On Land

The grid deployment has two parts: The Grid Cell object, and the 'Detail' master layouts.

You should always develop details with the Grid Cell 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. Much more on how the grid is laid out can be found at the Grid Cell documentation link above.

The Grid Cell object doesn't draw the grid itself. That is handled automatically by the Detail masters. The master also takes care of numbering the drawings by their position on the sheet, and it automatically eliminates lines that would cross a multi-cell drawing. Grid setup can be found in the master's settings.

There are three detail masters in the templates, one for each sheet size. The number of available cells depends on the size.

Detail drawings use automatic titles. There is a guideline within the Grid Cell object to help with placement of the title.

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 and there aren't many wall sections.

Roof plans used to be a wormhole to the drafting dimension. With cover fills and flexible story display, they're just regular plans with a couple special annotations.

To be clear, all that old fashioned stuff about pasting from 3D and whatnot is no longer with us.

• What Shows.

Roofs on the A Roof2 layers. Gutters (on F Gutter). Top elements of chimneys on A Fireplace or A Roof2. Notes on +A Arch Note Reg Scale. +A Misc Line. There is no longer a layer for 'roof plan lines'. The roof plan uses the same layer combination for output as the rest of the plans, A1 Floor+Roof Plan.

Roof elements will be placed on the lowest story on which they should be visible, and they need to show enough stories above to be visible on the roof story. For some roofs this means 'one story up', and for some it means 'all stories above' (custom setting). Much more on roofs in plan in AC10 here.

• Annotations.

For the slope arrow, use a line with an arrowhead at one end. The arrow points down.

Note the roof materials, gutters, crickets, etc.

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Everything in the general framing plan discussion also applies to roof framing plans. There's a few special considerations:

• The roof framing plan should usually be generated from the top occupied story, not the roof story. For most projects, this is either the attic or the second floor. In the past, we have used the roof story, but not any more. It is very beneficial to show walls in the roof framing; in fact, we should show walls from multiple stories where applicable. By using an occupied story for the plan, it's one less story to be shown using the trick linked above.

• Show the outlines of the roofs. It is not feasible to show the roofs themselves, you must trace them or copy and paste from the 3D window in the classic style.

If you are showing the actual roofs in your architectural roof plan, put the traced/pasted roof lines on the +S Struct Note layer. If you are using the cut and paste method for the architectural roof plan, you can use the same lines for roof framing.

If you have dedicated structure roof lines (not reused in architectural), change the hips and valleys to a dashed linetype.

To put it another way.

Option 1 (preferred): Use roof elements on A Roof2 for the architectural roof plan. Use copied lines for the roof framing, on +S Struct Note. Switch the hip and valley lines to dashed.

Option 2: Use copied lines for the architectural roof plan, on +A Roof Plan Line. The same lines show in the roof framing. You can't do the dashed line thing.

• If hip and valley framing members are modeled, they require special attention to place them right. It's often OK to show these members as 2D only. There are two ways to do this: 1) The wood beam object has an option to turn the 3D off. 2) Put the beams on the S Framing layer, which is hidden in section.

• Walls. Display of walls is controlled by Display Options. The 'Cut Fills' option should be set to 'Separators Only'. The walls will be clear, with lines at the separators; for example, between concrete and stone. Use the 'S' Display Option Combination.

• Bearing Walls. To show a bearing wall, draw a fill on top of it. This is a non-associated, additional element. Use the fill '*Masonry Block', with a background pen of 50. Use the layer +S Struct Note. So: Walls are clear, except bearing walls, which are shaded.

• Rafters & Joists. Fill elements of the fill 'Joists 16OC' or 'Joists 12OC'. If you need other spacings, you need to make more fills. The fills go on the layer S Framing, which only shows in the framing plans. Rafter and joist placement is diagrammatic.

• Rafter & Joist Labels. Object 'Joist Note JAM9'. With the joists shown as fills, you don't need to show the extent in the note object, although it has that option.

• Beams. Beams should generally be modeled and labeled in sections. Use the objects Wood Beam JM9 and Steel W Shape Beam JAM9, etc. Most beams should be on the layer S Beam, which shows in section. If the beam is just used as a note, place it on S Framing.

Beams can reference their calculations by use of the ID tag in the objects.

• Annotations. All annotations should go on the layer +S Struct Note, unless you want an annotation to show in the foundation plan simultaneously. In that case, use +S Note All. Use a background of pen 91 on text blocks to make them readable when placed on fills.

• Structure Notes. Loads, criteria, etc. are part of the General Notes PDF. Specific notes can be added to the plans using text blocks.

• Wall Cleanup.
Plan layer combinations should have different intersection codes for plan and 3D walls. (E.g., A WALL EXT has '1', A Wall Hi has '2'.) This eliminates gaps where visible and invisible walls meet.

Wall cleanup in plan is still tricky for complex intersections. The use of patches is encouraged.

• Display Order.
(Front, back, etc.) Use display order to to make overlapping elements stack correctly. In order for elements to mask elements behind them, they need a fill with a background pen. If you don't want a fill pattern, use 'Empty Fill'.

Generally, annotations should be all the way in front so they aren't obscured by anything. Walls should in front of everything except annotations. Beyond that, you have to pay attention. Counters in front of floor fills, soffit lines in front of counters, stair railings in front of treads, etc.

• Pens.
More on pens here. Walls are 5-weight (usually 15). Edges (Counters, stairs) are 3-weight. Dashed overhead elements are 2-weight. Appliances, plumbing fixtures, and other such objects are 2-weight. Floor finishes are 150. The background pen of walls in new construction is 50, and existing walls are 91.

A note on composites: Contour, separator, and background pens should set correctly in the composites. Walls in plan should be set to use the composites' pens. Stud wall composites should have the separator lines hidden.

• Floor Finishes. There is a steadily-expanding group of ways to show floor finishes. 1) Fills on F Floor Fin2. 2) Slabs with a cover fill on F Floor Fin2. 3) Cover fills on the zones.

• Dimensions. Here. For small rooms, consider enlarged plans and put the dimensions there.

I usually keep S/E's set to Auto-rebuild.

• S/E Element Placement. Marker ends should not extend too far beyond the building itself. Our section elements go on a non-printing layer, and we use a separate object to show the section locations in plan. This is because it is difficult to reconcile the extent of the cut with the desired graphic presentation of the markers. That is, To get the markers looking nice you need have them much more extensive than is required to create the view itself.

Cut sections using the section marker Plain Section JAM9. This simple marker just shows the ID and a flag to indicate direction.

Elevations should be as close to the building as possible; the marker should be stepped where necessary to achieve this. Watch out for eaves and gutters.

Sections often require a lot of tweaking to get them to cut through interesting/clear/consistent stuff on all stories. Watch for undesirable effects of stepping with respect to roofs. Where a section cut is perpendicular to a roof's slope, try to avoid stepping the section within that roof. If you can't avoid it, discontinuities in the roof can be patched, but the patch becomes a maintenance issue if you edit the S/E element again.

Section depth should be minimized in order to improve performance. The depth should reach only the most distant element you want to see; usually it's a ridge or a chimney. Infinite depth sections should never be used. Zero-depth sections come in handy sometimes for generating details, but building and wall sections should always have some depth. Section depths are typically off in display options; toggle them using Karl's marvelous add-on.

• Layers. All annotations go on the layer +A Arch Note Reg Scale. This includes text, arcs and splines used for leaders, and notation objects. All added 2D work should go on +A Misc Line, but this is not a critical issue. Since S/E windows usually only generate a single view, layer discipline is not as important as in the plan. You should, however, make consistent use of the Arch Note layer, to maintain the option of turning the notes off to display the S/E image by itself.

• Vectorial hatching.

Elevation (and 3D) hatching is generated by the 'Vectorial Hatching' setting of the material in Options -> Attribute Settings -> Materials. The pen of the hatching should typically be 150, which is light gray.

Display of the hatching is a setting in the model tab of the S/E element itself. Hatching slows down generation considerably; in typical use it should be off. Before publishing, turn the hatching on for all the markers by selecting all of them and checking the box in the info box. The hatching switch setting is not saved with views, which is too bad.

• Unwanted lines.

Ugly bits which are complex can be patched. To hide simple cases of a few unwanted lines, use a fill which matches the vectorial hatching of the elements involved (shingles, stone, etc.), and has an opaque background. For blank walls you can use a solid fill of a white-printing pen. I use 80, which is purple, so I can see the areas I've masked. Masking fills and patches should go on the layer +A Misc Line. The use of masking elements becomes a maintenance issue.

• Rendering of depth.

Foreground elements should be outlined with a heavy (5-weight) polyline. There is no reliable way to do this automatically, it's tedious. One tip: for symmetrical building parts, outline one half and then mirror. Another: Outlines can often be copied and pasted to the opposite-facing elevation and mirrored across the origin.

Use Marked Distant Area where appropriate. When using it, check 'Use One Pen' and use pen 30. Pen 30 is gray in AC and 1-weight black in PM. You need section depths on in display options to edit the MDA depth. Don't forget the shortcut.

When you combine outlining with MDA, you get three levels of rendering: Fills on and outlined, fills on with no outline, and fills off.

• Model pens. Except for walls and objects, elements are drawn in 3D with their floor plan pens. Walls have a dedicated 3D pen, which should be a 3-weight. (Typical walls are 13.) Objects can have a separate 3D pen, either as a parameter or hard-coded, this will vary. It is a long-standing wish that all elements have a separate 3D pen.

• The ground. The ground mesh section settings should be: Fill='Air Space'; Background pen=91; Cut pen=6-weight. (I like green land, so 36.) These settings give an invisible fill with a heavy ground line. The bottom and side lines of the mesh should be obscured by the object Grade Mask JAM8, which goes on the +A Misc Line layer.

• Annotations.

Elevation notes. The main materials and building elements should be noted. This includes wall finishes, trim parts, decorative columns, panels, railings, chimneys, etc. To align the notes, use the object Note Column JAM9, in the drawing tools folder. Notes on the right side should be left-justified with the leaders starting at the first line. Notes on the left side should be right-justified with the leaders starting at the end of the last line.

It is permissible to fully annotate one elevation on each sheet, and then only point out unusual features on other drawings on the same sheet.

Levels. Use the object 'Elev Marker JAM8'. Elevation views should show the Z-height of each story. It is helpful to draw a dotted (not dashed) line through he elevation at each floor level. Dotted lines need to be heavy in order to be visible; use a 4- or 5-weight. In sections, levels should be should be shown for ceilings as well as floors, and for interior floor level changes (such as garage slabs). Level objects will auto-display their Y position, which is the height. They should be dimensioned to show the relationships among them.

Knee wall heights should be dimensioned in section.

In sections, unusual ceiling or floor conditions may be labeled with Slab Elev JM9. Examples: Lowered ceilings in small rooms, a stepped slab in a theater.

Roof pitches should be noted in section and elevation with the label Roof Slope JAM9.

Doors and windows should be labeled with Door-Window Label JAM9.

Structural members in section should be labeled with Description JAM9. Joists are shown 2D-only using 'Joists Sect 2D JAM9'. Our standards don't support modeling the joists.

• What Shows.

• All plan walls, A Wall Ext, A Wall Int, S Wall2.

• Steel columns which rest on footings, S Col Steel. Other columns remain on S Column.

• All footings, S Footing.

Framing plan layers which should be hidden in foundation plans: S Beam, S Framing, S Column, +S Struct Note.

• Annotations.

• Foundation dimensions. It should be possible to use the foundation plan to stake the project. When using a foundation plan, you should only have architectural (interior) dimensions on the A1 basement plan.

• Wall and footing sizes.

• Dimensions to all columns.

• Graphics and notes describing all slabs and their reinforcement. Elevations of slabs to project zero. Use fills to show reinforcement. Use a background of pen 91 on text blocks to make them legible when placed on fills.

• Detail markers calling out wall types and other relevant details.

Annotations belong on +S Foundation Note. Annotations which also show in the framing plans belong on +S Note All.

The foundation plan is typically generated from the same story as the first floor framing, so it requires a separate layer combination, S0 Foundation Plan. The display option combination, S Foundation, differs from that of the structure plans only in that the cut fills are Vectorial Hatching instead of Separators only.

The foundation plan's sheet number should be S0 (zero).

Why: Same reason as always. Model views are more consistent and easier to maintain. Modeling is the better way to work things out for real. You can block up passable wall sections earlier without sacrificing consistency. To get them graphically perfect will require conversion to drawing in the end, but you can put it off at least through design development.

How: Lots of 2D fills, lines, and objects placed over empty model elements. You were going to use all that 2D stuff anyway. A lot of the fill-placement is to make up for the fact that composites can't be scale sensitive yet.

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SK sheets are the official format for issuing corrections, clarifications, changes, and other additional information after the construction set is issued. SKs become part of the construction documents, and should created and maintained with the same care as the big sheets.

Use an SK sheet whenever you have to issue document information between official revisions. Revision sets should be updated to include the SK information since the last issue. For geometry taken directly from the model, this will take care of itself via the traditional view updating process. Scanned drawings and other non-project-file info must be placed on an appropriate big sheet, in addition to the SK layout, so the next revision is complete.

We have developed a special title block for a letter size sheet, Title Block SK RND81. It enables you easily to create an SK sheet out of any geometry in the project.

The preferred method of putting out SKs is PlotMaker, using special layouts within the main CDs layout book. The layout book will automatically number the SKs as they are created, and keep them in one place for safety and organization. You can also import scanned drawings into the layouts, so that hand drawings can be maintained consistently with the rest of the documents.

It is possible to simply place a SK Title Block in ArchiCAD, marquee the SK, and print the marquee area. While this method is quick, it does not create a permanent copy of the output, nor does it maintain your numbering. In addition, printing from ArchiCAD does not have the same quality as printing from PM, since the colored pens have to be turned grey.

See also:
Title Block SK RND81
Getting the SK Layout Tools into Current Projects

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.

The roof plan has to be drawn. Sigh.

Update: I changed the recommended line weights, making them lighter. I think this will make the structure plan read better.

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