How to keep your custom [eptar] Reinforcement settings by using Model View Option Combinations







The mission of the [eptar] Reinforcement add-on is to complement ArchiCAD with a function that is not included. The add-on enables users to design and build the virtual model of a buildings\' rebar structure. The lack of such a native ArchiCAD function is a language-independent problem. Therefore the structural plans have to be able to adapt to local requirements and standards. The [eptar] Reinforcement is designed to handle these different requirements quickly and flexibly.

Users of the add-on have various options to determine and modify the default settings of the Reinforcement objects. Thus, settings can be adapted to the preferences of the engineer and the local standards. These global Reinforcement settings can be found in the Documents/ Set Modell View/ Modell View Options… menu, in the Eptar Reinforcement Settings dialog. Each value, material and option that we change in this dialog, will have an effect on the default settings of the reinforcement objects. Global settings could be changed locally in the Object Settings dialog, but the initial settings will always match the ones in the Model View Options. But how do you keep these settings if you start a new plan.





ArchiCAD attributes and work environment can be saved into a template file (in TPL format). The template file will do the same with custom Reinforcement Settings; it will save and reserve the options we set globally. So our settings can be safe and ready for use whenever we start a new plan in ArchiCAD.





However, structural plans usually go hand in hand with building plans and as such, reinforcement users may have to work in a plan that they got form someone else, losing the opportunity to use their own template. We know that setting up your own custom Eptar Settings is not the most joyful task. Once you have done it, you do not want to spend time adjusting everything again, in every single project. Therefore we provide a clever little method with Modell Views that will let you transfer your once-set Reinforcement global settings into any plan.

We will use Model View Option Combinations to import the Reinforcement global settings into another plan. Global settings contain a lot of necessary information about the display, measures and weight of the rebar objects. Set values are stored in a Model View option combination called CUSTOM. This combination can either be saved with a new name or can override one of the existing combinations, by using the Save as... command. After this is done, the rest is easy: we export the combination with the Reinforcement global settings into an XML file, and import this XML into the other plan.





An important aspect for changing the weight values

Storing Reinforcement settings in the Modell View Option Combinations has got some consequences. Your custom settings for Reinforcement will only be right if you do use the Combination where you have saved your settings. Native ArchiCAD Combinations will display the Reinforcement object with the original Eptar settings. This would cause not only reinforcement bars to be displayed incorrectly, but also bar weights to be miscalculated, unless you pay close attention to the Model View Option Combination.

And the issue is even more complicated, because the already placed cutting lists will not change automatically with the switch of the Combination. Cutting list need to be recalculated and optimized, by opening and closing the Object Settings dialog (!), and giving out the Cutting list Placement command from the Reinforcement menu. Both steps are essential.



The special care that is needed when you modify weight values could be redeemed with a little trick. If you set the Reinforcement global settings but do not touch the rest of the Model View options, you can easily link your custom reinforcement settings to the existing Model View Option Combinations, by overwriting them. You can export and later import these into the building plan you got, in order to use your own custom Reinforcement Settings. This way, the settings and values will be correct, no matter which Combination you use.

So you want to see how this method works and try [eptar] Reinforcement yourself? Go to the download page and try the DEMO version of [eptar] Reinforcement!

If you want to read more about [eptar] Reinforcement, follow this link:

[eptar] Reinforcement

[eptar] Reinforcement solution


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