Let me ask you how you do use archicad if you're not using layers?

You have your first floor/Story.
On this first floor you need a drawing on a title block of a furniture plan, you need one of the framing plan, and you need one showing areas and square footages.

How are you getting these drawings from your project map to a title block and setting all the correct layers and scales to show up?

Like you, I wondered what the purpose of views was, until I attended a seminar where the use was demonstrated. I saw the light - and have never looked back.

But it can be an uphill task trying to persuade others in our practice to use views, if they have worked with previous versions of Archicad and the ghastly Plotmaker! There's a perception that, when editing a view, you're not editing the model - which of course is incorrect.

Have a look a the thread on text sizes and view scales, which is one good reason for working in a view where the scale is set to that of the eventual layout. By not using a view there's a big chance of getting it badly wrong!

Another benefit is that it's much easier for someone else working on your drawing to find the right source view for a layout (and hence the correct layer settings, model view options, pen set etc.). There's even a shortcut button to take you straight to the view from the layout.

Keith

Archicad ver 12 on Mac OSX 10.4.8

What helped me "get-it", (views that is), is to think of them as a staging area for your ideas. A place to put the "concept" of each idea,(floor plan, fnd plan, framing plan, roof plan and on and on.
I also think of it like staging area at my front door. Some variable time before I leave the house/office I start putting things there, and that pile grows until I'm ready to put things in my car,(layout) and then publish myself, (drive away).
Bier