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Standard Layers in ArchiCAD Vs. Project Concept Stage

Anonymous
Not applicable
In our ongoing office quest to improve overall standard procedures, particularly when concerned with ArchiCAD. I am interested to learn how others deal with the following layer conundrum;

Generally when we undertake new work, we come up with a number of concept ideas/options for said project (whether it is work to an existing or a new building).
As an example (this is back in the day when we were still using ArchiCAD for 2D purposes only); common practice was to have a survey drawn up of say an existing building in AC and make copies of this survey multiple times in the same model file (perhaps on different stories), or (worse still) multiple model files of the same original survey. i.e. option1.pln, option2.pln, option3.pln.

We now as ArchiCAD is intended (as i understand it) try to have one single model file for an entire project. When we standardised our layers and layer combos we tried to take into account the conceptual design stage and presentation of these concepts in ArchiCAD. The way we currently work is that we have four copies of around 100 pre-set layers catering for substructure right through to detailing. The first 100 are given the extension '00', the second copy of the 100 layers given the extension '01', next 100 '02', last 100 '03'.
The intention is the original '00' layers are for the survey, the 01,02,03 layers are for three different concept options. Then when working on the model file we filter layers that appear in the layer settings menu by using the filter extension feature.
Later on when the client has agreed one of the options, we can easily clean up the model file by showing only layers of options that are now obsolete and deleting any elements associated to them, then after 'purging unused layers'.

We are modelling three options plus maintaining a 3d model of an original survey all from one model file in one place. This has a stack of benefits for us and continues to work well; For example when comparing options in-house to see what is 'Architecturally' working and what isn't, using layer combinations we can easily use the same camera view or flythrough path for producing images and movies.

I doubt very much if the above is unique to us, but are we doing this in the most efficient way?

I hope the above makes some sense, I also hope this is not a repeat question as i have searched the forums for previous answers to no avail.

Regards.

Dan.
3 REPLIES 3
TomWaltz
Participant
I think you're starting from a faulty assumption. Archicad is not intended to have a single file for a single project. It would be more accurate to say it's intended to have a single building per file, and even that is questionable.

I've always recommended keeping separate options in different files to prevent the housekeeping issues you describe (not to mention performance issues and random scheduling/calculation hassles).
Tom Waltz
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
To avoid the layer problem, the scheme I use is the following:

project_name-R00a

where the number after the R is for the revision and the letter denotes an option.

At a minimum I do a saveas (Rxx) at the start of the week or when there is a major change to the project either design, change of phase or documentation wise.

Within each project folder I have subfolders that are based on the project phases (schematic, preliminary, construction docs) within them I have a folder for "previous versions" where I move all the previous files once I do a new one.
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

Macbook Pro M1 Max 64GB ram, OS X 10.XX latest
another Moderator

Anonymous
Not applicable
why not put different concepts in modules then hot link them into the base model with your survey....