Pen sets should be linked to Views

[alexliz]

I have drawings which are supposed to be viewed and plotted with different Pen Sets. For instance, the main architectural plans use the standard ArchiCAD Pen Set (where for instance pen 6 is a light blue and pen 7 is a dark blue). Mechanical plans, however, are superimposed on the main architectural layers, using different pens (i.e. all mechanical elements are done in pens 198 and 199), and we then use another Pen Set which turns every pen _except_ 198 and 199 to a very pale shade of grey.

The annoying thing is that every time we need to print an architectural or a mechanical Saved View, we have to remember to switch to the appropriate Pen Set.

Bottom line: we need to be able to save the relevant Pen Set together with the Saved View, just like every Saved View remembers its Layer Combination, Scale, Model View Options etc.

[__archiben]

alexliz wrote:
... but you are making the working Environment a Pen Set attribute rather than Pen Sets an attribute of Saved Views. From a conventional end user's level of database schema, I think this tends to be a little removed.

not at all. a pen set would have two states. simple.

personally i would prefer the first option i stated: allowing a view to have two pen sets attached to it.

archicad then handles which pen set is used depending on whether you're working in a layout or a model window . . .

the work environment has nothing to do with it?!

~/archiben

[alexliz]

Ben,

By 'work environment' I am referring to whether one is in the floor plan/3D etc.window or in the Layout windows of what used to be PlotMaker; not the Work Environment as we know in ArchiCAD. Perhaps I should have made this clear.

You said in your post:

~/archiben wrote:
what if the pensets themselves were able to change automatically when in particular environments? so: penset 'A' has a model and layout definition attached to it. depending on the environment you're working in, the pens change themselves?

So, if I read you correctly, I'm thinking: it is somewhat disjointed to have to define pens themselves twice for each Pen Set. Just think about it: you go into the Pen Sets dialog, arrange the pen colors and thicknesses, first Pen 1, then Pen 2, then Pen 3 and so on all the way to Pen 255; then go over them again and arrange their alternate state for output use, Pen 1, then Pen 2, then Pen 3 and so on all the way to Pen 255 again. What this does, is, effectively, rendering the working environment (i.e. modelling or outputting) a parameter for the Pen Set; the Pen Set has to ask itself 'What is my current environment?' in order to define itself. Not to mention that you would have to go through the tedious ritual of specifying pen colors and thicknesses unnecessarily for the various Pen Sets, even if their settings are identical (e.g. Pen Sets 'FormalPlots' and 'WorkingPlots' might have different definitions for outputting, but they might share the same definitions for modelling - although both of the same definitions would have to be copiously arranged by the user).

On the other hand, Mike Hann's proposition makes things more modular. You only specify the various sets of pen colors and thicknesses once for each Pen Set, just like what happens now in ArchiCAD 10, and then decide which two sets from the ones you've set up will be used for modelling and for outputting for each of your Saved Views. Much simpler, since information is only entered once and referenced many times.

This is also what I mean when I mention the 'database schema' in my post above.