ABS 2005 Duct Hatch Problems

[Anonymous]

Thank you for including duct hatch capabilities in this release. It was a good effort but it falls quite short of expectation. Attached are two images. The first is from ABS 2005 showing some of the display problems. The second is what I would like the software to be able to do. A quick rundown of the problems: 1. Duct hatch should trim around labels. 2. Duct hatch of lower ducts should break so hatches of separate ducts won't overlap. 3. The hatch on risers/drops and fittings is offset from the rest of the duct hatch. 4. Notice the green duct labeled "duct at 20'-0"". The drop towards the left side of the duct shows duct hatch for the duct as well as the riser, resulting in a pattern twice as dense as the rest of the duct. 5. The display order of the hatch is set to be above the duct it is part of. With solid hatch, it covers the edges of the duct and makes it hard to read. It also won't print correctly unless "lines merge" is checked in printing preferences. 6. There also seems to be a problem with duct hatching and .STB's (although I am still testing this, I think it should still be mentioned). I have set the display property/style overrides for duct hatch two different ways. A. I made a "duct hatch" layer, assigned color, lineweight, plot style, etc. and assigned it to the hatch layer (under layer/color/linetype). I then assigned the other options to be bylayer. B. I left the layer set to the default "0". I then changed the color, linetype, lineweight, ltscale, and plot style overrides. Method A resulted in the hatch taking on the ductwork properties both onscreen and when plotted. Method B resulted in the duct looking correct on screen, but when plotted, it ignored the override settings and the hatch took on the properties of the ductwork. So in both instances, the plot showed ductwork and hatch with the same lineweight. And the solid hatch I set to be 30% screened, came out as black. Is there another way to accomplish this?

[Anonymous]

Duct hatch is NOT compatible with stb style plotting. Below is the answer I got from subscription online help: "I heard back from our product development organization and they confirmed that the problem you have encountered is a limitation within the current release of Building Systems. Accordingly, this issue has been logged with our product development team and they will be investigating a resolution to this problem. Unfortunately this does not leave us without a solution to this problem. I did some research and came up with two potential work-arounds: 1. When you are ready to plot, use the Export to AutoCAD routine to reduce all Building Systems (and Arch Desktop) objects to basic AutoCAD entities and then adjust the lineweights as necessary. 2. Use the new Horizontal 2D Elevation routine to generate a 2D elevation of your plan view, which you can then modify to produce the desired plotted results. I understand that both of these options would be difficult to implement but they should work in the absence of a fix for this problem." Neither of these solutions are viable. Please address this in future releases. "Andrew" wrote in message news:409808f9_1@newsprd01... > Thank you for including duct hatch capabilities in this release. It was a > good effort but it falls quite short of expectation. Attached are two > images. The first is from ABS 2005 showing some of the display problems. > The second is what I would like the software to be able to do. > > A quick rundown of the problems: > 1. Duct hatch should trim around labels. > 2. Duct hatch of lower ducts should break so hatches of separate ducts > won't overlap. > 3. The hatch on risers/drops and fittings is offset from the rest of the > duct hatch. > 4. Notice the green duct labeled "duct at 20'-0"". The drop towards the > left side of the duct shows duct hatch for the duct as well as the riser, > resulting in a pattern twice as dense as the rest of the duct. > 5. The display order of the hatch is set to be above the duct it is part > of. With solid hatch, it covers the edges of the duct and makes it hard to > read. It also won't print correctly unless "lines merge" is checked in > printing preferences. > 6. There also seems to be a problem with duct hatching and .STB's (although > I am still testing this, I think it should still be mentioned). I have set > the display property/style overrides for duct hatch two different ways. > A. I made a "duct hatch" layer, assigned color, lineweight, plot style, > etc. and assigned it to the hatch layer (under layer/color/linetype). I > then assigned the other options to be bylayer. > B. I left the layer set to the default "0". I then changed the color, > linetype, lineweight, ltscale, and plot style overrides. > > Method A resulted in the hatch taking on the ductwork properties both > onscreen and when plotted. Method B resulted in the duct looking correct on > screen, but when plotted, it ignored the override settings and the hatch > took on the properties of the ductwork. So in both instances, the plot > showed ductwork and hatch with the same lineweight. And the solid hatch I > set to be 30% screened, came out as black. Is there another way to > accomplish this? > > >

[Anonymous]

Thank you for fixing the duct hatch lineweight issues with SP2. The duct hatch scale could have an option for "Drawing Scale". For example, our return hatch is a line pattern, 45d angle, with a scale of 96 for 1/8" drawings. For 1/4" drawings we change the scale to 48. If we could tie this to the drawing scale, it would save setup time. You could also go a step farther and allow equations. For exhaust duct we use the dot hatch pattern with a scale of 60 for 1/8" and 30 for 1/4". If we could put in (drawing scale*.625) it would also be a time saver. "Andrew" wrote in message news:40c73d60$1_2@newsprd01... > Duct hatch is NOT compatible with stb style plotting. Below is the answer > I > got from subscription online help: > > "I heard back from our product development organization and they confirmed > that the problem you have encountered is a limitation within the current > release of Building Systems. Accordingly, this issue has been logged with > our product development team and they will be investigating a resolution > to > this problem. > > Unfortunately this does not leave us without a solution to this problem. > I > did some research and came up with two potential work-arounds: > > 1. When you are ready to plot, use the Export to AutoCAD routine to reduce > all Building Systems (and Arch Desktop) objects to basic AutoCAD entities > and then adjust the lineweights as necessary. > > 2. Use the new Horizontal 2D Elevation routine to generate a 2D elevation > of > your plan view, which you can then modify to produce the desired plotted > results. > > I understand that both of these options would be difficult to implement > but > they should work in the absence of a fix for this problem." > > Neither of these solutions are viable. > > Please address this in future releases. > > > > > "Andrew" wrote in message news:409808f9_1@newsprd01... >> Thank you for including duct hatch capabilities in this release. It was >> a >> good effort but it falls quite short of expectation. Attached are two >> images. The first is from ABS 2005 showing some of the display problems. >> The second is what I would like the software to be able to do. >> >> A quick rundown of the problems: >> 1. Duct hatch should trim around labels. >> 2. Duct hatch of lower ducts should break so hatches of separate ducts >> won't overlap. >> 3. The hatch on risers/drops and fittings is offset from the rest of the >> duct hatch. >> 4. Notice the green duct labeled "duct at 20'-0"". The drop towards the >> left side of the duct shows duct hatch for the duct as well as the riser, >> resulting in a pattern twice as dense as the rest of the duct. >> 5. The display order of the hatch is set to be above the duct it is part >> of. With solid hatch, it covers the edges of the duct and makes it hard > to >> read. It also won't print correctly unless "lines merge" is checked in >> printing preferences. >> 6. There also seems to be a problem with duct hatching and .STB's > (although >> I am still testing this, I think it should still be mentioned). I have > set >> the display property/style overrides for duct hatch two different ways. >> A. I made a "duct hatch" layer, assigned color, lineweight, plot style, >> etc. and assigned it to the hatch layer (under layer/color/linetype). I >> then assigned the other options to be bylayer. >> B. I left the layer set to the default "0". I then changed the color, >> linetype, lineweight, ltscale, and plot style overrides. >> >> Method A resulted in the hatch taking on the ductwork properties both >> onscreen and when plotted. Method B resulted in the duct looking correct > on >> screen, but when plotted, it ignored the override settings and the hatch >> took on the properties of the ductwork. So in both instances, the plot >> showed ductwork and hatch with the same lineweight. And the solid hatch >> I >> set to be 30% screened, came out as black. Is there another way to >> accomplish this? >> >> >> > >