On Land

Location: 06 Wood & Plastic : Structure

A 2D symbol for framing in section. It's been around a while, but I added a couple things.

Choose the member type (2x, TJI, LVL) and the spacing. The spacing can be customized.

In building sections (1/4" and 3/16" scales), the label or the joists themselves can be turned off. The label turns itself off when there's not enough room for it. The label can be dragged with in symbol. Turn the joists off when the section cut is parallel to the joists.

In wall sections (3/4" scale and larger), there are some more options. You can show TJIs sideways, which will show the top and bottom flange, along with the rim joist. For cut TJIs, you can choose to show the end joist as a rim joist or not. You can show sheathing on top of the joists. Finally, you can turn on the insulation symbol, so you don't have to draw the insulation separately.

Location - 01 General : 6 Zone Stamps

This is a lot like the JAM8 zone stamp, which was a lot like the room name object.

You can select the room name and the floor finish. The font of the room name comes from the main settings of the stamp. The font of the material has its own setting.

One new feature is the option to show the room number along with, or instead of, the name. The number should generally be shown in the construction documents, in conjunction with the finish schedule. If the number is shown, the floor finish will not be.

The other new feature is the listing parameters for ceiling finish, crown, and baseboard for the finish schedule. These parameters are independent of elements placed in the room.

Location: 05 Metals

This object can take the form of any steel column in the AISC manual. You can set the shape, dimensions and strength. Label it with Description JAM9.

You can choose to model the top bearing plate.

You can display the column dashed below. This is very helpful in developing framing plans: Show the columns overhead to make sure they're all supported.

Location: 03 Concrete

A slab edge, trazezoidal or triangular. Placed under/adjacent to an element of the same fill, it will clean up in section. There was an 8 version of this, but I never wrote it up.

I don't recommend running these everywhere, but a little piece at the section cut helps the section a lot. One less thing to draw.

The goofy thing about this object is I put in a routine where you can edit the section profile in plan. (Turn on "Edit Shape in Plan".) Just an idea.

Edit in Plan

Section

Edit in Plan

These objects have detectable edges.

Cutline JAM9
Cab Blob JAM9
Wood Beam JAM9
Steel W Shape JAM9
Opening Slash JAM9
Stair Arrow JAM9
CenterLine JAM9
All the JAM9 trim objects (Crown, Rake, etc.)

"Labels are text blocks or symbols optionally linked to construction elements and 2D fills. Labels allow you to identify or comment elements or parts of your design." That's from the ArchiCAD 9 Ref Guide page 343, and it's pretty succinct so I'll keep it. Here's more:

"You can use labels in two ways:

• Independent labels manually placed using the Label tool.

• Associative labels can be assigned automatically before the creation of an element or added to them later."

So there's two kinds. Independent labels are like regular objects, in that they do their own thing. There is a simple text label that's basically a text block with a leader, and it works OK as long as you don't go longer than one line. I (used to!) use these to call out structure in the sections and other simple things like that. They are a marginal improvement over plain text with an arc.

Associative labels are attached to elements, and can say intelligent things about them. They remain accurate as the data they represent changes. They can move when the element is moved. They are very cool.

(Why don't we use them yet? Because the underlying design of the label functionality is very poor, making it hard to figure out how they work, especially the differences between the two kinds. Now that I/we have them figured out, the actual making isn't hard.)

Frequently (Probably) Asked Questions follow. I'm focusing on associated labels, since independent labels are simple.

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Location: 01 General : 1 Graphic Symbols

A line, with a centerline marker at one or both ends. The line is detectable.

It is superior to a conventional line element since the tags say, "Hey here's a centerline", and an object can be displayed on multiple stories. Same reasoning as the CenterPoint object.

You can use it as a layout element on ! Layout.NP, or you can display it for output by placing it on a note layer. It's sometimes helpful for dimensioning to show centerlines, in which case they should be clearly labeled as such, so here you go.

This object doesn't take the place of the CenterLine Symbol, you still need that to mark dimension ticks. (Did you know? AIA standards say that dimension ticks on centerlines should be drawn as dots rather than slashes. Unfortunately, ArchiCAD doesn't offer this ability.)

Location: 01 General : 3 Drawing Tools (FYI*)

This is a section tool marker, not a graphic section marker for display in documents. For that, you still use the object SectElevDetail Marker JAM.

It's very simple. The only parameter besides text size is the height of the flag.

Why bother? It's better than the default "basic section" in that it's easier to discern the view direction and the text flips the right way.

You might ask yourself, if we can create section tool markers, why do we still use the object? Because the scripting ability is still limited, and doesn't offer the facility to have the marker differ in shape from the cut.

* The location doesn't matter to the user, since you never select the marker from the library. A list of all the loaded section markers appears in the Info Box and Settings Dialog of the section tool. Also true of Details.

Basically a hotspot. Why not just use a hotspot? Since it's an object, you can show it on all stories, ensuring that the centers stack, and move together.

Also the astronomical symbol for Earth, if you ever need that.

Download (AC9)

NOTE: This is better.

Location: 01 General : 3 Drawing Tools

Two nice changes: There's a 3D version, and the interface for calculating height or quantity is improved.

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The defaults for the following parameters the the main title block object have been changed to their respective AutoText tags:

• Project Name

• Type

• Street Address

• City

• State

• Zip

The SK title block uses AutoText tags in the Project Name and Type fields.

That means, new placements of the objects will have these values unless you change them. That means, you need to fill in the book info for the tags to be interpreted correctly (recommended), or edit the settings to display the info the old way. (But why?) Current projects should not be affected, but feel free to set up your book info and use the AutoTexts if you like. If you are going to issue SK sheets, this will make it much easier.

The templates have been updated with the new defaults. The 'Starting a Layout Book' workflow procedure now includes adding the book info.

For new projects, you must set up the book info, or you get this:

Wow, that makes 'Somebody Residence' look positively elegant.

Location: 01 General/1 Graphic Symbols

An Sheet Size option for 'B 11x17'.

I have updated the templates with an additional detail window to hold the title block at this size. In the layout book templates, I have added a master layout for the 11x17 size.

To use 11x17 sheets in current projects:

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