Acquired Coordinates Not Affecting Separate Alignment

[jeremy_taylor]

It's entirely possible I am missing the intention of acquire/publish. My end goal is to have an otherwise empty project that all design models are linked into using auto methods to guarantee alignment.

I have a MEP model and an Arch model. If I try to link the MEP model into the Arch model using any auto method the alignment is clearly wrong.

The MEP model was delivered already setup to link in the Arch model and it is correctly aligned once it all opens. It's worth noting that all other models (food service, etc.) align to Arch origin to origin with no issues. I would expect that I can acquire coordinates from the linked Arch model, save the MEP model with these new coordinates, and then say, open the Arch model and link MEP using auto shared coordinates and it align.

That is not the case, it still comes in as if I never changed anything at all. I have checked both models for Shared Sites and there are none.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

I have no way to just "move link to align" with any certainty that I have it right.

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Huh?  Do you have anything modeled yet?  If so, how did you start modeling without basing on some elements of the arch background?  

[jeremy_taylor]

No, I am not currently modeling anything. I just want an empty project with all the design models linked in with correct alignment.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

No, I am not currently modeling anything. I just want an empty project with all the design models linked in with correct alignment.

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Then it is dead easy.

- Make sure the plan view's orientation is Project North, not cropped

- Link Arch in using any positioning option except Shared coordinates (auto PBP to PBP is preferred)

- Acquire coordinates

- Copy monitor grids and levels

Now I guarantee if you open the Arch model, link your model in using shared coordinates, they align perfectly

[barthbradley]

HA! I like that post @ToanDN!  

[jeremy_taylor]

No, same result.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

No, same result.

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Then I have no idea what you have done.  See screencast to demonstrate exactly what I said earlier.

[jeremy_taylor]

Here's what I see happening:

1. Open the Arch model and create the shared site location and save it back down and close.

2. Create a new project from template

3. Link the recently saved Arch file using PBP/PBP

4. Acquire the Shared site location coordinates

5. Copy/monitor grids and levels

6. Save this file down as the MEP file even though I have a MEP file we haven't even touched yet

7. Link the Arch file back into this model that we've now named MEP even though it's just a copy of the Arch file at this point.

I feel like I missed something but I watched it 5 times and took notes every times to make sure I was bypassing the crazy pills.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

Here's what I see happening:

1. Open the Arch model and create the shared site location and save it back down and close.

2. Create a new project from template

3. Link the recently saved Arch file using PBP/PBP

4. Acquire the Shared site location coordinates

5. Copy/monitor grids and levels

6. Save this file down as the MEP file even though I have a MEP file we haven't even touched yet

7. Link the Arch file back into this model that we've now named MEP even though it's just a copy of the Arch file at this point.

I feel like I missed something but I watched it 5 times and took notes every times to make sure I was bypassing the crazy pills.

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Why do you link the Arch file in the MEP file twice, in steps 3 and 7?

[jeremy_taylor]

That's what I am asking you! That's what I am seeing you do in the video. I'm not trying to recreate it because it makes no sense.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

That's what I am asking you! That's what I am seeing you do in the video. I'm not trying to recreate it because it makes no sense.

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No that is not what I did in the video.  What I did at that step was: open the Arch file, link the MEP file in using Shared coordinates positioning to demonstrate that it fell in the right location.

[jeremy_taylor]

But your "MEP" file that you linked in was the one you just saved after linking Arch into a new project.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

But your "MEP" file that you linked in was the one you just saved after linking Arch into a new project.

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Yes.  Why do I need another MEP file? 

The exercise is to demonstrate how acquire coordinates work, that when you acquired coordinate from file A to file B, you can link file B to file A using shared coordinates and they align properly.

[jeremy_taylor]

The MEP model I have has an entry for the Arch model that correctly aligns that model using the Manage Links reload function. If I just manually link that same Arch file instead using Manage Links Add feature results in a misalinged model. Do these specifics elucidate how I could reliably link both of these files into a new project and have them align?

The posted video would have me overwrite the MEP file with the Arch file that was linked into a new file.

[jeremy_taylor]

"Why do I need another MEP file? "

Because the MEP file you created by saving down the linked Arch file. Of course it aligns. You have not demonstrated non-destructively loading a unique file where the only change was some coordinate sharing.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

"Why do I need another MEP file? "

Because the MEP file you created by saving down the linked Arch file. Of course it aligns. You have not demonstrated non-destructively loading a unique file where the only change was some coordinate sharing.

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That is incorrect.  The MEP was created from scratch, not from the Arch file.

[jeremy_taylor]

I can't unsee it.

Here's what I have determined. The MEP model has a PBP with some N/S and E/W numbers and some 5 degrees of rotation. The PBP of the linked Arch model inside there matches even though it is just a reload of the same Arch file that when opened on its' own has a PBP of all zeroes. Is the simplest solution to just zero the PBP in the MEP model and move on with life?

Obviously I wanted to avoid doing this with every design model update.

[ToanDN]

You can unsee what?

[jeremy_taylor]

I cannot unsee you creating a new project, linking in Arch, saving that to a file called MEP and then opening Arch and Linking in the MEP file you just created. Sure you created it form scratch but from the Arch file which is going to align to itself.

[ToanDN]

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@jeremy_taylor wrote:

I cannot unsee you creating a new project, linking in Arch, saving that to a file called MEP and then opening Arch and Linking in the MEP file you just created. Sure you created it form scratch but from the Arch file which is going to align to itself.

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This statement doesn't make any sense.  How can I create one file from the Imperial - System project template AND then create it gain from from the Arch file?   At which timeframe did I create anything from the Arch file?  

[jeremy_taylor]

At seconds 0:45-0:48 you link in the Arch file to the newly created project from template.

At 1:02-1:04 you acquire coordinates from Arch into the newly created project from template.

You spend some time copy/monitoring the grids

NOW, at 1:40-1:51 you save this newly created project from template containing the linked Arch file to a file called MEP

It is thus no surprise when you open Arch and link in "MEP" that they align; they contain the same file and thus coordinates.

I don't have the luxury of replacing my MEP file with a file that contains the Arch link. I am going to have to bring the pre-existing MEP file in non-destructively.

I'm open to the idea that the Arch link inside the MEP file was simply moved and pinned and there is no non-manual way to get the same alignment with the two files independently.