On the Archicad Help Menu, beneath the first two items, you will find two lists of items.
The first list consists of links to PDFs, including the Archicad manuals. The PDFs reside in the Documentation folder within the Archicad folder. Any PDF placed in this folder will appear in the menu.
The second consists of links to web sites. The links reside in the WWWLinks folder within the Archicad folder. Any link placed in this folder will appear in the menu.
What it does:
• Limits the area for a Find & Select.
• Limits the area for a Select All, or a tool-specific Select All.
• Limits the model displayed in the 3D window.
• Marquee-stretches. Elements wholly within are dragged, elements partly within are stretched. Groups off!
• Limits the elements to save as a module. With heavy marquee, makes it possible to save a multi-story module.
• Limits the print area, instead of resizing the window.
• Makes it possible to show section perspectives.
Remember that with a marquee placed, everything in side the marquee is selected for any purpose other than changing settings. All the transformations and copy transformations will work. Delete will work. Eek!
See Also:
Archicad 10 Reference Guide pg. 56
You have clicked some points for your dimension string. You have not checked the geometry method for the correct orientation, horizontal or vertical. Well over half the time, due to Murphy's Law, the wrong one is selected. You click to place the string, and get nothing. You have to start over. You are sad.
If you are dimensioning walls, you should be clicking on the line of the wall, rather than the corner, in order to dimension the core. (This isn't the tip; it is current standard practice. I hope someone is praying for you if you aren't dimensioning this way.) Choose the third, arbitrary angle, geometry method. With this setting, the string is forced to orient perpendicular to the wall, regardless of the wall's direction.
For two strings with the same orientation, select one, then Cmd+click on the other. The second string will disappear, and its points will be added to the selected string.
Forgot something else...
In 8.1, we have the option of placing a marquee to limit the print area, instead of fiddling with the window itself.
Click 'Copies and Pages' and select 'Archicad' to view these options.
As far as I know, this option has always existed, but I've only fully internalized it recently.
Try this display option in your working plans and sections views:
It causes walls in plan, and all elements in section, to display as solid fill of the pen of the fill pattern. In plan, this means that only the corner of the wall itself can be detected, not the inside drywall corner. This eliminates the problem of accidentally aligning counters, floor fills, and such to the core of a stud wall.
I have taken the liberty of changing the working views in the templates to employ this option.
This is about four years old but I wanted to explicitly point it out...
All the attribute-related options on the Options menu (Pens and Colors, Line Types, etc.) use the Ctrl+Opt+Cmd modifier combination with the initial letter of the attribute.
Update: A couple of these (notably materials and composites) broke in AC9 due to conflicts with default shortcuts in OS X. Pens and fills still work. Keep the Attributes toolbar on.
Update: For AC10 I put the quick layers commands in the main toolbar, so you don't need the palette.
Window | Floating Palettes | Show Quick Layers (Ctrl+L).
The Quick Layers palette enables you to:
Unhelpfully:
• Toggle the display of all the layers. All the showing layers become hidden, all the hidden layers show. Shrug.
• Ditto for lock/unlock. Shrug.
Very helpfully, under 'Selection's Layer':
• Hide, lock, or unlock the layer of selected elements, even for multiple layers at a time. Similar to the 'Layer' sub-context menu.
Unhelpfully again:
� Hide or lock all layers. Big shrug.
The palette will close when you quit Archicad, unlike the standard palettes. Just reactivate it when you start with Ctrl+L.
I've added a module for Site Plan info to the Modules folder (in 3 Resources). It contains all the elements for contours, boundaries, notes, etc. I did not include separate note stuff for the 120 & 240 Note layers, but you'll probably live. N.B.: 8.1 only!
Don't forget: In AC8, the escape key now performs the cancel function. This makes it consistent with all other software in the solar system. 99% of the time, hitting ESC will be faster than mousing over to the Cancel button, or right-click-canceling.
It's also another beautiful, inspiring, timeless, indestructible tower on the magisterial edifice that is The Keyboard, as compared to the moldy-straw-1st-little-pig-shack of Mousing Around Clicking Buttons, Menus, Sub-menus, and Sub-sub-menus.
In other words, learn the shortcuts, and use them. And we'll plan our escape.
LOON ISLAND, ME -- Due to the wet spring and summer, the lake is a good 18-24" higher this year. Remember that the dock is simply resting on the lakebed and is not tied down in any way. If not kept above the water, it can blow away in high wind/waves. The idea is to elevate the whole thing while moving it closer to the shore. Keep in mind:
The dock is heavy. You will need three or four people.
You will get wet.
Wear shoes that can get wet, and that will stay on your feet; there's some mucky spots on the lake bottom.
There are rocks. This is good, because you will need to put them under the feet of the dock to elevate it. It's also bad, because you will have to lift the dock far over some of them.
The dock is built in sections that can be taken apart and moved separately. The only wrench is an adjustable one, there aren't any sockets in the cabin. The nuts are under the dock, which is awkward. Remember 'Righty Loosey Lefty Tighty' because the nuts are upside down. Try not to drop the nuts in the lake.
What? Oh! No, no, no, not that dock. That's in the System Preferences under 'Dock.'
Perhaps you are looking at an element in an S/E window, and want to find the element in the plan.
Select the element in the section. Drag it somewhere. Undo. Return to the plan. The element will be selected. Or, delete it, and Undo.
Caveat: The plan window must be on a story where the element is showing. Use Zoom to Selection to find it. If Zoom to Selection shows only the S/E element, you're on the wrong story.