sts 8.0 user guide

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The Standardized Template System For ArchiCADCopyright 2003 Eric Batte

END-USER SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT

GRANT OF LICENSE.Subject to your compliance with the terms and conditions contained in this End-User Software License Agreement("Agreement"), Eric Batte ("Supplier") grants to you a royalty-free, non-exclusive, non-transferable license (the"License") to use its accompanying software and any accompanying electronic documentation (collectively, the"Software"), as defined in Appendix 1, solely for your own lawful use. The Software may be installed only on (a)computers controlled by you, or (b) one network server allowing only you and other persons who have agreedto the terms and conditions of this Agreement to access the Software. Installation of the Software on your com-puter acknowledges your acceptance of this Agreement.

RESTRICTION ON COPYING.

You may not copy the Software or permit others to copy the Software, except for backup or archival purposes.Any such copy(ies) made by you shall be subject to this Agreement and shall contain all of Supplier's notices re-

garding copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights as contained in the Software originally provided to you.

LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY.

Supplier, its affiliates, and any licensors, agents, suppliers and distributors thereof, including without limitation anycontent providers, disclaim all liability for, and under no circumstances shall be liable to you or any other personor entity for, actual or alleged damages of any kind or character (including without limitation special, indirect, puni-tive or consequential damages), whether in contract, tort or otherwise, including but not limited to, loss of good-will, computer failure or malfunction, loss of data, loss of profit, loss of use, stoppage or interruption of business,breach of any trademarks, trade names, trade secrets, copyrights or other proprietary rights of any third parties,or any other commercial damages or losses of any kind, arising out of or relating to the use or performance ornon-performance of the Software and/or related products and services (including, without limitation, the retrievaland downloading of content or other information by the Software or any decision made or action taken by you inreliance thereon), whether or not foreseeable and even if Supplier is advised of the possibility of such damages.

TRADEMARKS

ArchiCAD, PlotMaker, and GDL are registered trademarks of Graphisoft R&D Rt. All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective owners.


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PrefaceAlthough it is nearly impossible to create a system of CAD standards that will fit into all architectural firms' dailypractice without modification, these templates incorporate recognized graphic standards and which can be easilyadopted into any practice. Both ArchiCAD & PlotMaker have been customized & modified so that you and yourfirm can easily & immediately begin to create a complete set of construction documents using the tools you are

familiar with. They are designed as a guide onto which you can build a structured method of using the ArchiCAD& PlotMaker for maximum productivity and efficiency.

You may further modify these template to suit your needs, but keep in mind that they are designed to work as asystem; complete and viable in daily practice. Be sure to read this manual fully before making modifications so thatyou will have an understanding of what has been setup in the templates and what will be affected.

This manual assumes that you have a basic working knowledge and understanding of ArchiCAD 8 r1/v1 or higherand PlotMaker 3 r1/v1 or higher. Please consult your ArchiCAD and PlotMaker documentation for general infor-mation regarding the operation of the software.

I hope that this system can become a regular part of your practice and help you create your construction docu-ments more efficiently and profitably.

Enjoy!


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Table of Contents

Chapter 1................................................................................................................................................................................................Installa

Chapter 2..............................................................................................................................................................................New Project Setu

Chapter 3..................................................................................................................................................................................ArchiCAD Usa

Chapter 4...................................................................................................................................................................................PlotMaker Usa

Chapter 5........................................................................................................................................................................................Customizati

Chapter 6..............................................................................................................................................................DWG Exporting/Importing


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These files are used to create new files based uponthe template, and are your starting point for all newmodels and sheet layouts. You will use these file in lieuof selecting File\New from the ArchiCAD menu. Al-ways start a new file by using a templatefile so that your customized settings will be present.Creating a New file may not retain the settings you de-sire since it will create a file with the settings of the lastfile that was opened.

I can't stress this enough! If you start a new Archi-CAD project file by using File\New\Use Latest Settings you will not have all of the View Sets or HotlinkedPMKs that have been established in the template file.These are integral to the system and are necessary forit to work. It can be especially disastrous if you haveopened a DWG file from a consultant in ArchiCADand followed it by starting a new file by clickingFile\New\Use Latest Settings. ArchiCAD uses the set-tings (layers, colors, pen weights, etc.) of the last fileopened when creating a new file and this will almostnever be how you want to start a new project.

If you have other templates such as Microsoft Word

or Excel templates that you use for specifications,faxes, etc. you may want to place them here as well.

Libraries

The SRL 8.lib folder contains the library parts includedwith the template. You should place this folder in the

Office ArchiCAD Library folder as outlined below.It's recommended that you load 3 libraries for anygiven project:

The first library is the stock library that comes withArchiCAD - typically found in:

C:\Program Files\ArchiCAD 8\ArchiCAD Library 8

Macintosh HD:Applications:ArchiCAD 8 Folder:ArchiCAD Library

For the second library create a folder called [officename] ArchiCAD Library on your local drive or fileserver. In it place all library folders that are commonlyused, including those you may have purchased from3rd party developers. This includes the SRL 8.LIBfolderas mentioned in the previous section.

The third library is the project specific library called[project name].LIB located as a subfolder of your pro-

ject directory. This folder is included in the folderstructure of the STS Template folder, but is empty un-til you create any custom, project specific objects toplace in it. Using this folder for project specific objectswill help keep your main libraries uncluttered and re-duce your library load times.

Technical Support and Information

Is available via the Internet. Please visit:www.getstandardized.com

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Chapter 2New Project Setup

How to utilize the STS for your own projects...

Folder Structure & File organizationIncluded with the template system is a sample folderstructure that you can use to organize your projects.Below is a figure that gives a brief explanation of thecontents of each folder.

SRL 8.LIB - Library parts included with this template.Place into office library folder

STS 8 - Primary template folder. Place on server onconvenient location.

CAD - All CAD documents for current project

DWG

Export -DWG files exported fromthe current project

Import -DWG files imported intothe current project

Graphics -Scans, client logos, non-CAD illus-trations, etc.

Layouts -PlotMaker Layouts for current project

Modules - ArchiCAD Modules used in cur-rent project

PDFs - Plot files for current project

Documents - Letters, correspondence, faxes,specifications, etc.

Photos - Photographs of existing conditions,construction, completed project, etc.

Presentation - Presentation documents

Animations - Animations of model( mov,, .avi, etc.)

Renderings - Rendered images of model

Templates - Base template files for creatingnew documents

[Project #].LIB - Project specific library parts

The most commonly used file types have folders cre-ated for them, but you may add or remove them asnecessary. These folders are empty right now, but that

will change when we get into Project Setup. For now,recognize that they are here to provide a structuredmethod for organizing your files so they are easy tolocate when you need them.

The Templates folder contains the base template filesfor all ArchiCAD and PlotMaker drawings. See expla-nation in the following section.

The [Project #].LIB folder is here for projectspecific/custom library parts. These are objects that arecreated solely for use in this project. You don't wantto place these types of objects in your main Archi-CAD library for several reasons:

Future installations or upgrades of ArchiCADmay overwrite your custom objects.

The objects are project specific there is noneed to have them in a central library that getsloaded in every model (for other projects).This only increases your library loading timeunnecessarily.

How to start a new job using the STS.

Starting a new project is relatively painless, but doesrequire a little setup to get it right. The example de-scribed below assumes you are using the unmodifiedfolder structure. If you have made modifications pro-ceed as necessary using this as a guide. Follow thesteps outlined below:

Create a Project Folder:

Copy the entire "STS 8" folder andsubfolder structure to the desired lo-cation on your local hard drive or fileserver.

Rename the folder to your job nameor number. This is now your working

project folder. All further instructionsbelow pertain to this folder.

Create a new ArchiCAD project file

Choose File->New->Use a Template.Select the [Project Name].tpl file lo-cated in the STS 8\Templates folder.

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Save this file immediately into [ProjectName] Folder as [Project Name].PLN

Publish PMKS

Note that there are several bugs inArchiCAD 8 r1/v1 that prevent linking directlyto a PLN file from working properly. At thetime this was written Graphisoft is was in theprocess of fixing the bugs and this very usefulfunctionality should be available in r2/v2. There-fore, I recommend using PMK files as in previ-ous versions and the template files are setupfor Publishing to PMKs.

Choose Publish from the Navigatormenu and then select PlotMaker Viewsfrom the View Set menu.

Change the Publishing Options to savethe files to your project folders PMKsubfolder

Publish the entire set. This will createPMKs of all drawings in the view set toyour project folder.

Create a new PlotMaker Layout Book

Since PlotMaker does not use template files(so to speak) as ArchiCAD does, you mustcopy the [Project Name].lbk file into you pro-

ject folder and rename it appropriately.

Relink Drawings

Since the Standardized Template System isgeared towards creating construction docu-ments the default template folder structurecontains the full size construction documentsheet layouts in the layout book. Many of thelayouts in the book contain drawings that havebeen preinserted. In order to display your content instead of the default you must relink all drawing to your [Project Name].pln file.

Open your [Project Name].lbk in PlotMaker andchoose Drawing Usage from the Navigator menu.

Next select all drawings in the list and click the Read all from button at the bottom.

Now choose the path to the PMK subfolder of yourproject folder file in your current project folder. Thisreplaces the dummy drawings that have been prein-serted in the layout book to be read from your pro-

ject folder, effectively replacing the content with your

new project.

Teamwork

If you are utilizing the Teamwork functionality of Ar-chiCAD the process is the same. You must setup thePLN file per the instructions above prior to sharingthe file and you must link the drawings in PlotMaker tothe shared PLP file instead of the PLN file.

Note that Teamwork creates several auxiliary files thatare required to be in the same folder as the PLP.

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These files must be copied along with the PLP into thenew phase folder.

Conclusion

You are now complete with project setup and can be-gin working directly with the files youve created to

build your model.The template files are now linked so that at any timeyou can publish PMKs and the current drawings will berelfected in the layout book and ready for printing.

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Chapter 3ArchiCAD Usage

A complete description of the STS Template file...

There have been extensive customizations made in thetemplate file to help organize your model & drawingsin respect to your construction documents. This sec-tion will help you understand the structure of the tem-plate file and how to use it.

Please pay close attention to the naming conventionsof the existing stories, layers, fills, linetypes, Layoutsand PMK's and follow this convention when creatingnew ones to include in your customized version of this template.

Stories

You will see that there are several stories setup. Eachhas been named to describe it's contents.

Sections & Elevations

There are 4 exterior elevations, 2 building sections,and 1 dummy interior elevation setup in the template

as shown. Each of the markers has been setup prop-erly and each drawing window contains a drawing titlebar and a layout aid to define the drawing extents andcoordinate with the layout grid on the PlotMaker Mas-ter Sheets.

Layer Combinations

Each Layer Combination name is composed of a prefix(the drawing type) and a suffix (the specific drawing) asfollows.

View Sets

Each View Set name is composed of a prefix (thedrawing type) and a suffix (the specific drawing). ViewSet names are identical to the layer combinationsnames (when possible) for clarity, but View Sets alsostore display settings & scale.

Note that ArchiCAD saves the zoom levelby default when new views are created, but I havechoosen not to save the zoom level on any views con-tained in the template. This helps when switching viewswhile working since the zoom level will not keep

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changing. This makes for a much more efficient work-flow, so please be sure to take notice when addingyour own views in your project files. There are timeswhen it may be desireable to save the zoom levelwhen making drawing views for exporting to DWG,etc.

Layers

Layers are logically named based on existing nationalstandards. Below is a list showing each layer and it'scontents. Layer names follow a modified version of the AIA naming convention:

[discipline]-[major group]-[minor group]-[status].sts

Please refer to the CAD Layer Guidelines, Second Edition published by the American Institute of Architects and/orthe document About Layer Standards included withyour ArchiCAD installation & found in:

ArchiCAD 8 Folder\DXF-DWG LayerStandards\About Layer Standards.htm

A - A N N O - D I M S - D E M O Demolition Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - D E T L Detail drawing dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - E L E V Elevation dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - F I N Finish Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - F L R Floor Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - F L R - E N L G Enlarged Floor Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - P O W R Power Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - R C P Reflected Ceiling Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - R O O F Roof Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - S E C T Section drawing dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - S I T E Site Plan dimensions

A - A N N O - D I M S - S I T E - D E M O Demolition Site Plan di-mensions

A - A N N O - L E G N - D E M O Demolition Plan Legend & Sched-ules

A - A N N O - L E G N - F I N Finish Plan Legend & Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - F L R Floor Plan Legend & Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - F U R N Furniture Plan Legend & Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - P O W R Power Plan legends & schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - R C P Reflected Ceiling Plan Legend &Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - R O O F Roof Plan Legend & Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - S C H E D Legend & Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - S I T E Site Plan Legend & Schedules

A - A N N O - L E G N - S I T E - D E M O Demolition Site PlanLegend & Schedules

A - A N N O - N O T E - D E M O Demolition Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - D E T L Detail drawing notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - E L E V Elevation drawing notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - F I N Finish Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - F L R Floor Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - F L R - E N L G Enlarged Floor Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - F U R N Furniture Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - P O W R Power Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - R C P Reflected Ceiling Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - R O O F Roof Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - S C H E D Schedule sheet notes

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A - A N N O - N O T E - S E C T Section drawing notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - S I T E Site Plan notes

A - A N N O - N O T E - S I T E - D E M O Demolition Site Plannotes

A - A N N O - N P LT Non-plotting layer-construction lines, etc.

A - A N N O - N P LT- V I E W N o n - p l o t t i n glayerSection/Elevation markers

A - A N N O - R E V S Revision annotation

A - A N N O - T T L B Title block

A - A N N O - T T L B - D E M O Demolition Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - D E T L Detail drawing titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - E L E V Elevation drawing titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - F I N Finish Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - F L R Floor Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - F L R - E N L G Enlarged Floor Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - F U R N Furniture Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - P O W R Power Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - R C P Reflected Ciling Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - R O O F Roof Plan titleblock

A - A N N O - T T L B - S C H E D Schedule Sheet title block

A - A N N O - T T L B - S E C T Section drawing title block

A - A N N O - T T L B - S I T E Site Plan title block

A - A R E A Area calculations

A - C L N G Ceilings

A - C L N G - G R I D Ceiling grids

A - C L N G - PAT T Ceiling fills

A - C O L S Columns

A - D E T L Detail drawing elements

A - D E T L - PAT T Detail drawing fills

A - D O O R - I D E N Door identification tags

A - E L E V Interior & exterior elevation drawing elements

A - E L E V- I D E N Elevation identification tags

A - E L E V- PAT T Elevation fills

A - E Q P M Equipment

A - F I N - PAT T Finish Plan fills

A - F L O R - E V T R Elevators

A - F L O R - I D E N Room names & numbers

A - F L O R - O V H D Overhead items

A - F L O R - PAT T Floor Plan fills

A - F L O R - P F I X Plumbing fixtures

A - F L O R - S I G N Signage

A - F L O R - S P C L Specialties & miscellaneous items

A - F L O R - S T R S Stairs

A - F L O R - T P T N Toilet partitions

A - F L O R - W D W K Millwork

A - F U R N Furniture

A - F U R N - PAT T Furniture Plan fills

A - G L A Z - I D E N Window identification tags

A - L I T E Light fixtures

A - M I S C - 3 D Miscellaneous 3D elements

A - P K N G - C U R B Parking curbs

A - P K N G - I S L D Parking islands

A - P K N G - S T R P Parking stripes

A - P L N T Landscaping

A - P O W R Power plan elements

A - P R O P Property lines

A - P R O P - E S M T Easements

A - R O O FRoof elements

A - R O O F - E L E V Roof elements (for elevation view)

A - R O O F - PAT T Roof Plan fills

A - S E C T Section drawing elements

A - S E C T- I D E N Section identification tags

A - S E C T- PAT T Section fills

A - S I T E - A R E A Site area

A - S I T E - L I T E Site lighting

A - T O P O - E X S T Existing topography

A - T O P O - N E W New topography

A - WA L L - D E M O Walls to be demolished

A - WA L L - E X T R Exterior walls

A - WA L L - F U L L Full height walls,

A - WA L L - P R H T Partial height walls

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S - B E A M S Structural Beams

S - C O L S Structural columns

S - G R I D Structural grid

S - S L A B Structural Slabs

X - G D L Layer for creating GDL objects

X - M O D U L E S For insertion of ArchiCAD hotlinked modules

X - R D M E ReadMe layer (non-plotting)

It is also important to note that the ArchiCAD Prefer-ence to "Hide locked layers in pop-up palettes" hasbeen enabled. This is a huge productivity enhancer.This option will hide any layers that are locked fromyour layer lists except in the Layer Settings Dialog. Youwill always be able to view all layers there.

So, whenever you select any View Set you will notice avery short layer list in the Info Box or any other dialog

such as any tool settings dialog. All layers that are notvisible or have the need to be visible have been lockedin each layer combination referenced by the View Sets.This will prevent unnecessary scrolling through the en-tire layer list and increases productivity by only showingthe user the layers that are available to draw on forany given View Set! Remember that if this is not toyour liking you may disable this option inOptions\Preferences\Miscellaneous, but I have found itto be very useful.

Don't be intimidated by the number of layers shown inthe list. The majority of the layers is specifically for no-tation and is setup for individual drawings. You may al-ways add or subtract layers as you wish. Refer to theAppendix for the complete list of layers and descrip-tions.

Pens & Colors

The Pens & Colors table is setup as shown below, aunique way that is a more logical way to work withpens & colors when building a 3D model simultane-ously with 2D drawings. Each element type (or groupsof element types) in ArchiCAD is assigned a group of color gradients shown in the Pens & Colors table. Eachgradient consists of 10. Pens in columns 1-6 print asblack in PlotMaker with the darkest gradient being thethickest pen and the lightest gradient being the thinnestpen. Pens in columns 8-10 print gray (screened) againwith the pen thickness being represented by the colorgradient.

Although each tool is already setup in the template touse the color gradient it has been assigned, use the ta-ble below to understand the assignments and the ele-ment groupings. The logic behind this method of usingpens & colors is this:

When drawing/modeling elements types are assigned acolor gradient. This applies to both 2D & 3D settingsof the tool and to multiple pens used within one tool.

Element types are thereby visually identified by their

color whether in plan, section, elevation, or 3D. Theirrespective pen weight is also visually identifiable by thegradient used. For example, columns may be red butto achieve proper depth in an elevation, you may un-link the elevation and change columns in the fore-ground to a darker red while columns in the back-ground are a lighter red.

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Each tool or group of tools is organized by color sothat the object type is visually identified onscreen. Re-fer to the chart below for the proper color gradientto use with each tool. Also note that in the templatefile each tool is already setup with the proper colorgradient, so when you start drawing you only need tochange the pen color by saturation to vary the weightof the pen.

In the Pens & Colors dialog (Figure 2) you can see thatonly the colors to be used in your model are shown.

Note that the first row (pens 1-10) and the grayscalepens (91-100) have been left in the default state (asoriginally installed) for compatibility with existing files. Itis also likely that you are currently using pens 1-10 inyour existing drawings. This allows you to modify thefirst row of pens to match your current pen table sothat you may use your existing details or moduleswithout modification. In typical practice, though, youwill prefer to construct new elements using the pentable described here and shown in Figure 1.

All other pens colored gray indicate unused or usercustomizable pens. If you xref a DWG file into yourmodel and all pens appear as gray, for instance, this isbecause the pen numbers used in the DWG file arethose pens that are gray in your Pens & colors settings.

This method is probably quite different from the wayyou have worked in the past, but I suggest that you tryit on a project so you can recognize it's strengths. If you prefer your previous method of using Pens &

Colors you can always merge your previous pen tableinto the STS template using the Attribute Manager inArchiCAD.

Line types

The table below lists the included line types. Each linetype name begins with the prefix STS to identify it as aline type originating in this template.

STS Center Line

STS Hidden (Below)

STS Dashed (Above)

STS DemolitionSTS Property

STS Contract Limit

STS Dot

STS 1 Hr. Fire Resistive



STS Traffic Buttons

STS Revision Cloud

STS SketchSTS Fence Line

Fill Types

The following fills have been added. Each fill name be-gins with the prefix STS to identify it as a fill originating

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in this template.

STS Concrete, lightweight

STS Cast stone

STS Brick, Flemish Bond Elev

STS Brick, Running Bond Elev

STS Stone, Cut

STS Earthwork, Compacted Fill

STS Earthwork, Rock

STS Earthwork, Undisturbed

STS Grout

STS Gypsum Board

STS Insulation, Rigid

STS Insulation, Rigid-000

STS Marble

STS Oriented Strand Board

STS Particleboard

STS Plaster

STS Riprap

STS Concrete

STS Stone, Rubble

STS Stone, Squared Elev

STS Terrazzo Finish

STS Wood Flooring

STS Wood, Hardboard

STS Wood, Shingles Elev

Preferences

Review each page of the Preferences dialog in the STSTemplate file prior to first use to see what has beensetup and confirm they meet your needs. Note thatthe template is setup to use units and dimensioningpreferences commonly used in U.S. architectural prac-tice for floor plans and details. When creating your site

plan you will need to set the units and dimension pref-erences to suit.

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Chapter 4PlotMaker Usage

As mentioned previously, there is a template layoutbook. Blank layouts are located in the Templates sub-

set (found in Navigator) and are named to describe thepage size of the specific layout. These layouts are eachsheet of the construction document set which followthe naming convention as shown in the image below.

Please note that the layouts are setup for architecturaldrawings for a typical two-story building. They do notinclude Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, orStructural Engineering layouts, but you may alter thesheet naming sequence and add or subtract layout filesas needed to meet your requirements. The sheetnames are again designed to conform to current na-tional standards. Please refer to the CAD LayerGuidelines published by the AIA for further informa-

tion regarding sheet-naming conventions.Layouts

Master Sheets

Master sheets for nearly every page size are inlcuded.Each is setup for the correct page size and has a sheetborder and title block with lots of autotext entries init. You may, of course want to customize the titleblock area to suit your proactice, but these examplesare provided to illustrate the usage of Master Layoutsand autotext and they are completely usable as-is if you

desire.

Each layout will automatically name and number itself based upon the layout name and nnumber as desig-nated in Navigator.

Page Setup

Youll also see a layout grid for drawing placement aid

on each master layout. These are drawn with a whitepen color so they will not print, but they do display onlayouts (other than the masters) since the elements onMaster layouts have been set to display as pink.

The layout grid also matches the predefined sizes usedin the STS Page Layout.GSMobject included in the SRL8.LIB folder and in the STS Template.PLN file. Thefollowing sction entitled "Adding PMK's to a Layout"explains the usage of the layout guidelines.

There are three layer combinations included with eachlayout which control layer visibility to aid in drawingplacement and printing:

Adding PMK's to a LayoutAs mentioned previously, many of the PMK's you willneed to assemble a set of construction documents arealready created and these Hotlinked PMK's are placedinto the provided Layout files, so much of the work has been done, but you will obviously need to placeadditional drawings to make your set complete.

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Drawing placement has been made easy with the useof the STS Page Layout.gsm object. If your drawingsare drawn within the confines of the grid of cells de-fined by the object, this becomes the extent of thedrawing when it is placed into a Layout.

Try placing an existing PMK file provided with the tem-

plate into a layout. You will notice that it is insertedwith the lower left corner as the origin and the ex-tents of the placement window matches the grid of cells drawn in ArchiCAD. These cells are designed toexactly match the grid of cells you see in your Plot-Maker Layouts and serves as guidelines for drawingplacement and cropping.

Place the drawing by snapping your cursor to thelower left corner of one of the cells visible in Plot-Maker and clicking. If you need to crop the drawingyou may now drag any edge or corner to snap to anyedge or corner of the visible cells in PlotMaker.

You are now ready to print or plot the layout. I rec-ommend creating PDF files when printing. This isdone in Windows using the Amyuni PDF drive inl-cuded with ArchiCAD 8 and in Mac OS X by using thenative ability to create PDFs when printing. Place PDFfiles you create in the [Project Name]Folder\CAD\PDFs folder. You may even want to cre-ate further subfolders to organize each print sessionby issue date to retain record copies of each print ses-sion.

Pens & Colors

Pens & Colors in PlotMaker are set to match theweights defined in ArchiCAD. Nearly all pens are setto print black except those pens in columns 8-10 andpens 91-100 which print in shades of gray (see All Pens& Colors dialog below). Refer to the pen weightsshown in for ArchiCAD in chapter 4. It is importantto note that each PlotMaker layout included with theSTS for ArchiCAD has the option selected to use"uniform pens & colors." This setting is found inOptions\Preferences\Miscellaneous and what it does ismake all PMK's inserted into the layout use the samepen settings defined in All Pens & Colors (see imagebelow).

This simplifies adding new PMK's to your layouts be-cause you need not pay attention to the Pens & Col-ors for each PMK individually. If you have drawn themwith the correct pens in ArchiCAD, they will print inthe desired color and weight shown here.

What if you have a drawing that needs to use

different pen settings like a presentation draw-ing?

If this is the case disable the "uniform pens & colors"setting in Options\Preferences\Miscellaneous and youwill have individual control over each PMK.

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Chapter 6DWG Exporting/Importing

DWG translator file for ArchiCAD 8.0A customized STS DWG translator.xml file has beenincluded which has some slight modifications tostreamline data exchange with others.

Please reveiw the options that have been setup in thetranslator and make any customizations you need towork with your consultants as necessary.

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