Architect_081 Architect Special Interest Group November 2015 (am)

Topics covered:

• inserting a custom door symbol into a wall
• hybrid symbols
• dimension standards
• stake object
• fixing a bad file

Creating a Custom Door Object
You can create a complex door object and use it as a symbol to insert it into a wall, but we also want that symbol to appear on a door schedule. The answer is to use the symbol as geometry for the door object. The symbol is not controlled by the door width in the door settings dialog box – you have to manually check the symbol geometry and the general width and height. We covered how to create a door symbol that will break the wall correctly and this is all to do with the local high on the door and window objects. Ungrouping the door and window objects will allow you to create symbols with 2D and 3D components. The 2D will only be visible in Top/Plan and the 3D will be visible in any other (3D) view. This type of object is called a hybrid symbol.
Hybrid Symbols
Hybrid symbols are ideal for creating exactly the 3D presentation you want while having the 2D presentation you require. There aren’t any magic tricks to this, you just have to create two types of information one for the 2D presentation and the other for the 3D model. Select them both types of information and create a single symbol from them.
Dimension Standards
It might appear that your dimension standards are not sticking if the witness lines keep changing. This is probably because you haven’t created your own dimension standard. It’s best to create your own dimension standards and they should be stored in the template file. Dimension standards can be imported from one file into another. While you’re editing the dimension standard, edits the marker list to make it easy to find the markers that you want. A text style should also be added to the dimension standard so that all your dimensions and text are consistent.
You do not have control over the unit settings on a property line, but you can change the file units and update the property line, then change units back to the required drawing units. Do not update or edit the property line after this, or it will revert the property line back to the current units. You could ungroup the property line and that will stop at changing its unit settings.
Dealing with a Troublesome File
We have a troublesome file that will not display correctly. In some views the objects are visible and in some views the objects are not visible. It may be because the file is corrupt so we will look at the steps to go through to save this file.
Start with a new file. Create a new design layer, use the browse button to find the corrupt file and import all the design layers and the design layer objects – this will import all the design layer parts of the file.
When we zoom into all the objects we find that there are some objects a long way from the origin of the file. We can select this using the Invert Selection command, allowing us to delete it. Deleting the rogue object actually allowed the file to behave properly again.
Finally, we looked at how we can copy and paste viewports from one file to another. Normally, you cannot copy a viewport from one file to another unless you follow this trick.
Architect 081 November 2015 am (m4v file)
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Architect 081 November 2015 am (mov file)
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