Classes...

[VincentCuclair]

As an aside, earlier in the thread an intelligent Materials resource was mentioned. That wouldn't solve what you are suggesting here.

Yes, to a degree it would, first of all the need for far less classes, the 'material' would include all info i.e. hatches, lines weights, fills, textures for all situations e.g. section fills, elevation fills/hatches/textures etc.

If you want to override the material all you need to do is create a new material to override with instead of having to override line weights, fills, hatches, textures individually and for each View Port.

ergo: probably not 350 classes as I have now but 100 and probably 75% less time managing VPs.

[Dieter @ DWorks]

As an aside, earlier in the thread an intelligent Materials resource was mentioned. That wouldn't solve what you are suggesting here.

I guess my answer to that is have more material/finish "Component-" classes. No different to running this alongside a Materials/Finishes Schedule. In fact, it could be the schedule was run within VW. Hmmm...

You should be able, with those materials, to override a material for a type of object, like material x in walls,...

[Diamond]

Yes, you are right. My statement was written in more absolute terms than it should have been.

I agree that materials are a good idea, but I wonder what they give. Does this extra complexity add true value, or further confuse medium users by adding an extra information layer to manage.

Am going to have to experiment more on this.

[Dieter @ DWorks]

Yes, you are right. My statement was written in more absolute terms than it should have been.

I agree that materials are a good idea, but I wonder what they give. Does this extra complexity add true value, or further confuse medium users by adding an extra information layer to manage.

Am going to have to experiment more on this.

To not make it complicated, attributes should be defined by materials and classes should be used for classing objects and text styles. To make it simpler, only have materials and object types somewhat like Revit. Then user can work with these object types instead of classes for worksheets and overrides. Then you could say for example, give me all the insulation of material X for all internal walls, and show it in a red color on my presentation plan....

[VincentCuclair]

Does this extra complexity add true value, or further confuse medium users by adding an extra information layer to manage.

Well, the idea is to get rid of some of the existing complexity that already exists.

I consider myself a fairly accomplished VWs user however I never feel I have a 100% oversight over all overrides, settings within settings upon settings etc. in my files and resources.

The idea with materials is that you define all these settings once and then simply forget them because they work in all possible places in your project: Top/Plan, Elevations, Sections, Renders, all VPs etc. If you then happen to need an override just override the material with another(similar but tweaked) and the changes are reflected in all places.

Ideally materials in Walls (and Slabs/Roofs/Solids etc) would replace components because the material would also have it's own thickness.

At the moment it is not even possible to save component types as a resource i.e.. you need to create the same component time and again.......

Materials could also make it possible to introduce automatic priority joins in materials/components:

http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/archicad_17/bim_details/#priorty_based_connections

Edited August 6, 2013 by Vincent C

[alanf]

On 7/12/2013 at 4:49 AM, Pat Stanford said:

 

If you really want to get fancy you could make into menu commands and then add them to your workspace and given the keyboard shortcuts.

@Pat Stanford How would I make a script into a Menu item, and then create a shortcut/hotkey? I see how to "create a new menu" in the Workspace Editor, but not how to bring  my "Hide Unselected" script into the Menu?

 

Would greatly appreciate a hand with this, thanks! (And thanks to @Bob H for the Script info!)

 

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by alanf

[Pat Stanford]

Go to Tools Menu: Plug-ins:Plug-in Manager. 

Select the Custom Plug-ins pane.

Click the New Button.

In the Assign Name dialog box enter a name and click the Command radio button and click OK.

Select the new PIO you just created and click the Edit Script button.

Paste the entire text from your script into the Script Editor window and click OK.

Click the Close button on the Plug-in Manage dialog box.

Edit your workspace to add the new command you just created and give it a keyboard shortcut.

 

If you need to edit the script you will have to go back to the Plug-in Manager and use the Edit Script button.

[alanf]

Thanks so much, @Pat Stanford! Will give it a go!

On 7/12/2013 at 4:49 AM, Pat Stanford said:

 

If you really want to get fancy you could make into menu commands and then add them to your workspace and given the keyboard shortcuts.

@Pat Stanford How would I make a script into a Menu item, and then create a shortcut/hotkey? I see how to "create a new menu" in the Workspace Editor, but not how to bring  my "Hide Unselected" script into the Menu?

 

Would greatly appreciate a hand with this, thanks! (And thanks to @Bob H for the Script info!)

[alanf]

15 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

...Edit your workspace to add the new command you just created and give it a keyboard shortcut.

For others following this, I figured out that in order to "add the new command", you should see a group in the tree called "Miscellaneous" on the left window. The new Menu item you created will be inside that group. In the attached image, I copied my new "Isolate" Command to my new "AMF" Menu.

 

EDIT: And then if you want, you can go into Plugin Manager > Edit Definition > ...New, and create your own name for that new group in the Workspace Editor, instead of it using "Miscellaneous"...

 

 

And you'll end up with something like this in the Workspace Editor... (Notice "Miscellaneous" is no longer there)

 

 

***BTW, sorry if I'm continuing this in the maybe the wrong thread? Please feel free to move it or ask me to, etc. 

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by alanf