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[fo_ka]

On a building plot I have designed 3 separate houses. Each house has 2 stories and a roof. The houses have different elevations, the first one ±0.00, the second +1.00 and the third +2.00.

I have designed each house in a different file and the building plot to another. Trying to place each building, in the right place and elevation on the building plot, using the “place module” command, I have to place each story of each building separately. Can a module place all the stories at once?

Thank you in advance

[TomWaltz]

No. The Archicad hotlink function can only link to one story at a time.

Someone had a workaround for that a while back (something about saving the file out as a .mod with all-story marquee or something like that), but I do not remember what it was.

[LaszloNagy]

Tom, here is the link to that trick you mentioned:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/M ... 8module%29

[Jay Garbarino]

Tom, here is the link to that trick you mentioned:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/M ... 8module%29

There are no Stupid Questions ...Right?

Well. I did not understand the relationships between the Skyscraper Module Files and the "Mother" File. Like in Step 3 & 4, which file are these step performed in.

Lets say that I have a Residence (File name "House") that contains the Following Stories:
3. Third Floor
2. Second Floor
1. First Floor
-1. Pony Walls
-2. Foundation
-3. Datum

I would like to Hotlink all the Stories Except Datum to an other File called "Site".

Could someone explain the steps.

Jay

[LaszloNagy]

Tom, here is the link to that trick you mentioned:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/M ... 8module%29

There are no Stupid Questions ...Right?

Well. I did not understand the relationships between the Skyscraper Module Files and the "Mother" File. Like in Step 3 & 4, which file are these step performed in.

Lets say that I have a Residence (File name "House") that contains the Following Stories:
3. Third Floor
2. Second Floor
1. First Floor
-1. Pony Walls
-2. Foundation
-3. Datum

I would like to Hotlink all the Stories Except Datum to an other File called "Site".

Could someone explain the steps.

Jay

I did this and actually there are 3 files.
A. The Mother File into which the Hotlinked Module is placed (a PLN file)
B. The Module File (a MOD file)
C. The original file that is the source of that building data (a PLN file)

Steps:
1. Take File C and save it as a module file. This step creates File B.
2. In File A, use the Merge command to merge into it File B.
3. Still in File A, draw a Thick Marquee around the merged building so all stories will be included.
4. Use the Save as Hotlinked Modules command to save the selection.
In the upcoming Dialog, you must check the Change to hotlink to the saved file checkbox and overwrite the module file (File B). Actually, you do not change the hotlink because there is no hotlink defined yet. This step will create the Hotlink for the module file, and since you have multiple Stories, it will create hotlinks for all stories.

I hope this helps.

[Thomas Holm]

In the upcoming Dialog, you must check the Change to hotlink to the saved file checkbox and overwrite the module file.

I take it you mean name the saved file as and overwrite file B?

Anyway, fantastic tip Lazlo!

Se also:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/M ... 8module%29

[LaszloNagy]

Yes, you need to overwrite File B (the MOD file). I edit it in my original post, too.

That is the same tip, Jay just asked me to elaborate it, which I did.

[Link]

This is a great method and is pretty much the same thing that Eric Batte came up with back in the Escribe days. He called it Circular hotlinking. To quote Eric:

This may not be obvious to everyone, but it's a little technique I presented to the office the other day: Hotlinking modules to themselves (circular hotlinking, I'm calling it).

We keep all project info. within a single PLN file and since we often have a different rotation on the site plan (on paper) we draw the site on the story below the floor plan (of the building). As some of you may have noticed, if you draw at one orientation and choose to rotate the PMK in PlotMaker you can end up with upside down text and other elements. It is possible to use hotlinked modules to link to another story of the same PLN file. So, if we go to the site story we can add a hotlinked module pointing to the same PLN file and place the building story on the site story and vice versa.

MODEL.PLN (story 1)->linked to->MODEL.PLN (story -1)

Now, an important thing to realize is that since you are linking to the same file you're working with the hotlink of the other story will not be recognized as updated until you save the file. So the process to update the hotlink is to save the file and then update the hotlink manually.

This allows us to draw within our drawing bounds for each plan and as we prefer the rotation to be for each project to best fit on the sheet in PlotMaker. It could also be used to link the roof story to the site or anything else you could think of.


Eric Batte

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It's just a different slant on the same idea, really. But it is under-utilized IMHO - it's really quite powerful!

Cheers,
Link.