The Global Archicad Community

[LGreen]

Currently users have to select the correct Pen Set & Layer Combination before publishing. It would be nice if this could be saved within the Publisher sets itself, similar to views, making publishing easier and more consistent.

The Pens are required for drawing titles, revision history object, drawing boarders and other elements placed on the layout itself. Our drawings have started becoming multi-coloured, as working pens often have different colours for different thicknesses.

The Layer combinations are primarily for publishing DWGs. Again relying on the user to remember to change to the correct layer combination before publishing isn't fool proof.

It would be nice just to open the DWG publisher set knowing the title block layers had been turned off and the pen sets were going to print correctly.

[LaszloNagy]

I am not sure about this wish.
You can create as many Views as you want, each with its own settings.
You can create as many Layouts as you want, place Drawings on them, each with its own settings.
You can create as many Publisher Sets as you want.

I think this current system is totally capable of achieving the goals you describe above.

[LGreen]

Hi Laszlo, looking back I didn't explain myself very well.

When looking at a layout, the "view settings" along the bottom of the screen are all greyed out, except for layer combinations and pen sets. These two options still affect how the layout appears when published. Yet, as far as I know, there is no way to save these options.

The attached image is from the OOTB template with a typical drawing title. The pens used for the drawing itself are controlled via the view and drawing settings. That part is all good. However the pen set used for the drawing title and any other elements placed on the layouts is whatever the user has selected at the time of publishing. In the example the drawing title will be published as either black text with orange and blue lines or as grey text with a green background fill, all depending on what pen set is selected at the time of publishing. The layer combinations is a similar issue.

What I was suggesting was that the Publishing Set also include the Layer Combination and Pen Set to be used when publishing the layouts. This of course wouldn't affect any views that were placed in the publisher set.

All things considered, this is a very minor wish, but also hopefully not something that would be too difficult to include.

[DGSketcher]

I would agree that the layout pen set should be locked down in the publishing set. I have had the frustration of publishing only to realise on checking the output that the layout pen set has changed unexpectedly on several occasions. Whilst not a disaster it does appear a little inconsistent to lock down the pens in view settings but not the layouts or publishing set. Applying it to the publisher set makes most sense but there may be others who wish to have it applied to individual layouts?

[LaszloNagy]

Hi guys,

I have checked this again and found that the Layout's Layer Combination and Pen Set is a global setting that affects the whole Layout Book (2D elements drawn/placed on the Layout/Master Layout, such as Drawing Title objects, but not the contents of Drawings placed on Layouts) and all Publisher Sets generated from Layouts.
If you go to any Layout and change the Layer Combination or the Pen Set in the Quick Options Bar at the bottom, the change will apply to all Layouts you activate afterwards.

So I think the only thing you need to do is to make sure you have the Layer Combination and Pen Set set right before publishing something.

Anyway, I will forward the wish to GRAPHISOFT for their consideration.

[LGreen]

So I think the only thing you need to do is to make sure you have the Layer Combination and Pen Set set right before publishing something.

Correct. Call me cynical, but I just don't trust our users (or me) to remember to do that. If it's something we can save as part of the publisher set then it's one less thing to worry about.

Thanks for forwarding it on.

[runxel]

Correct. Call me cynical, but I just don't trust our users (or me) to remember to do that. If it's something we can save as part of the publisher set then it's one less thing to worry about.

That is so much on point.

[Erwin Edel]

Very essential, to not have any issues, we do not put anything other than text with a black pen (black in all pen sets) directly on layouts and have everything on ArchiCAD layer so it is allways visible in layouts. This limits the workflow, since we are making a lot of worksheets to place on layouts because we can actually control what is saved from views, in terms of settings.

Having the option to link pen sets and layer combinations and what not to layouts somehow, would be great. Publisher settings would make the most sense, since I'm sure most user will use publisher to print, make PDF, DWG etc of their layout sheets.