On Land

Environment Information
At Rill & Decker Architects we run ArchiCAD on Mac OS X. If you work at Rill & Decker, this is your stuff. If you don't, but you work in ArchiCAD, you may find something interesting. Anybody else, I don't know.
RSS
April 2004 Archive

Detail sheets look nicer with a grid. The grid also encourages us to think about how details align, and forces us to be economical with the space we have for annotaions. Also it's standard practice.

The grid deployment has two parts: The grid module object, and the Detail Sheet master layout in PM.

All details should be developed with the detail module object. Place it before doing any annotations, so you can use it to align the notes. Most details should need only one grid cell. For larger details, stretch the object to an adequate extent.

The grid is designed to fill the standard title block. The grid itself must be drawn in PM. To make this easier, detail sheets have a special master layout with a drawing showing guidelines for the grid. The drawing also has hotspots at the cell corners for snapping the details into place. The lines must be drawn in PM in order to accommodate details of more than one cell. The lines should be drawn with a '3' weight pen.

The grid drawing exists in the project templates in three detail windows, one for each sheet size. Like with the title block details, the unneeded ones can be deleted.

Wall sections need not be placed on a detail grid, although you can place a wall section on a detail sheet if you have space. Better than making a new sheet for just one section.

Details' drawing titles should use the 'Medium' text size setting.

Note: Superseded in AC10 by this.

Location: 01 General / 3 Drawing Tools

You can't do a detail grid without it. Put in your sheet size. The object knows how big a grid cell is, and how many are on a sheet. Arrow-stretch the object around big details; it will snap to the next size up. At the maximum size it will show the actual grid. This is to place in a master layout to assist drawing the grid in PM.

You must place hotspots at the corners to detect them in PM.

There are guide points for placing the note column, and the note column width can be adjusted. There is an anchor point for the drawing title. The drawing title should extend to the right note margin. Don't adjust the margin or the drawing title elevation unless you have to.

There are detectable points at the midpoint of each side to help with alignment with other details. In addition, there is an editable alignment point with a numeric index of eighths of an inch. Align one detail to a given index, then use that index to align the adjacent ones.