WHY, WHY, WHY?!?!?!?!?

[Anonymous]

I desperately need slabs to have the ability to be picked recognized by zones so I can schedule the name of the room a specific slab is in for my myriad of schedules.

Why don't slabs have this ability?

I also need the slab to have the option of the various ArchFM fields and user defined fields and I cannot understand why this option is not part of the slab as well.

I model virtually everything in my houses so I can schedule everything for estimating and specifying. The slab is a great tool for achieving this, but its inability to be recognized by zones just confounds me and forces me to do heavily time consuming work arounds.

Graphisoft, please, please, please enable slabs to do this ASAP!

Thanks!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Jeff,

The options you want are not limited to slabs: user defined fields, etc. are only available with (most) GDL objects, which also happen to be 'zone-aware'. Columns, for example, don't have those fields.

I'd like to see a uniform treatment of all elements also, as it could simplify your request as well as other scheduling matters.

Sure, property objects or labels can be used to associate additional data with slabs (and other non-GDL elements), but the everyday user just wants a few more fields to easily stuff data into as we can do with objects.

Temporary workaround idea: I have not tried this and don't have time at the moment to play, but I wonder if you could work around your need for the moment by using a slab-associative label? It appears from the GDL manual that a label can use a REQUEST to find the zone that it is in, so if your label positions itself inside the slab perimeter, perhaps you can retrieve the slab's zone(s) from that. Of course, maybe only 3D elements are 'zone aware' and a REQUEST from a label won't return anything....


Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Hi Jeff,

The options you want are not limited to slabs: user defined fields, etc. are only available with (most) GDL objects, which also happen to be 'zone-aware'. Columns, for example, don't have those fields.

I'd like to see a uniform treatment of all elements also, as it could simplify your request as well as other scheduling matters.

Sure, property objects or labels can be used to associate additional data with slabs (and other non-GDL elements), but the everyday user just wants a few more fields to easily stuff data into as we can do with objects.

Temporary workaround idea: I have not tried this and don't have time at the moment to play, but I wonder if you could work around your need for the moment by using a slab-associative label? It appears from the GDL manual that a label can use a REQUEST to find the zone that it is in, so if your label positions itself inside the slab perimeter, perhaps you can retrieve the slab's zone(s) from that. Of course, maybe only 3D elements are 'zone aware' and a REQUEST from a label won't return anything....


Cheers,
Karl

Thanks Karl.

Let me tell you what I'm trying to do and maybe you can give me a workaround or confirm that it can't be done with slabs.

I am a homebuilder, so I probably desire more detail than most of the users of this program would ever dream of doing. I especially like the scheduling ability. My goal is to eventually be able to schedule every single component that I would ever have to bid, buy and/or install in a given home.

So, the schedule I've been working on that has brought up this question is my countertop schedule. I want my schedule to be relatively simple but I need it to do several things which I assumed would be simple as well:

1. Show each countertop by the room it is in (I use zones to define all rooms and I can't think of a better tool I should be using).
2. List the length
3. List the width
4. List the total SF
5. List the thickness
6. List the slabs ID

I believe I can do everything except item #1, which basically kills my whole schedule. I know I could find little tricks to insert tags or something in the ID to tip off which room it is in, but that goes against the grain of the automation that is so great about this program. I bought this program because of its ability to do all the cross reconciliations that caused so many errors in my manual drawings created from AutoCAD (Ex: a change in a window from the elevation view automatically changes the floor plan and the schedule and vice, vice versa). Using clever work arounds that usurp the built in cross checking benefits of Archicad would cause me more harm than good. Misunderstandings cost me enormous amounts of time, frustrations and money and that’s what I want to avoid at all costs.

I was creating similar schedules for trim but was disappointed to find that my trim made from walls or slabs didn't show up there either.

I do know of a tedious work around that I don't want to do. I could create all my countertops from slabs, then save them as objects and re-insert them as objects, but I am hoping to find a way to avoid all this tedium.

Sounds like I'm out of luck.

Is there something about the programming of walls, slabs, columns, beams, etc that makes my seemingly simple request much more difficult than I understand?

Giving these tools this additional functionality opens a world of options that certainly can't hurt an already wonderful program...IMHO

[Karl Ottenstein]

Jeff,

So much for my hypothesized work-around. While you can schedule 2D objects, of which labels are one subtype, the scheduler will not include labels in any schedule. Stupid restriction IMHO - let the user filter them out if we don't want them.

So, as in the other thread where you brought up this issue, the only workaround at present is to save your countertops as objects - tedious as you say.

As in that thread, you have the choice of doing a 'save as' as an object, counter by counter. (If you do that - select all counters - easy with Find and Select based on thickness and height - and save them as a module for future editing, or stick them in another layer/etc.) Or, as Dan suggested, use ArchiForma. It has the advantage that you can round the edges if necessary to improve the appearance of renderings (at a polycount penalty, of course) and you can still edit the obects directly in ArchiCAD.

With only objects being 'zone aware', and labels not being considered objects by the scheduler, your only option today seems to be to save your countertops and trim as objects if you need a by-room schedule that is 'live'.

All elements placed by tools are treated differently by ArchiCAD from those elements that are GDL objects. Consistency is something to wish (vote) for. 😉

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Jeff,

So much for my hypothesized work-around. While you can schedule 2D objects, of which labels are one subtype, the scheduler will not include labels in any schedule. Stupid restriction IMHO - let the user filter them out if we don't want them.

So, as in the other thread where you brought up this issue, the only workaround at present is to save your countertops as objects - tedious as you say.

As in that thread, you have the choice of doing a 'save as' as an object, counter by counter. (If you do that - select all counters - easy with Find and Select based on thickness and height - and save them as a module for future editing, or stick them in another layer/etc.) Or, as Dan suggested, use ArchiForma. It has the advantage that you can round the edges if necessary to improve the appearance of renderings (at a polycount penalty, of course) and you can still edit the obects directly in ArchiCAD.

With only objects being 'zone aware', and labels not being considered objects by the scheduler, your only option today seems to be to save your countertops and trim as objects if you need a by-room schedule that is 'live'.

All elements placed by tools are treated differently by ArchiCAD from those elements that are GDL objects. Consistency is something to wish (vote) for. 😉

Cheers,
Karl

Do you know a good source to help me learn ArchiForma? I own the program but find it very difficult to use and learn with little to no help provided by Cigragh. I also don't have the advantage of a friend I can watch using it. I'm sure I could pick up quickly with a little bit of help from someone who knows how to use it. The book that came with it makes my head feel like its about to explode.

As always, thanks for your thoughts

[Fabrizio Diodati]

I own the program but find it very difficult to use and learn with little to no help provided by Cigragh.

Please just ask what you need for by sending an e-mail to my personal e-mail address (as everybody does):

fabrizio.diodati@cigraph.com

[Anonymous]

Fabrizio wrote:

I own the program but find it very difficult to use and learn with little to no help provided by Cigragh.

Please just ask what you need for by sending an e-mail to my personal e-mail address (as everybody does):

fabrizio.diodati@cigraph.com

Sorry, my friend. My comment sounded unduly critical of your product and company. It’s probably just me but I find the program not very intuitive and the manual hard to learn from, but like I said, that’s just probably my stupidity.

The reality is that I don't even know what to ask you because I just find the booklet that teaches how to use the software to be very hard to understand.

I think what I would really like is a better training guide, more like what Graphisoft puts out with demos and actual practice lessons that I can compare to the book and videos. Even better, would be a program like Virtual tutor which is just an outstanding program to learn Archicad from.

Are there other training guides or resources I can reference to help me learn how to use your programs?

I own four of your programs and they look like they would work great, but I am struggling to learn them, so they sit on the shelf unutilized.

I guess what I really need is Cigraph for Dummies.

[Thomas Holm]

vincon2 wrote:
I guess what I really need is Cigraph for Dummies.

You're not alone, mate