Getting the documents out - GRAPHISOFT AUSTRALIA
Getting the documents out.
ArchiCAD comes with an associated program called Plotmaker. This program is a
fully functional desktop publishing program and is installed automatically when you
install ArchiCAD.
This document applies to version ArchiCAD 8.0, 8.1 and 9.0.
Getting documents from ArchiCAD into Plotmaker is very simple. All you need to
do is save your various plans, elevations, sections, details, 3D views into a view set
and save your document as you usually would. Once this is done you can easily
access those views in Plotmaker by importing them from your ArchiCAD document.
The steps you take are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Save your views
Import into Plotmaker
Make changes your Layout book
Print your pages
This document has been broken into those 4 easy steps.
1. Saving your views.
Saving views is a simple thing to do.. All you need to do is get your
plan/elevation/detail/3d view up in ArchiCAD, then go into the view set area and
save the current view.
When the view is saved it remembers a lot of settings, most prominent amongst
them are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Layers: Which layers are showing, hidden, locked, etc.
Zoom: What you are zoomed in to
Scale: What scale you have the thing you are looking at set to.
Display options: How your display options are set (how lines display, how
fills display, whether door markers are displayed, and many more).
5. 3D window options: This includes project north, the location and the time
of day as well as which engine you are using (internal or Opengl)
6. Rendering options: Which engine to use for rendering (lightworks, internal,
sketch) and all of the options belonging to the rendering engine.
7. 3D cutting planes.
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Getting the documents out - GRAPHISOFT AUSTRALIA
To save a plan into your view set, simply bring up the
plan. Change the scale, layers, display options and zoom to
suit what you want to see on your paper when you print it
out.
Next, go into the View Sets tab in the navigator.
The image to the right shows the navigator in its natural state.
But when you click on the “View Sets” it will change to the
view set editor.
By default the view set editor will bring up the first
(alphabetically) available view set. Which if you are using the
default template supplied by Graphisoft is called “01 Schematic
style”.
This view set already has one view and some folders in it.
You can choose to use those, or delete them.
The image to the left shows the View Set
editor.
Now that you have your plan on your screen,
looking the way you want it to look (with the
right layers showing, and the right display
options, the scale you wish to use) simply click
on the large triangle button.
A list of options comes up.
The top option is called “Save current view.
Clicking on this will save the current view.
The moment you click on it you are presented
with a new screen that allows you to enter a
name for your new view.
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Getting the documents out - GRAPHISOFT AUSTRALIA
Simply highlight the name and start
typing to change it.
You can also see what layer
combination is being used (it will
show “custom” whenever you don’t
have an actual layer combination
selected).
Also the scale and display options
are shown in this dialogue.
Once you have typed in the name,
click on “Save” to save the view.
Your View editor now has this new view
showing.
If you wish to move it into the Plans folder, you
simply click on it (and hold down your mouse
button) and drag it over top of the folder. The
folder will change colour when you are in the
right place. Let go of your mouse button to
drop it into that folder.
To save an Elevation into your view
set, simply repeat the same steps.
Go to the project map, double click on
the elevation, set up the scale, display
options, layers. And then go back to view
sets, click on the “big triangle button”
Click on “Save current view” and it will be
saved into your view set.
To save a detail into your view set,
follow the same steps again.
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As you can see, this is a simple way to create a set of documents.
You can add extra folders by clicking on the “big triangle button” and clicking on
“add new folder” you can change the name of the folder by right clicking on it and
choosing “rename”. Like views, you can move it around by clicking on it, holding
your mouse button down, moving to the desired location and letting go of the
mouse button.
You can save the same plan in many different ways very easily, simply by changing the
display options, layers, scale.
It is very important to note that these “views” ARE your plan. If you open a
view and remove some text, it will disappear on every other view too. If you change
a window in a view it changes in every other view, section, elevation too.
Saving a 3D image into your view set is also easy. And works the same way,
although you may need to give some extra consideration to how you want to have
your image look in your documentation.
To save a 3D image, simply open the 3D window, get it looking the way you want it
to look (by changing the display options, layers, 3D window settings etc) and click on
the big triangle button and click on “save current view”.
Extra Options are available that you probably want to know about.
When you save your 3D view this
dialogue will appear and you will
notice that you have 2 options for
“Generate In”.
If you choose “3D Window” you
will get the exact that you are seeing
in the 3D window.
If you choose “Photorendering
Window” it will use the photo
rendering settings that you have set
up at that moment.
If you use the photorendering
option, when you double click on
the view you saved, it will
automatically render the image straight away. This is not required to bring your
documents into Plotmaker.
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Getting the documents out - GRAPHISOFT AUSTRALIA
The following table outlines the result you can expect to see when bringing
information into Plotmaker using a viewset.
Generate In
3D window
3D window
Rendering
Engine
engine
Internal Engine n/a
3D window
Open GL
Photorendering n/a
Window
Photorendering n/a
Window
Photorendering n/a
Window
Photorendering n/a
Window
n/a
Internal
Rendering
Engine
Lightworks
Rendering
Engine
Sketch
Z-Buffer
Rendering
Engine
Size
quality
Scaled drawing,
Adjustable size
Scaled
Vectorial
drawing.
(low) Same as
3D window
High
Same as 3D
window
As per
photorendering
settings
As per
photorendering
settings
As per
photorendering
settings
As per
photorendering
settings
Photo realistic
Result looks
like a sketch
drawing
Medium
If in the future you wish to make a change to your view set, you will need to make
the change and then redefine it.
To redefine a view, make the change you wish to make, then Right Click on the
name of the view and you will be given the option to “Redefine view”. At this point
you can also specify a new name.
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Getting the documents out - GRAPHISOFT AUSTRALIA
2. Importing into Plotmaker
Open Plotmaker and once it is open, simply click on “File” and then “Import”. You
will be asked to locate the document you want to import.
Locate your *.PLN file (your ArchiCAD document) and click on it to open it.
At this point a dialogue box will allow you to choose the views you wish to import
and what to do with them during the import process.
1. You can choose to import a different view set from the default one by changing to
another view set at the top of the page.
2. Pick the views you wish to import by putting a tick in the box in front of them
3. Choose if you wish to place the drawings that you have selected on the current
layout, OR pick option 4, to place each drawing you are importing on a NEW page.
5. If you switch on “Use source Hierarchy”, the folders you have created will also be
brought in, allowing you to manage your pages more easily.
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You can import drawings from as many *.PLN files as you wish. You can import
from your PLN files more than once.
You can also import many other formats, including (but not limited to) most image
formats.
You can also easily copy and past from programs such as Microsoft Word, and Excel
into Plotmaker.
This will allow you to easily get your documentation together.
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3. Making changes to your layout book.
Once you have imported your views into Plotmaker, making changes is easy.
Before you start making changes, please read the following.
Your title block is kept on a “master layout” which you can get to in the navigator.
You can make changes to the master layout in there, but please remember that
those changes will end up on every page you print.
Most master layouts use something called “Autotext”. These are the fields on the
layout book that can be automatically filled out on every page by entering the details
into the book information.
If you have not filled out your book
information, these fields will say “field
empty”.
You can access the book information at
the top of the program, under “Book”
and then “Book information”.
Simply fill out the relevant information and each page will automatically be updated.
Moving your drawings around the page.
If you wish to move your drawing around the page, simply select it, right click and
choose “Drag” (or click on edit and choose drag, the shortcut key is CTRL+D).
Just like in ArchiCAD.
Moving your drawings to a different page.
Simply select the drawing and right click, choose CUT, then go to the page you want
to place it on and choose PASTE.
Changing the settings of a drawing.
There are various things you can change about the drawings you have imported.
1. The attached title
2. the border
3. the attributes
a. Pens and colours
b. Scale
c. Visible layers
To do so, simply select the drawing in question, and right click. Then click on
“Drawing settings” you can also get the same result by clicking on EDIT and
choosing “drawing settings”.
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As you can see in the
image, the drawing settings
dialogue is broken up into
several areas.
Identification allows you to
change the numbering.
Frame & Output colour
allows you to change the
frame around the outside
(the default grey lines do
not print).
Title allows you to change
the title that is
automatically attached. You
can also switch the title off.
Attribute update rules
allows you to control the
update rules of the layers,
pens and scale. You cannot
make changes to the
Attributes until you have
set this to CUSTOM and
have UNTICKED (That’s
right… UNTICKED) the
boxes of the attributes you
want to change.
Attributes allows you to
make changes. If you are
not able to make changes, read the paragraph before this one.
Changing to another master is easy. Simply
highlight the page (layout) you wish to
change in the Navigator. Then at the
bottom of the navigator you can change the
name if you wish, and also change to a
different master.
If you wish all new pages to go to a different
master, you will need to go into the
“masters” area in the navigator, right click
on the master you wish to make default,
and choose “Set as default”
(the same applies for title types)
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4. Printing your pages.
Printing your pages is done like most other programs. Click on File at the top of the
program, then click on Print.
You can choose a different printer under “Page Setup”.
You can also specify which pages you wish to print, as well as various other print
options.
For any further help with printing, please consult the help file. Click on “Help” and
then “Plotmaker help”.
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