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Walking Line in Stair Tool in AC21

Dave Jochum
Advocate
The walking line symbol does not orient properly with regard to the up/down text. The walking line should point up from the lower floor and down from the upper floor. Walking line always points in either the up or down direction, depending on setting, regardless of floor being viewed. Story sensitivity is lacking.
Dave Jochum
J o c h u m A R C H I T E C T S http://www.jochumarchitects.com
MBP 16" (M1 Max) 64 GB•OS 13.5.2•AC 27 Silicon (latest build)
31 REPLIES 31
gpowless
Advocate
Yes. It can be solved. The error was brought up during beta testing but the programmers refused to change it, insisting that most architects draw stairs with the arrow pointing from high to low. We argued the opposite point but guess who decided.....
Intel i7-6700@3.4GHz 16g
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Daniel Kovacs
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Hello
 
You are right. This is not a wish, rather an issue, for most of our American (and some Japanese) users.

This behavior was designed in a way that supports the standards and workflows of most of our users all around the world. Most of the standards represent stairs with the arrow always pointing in the same direction on all Levels (usually up), with slight differences about how they represent the visible and hidden parts (dashed or solid lines). That's why a Floor plan view consists of 2 parts: a visible, and a hidden part, with different representation options.
 
In the current menu structure, including an additional option to have hidden-visible option sets separately for different levels, requires a huge change in the way it is currently designed and coded, so we couldn't include this bug fix before the release of AC21, and we also can't implement this change within an update. We are already working on a solution for this, for version 22.
 
In the meantime, we have managed to find a way to satisfy some users with the current system with a workaround until the final release:
These users only display the parts of the stair below the break-mark on the lower floor, and on the upper floor they show the entire staircase. This allows them to have the lower-level part be only a "visible" part, with it's own settings (arrow pointing upwards), and the upper-level part to be only a "hidden" part (arrow pointing downwards). This way they can set up both views with the same line types and settings, only with the walking line pointing in the opposite direction.
 
If you need to show visible and hidden parts both on a single level, the workaround in the meantime is to turn the walking line start- and end-symbols off in the Model View Options dialogue (in the Detail level of Stair section), and draw them with lines and fills (that can be grouped with the stair).
 
Sorry for the inconvenience until we fix this issue.
Daniel Alexander Kovacs

Professional Services Consultant

GRAPHISOFT



For Troubleshooting and useful Tips & Tricks visit
Dave Jochum
Advocate
dkovacs wrote:
Hello
 
This behavior was designed in a way that supports the standards and workflows of most of our users all around the world.
It's frustrating to read this explanation. A proper stair tool--a critical architectural element--is crucial to BIM software. It's surprising to me that Graphisoft would ignore the input from Beta testers that their solution was absolutely not acceptable to a significant number of architects. And after all these years of asking and waiting, we're still waiting.
Dave Jochum
J o c h u m A R C H I T E C T S http://www.jochumarchitects.com
MBP 16" (M1 Max) 64 GB•OS 13.5.2•AC 27 Silicon (latest build)
There ought to be howls throughout the user community about this. Still can't decide whether to laugh or cry.

The head of the company should have made this announcement. It's a major embarrassment and someone senior should be wearing it publicly.

I'd like Graphisoft to script and release a GDL object to assist in the task of having to now carry bits of 2D graphics on top of your lovely part to make it work.

This should be Graphisoft's workaround, not mine.
Think Like a Spec Writer
AC4.55 through 27 / USA AC27-4060 USA
Rhino 8 Mac
MacOS 14.2.1
it's a waaaayyyy beyond Essential!
Think Like a Spec Writer
AC4.55 through 27 / USA AC27-4060 USA
Rhino 8 Mac
MacOS 14.2.1
Tom Krowka
Booster
I don't think it made it into the 1st hotfix. This should be fixed immediately. Causing const. docs confusion.
Tom.
Tom Krowka Architect
Windows 11, AC Version 26
Thomas@wkarchwk.com
www.walshkrowka.com
Tom Krowka
Booster
Noted the comment from the GC guy regarding turning off the walking line arrows in stair details in the model view. I don't seem to have that control option....nor can I turn the walking line off anyplace. Not a good solution here GS.
Tom
Tom Krowka Architect
Windows 11, AC Version 26
Thomas@wkarchwk.com
www.walshkrowka.com
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Tom:

In MVO: Detail Level of Stair and Railing Symbols > Stair Symbol > Walking Line, but this only changes visibility between Visible & Hidden Parts.

Stair Tool: Floor Plan Symbol Components: uncheck "by Model Views Options", uncheck "Walking Line".

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Daniel Kovacs
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Just to clarify for Tom and David:
You don't have to turn off the whole walking line, you can turn off the Start-/End-Symbol by itself in both the MVO settings and the Stair Symbol Settings.
MVO Settings.jpg
Daniel Alexander Kovacs

Professional Services Consultant

GRAPHISOFT



For Troubleshooting and useful Tips & Tricks visit
Daniel, Thanks for the clarification. That helps.
Think Like a Spec Writer
AC4.55 through 27 / USA AC27-4060 USA
Rhino 8 Mac
MacOS 14.2.1