2020 | 011 – Project Map vs View Map; Layer Settings

Hello.  Welcome, everyone, to the ARCHICAD Best Practices 2020 training course.  We are moving onto session number 11. Let me know that you can hear me and see me.  You can use the Slack workspace to say hello.  I see Scott is here.  You should be seeing my screen as well as hearing me and seeing me.  I’ve got my webcam set up a little differently now.  I hope that it just gives it a more natural, more flattering look to the video.  I’ve set it up to where it’s eye level, which generally works pretty well, but instead of doing that on my laptop – having my laptop raised up to make that happen, I’ve got my separate webcam behind on a small tripod on my desktop.  [0:01:01]

So, let me know how that looks, and that you can hear me, and we’ll get going.  Alright, so I also have my microphone down a little lower so it sounds like – from your comments, must be coming in loud and clear, so we shall proceed.  Thank you, Gestur, Scott, Henry, Sherry, Jimmy, Christian, etc.  So, let me just check if anyone’s posting on the GoToWebinar chat.  I see Monica is, and Susan is.  [0:01:47]

So, how to get to the new Slack – Susan, I thought you were in there.  So, you’ve been on before, but Monica perhaps has not, so one more time, bobrow.com/slack.  That will take you to a page where you put in your email address, and then you get a reply email immediately, giving you connection link, and you can set up your password, and then you’ll be in Slack in your web browser, and at some later point, you can download the Slack app for free, and then you can have it in a separate window like I do here.  [0:02:27]

OK, and if you’re in the general channel, which is where you would come when you first log into Slack, then you need to go to the 2020 channel, where the conversations about the course lessons are held.  If you don’t see it in your side bar, click on Channels, then click on 2020, and you’ll be in with everyone.  Susan says, “OK.”  So, Susan, you’ve joined us.  Monica’s the only one I see that’s commented in the old GoToWebinar area, so Monica, hopefully you can follow those instructions and get connected.  [0:03:06]

Alright, enough preliminaries.  We shall get going.  Now, we’ve gone through 10 lessons here.  So, I guess just quick feedback because not everyone would have seen it.  We’ve gone through 10 lessons.  I posted a note in the general channel here asking for feedback.  So, basically I’d like to just find out what you like.  Maybe you have any suggestions or things you feel could be done better.  If you feel like, “Hey, this is really exciting and wonderful,” then you can write in, in terms of your feedback, something I can quote.  [0:03:43]

Basically, I’d like to just know how things are going, from your perspective.  So, you can do that in the Feedback channel.  I see some comments from Bob, George, Christian, Iain, and Scott so far.  If you don’t see the Feedback channel in Slack, just click on channels, and then you can scroll down and find Feedback, and that will take you here.  [0:04:06]

So, please, when you get a chance, just give me some feedback.  Let me know how you feel things are going.  Alright, so we’ll get going here.  We’ve done 10 lessons here in context to the original Best Practices course.  Those lessons – the first half of them were done as separate videos, not live broadcasts, and they were typically 10, 20, 30 minutes long.  So, each of these weeks was a combination, maybe, of an hour to 2 hours of material, and we’ve gone through all of these first 7 weeks of materials, and we’ve started into week 8, in terms of the concepts.  [0:04:56]

So, we’re going to be looking at the Project map and the View map today as a starting point, and then going into layers and layer combinations, and along the way, looking at View settings a little more deeply.  So, these are the things we’re going to be looking at.  I have a few brief notes on this here, and we’ll start out with a common question – certainly many beginning users get confused about this, and even people who’ve been around for a while may have bad habits or workflow habits that are less productive than they could be. [0:05:34]

They’re more confused, more prone to error, and that has to do with using the Project map more than is appropriate.  So, a question that often comes up is, “Which should I use when I’m working?  Should I be in the Project map or in the View map?”  I think a better way to think of it is, “When should I use these sections in the Navigator?”  They each have unique strengths and some potential pitfalls.  [0:06:03]

Alright, so let’s look at this ARCHICAD.  Now, I’m looking at the plan.  I could be in any window that I can draw in, and I’m not particularly aware, necessarily, of whether the View Map is up on screen or the Project Map, or even if the Navigator is set to the layout book or publisher.  The Navigator can be set to any of these, and I can be working in this environment.  In fact, you can close up the Navigator, as I showed last time, and have more screen space, if you’re going to be working on the plan for a while.  [0:06:38]

So, click the Wall tool.  Maybe I eye drop a wall here and use the option key to get the eye dropper, and I’m drawing a wall.  OK, so it doesn’t really matter whether I’m in the Project Map or the View Map for actually doing work.  It is when you’re navigating from one part of the project to another that it makes a difference.  So, the way to think about this is that when you’re working on a particular task in your project – whether it’s just laying out a basic model and the partitions and where things go, or you’re trying to get into more detail on that model, or you’re trying to document it with text labels, dimensions, etc.  [0:07:27]

There are certain layers that you will likely want to have turned on.  So, for right now, if I was working on this building, and I already know the building is about the right size, and I’m not worried about the property lines and the setbacks, then probably don’t need to be seeing the property lines and the setbacks.  I also may not want to see the landscaping around the building because I’m focused on the building design, and I don’t necessarily want to see the roofs because I’m working on, let’s say, the basic partitions and interior structure of the building. [0:08:07]

So, what are all of those things related to that I just mentioned?  The layers.  So, the layers that you turn on or off will control what you see on screen, and obviously, if you have layers on that are distracting or overlapping other elements, it can get in the way.  So, for example, if I manually switch the layer combination to just, let’s say, show and unlock all layers, we’re going to see a mess here because we’ve got just a whole bunch of stuff all piled on top of each other.  [0:08:41]

So, the layers, of course, in this case, CONDOC floor plan – construction document floor plan – is a good setting for having the file open when I demonstrate.  Now, when I go to a section or an elevation here, if I’m in the Project Map, and I bring up, let’s say, an elevation like the South Elevation, what am I going to get?  I’m going to get that view point looking at the project, but the layers are not set for the elevation.  For example, we’re not seeing the roofs, and we’re not seeing terrain mesh there.  [0:09:30]

So, it’s an incomplete view.   So, if you are working in the Project Map when you navigate from one place to another, you have to select the view point by double-clicking on it, and then manually go and switch the layer combination to, let’s say, in this case, CONDOC Elevations.  This is the layer combination for the elevation views.  [0:09:53]

Now, it’s not necessarily a big problem.  You can do that all the time, but it can be much simpler if you’re in the View Map, where I can go back and forth between, for example, the first floor construction document floor plan and the elevation, which is a view with these settings already set up.  So, the View Map is so important for moving back and forth between all the different parts of your project with the right context.  [0:10:33]

Layers are the most obvious things that I see people get confused on.  When I’m working on individually coaching or consulting with someone, and I see them go in their Project Map, and they open up their elevation, and they go, “Oh shoot, I have to turn on this layer,” and stuff, I go, “Wait a second.  Do you have a view for that particular elevation, etc.?”  So, I make sure that people use this.  [0:10:59]

So, in general, once we have the project structure well-established, you would spend 95% of your working time in the View Map because you’re simply going from one part of the project to another, and whenever you double-click on a view, you will have the right context.  It will be the layers.  Of course, it will also be the scale.  You’re maybe switching scales when you go to a detail drawing. I’ve seen people open up a detail drawing and say, “Oh God, that looks terrible.  What’s going on here?”  Then, they’ll realize that the scale is set improperly.  [0:11:38]

Maybe it’s set at the same scale as a floor plan, like ¼” or 1:50 instead of 1:10 or 1 inch to a foot for the detail that would be appropriate.  So, scale.  Other things certainly, in terms of Model View Options, these control other aspects of what you’re seeing, and the views are a great way to just record what you prefer to see while you’re working on this elevation.  Now, I would say we could break it up into 2 different types of views.  [0:12:17]

One type of view are drawings.  So, things that you’re going to be outputting pretty much the way you see them, and the other would be working views.  So, what is a working view?  Well, if I’m going to work on the structure of the building, I might want to be having a view like this here.  Now, this is a view that has a bunch of stuff in there.  It allows me to see how the roofs are laying out on top of the walls.  We’re seeing some of the sites.  [0:12:59]

So, this building design set of views in my design section of the template is designed to have enough information that we can really work on the whole structure of the building.  If you cut a section or other things with the same layer combination – in this case, model, building, and site – it will have all of the core components of what you want the model to look like.  [0:13:27]

Now, does this drawing look like anything useful?  Well, it’s not very clear. It’s got a lot of overlapping elements, and it’s certainly not something you would routinely put on a construction document set, but it can be very useful, particularly if you then do a marquee, and you say, “Let me look at the building here.”  Now, when I use the marquee, and I right-click and say Show Selection Marquee in 3D, now it’s going to use this layer combination that I’m in right now to show this particular set of information.  [0:14:01]

We can just say this is relatively complete in that it’s got all the interior fixtures and stairs and slabs and roofs and whatever framing is included in the 3D model.  So, there’s a layer combination that absolutely is useful and a view that I have brought up here that is absolutely useful for this particular task, which is working on the model to make sure everything fits together properly.  [0:14:31]

Now, when you’re working in a section or an elevation, you might have very similar layers turned on, but this might be somewhat different because there may be some layers that you don’t show in a section or an elevation that are part of the model development process.  So, we’re going to have layer combinations that potentially have groups of elements turned on that you may not actually show in a working drawing but are part of the model development.  [0:15:01]

OK, so Roger wrote, “I’m getting an echo today.  Is anyone else?”  Scott says, “No echo here.”  So, let me know if there’s any echo.  I don’t think there should be.  Let me just turn my volume down, since we’re not actually playing anything.  No echo from the other Scott – 2 Scotts here.  Susan says, “Slight echo.”  Well, I don’t really understand why I would have an echo because I only have one microphone.  Now, I’ve just turned off the audio feedback, so let’s see if that perhaps improves it.  [0:15:43]

OK, so Scott, you made a comment.  “Get a bigger screen and use the Organizer.”  Well, I actually have a bigger screen, but when I broadcast for training purposes, I reduce my screen resolution so that it’s easier to see the icons and see the menus, etc.  So, yeah, normally I do have more space to work in, but for training purposes, I’m a little more cramped to help you be able to see it better.  [0:16:18]

OK, moving on.  So, brought up the concept of 2 types of views – ones that you’re going to be using particularly to place on layout sheets for printing and plotting, and another that are just saved views for work.  Now, other types of save views, if I go here to an AXO exiting here.  So, this is a 3D view.  Now, a 3D view is something that you can save at any time by just simply taking a 3D view, moving around wherever you like, having whatever layers you want on there, and then using the option here to Save Current View.  Then you get the opportunity to name it and place it in whatever folder or whatever part of the View Map that you like.  [0:17:07]

Now, let’s look at what I have here called the temporary view.  It’s labeled as a temp view.  So, this is a view that, for demonstration purposes, it came from when I was working on the model.  Basically, I wanted to be able to study things.  In this case, I think I was working on the balcony tile on top here, and what you’ll see is that this – at first glance, it looks like just one surface that is the floor tiles, but it’s actually 2 separate ones, if we look closely at it.  [0:17:49]

Each of these is a roof piece that is managed individually.  Now, why is that?  We needed to have drainage, so going from the door down to each of these edges, we have a proper slope there, so even though it could have been modeled as just one flat plane, probably sloping out to this direction, that’s not the way it’s going to be built, and this is now pretty accurate for how it would be built.  There’s a slight slope down for each of these flashing elements there.  [0:18:23]

So, to really have the sections work properly, this is necessary.  Now, this particular view – well, it’s possible I might put it on a layout sheet, but it really was part of my process of just being able to go back and forth from a section or a plan and quickly bring up this area of the project.  Similarly, if I go to Temp 2, here’s another view, and I was working on some of the relationship between the upper part of the wall and the roof overhang – the rafter tails and things, so I wanted to be able to see that everything was laying out the way it needed to be.  [0:19:05]

Now, if you used ARCHICAD for any period of time, you know that you can draw a marquee, and you can say to show what’s in the marquee in 3D, and you also know that you’re going to open up the Layer Settings dialog and just manually go and say, “I need to see this.  I’m missing something here on the slab floor finish” – the structural, so let me just turn on the finish floor structural here, and you can see that now we have a little bit more shown in there.  [0:19:36]

Now, I just manually changed the layers. You can do that to add or take away whatever you need, and this is no longer a layer combination.  It’s custom here.  You can see the word Custom.  Now, Custom does not mean – I’d often say Custom is not something you want to use.  It’s not bad.  It’s just that you have to recognize the limitations of a custom layer combination or a custom combination of any type in ARCHICAD.  [0:20:08]

This is perfect for what I need right now, and in fact, maybe better than what I had in the earlier temporary view.  So, if I like it, I can right-click on this temporary view and say to redefine with current window settings.  So, this view here – now, whenever I double-click it, it will bring it up with these layers, from this angle, with this marquee.  Again, this could be something that we’d put onto a sheet or print out for study with the design team or with your client to just look at a particular part of the project, but I’m just going to say that in general, this is a working tool.  [0:20:53]

It’s very common to create temporary sections – just cut through the building in a certain place and work on things that these sections may not actually get onto a sheet.  So, when you use the View Map, you can have construction document views, and you can have working views, and there’s no – ARCHICAD doesn’t know which ones you’re going to use for the purpose, but you can group them.  [0:21:20]

For example, in the design area here – this whole upper section, are groups of views that are used in the designing and modeling process whereas in the template, we have a separate group for construction documents.  I’ll just close this down so you can see all of these upper views are not for printing but just for working whereas the construction document views include all of the standard plan documents as well as sections and elevations and details there.  [0:21:53]

So, that’s just an organizational structure that makes it convenient.  One of the things about the best practices is that if you set up certain standards in your office and the way you work for where things go, then you don’t have to think about where you’re going to put this, and even more important, you don’t have to think about where you can find it when you need it.  [0:22:16]

Many times, I’ve been teaching someone, and they say, “I’m working on the chimney here, and there’s a real tricky part to it.” I say, “Can you bring up a view?”  They go, “I think I saved a view,” and they look all over the place, and maybe they have views that they saved without any name, so that’s something I want to talk about is naming and saving views and combinations of things so that you are well-organized and can find and access things easily.  [0:22:49]

So, let’s get back to when you would use the Project Map.  I just said that the View Map allows you to move through all the view points of the project, but with predefined or saved settings for whatever layers and other options will help you for that particular task.  So, when do you use the Project Map?  Well, here’s a good way to think about it.  [0:23:19]

The Project Map is necessary when you want to create new viewpoints.  So, how do you create a new story?  Well, you can right-click in the Project Map and go to Story Settings, or you can say, “Create new story.”  Create new story will immediately say, “Do you want to add a story above or below the current story?”   Story settings allows you to look at the settings of the stories, the heights between then, and possibly add new stories or rename or edit the elevations between them.  [0:23:52]

Now, we can’t really create a new section view in here – a new literal section through the building.  We could create an independent section.  I don’t know how frequently anyone ever does that, but you can create something called a Section View that has nothing in it, and you could draw something.  Now, this creating a new independent section or a new independent elevation would be rare, but you definitely are going to do it for details.  [0:24:22]

You might want to say New Independent Detail, and you simply create a new 2D work area where you can either draw something from scratch or paste something in from another project, or you can import .dwg or .pdf from a manufacturer or a library of details.  So, new independent detail, and new independent worksheet are absolutely the key places where I always go back to the Project Map, simply because that’s the only way to create a new view point.  [0:24:58]

Now, once I have the view point of the worksheet or detail, I want to make sure there’s a view of it to work with.  So, if I create a new independent worksheet, and we’ll just call this Test here, it has an ID.  Now, remember last time I was talking about the sort order?  So, the worksheets are grouped or sequences based on the sort of the reference ID.  If you have a blank reference ID, then all the blank ones will group together, and then it will be sorted based on a name.  [0:25:32]

So, they are put together and then sorted alphanumerically, and that means alphabetically, but numbers come first.  So, alphanumerically.  So, I’m just going to create this.  It’ll create a new independent 2D drafting area.  It is showing up in the worksheet list here underneath – LG09, and the reason why I have this set up with 2 digits here is because it’s not uncommon to have more than 9 in this particular group here, and therefore by having it in this way, 10 will sort after 9.  [0:26:12]

If you have just -1, -2, when you get up to -9, then when you do -10, the 1 would put it up between 1 and 2, so that’s why 2 digits is required.  Now, this particular view – whatever I’m going to do with it, I can manually change my settings to be a different scale if I needed to.  Maybe it’s a site plan or something like that, so I’d make it smaller scale.  I can do whatever layer combinations I want here.  The View Map will have a view of that worksheet if you have a clone folder.  [0:26:12]

So, we looked at clone folders last time, and some of you use them all the time.  Some of you are unfamiliar with them.  Basically, the clone folder is always going to have every single view of that type – of that viewpoint, and here we see the LG-10 Test that I just created.  Now, what are the settings of that view, if I open it up?  It’s going to be whatever the settings are here – ooh, interesting.  There’s a graphic override that’s missing.  That means that the clone folder is set incorrectly.  [0:27:22]

So, that’s a mistake.  Oops, I made a mistake in the sample project, because all of these are inherited from the settings of the clone folder when it was first done, and you can see – interesting.  The graphic override is not available for setting, so there is an issue.  I think this came historically with the change that GraphiSoft made when they introduced graphic overrides, and so this one is – unfortunately, I can’t correct it.  I can do it for each view, but I can’t do it here.  [0:28:03]

Another thing is dimensioning.  Ah, this is an interesting one.  So, the dimensioning here – if we look at this, there’s some metric ones, and there’s some U.S. ones.  In MasterTemplate, I set up a standard for MasterTemplate 22 for AMT CONDOCS, and I’m using that name in both the U.S. version and in the international version.  Maybe I have AMT INT CONDOCS.  I’m not sure, but basically the idea is that if you wanted to have one reference for most things in the project – let’s say most of your construction documents are this certain scale and certain dimension accuracy, down to the eighth of an inch or the millimeter.  [0:28:54]

Then, you can set all that here in the AMT CONDOCS, and then if you update that definition, then everything – all of the drawings, all of the views of drawings that use that will be updated, and I decided that it was better to have one that was set up globally here without a name because why should you change U.S. ARCHICAD users?  You could, but I’d rather have one that’s specifically for my company or MasterTemplate’s construction document style.  [0:29:30]

So, one warning here, as a little side note for this particular manipulation.  If I change the dimensioning here, it will change all of the worksheets within here.  Basically, I’m just saying that I’d like to change the standard to be this.  Now, that will work for most of them, but there are a couple of them that are set differently in terms of site documents.  So, the survey is not set to be the same as floor plans, and maybe there’s some details in here that would be set differently.  [0:30:09]

So, I’m not going to actually change this here.  Now, I’m digressing a bit, but the point here is that the only way to create new worksheets or new independent details is to right-click in the project map on their group, or you can actually go and right-click on one of the elements in that folder, and then you can say new independent one as well.  [0:30:37]

So, those are the main types.  I go back to the Project Map here.  In general, though, the other time that I would potentially use this is if I’m on the first floor plan, and I want to just jump up or down a story, sometimes it’s convenient just to switch to the Project Map and jump up a story here and jump down a story here, and this actually maintains the same layer combination.  Now, when I go down to this lower story – this foundation, this may not be the correct layer combination for a foundation plan.  [0:31:13]

It is a quick way of just keeping the quick layers the same as I jump up and down, so I will sometimes use this just for jumping up and down stories, but in place of that, as a sort of even faster thing, I’ll use the keyboard shortcut, which is Command or Ctrl+Up or Down arrow.  If I hold down Command, and I hit Up, you see how it jumps up to the next story.  Do it again, and it goes up to the next story, and of course the Project Map does reflect what story I’m on, so Command or Ctrl Up or Down arrow will do that.  [0:31:53]

So, if we go back to the question here that I posted, “When should I use each of these sections in the Navigator?”  I’d say when you’re creating new independent details or worksheets that aren’t called out from clipping an area for an eave detail, for example, then you would use that.  Sometimes, I will use it just to jump back and forth between stories, but I will almost never use it to go to a section or an elevation or an interior elevation, and rarely will I even use it to go to details because when I go to any of those view points, I really would prefer that I have control and instantly get set up with the right layers and other settings of that view.  [0:32:41]

So, I just recommend that you get used to using the View Map and that you have views set up for all of your construction documents and for whatever working views you find useful.  Now, going to now go into some detail about custom versus saved attribute combinations, which I mentioned briefly when I was doing those little cutaways, and how I could just have a custom combination for a particular working view.  [0:33:13]

So, let’s see some questions in context here.  OK, so Scott has clarified that he did not mean that I should have a bigger screen and use the Organizer.  He’s just saying that he recommends it. It does make it much easier in working and learning ARCHICAD to have the Organizer, which as we went over last time, is the double-wide version of the Navigator, and it does facilitate seeing more of your structure of your project all at the same time.  [0:33:53]

Now, Scott says, “What if it has been changed?  I renamed my reno filters and had to update all the View Map elements.”  That is, unfortunately, a limitation in ARCHICAD’s system of keeping track of some of the settings.  So, what does that mean?  If you rename a layer, ARCHICAD is looking at the layer information based on a number – an internal number, and generally, it will just show you what your current name is for the layer, so it won’t lose track of the layer.  [0:34:28]

Layer combinations and other combinations such as composites and complex profiles are – do I have anything in the View Map?  I guess that’s what we’re talking about.  It refers to a combination.  Unfortunately, it looks at the text name, so if you change the name of one of these things, then you will have to go and find the ones that are missing and go fix them.  I’m going to show you a management tool for that shortly.  I think that would be very appropriate here today to show you a way to manage that globally so that you can see if there’s a problem, and you can correct it.  [0:35:12]

OK, so Bob says, “Signing in.”  Hi, Bob.  We have 2 Bobs here in a row.  What if you don’t have a right or left mouse?  OK, so if you don’t have a mouse with 2 buttons, I recommend that you get one.  If you have a Magic Mouse like this, you can set it up in the Mac here.  Go to System and Preferences.  Where did it come up?  System preferences – I’m looking for where it came up on screen.  Let me show you the system preferences. There it is.  OK.  [0:35:58]

So, here’s my mouse.  You can see the little picture of the Magic Mouse.  Now, there is an option for secondary click.  If you have that turned off, then all clicks will be the same.  Turning this on, you can say that you’d like it to be on one side or the other.  Most of the time, people will have the right side be the secondary click, so whenever I say to right-click something, this would be the case.  Now, in the center mouse button, which we do use for scrolling in and out and for zooming in and out and for panning and occasionally for other things.  [0:36:39]

If you have a Magic Mouse, you will have to add in a tool.  This is – let’s see.  Where is it here?  This tool is called Magic Prefs, and this is a free add-on for the system preferences.  I open it up here.  You’ll see the system preferences come up.  This is actually part of that same system preferences, and I only use it for one thing, which is just to make sure that the Magic Mouse is able to do a middle click.  Otherwise, Apple, for some reason, does not allow you.  You can scroll, but you can’t press down the center, but this one allows me to do that, so Magic Prefs.  [0:37:22]

If you’re on a PC, I don’t know if there’s any complications.  You basically should have a 2-button mouse with a third one with a scroll wheel, and those scrolls wheels always have a way to press down and hold when you need it there.  Now, the standard Apple response to this thing about the right-click is if you don’t want to do it that way, you can hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and press the normal mouse button, so that’s the workaround for the right-click is holding down the Ctrl key, pressing down the mouse button, and it will bring up that context menu.  [0:38:01]

So, if I press down with the right mouse button I get this pop-up menu, and if I hold down the Ctrl key and left-click, I get the same thing.  OK, so we have it here.  So, Andy Travers says, “One button mouse?”  Apple says this is a very good interface device.  It sort of looks like one surface, but it does, in addition to adding these complications, have some additional positive things.  [0:38:34]

For example, I can move my 2 fingers left to right, and it will scroll left to right in any application that allows that.  So, you can scroll left and right as well as up and down using that.  So, it’s touch-sensitive surface, of course.  Anyway, I don’t know if it even works on a PC, but it’s definitely widely used in the Mac community, and it’s one of Apple’s profitable products because it costs like $70 or even more for a wireless one like this.  [0:39:12]

Weird Mac.  Yes, I agree.  Mac is a little weird, but many of us like it.  Alright, so moving on to the custom versus saved combinations, and let’s talk about that as a concept here.  So, when I have a saved view, then it’s very easy to go to that view, and I can have many of them, and I can organize them in folders and just when I’m working on structural stuff, I can have a group of structural views.  When I’m working on site plans, I can have a group of views that may be saved for site plans.  [0:39:56]

So, views are fantastic.  Now, a view – if we go to the View settings, let me just go to, for example, the site plan.  Alright, so this site plan view has certain settings.  I can right-click on it to get view settings, or I can click on the settings button down below here or click on one of these buttons.  I think it’s this one here for the settings of whatever view is highlighted.  [0:40:33]

So, it has all of these settings built in.  Now, as we saw earlier, I had a view with custom layers for that 3D cutaway, and it also had some things in the 3D for what the marquee was.  Those were just sort of on the fly.  Let’s take a look at the view over there, and it saved them, and while I could update it manually to say, “Oh, I want to change the layers,” it wouldn’t update based on another action that I did.  So, what do I mean by that?  [0:41:08]

If I realize that my site plan layer combination is not complete – maybe I forgot a certain layer that needs to be turned on or decide I don’t want to see some layers, or I want to lock the property lines in that or something – the boundaries and things like that.  Well, if I redefine the layer combination, then whenever I activate this view, I’ll be using that layer combination, and it will always be up to date with my preferences.  [0:41:43]

The same thing with Model View Options – however I prefer and set up my site plan, this will use that.  Now, the site plan – there may be a few variations in here, but we have a limited number of those views, and so it’s relatively easy to manage, but when we’re talking about the extreme example – I’d say it would be things like the interior elevations.  [0:42:10]

So, if I go to the interior elevations for a kitchen view here, what are the settings in here?  Well, this setting for this particular view was inherited from the settings for all of the kitchen views, and this setting for all of the kitchen interior elevations was inherited originally from the view settings for interior elevations as a whole, and I can look at these settings for all interior elevations, and I can set to use whatever combination of context that I want.  [0:42:53]

Now, if I decide that in that room finish layer combination that, “Oh, I don’t want to show moldings,” or there’s something else I want to turn on or off, if I make the change in that layer combination, it will affect the clone folder settings for interior elevations, which will affect the settings for the room and will affect the settings for the individual drawing.  Given that we might have 20, 30, or 100 interior elevations or more in certain projects, it is so powerful to use a combination for the layers, model view options, etc., rather than custom because then I simply make a change in one place – the layer combination, and all of those views update.  [0:43:44]

So, that is the power of using ARCHICAD’s structure at the source.  In this case, the source that I’m emphasizing is the layer combination, and if you got that wrong, and you need to correct it, or you just have a better idea, or you add a new layer, you need to use layer combinations.  So, let’s talk about layer combinations and what happens when you add a layer.  I think I did something here.  It may have been in a coaching call rather than the last training, but suppose I go into the layer settings, and I add a new layer. [0:44:22]

Maybe I decide that in addition to site objects, hybrids, and vaults, property lines, streets, types of contour – these are the ones organized for site, and then I also have L for landscape 2D and 3D plans.  Maybe there’s something that specifically I want to do for calculations on parking.   This is a residential parking.  You wouldn’t necessarily need that, and we might put those things on the streets and curbs and gutters – things like that, but let’s just say that maybe I wanted to do that.  [0:44:56]

So, I’m going to go and create a new layer.  We’ll just call it C Site Parking or something like that.  OK, so when I create that, that layer is initially off on all layer combinations.  You can see the little eyeball is closed when I have this one highlighted.  If I go to C Mesh Terrain, you can see that the terrain topography is turned on in elevations.  It’s turned on in the site plan.  It’s turned on in sections.  It’s turned on in some other supplemental things like building and site there.  [0:45:38]

So, if I wanted the parking one that I’ve just created to be on there, I need to make sure that it is on those.  So, I can go in there and just quickly say, “Alright, I need it on the site.  Maybe I don’t need it on the elevations because we’re not going to see the parking there.”  Maybe all I needed is in the site, and let’s say Model, Building, and Site have that as well.  [0:46:05]

So, when we have a layer selected here on the right side, we can go into the layer combinations here on the left and update this.  Now, I notice the update button is not available because I’m just manually tweaking these things, and they instantly get added.  As long as I click OK, they will be saved whereas if I click on a layer combination like Site, and then I turn on or off individual things – you can see this now says Update.  So, it’s saying Update because I made changes on the right for this highlighted layer combination, and if I want to record it, I need to do the update.  [0:46:55]

I’ll just say update here.  So, now that I’ve just added one layer and said the parking layer is going to be on the site and building site but nothing else, I’ll just say OK here.  Of course, I haven’t drawn anything on that layer.  We’re not seeing it, but now, if I have any view that is set up for the site plan like this, it’s using the setting that says, “Give me CONDOC site,” and the layers are always going to match whatever I’ve set up here.  [0:47:32]

So, it’s a fantastic idea.  Best practice is to use a layer combination rather than a custom one.  Now, when would you use a custom one?  Well, let’s say I like the site thing, but I just want to turn off the roofs.  I just want to work on the building, quick print, but without the roofs.  I can go here to select this roof and maybe this layer where I’ve got some – OK, this unit drawing site.  Let’s just do the roofs one because this one will definitely work.  If I right-click on this, and I say Layers, Hide Layer, alright, so now that’s a little bit easier to see certain things.  [0:48:11]

Now, this here is just some graphic.  These are some fills from the upper roof that are actually on a shared layer with the site, so I’m not going to change the visibility there, but let’s say that this is something that I wouldn’t use for the working drawing because I want to have the roof, but I do want to be able to zoom in and look at some things without it.  That’s fine to manually turn off layers, and if I said, “You know what?  I really need to work on this area where the front door is in detail,” I can go in and save a current view here, and just give it a name.  [0:48:49]

We’ll call it Front Door Site Model.  So, I’m basically creating a custom view with a custom layer combination, and it’s not going to have that.  Now, that’s not going to update if I change the site layer combination.  It’s not going to know if a new layer is introduced, what to do with it.  So, here’s my site plan.  You can see the roofs are back.  Here’s my view without it.  This is absolutely permissible, but mainly for working views as opposed to construction documents.  [0:49:34]

So, I use custom here freely as part of the modeling or design and documentation process, but don’t use it for any placing of drawings on sheets as a general rule, and use it only for things that are just temporary – just for while I’m doing X process.  Alright, now I see some questions in the GoToWebinar questions area, and I will address them, but please try to get connected up to Slack.  I know, Lew, you managed to get connected to Slack.  Heather, I’m not sure if you’ve been on in the Slack, but go to bobrow.com/Slack, and you’ll be able to connect up to our group here.  [0:50:33]

Ricardo Hernandez, welcome.  Same thing there.  So, let’s just see in terms of actual questions.  Ricardo says, “At which point does a newly created section pick up the layout info that goes on the marker?”  Alright, so this is from a few minutes ago.  He said that the section area of the map is not used to create sections.  So, I have a section clone folder and put the section view onto a sheet layout.  Where is the layout info transferred to the section view, and thus the marker?  [0:51:04]

OK, so you’re asking when you have a marker for a section, how does it know what the marker should say about what layout it’s on?  So, this is a sort of side question, but I will give you a brief answer. If we go to a floor plan – let’s say we’ll do it with sections because that’s a little easier to bring up here.  So, how does this section here know that it is drawing B on sheet A-10?  [0:51:45]

Now, this section was placed with the section marker.  When it was originally placed, there was an option that said Create a New Section View Point.  Now that it is existing and in place, it is referenced as a source marker.  So, it’s the source of a section view point in the Project Map. This source marker has some text information, and it is referenced to the first placed drawing on the view point.  [0:52:21]

So, when you cut a section or you place an elevation marker that is creating a new view point and therefore becomes the source of that view point, the default and most common thing is to say that that marker will reference the first drawing that is placed on the sheet.  So, when you go, and you place that section or elevation or detail onto a sheet, the marker will know what it is.  [0:52:48]

Now, if I wanted to, I could say that it was a linked marker, and then it would say, “What do you want to link it to?”  You can literally select a variety of different options for that, so you could place just an ornamental marker that points to something else and choose what it references.  You can link to something else, but let me just undo that change because I guess I didn’t complete the process of changing from a sourced marker to a linked marker, so I don’t have to undo that.  [0:53:27]

OK, so hopefully that answers that question.  So, Lew, I’m sorry Slack won’t let you in today.  I’m not sure. We’ll see if I can help you out with that.  Monica says, “How do you unhide a layer you hide?”  OK, so getting into some side questions which I routinely do in the coaching calls, but I’d prefer not to get diverted.  Go ahead and ask them, but I may or may not be able to answer them.  In this case, if you use the right-click, and you say Hide a Layer, there’s no Undo.  You have to go manually into the layers.  [0:54:05]

Let’s go back into ARCHICAD.  You have to manually go into the ARCHICAD environment and turn a layer on that you turned off or activate a layer combination or double-click on a view, which will put it back to a known state.  The good best practice is to use the Quick Layers.  This is a layer palette. You can see it popping up here. This is also available under Window, Palettes, Quick Layers.  This allows me to select, for example, maybe I don’t want to see this section marker.  I can go and say Hide this.  [0:54:49]

I can go and say maybe I don’t want the room names here.  I’ll hide those, and then with the Quick Layers, I can undo backward one or more steps to reveal those layers.  So, Quick Layers is a fantastic way to control layers with being able to go back and forth.  Alright, so let us look here.  I think we talked about layer combinations and the use of a custom layer combination. You can do the same thing with other combinations like Model View Options.  [0:55:29]

So, for example, if I were going to a section here, like this, maybe I want to change something about the Model View Options.  So, right now, we’re in our Model View Options for construction documents.  Maybe I want to use a presentation one.  So, what does that do? It changes, in this case, not much there.  Let’s say presentation schematic.  There we go.  [0:55:57]

OK, so Model View Options can change the way that things are being drawn – in this case, to turn off the details of the doors and windows.  We can also change something like the graphic override options.  Let’s do a simplified presentation.  Let’s see.  Simplify a drawing here.  So, I’ve manually changed the way that this section is being displayed.  Maybe when you’re working with a client, you may want to simplify the layer viewing things, just to make it less confusing.  [0:56:42]

Now, I actually chose one of the presets here in the sense that I picked a different option, and that’s not in the section settings.  Now, I don’t really want a section to change, so this is something that we could just manually do anytime we want.  If you wanted to save this for a particular purpose, we can go and say to save this current view, and we’ll just call it Section B Simplified like that.  Now, it will show up in the View Map underneath the clone folder because the clone folder will only have one copy of each of the view points in that folder.  [0:57:36]

So, in other words, there’s only one Section B, but here is one way to look at it here, and here’s another way to look at it here.  So, this one is manually set as a custom view.  So, we can create those any time we find it useful, and then later on we can say, “You know what?  I don’t really need that anymore.  I can delete it.”  Now, if you delete individual views that you created, it warns you.  If you try to delete, say, this section view here, it won’t let me delete it.  [0:58:09]

In recent versions of ARCHICAD, they actually blocked that because in earlier versions, it would say, “Do you want to delete this entire folder?” and sometimes people would say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Yeah, I want to delete it,” and they would lose the clone folder as a whole.  Alright, so custom stuff is fine as long as you’re using it for a special purpose, and you know that it’s limited in terms of maintenance and update.  [0:58:37]

Now, another example that I’ve found people do that can be really troublesome is to say, “Alright, I want to put this on a sheet.”  So, let’s go to a sheet here. I’m going to a meeting, or I’m just starting to lay out my book here, and let’s just create a new layout here, and we’ll just call it Section For Review.  Alright, and let’s say that this layout – actually, I just want it to be a smaller size paper, so I’m going to do it on something like 11” x 17” or something like that.  It’s going to be a smaller sheet size here.  [0:59:19]

So, here’s our smaller sheet here.  I’m going to go now. I’m in the section.  Let’s see. We’ll go to – where did I have my section?  Elevation, section.  Here’s the section.  Let’s just say I want to bring this particular one to a meeting.  Then, I might actually say that I would like to place this onto the current layout sheet.  So, this is very powerful but prone to some issues.  [0:59:49]

If I right-click an empty space and say Save View and Place on Layout, it’s going to create a new view of this and immediately bring up the layout window, where I can move it around and say to put it there.  Click on it, and you can see that now it’s got an option to place it.  I’ll just click, and it’s going to place it onto this smaller sheet, and then of course, I can go and drag it around to get it centered here, and I can crop the window there, etc.  So, I’ve just saved it and placed it on a sheet.  Fantastic.  I could do that all day long, and pretty quickly lay out a whole drawing set. What’s the problem?  [1:00:39]

Well, first of all, a problem right now is that it’s in the middle of this.  Maybe I move it to the end here so that it’s not going to disrupt the normal numbering here.  Maybe I create a folder in the View Map.  Let’s see.  Let’s go to New Subset, and I’m just going to call this Review Drawings here, and we just do not include this in the sequence, and we’re going to say RD- something like that, and you can see the numbers here.  RD, just whatever.  So, I’m creating a new group of drawings here, and I’ll move this into it, and so now we can see it says RD-1.  It doesn’t interrupt this.  [1:01:32]

So, this is certainly a very valid way to set up for custom purpose, for meeting, or for certain parts of your workflow, just a group of sheets that you’re going to place drawings on.  Here’s where you get into problems.  I go back to the View Map.  You notice that down here, at the very bottom of the View Map, there is this CD-02 Section B.  [1:02:03]

So, here’s a view that I just said to create this view and place it on a layout, and it dropped into the bottom of the View Map, and while that’s OK – it’s just one of them, but I’ve seen people.  When I’ve gone into work with them, I’ve seen them having 5, 10, 20, or a lot more views at the bottom of their View Map, all saying Story 1, Story 1, Story 1, or Section, Section, Section.  Maybe they don’t even say Section B.   They just say Section because they never went around and labeled the marker and the view of the marker.  [1:02:40]

So, you potentially could lose track of these things, and I have all these papers on my desk.  I’ve got to sort through them and figure out what’s what.  OK, we’ll take this.  This is a bill to be paid, and I’ll just file this one.  So, Save View and Place on Layout – powerful shortcut.  Avoid it when you’re setting up a template, and absolutely avoid it in general for a well-managed set of drawings because what I’d rather do here is create a custom view inside a folder and compile a number of views and then go drag them onto the sheets.  [1:03:28]

It takes a tiny bit of extra time, but it’s just like having your work organized as you go instead of doing it later.  OK, so let’s see some other comments or questions.  Alright.  OK, interesting.  Little discussions while I was working.  Working on tablets?  Yeah, they’re good, and different mouse options.  Alright, so I don’t think I need to comment on this, but do feel free to share your insights and your experiences and your ideas.  [1:04:13]

Yeah, so here is actually.  That’s interesting.  So, Scott has a big monitor on top of 3 that are side by side, so yeah, that’s a lot of space.  OK, so Scott.  “Is this the right time to discuss multiple project set options on layouts such as small reno project, reno project, and reconstruction?”  No, not right now, so I’m going to hold that, and we can discuss it in the coaching program call, or we’ll be getting to organizing your layout book a little later on.  [1:04:45]

OK, so more comments about that.  Alright, so let us move on and see where I’m at.  I’m at the hour mark, and so we talked about custom versus saved attribute combinations.  I wanted to go just a little bit more into the layer settings options just so you can understand the controls you have there and how they’re linked to saved layer combinations because there’s some subtleties here that will help you if you understand them.  [1:05:24]

So, let me just go back to my floor plan view here, and we’ll open up the layer settings. Alright, so let’s look at this briefly from the perspective of a beginner and then quickly get into some of the subtleties.  As far as a beginner explanation, each one of these layers on the right is a category system for elements, and almost all elements in ARCHICAD have a layer, with the exception of doors and windows and wall ends, which are what you can place at the end of a wall to make it so that it’s covered, and the dry wall wraps around or the moldings wrap around and things like that.  [1:06:19]

So, those 3 things are attached to the wall, and of course, the wall has a layer.  All the other elements have layers.  When you hide a layer, elements around that layer disappear.  When you show that layer, then if the element is in that home story or in that 3D model view, then it will show.  There’s one special layer called the ARCHICAD layer that can never be hidden and can never be locked, so anything you put there will always show.  Use it when you want that, and move things off the ARCHICAD layer for most enduring elements that you’re going to have.  [1:07:01]

You can hide layers, and you can also lock them.  So when you lock them, you make those elements non-editable temporarily. You’re basically saying, “I don’t want to accidentally changed these elements, delete them, move them, etc.,” so you lock the layer property lines, structural grid. In some cases, you want to lock things temporarily while you do some other manipulations so that those elements don’t move around there.  [1:07:32]

So, you can do things temporarily or lock them for most of your work, like the structural grid.  Maybe you leave it locked except only the times when you decide you’re going to be moving the structural grid around.  Now, lock and visibility – these are settings for individual layers. If I click on a heading here, you can see that this is grouping all the layers that are unlocked and then all the layers that are locked follow it. [1:08:05]

If I click on the second one here, it’s grouping or listing all the layers that are visible versus the ones that are not visible here.  If I go to this heading for solid versus wire frame, all the ones that are solid will show, and then if we have any that are wire frame, and there’s only one down here in the template.  It’s specifically named Wire Frame.  This wire frame layer will make things look see-through in 3D, just the outlines showing.  In the template, it’s set up so that it’s wire frame in all layer combinations.  [1:08:47]

Now, generally, when I click on any layer, like Columns here, it will have some settings based on the most recent layer combination that was activated, and we can then see which layer combinations it’s visible on and which ones it’s locked on.  Now, as a convention, in MasterTemplate, I like to say that anything that is visible in a layer combination will also be unlocked so you can edit it, with some exceptions, and then anything is hidden, I make it locked.  [1:09:25]

Why?  Because there’s a preference setting you can turn on that says that if a layer is locked, don’t even show me that layer in the popup menu because after all, I can’t place an element on that layer, I can’t select that layer for use.  So, let me just hide that.  So, by using that preference, when I activate the floor plan layer combination, I’m not going to see the layers for the roof or slab or site information in the list.  [1:09:57]

Let me just show how that works in case you haven’t see that.  So, right now, I’m in the floor plan layer combination because I had it selected in the layer settings dialog, and if I go to the Wall tool, and I say, “Maybe it’s not an exterior wall. It’s a different wall.  OK, put it on the interior wall layer.”  Well, notice this layer list has about 20 or 25 layers.  There are way more layers in this environment that are not listed because they are locked.  [1:10:30]

If I switch my layer combination to show and unlock all layers, we’re going to see a mess here because it’s just going to have a whole bunch of stuff showing, and now you can see that there are all of these layers that go below the screen.  So, I find it very convenient to hide the layers that are not relevant for this particular – I go to double-click on the view.  It will put it back to that layer combination.  [1:11:01]

So, now I can just choose if it’s an exterior or interior or partition, or is it something else?  Now, I’m not going to put it on the Dimensions layer, but I might be drawing dimensions or putting in lines and things on these other layers, so it’s a relatively compact list, and I know that what I’m working on is a floor plan here. [1:11:25]

Now, how did that preference get set, and how do you turn it off when you need to?  It’s under the Options, work environment, and it is under Dialog Boxes and Palettes.  So, Dialog Boxes and Palettes, Hide Locked Layers in Pop-Up Palettes.  So, this is something you can turn on or off if you want.  I like to have it on so that when I’m moving around from one part of the project to another, I’m just seeing a relatively concise list of layers available.  [1:11:59]

So, how do you set that up in the Layer settings? Well, basically, when I set up MasterTemplate, which uses this approach, for each layer combination – let’s go to Electrical here.  Normally, or most frequently, you’re looking at it alphabetized by name, and we see some layers are on, and some layers are off.  I went to sort by visibility after having made sure that the layers were visible at the right times – the right layers are on, and then, I went and essentially selected the layers that I want that were hidden, and I selected a bunch of them.  [1:12:41]

I just shift-clicked, and then I said to lock them.  OK, so I just went here, and I went down to the bottom and was able to lock them, so for each layer combination, it takes 20 seconds to just go and do that.  You go on to the next one, and within a few minutes, all of these layer combinations have all of these turned off layers locked.  [1:13:04]

Now, there are a couple of exceptions here where I don’t have them locked.  So, there’s a layer called Special Temporary Hide.  This is a layer for special purposes.  You just say, “Here’s some elements, and I just want to hide them right now.”  So, this is a layer that’s always left unlocked in the template so that it’s just easy to say, “I’m going to just hide these layers.”  Then, you can always go and turn that layer on manually and just decide where they go.  So, it can be a way to clear your workspace temporarily for certain purposes.  [1:13:40]

There’s also a layer here called Trash/Recycle Bin.  So, this is intended for elements that you think you want to get rid of, but you don’t quite want to go delete. You want to just wait and see if you need them.  So, you can put them in the Trash or the Recycle Bin.  So those 2 layers are turned off, but they’re not locked whereas all the other ones down below here, in a particular layer combination, are turned off and locked.  [1:14:14]

Now, if I go to another one – let’s say Landscape Plan. This group of layers changes slightly, but in general, it’s the same thing.  The Temporary Hide and Recycle are the only 2 that are hidden but unlocked if I go down to Site here.  Now, in order to just adjust this slightly, because many of these layers are on all of those layer combinations.  You think about the Wall layer.  It’s on most views because walls are such an important part of the structure of the building.  [1:14:14]

So, these are layers up here that are on most of these views.  If I go to something specialized – let’s say common dimensions. This is one of the rare ones that has very few things shown.  So, what is this layer combination intended for?  If you had a 10 or 20 or 50-story building, and you put in some dimensions on the third floor, and those dimensions would be useful from going from the third to the 18^th floor because the floor plate is the same, it’s actually better to do those dimensions on one story and then place them on the layout sheets of the other stories, just because the managing the multiple stories – let’s just put it this way.  [1:15:42]

There were some cases where this will simplify your management of those – all of those potentially very complex sets of dimensions when you’re doing multiple stories. There are going to be some variations perhaps, on the stories.  Maybe the elevator core changes, or other things, but maybe the exterior dimensions and common dimensions – you can do them essentially from the common multi-story repeating layer here that is designated for that purpose.  [1:16:13]

So, not something you use on a 1-story or 3-story building, but very useful.  This is one of the rare ones. It’s a specialized layer combination just for certain things, but most of them, of course, when I switch, we’ll see that there’s a certain set of layers that are commonly on.  Alright, so just going on through the layer settings here, there’s this other column here, which has the numbers – often the number 1, but sometimes variations like this.  [1:16:46]

I can sort by this if I want to see all the ones, and then see the occasional things that are different.  So, this is the layer intersection group.  So, a layer intersection group says if 2 elements that could clean up together, which means 2 walls, 2 beams, or a beam or a column and a wall – if they’re touching each other, then ARCHICAD will attempt to clean up their intersection.  They’ll intersect with each other.  [1:17:25]

If you want ARCHICAD to ignore the fact that they’re touching or passing through each other, then you can put them in a different layer intersection group.  So, we have a few here – Wall Special. This is a layer in the template set up to especially say that you don’t want this wall to intersect with the main walls.  You want it to sort of clean up to its own group and not to anything else.  [1:17:54]

We may have some walls – well, a shell wall is one that I have set up here.  There are some other ones that are for special modeling elements that are deliberately set up not to intersect.  So, this layer intersection group will help you to deal with some issues where you have things touching each other, and you say, “Wait a second, that’s messy. It’s not showing what I want.”  You can have the layer with a different group.  [1:18:25]

I’ll be demonstrating this more in a section later in the course on complex modeling and complex project management, but in the context of the layers, I wanted to point that out.  Now, all of these settings – Lock, Hide, Wire Frame, and the Layer Intersection Group are recorded in layer combinations.  So, when I’m in the layer combination here, and I click on CONDOC Floor Plan, various things will show up. Let me just sort alphabetically.  [1:18:54]

Certain things will have different layer intersection numbers.  Certainly, it’s very easy to understand that some layers will be turned off.  Some layers may be locked, etc., so if I manually go and just say I want to hide something, and I don’t update this layer combination, then you’ll have a custom layer setting for your use, right at that particular moment in time.  On the other hand, if you wanted to say, “You know what? On the floor plan, we really don’t want the Wall Special to be shown,” so the Wall Special is used in special types of walls that may have problems when they intersect the main walls. [1:19:42]

Complex profiles can cause issues if they’re on different stories.  There’s some interactions here. So, maybe I say I don’t expect to show this. I’m going to hide that and lock it so it’s not going to get in the way.  Let me update this.  So, that’s how we record it here. Now, it didn’t update it in anything else.  When I click on any other one here, you can see that the Wall Special is visible here, but when I go back to this one, it is updated.  [1:20:13]

So, when you have a layer that either you’ve added or that you realize, “Oh, I never set that up quite right,” highlight it on the right side by clicking, then go and do these adjustments on the left.  You won’t have to do any updating, but on the other hand, if you’re saying, “You know what, on my electrical plan, there’s some stuff here that shouldn’t be showing.  I don’t really want to see the curtain system, or I don’t really want to see something,” you can then highlight that layer combination and make some changes and update it.  [1:20:51]

So, we go back and forth, left and right, with somewhat different options.  Now, another thing that’s set up here in the template that you can use – Graphisoft uses it sort of unevenly, right?  Sometimes you see it more, sometimes less.  It’s what’s called an extension.  So, when I look at something like the walls, of course, a wall is a 3D element.  Technically, you could use the Wall tool to draw something that’s just a 2D drawing and not look at it in 3D, but it is a 3D element. [1:21:26]

On the other hand, something like a dimension marker, obviously, is 2D, and there are some things – this is a dimension string, and that markers – whether they’re a change marker or a section marker or something else, are 2D, but they have a special purpose.  Now, what do these extensions do for you when you include them?  Well, first of all, I can sort by extension.  So, if I click on the header there, we can see that these are all 2D elements, and then there are 3D ones here, and there are markers down here, etc.  [1:22:04]

So, these are grouping for management and for analysis and study.  You can also say, “You know what?  I’d like to just look at the 3D.”  What do I have here?  I can go and click on this next to the extension or to the right, up here, there’s something that says Filter by Extension, and then when I have a layer selected, it’s only going to show me, in this case, the 3D.  [1:22:34]

Now, why would I want to do this?  This doesn’t actually turn off those other layers.  It just hides them from view.  Well, maybe, in some rare cases, let me go back and say Show All Layers.  Let’s say I go and highlight a 2D one, and we’ll say Filter by Extension, and then we’ll just click in one and Shift-click on the bottom, and I’m going to hide them all by clicking on the eyeball here.  [1:23:03]

So, now I very quickly said to turn off all 2D stuff.  We’ll say OK, and now we’re only looking at what ARCHICAD considers, or at least what is designated with an extension, as non-2D.  Of course, I didn’t turn off the markers, so if I wanted to do that, I could go to Show All Layers, go find the markers here, filter by extension, and then tie those – in fact, all of those were hidden in that particular view there, but we can then see what we’ve got here.  [1:23:45]

Now, what is this element? This is a grid element, and it is labeled 3D or has a 3D extension.  You may say, “Well, that’s just a 2D mark.”  Well, in 3D, you can show it in a 3D perspective or an AXO, or you can show it in a section or elevation to show where that grid marker is.  So, it is set up in ARCHICAD to be a 3D element, if you choose to have that on in your 3D views.  [1:24:16]

The little dots here in the middle of the living room are lights.  They’re 3D ceiling lights.  The living room here, and sleeping and kitchen and etc., are zones.  Zones can be seen in 3D if you turn that on.  So, although most frequently we’ll look at them to put room names and possibly get reports of area and other finish information that’s just annotation, they do have a height, and they can be seen in 3D, so they are – in this template, anyway, have 3D as an extension.  [1:24:54]

So, we’ve looked at all of the different parts of the Layer dialog here.  Let me just go and try and show all layers. There’s another thing that had to do with Xrefs, so just very, very briefly, if you place in an AutoCAD file into any view – a floor plan or a worksheet, you can use what’s called an Xref or external reference method of placing that drawing.  [1:25:27]

When you do that, it will potentially be updatable, so you place in a survey file as an Xref, and then the surveyor sends you a revised version, and you then update that Xref, and then you have something up to date.  The Xrefs have layers.  They’re generally created by AutoCAD or similar CAD programs, and you can turn on and off those layers.  The layer names are probably not going to be the same as what you’re using in ARCHICAD.  They could have similar names.  In order to avoid any confusion, they go down at the bottom of the list.  [1:26:04]

So, right now, I don’t have an Xref, but it would show up below the main layers, and you could, in some cases, just say you don’t want to even think about the Xref layers.  Just hide them. There’s a whole bunch of them.  Maybe you have 3 drawings, and each one has 50 layers.  This layer list can get very long, and if you really don’t want to see them, you can just say to hide those layers.  [1:26:27]

Layer combinations can set the visibility of those Xrefs as well, so if you do deal with Xrefs a lot, then you would want to make sure that some of your layer combinations will have them turned on or off.  Remember, you can always click on one layer in a list and Shift-click down to another layer, and it will select all the ones in between, and you can quickly hide or lock those layers.  [1:26:57]

One last thing in the Layer settings.  You can print here, so what does print mean?  It will bring up a dialog to go print on your local printer, or possibly save as a .pdf if you have a .pdf driver, and what it will do is it will actually put a list of all the layers for each layer combination – what is turned on, and if they’re locked or not, so it can get sort of messy and hard to understand, but it is a way that you can save that information and study it, and it has some potential management purposes there.  [1:27:40]

OK, so let’s see what we have here.  So, Andy, “I know you’re a big fan of renovation filters, but for me, the layer combination set to existing and proposed has really worked for me in my remodeling projects.”  OK, excellent, so layer combinations can turn on and off groups of things, and in certain types of remodeling, it may simpler just to say that this stuff is new, and it’s the new walls, and it’s the new fixtures or something like that and turn that off when you want to show existing, but overall, since new and existing and demo could have many different types of things – walls, ceilings, beams, dimensions, labels, etc., etc., etc., if you start having to have separate layers for all of those in new and demo, etc., it can get complicated.  [1:28:39]

Alright, Scott says, “Reno filter’s working great.  Very flexible.”  OK, Tom.  “If one locks a floor layer, will it be easier to select objects like furniture without accidentally picking up the floor?”  OK, so let’s talk a little bit about locking layers for manipulation of your view or manipulating elements in the view, and an alternative for you, Tom, that would be very helpful.  [1:29:09]

So, let’s go to that.  Tom says, “I turn off the floor layer with the Quick Select.  Quick and easy.”  It’s actually the Quick Select thing that I’m going to show right now, so just cancel out of this.  So, if I use the Arrow tool here, and I hover over this area, and let’s say that I wanted to select these lights, OK?  I click to start selecting them, and oh, wait a second.  I’m dragging this polygon.  In this case, it is the zone that I’ve got selected.  [1:29:44]

So, I don’t really want to do that.  I want to select these things here.  Turn off Quick Select – this magnet here.  This is one way to do it, by clicking in the icon when you have the Arrow tool.  Now, I can click in this space and draw a marquee around it. I’ve not selected all 6 of the ceiling lights.  I also happened to select the zone, but I can Shift-click to deselect that.  Now, I just have the 6 ceilings lights selected, so that is the Quick Select.  When I have the Arrow tool active and nothing selected, we can turn this off and on, but I can also turn it off and on using a keyboard shortcut, which is the space bar.  [1:30:30]

So, I’m hovering here.  You notice the magnet shows up.  If you click, you’re going to select the floor, or in this case, the zone.  I press down the space bar.  Now, the space bar is not the Shift key. This is the key that you would use between words when you’re typing in a sentence. Press down the space bar.  Notice the magnet disappears next to my cursor, and if you look at the upper-left of my screen, the magnet has been turned off – the Quick Select magnet.  [1:30:58]

So, now I can go in here and select these things, and then I can let go of the space bar, and you can see the Quick Select is on, and I can even Shift-click to deselect that zone, so you could lock the layers.  So, if I select this with the Quick Layers palette, I can say I’d like to lock the layer for the zones.  So, that’s an option.  Now, I can go into here, and I can – actually, you know what? Locking doesn’t help here because if I click on this to try to draw a selection rectangle, it’s still going to select it.  Even though it’s locked, you can see the handles on it are grey here.  [1:31:53]

So, what you could do, though, is select it, and I can hide it, and you can see that disappears.  I can then go along here, so you can hide here to minimize that, or you can turn off the Quick Select, and with the Quick Layers palette, I can undo.  Let’s just turn it back on. I want to have those zones visible, so the Quick Layers palette is a great way of temporarily turning things off. The Quick Selection magnet is something that you should definitely know how to turn on and off whenever you have the Arrow tool active.  [1:32:31]

Now, if I’m in another tool, you can press down the Shift key to switch from drawing a wall or something else to the Arrow, and then, if I also press the space bar, I can turn that off.  So, right now I have 2 keys on my keyboard press down – Shift key to bring up an arrow, and the space bar to turn off the Quick Select, so now I can do the selection here.  [1:33:00]

So, those are some controls for selection that you should know, and even though this is a side detour for this particular section of the course, I’m going to show you one other related thing, and that has to do with the ability to control whether you’re selecting things based on including part of them or all of them, or choose depending on the directions.  [1:33:30]

If I click on this to say, “Select only the elements that I have entirely surrounded,” then when I turn off the Quick Select and I do this, you notice that the selection has a little dash and dot outline.  Now, when I select this, it selected the 6 lights, but not the zone because although the zone stamp is here, the zone itself has a much bigger boundary.  So, this option here says to only select when I surround the entire element, and this says to select it if I get even a corner of it in there, and this this option here for the selection arrow is directional.  [1:34:24]

So, if I go left to right now.  So, let’s see.  Going to go left to right, and you can see this is only selecting with a whole, but if I go here, and I go right to left, you notice that the boundary is not dashed, and now it’s going to go and include things that are partial.  So, this says, depending upon the direction.  This says only when it’s entirely selected, and this is when it’s partially selected.  [1:34:57]

Now, changing it after I’ve selected things doesn’t do anything.  This just simply is used when you’re using the selection arrow.  Alright, let’s see if there’s any final comments or questions.  So, I see Monica mentioned a minute ago.  I don’t know if you’re still there. You mentioned that you have to leave.  Are these videos recorded to watch somewhere afterward?  Yes, they are.  I’m wondering if you’re getting the emails where I send this out, because you should know that it is in the ARCHICAD training website – ARCHICADtraining.com, and you’ve been sent a login to log into that website, and these are the course lessons that we’ve been going through.  [1:35:41]

This one will be number 11 here.  I usually place it up within a few hours or by the next day and put in some outline notes, and then, in some cases, or if we go back to some earlier ones, I’ve now got transcripts.  So, you can see, if I go back a little bit, there is a transcript, and I click on the transcript.  This is all the text, and while I wouldn’t recommend that you just spend a huge amount of time reading all the text, you can skim it pretty quickly and say, “This section here, where we’re going into Slack.  Oh, I want to know that.”  [1:36:15]

Well, that section is between 1 minute 28 seconds and 2 minutes 7 seconds, and you can just go in the video and find that place and watch the part that relates to your particular interest.  So yes, you can watch these anytime you like.  OK, and Monica, you had a question.  “What if I have dimensions for electrical that I don’t want to see in floor plans?  What layer should I use for this dimension?”  [1:36:42]

So, in MasterTemplate and any good template, if we go into the layer settings, you probably will have a layer combination for that drawing. So, for example, in MasterTemplate, CONDOC electrical would be one of the 2.  You might also use it under MEP for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing.  Here would be a variation, but CONDOC Electrical.  You would be picking what layers are visible here. If you wanted to sort by visibility, you could say that these are the ones that are visible.  [1:37:16]

See these ones that say Electrical E?  So, you say, “Alright, I know I have to put in on one of these visible layers if I want to show it on this layer combination that I’m using the for electrical plan.”  If you want to say, “Hmm, I wonder if I put it on the electrical 3D light switches and outlets, if that going to be seen on my floor plan?”  Well, if I click here, you can see.  Floor plan – no.  It’s not seen there.  It’s only seen on the electrical and elevations.  I guess if it’s a 3D light, we might want to see the light on the elevation.  It is shown on the MEP and the reflected ceiling.  [1:37:52]

If you put stuff on this layer, it will be visible there, so this is a way to study.  You click on the left side to say that layer combination you’re going to use.  These are the layers that are visible.  You sort by visibility here, and then if you want to say, “Hmm, I wonder if a layer is going to be visible in multiple ones,” you can click on the right side.  For example, electrical labels here are only shown on MEP systems and electrical, but not on elevations.  [1:38:21]

So, generally, the 2d things would go here.  3D might go here.  There’s some slight variations, and there may be some variations for outlets.  So, these are the ones here.  OK, so we’ll see if there are any final questions or comments in Slack.  OK, so we’re looking at these.  Ah, I see we’ve got some pictures of very elaborate setups here.  OK, comments about the renovation filter from Diane.  Alright, so Marlene says, “Eric, I assigned the same intersection number, and yet these do not connect.  Could another tool be overriding this?”  [1:39:12]

So, this would be the type of question where I could troubleshoot it in a coaching call.  If you have a specific thing like, “God, I can’t get this to work,” but basically elements will intersect if they’re a proper type – in other words, one wall to another or a wall and a beam, and they’re touching each other.  Generally, they will connect.  They have to be in that same layer intersection group.  It is also possible that another thing that can get in the way or modify this is the renovation filter.  [1:39:44]

If you have an existing wall and a new wall touching each other, then you have a choice whether you’re going to allow them to intersect or not. That’s controlled in your renovation filter.  Sometimes, you want to say you just want to show the new stuff as if it was discreet, not connecting.  I don’t want it to get in the way, so this would be the main things that I can think of that would affect whether they intersect.  Another thing would be elevation.  If you have another wall that’s down low and another wall that’s up high – even though on plan, they look like they’re touching, if they’re not actually in the same vertical space, then they may not actually try to connect.  [1:40:25]

OK, and comments about Quick Layers, and Roy asks am I going to go over the value of zones in a future lesson.  Absolutely, yes.  This course will go on for quite a while.  There’s just a lot to cover.  Missing text on interior and exterior walls.  Not sure.  Maybe you were commenting.  I’m not sure there.  OK, and Lew, you finally synced the system.  Awesome.  Great.  You made it onto Slack. Hopefully, that will be easier the next time.  [1:41:04]

Alright, so we’ll finish up for now.  Remember that I would like to get your feedback on the course as a whole, on me and my haircut – my beautiful smile, the lighting, whatever. Constructive criticism is most welcome, so tell me, “Hey, you go on too long with such and such,” and glowing testimony and quotes are always welcome.  If you say you’re having fun with this, this is great.  You do that in the Feedback channel.  [1:41:37]

So, Feedback.  Are you going to do a presentation like this for MasterTemplate?  It is my intention to create some more presentation materials and training materials for MasterTemplate.  I did do a very extensive tour of MasterTemplate in early October, and that is on my YouTube channel.  So, you can refer to that.  It’s introducing MasterTemplate 22, but I will be going into some more of the technical aspects, yes.  I will be doing it separate from the Best Practices training series.  [1:42:12]

OK, so bunch of thank yous.  Alright.  Bob, I’m glad you learned something new again, and I just like commenting because Bob has been around with ARCHICAD for 30 years, just like me, so nice to share some things that you weren’t taking advantage of.  So, Jimmy says, “Can you set a layer to show both wire frame and solid?”  Well, you can say it’s wire frame right now, but it’s solid at another time, so you can change the state, but elements that are on that layer will either be shown as solid or in wire frame.  [1:42:49]

Of course, if you have something that’s glass, you might see the outline of it and see through it, but that’s different than wire frame where something is opaque, and you’re just temporarily seeing through it.  OK, alright, so thank you all for joining me today.  Tomorrow, we have the coaching call for any of you who want to just ask me open-ended questions.  If you have projects that you want me to review or have issues that you can’t figure out how to clean up, that is at the same time on Thursdays, and it’s a separate link.  [1:43:25]

You should be getting links for those sessions and reminders an hour ahead. I’ll be back next week continuing on with the training course, and I’ll just make one final comment about this.  If you look at the old outline, and you look at what we’ve done so far, I’m talking about big picture.  I’m talking about structure.  I’m talking about habits, principles.  These are the things that, as you keep in mind, will allow you to work more efficiently, with more control, fewer unexpected puzzles, and things like that.  [1:44:05]

After we go through this, and we’re almost getting towards the end – there’s a few more lessons here, and then I’ll start talking about processes for developing a project, like how you create a site plan, how you do conceptual modeling of just getting your bubble diagram or your simple layout of things.  How do you work with different parts of the model, different options for walls?  So, we’ll be getting into more and more of the detail of how you draw and create things in ARCHICAD.  [1:44:39]

There’s no one right way to teach a course like this. I could have started with drawing some walls and seeing the options for walls.  Let’s draw some roofs and see the options for roofs, but I decided a long time ago that if you already know sort of how to get around in ARCHICAD, and you know how to get a model put together, then the most important thing for your Best Practices are the principles, the structure, the settings, and the environment, and these are the things that can take you from plodding along to moving much more quickly.  [1:45:18]

So, I hope you’re finding it useful and interesting, and I look forward to sharing some more of these general overall principles with you in the next couple of weeks before we start shifting into building things.  Alright.  Thanks for joining me today. Be back shortly with more.  [1:45:39]