, including the Stair element type (new in AC21), but I cannot see the Railing element type (also new in AC21). I think this is also a bug.

I will report these findings to GRAPHISOFT.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Stress Co_
Advisor
laszlonagy wrote:
I also noticed another thing which I think is a bug: in the Trace Reference Palette, there is a right-pointing arrow button to the right of the Reference opacity slider. It takes you to the pop-up Dialog where you can define which element types should be displayed in the Trace Reference. In the list I can see all Element types, including the Stair element type (new in AC21), but I cannot see the Railing element type (also new in AC21).
I cannot see any 3D elements in that list (walls, roofs, stairs, slabs, shells, morphs, beams or columns).
Marc Corney, Architect
Red Canoe Architecture, P. A.

Mac OS 10.15.7 (Catalina) //// Mac OS 14.2.1 (Sonoma)
Processor: 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 //// Apple M2 Max
Memory: 48 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 //// 32 GB
Graphics: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB //// 12C CPU, 30C GPU
ArchiCAD 25 (5010 USA Full) //// ArchiCAD 27 (4030 USA Full)
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
It seems that the list is Viewpoint-dependent. In Sections, no building element types are present, only 2D element types (you cannot create building element types in Section, maybe that is the reason why). On the Floor Plan, all element types are on the list (except for Railings).

But now that you point this out, I am starting to wonder whether this is actually a "feature" (AKA "limitation") of the Trace Reference. The Trace Reference Palette does not display any building element types on that list in Section-type Viewpoints. And maybe this is the reason why you cannot snap to the nodes of those building element types in the Trace Reference in Section-type Viewpoints.

Anyway, I will forward this to GRAPHISOFT and hopefully we will get some answer to this.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Stress Co_
Advisor
Thanks Laszlo
Marc Corney, Architect
Red Canoe Architecture, P. A.

Mac OS 10.15.7 (Catalina) //// Mac OS 14.2.1 (Sonoma)
Processor: 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 //// Apple M2 Max
Memory: 48 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 //// 32 GB
Graphics: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB //// 12C CPU, 30C GPU
ArchiCAD 25 (5010 USA Full) //// ArchiCAD 27 (4030 USA Full)
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