On Land

I've added a new layer combination to the templates, 'Stretch House'. It's intended to help when marquee-stretching the whole project. It simply shows and unlocks everything building related, while hiding the section markers and everything site-related. I hope you find it useful, or can at least ignore it.

Another thrilling episode of Template Update.

• I put autotexts in the Project Title detail window. Instead of defaulting to 'Somebody Residence', it says {CLIENT} {PROJECTNAME}*. Similar for the address.

• I changed the weights of the white pens (10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 91) to 0.0 mm. This shouldn't have any negative side effects. The idea behind white pens is they disappear completely, and if the weight isn't zero the can show up against backgrounds. So the practical change is that invisible things become even less visible. That's probably OK?

* As usual, curly brackets mean angle brackets, since Movable Type treats everything in angle brackets as tags.

F Trim2 is for trim elements you want to show in plan. Two applications off the top of my head:

• Pilasters. This gives the option of turning off the pilasters in structure plans, etc.

• Panel Walls. Where you have pilasters, you often have paneling, and if you show the pilaster without the panel you get a gap.

Alright that's only one application. One and a half maybe.

I've made a couple of changes in the templates which affect how columns are layered. These changes are important, especially if you are in the habit of placing architectural columns on the S Column layer.

1. S Column no longer shows in architectural (A1) plans. With this change in mind, I also want to clarify the difference between architectural and structural columns.

2. There's a new layer, S Col Steel, for columns in the basement that need to show in the foundation plan.

If you come to me and ask why your columns are missing, I'll know you didn't read this.

More»

Since there's such a thing in our little world as a "layout", referring to guide lines as "layout" lines isn't right.

Wall section stuff.

Added layer, F Clg Fin3.

Added LCs, 3. Working Wall Section and A3 Wall Section. Ceiling layer shows in these two, and Working SE (not A2), and Working Model Complete.

A Flue is for modeling chimney flues. It shows in plan and section. In section, the layer should be wireframe to show the flue void. In general use, elements on the A Flue layer will be subtracted from each part of the Fireplace/Chimney. The templates have a new layer combination, 'View Flues', which shows the flues solid inside the wireframe chimney.

A Chimney3 is for chimney parts that should not show in plan. Formerly we used A Wall Hi for this purpose. Putting these elements on their own layer allows you to show an axonometric of just the chimney. The templates have a new layer combination, 'View Chimney', which shows the chimney solid by itself. You can use a marquee to create a cutaway axon to show the flues.

Print Complete
Print T/A1/A2
Print Custom
Plot Custom
DWG Stake
DWG A1/A2
Print SKs

We have long had the convention of beginning our layout names with the number of the sheet, e.g., A1-1 1st Floor Plan.

This is no longer needed.

PM has a feature to "Show Names & Numbers" in the Navigator. It's had this throughout the life of PM3/PM9, but in the beginning, plot file names would not include the number even if it was displayed, so we had to put the numbers in the names to get the plot files named correctly.

Two things have changed. First, if you plot a layout with the number showing, the filename will have the number. (I don't know when they fixed it.) The same goes for DWGs. Second, we don't plot anymore; our archive files are multipage PDFs where the individual layout names are not seen.

So: Switch your Navigator tree views to "Show Names & Numbers" using the flyout at the bottom of the tree; and stop putting the numbers in the names. I recommend fixing the names of layouts in running projects; it doesn't take that long.

I have updated the templates with this change.

One more change resulting from the new plotter: To go along with the dedicated poche pen, 50, we have a dedicated Material fill pen, 150. On the same principle as the poche pen, this gives us specialized control over the material fill color without changing a lot of settings.

I thought 150 and 50 kind of went together.

The pen is set to print in PM with the color of pen 92 (90% Grey), and display in ArchiCAD with the color of pen 93 (80% Grey). The weight is 0.15mm, the same as 92, 93, and the rest of the <50% greys.

This pen is intended for vectorial hatching on materials, cover fills representing materials, and fill elements representing materials, such as floor finishes.

The templates have been updated. To use this pen in current projects, you must:

• Change the color and weight of the pen in PM (Options -> All Pens And Colors) and ArchiCAD (Options -> Attributes -> Pens And Colors).

• Change the Vectorial hatching pen of the materials.

• Change the fill pattern pen of elements with cover fills.

• Change the pattern pen of floor-finish-type fills.

Remember: With the new plotter, 93 is really too dark for these fills. You should change the pen. If you've already changed a project to use 92, changing to 150 is optional. If you haven't changed yet, use 150.

PLN:

Poche Pen: Instead of using a pen from the gray region, we have a dedicated poche pen. This should make changing the color of poche easier in the future, if we ever have to do it again. It's pen 50. All the model tool defaults and composites are updated. (This change is optional for current projects, but it is supported by the new layout book.)

Finish fill pen to 92 from 93. Default of fill tool changed accordingly, along with cover fill setting for cover fill elements.

Title block, drawing area, detail area, SK objects switched to new version. Drawing area and title block hotspots replaced.

New pen settings: Adjusted weights, and color of pen 50. Attribute file: Color Pens 0105.aat. PlotMaker Pens are in Black Pens 0105.aat.

Deleted stupid drawing area from Perspective View window.

LBK:

New pen settings: Adjusted weights, and color of pen 50.

Plot setup tiffs removed.

Changed page setup for each master layout.

Adjusted title block, sheet number text, and detail grid locations for each master.

Here's a new category where I'm going to log changes to the templates. It's not required reading, but if you're curious go ahead.