Wishes
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Persistant view settings per window

Paul King
Advisor
Please, please can we allow two or more windows side by side that keep their own layer combinations and other display attributes , WITHOUT requiring user to go back to the view map & regen with correct view settings for that window every time you switch focus to another window with different layer combo and back again.

This is a regular and recurring problem for me - I frequently need to work backwards & forwards between two views with different layer combos active. Stopping & setting correct layer combos back on & waiting for regen between every third mouse click is just not OK

These views might even e.g. be different ends of the same large building elevation, one with boolean operators switched on, one without, or one 2D detailing window, with a range of other plans & elevations that need to be adjusted , so implications can be considered all at once, each view with different layer combination.

Default behaviour should be that window once opened should have kept all its original layer display settings when focus returns to it , no matter what layers are switched off & on in other windows.

This behaviour is needed almost always. It is rare that one wants to see the affect of another window's layer combo transferred to current window when you click on it to work there again.


This would require a change to layer control from a global model basis to a per window basis, and would presumably require more memory - but RAM is cheap & the productivity gain well worth it. Users who don't like it could toggle this working mode off.
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
21 REPLIES 21
Rob
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
That's because this is the wrong process. Click on the "Switch Reference with Active" button on the Trace & Reference Palette to access the Reference, and again to return to the Active. Also, I suggest working in Views not Viewpoints, where the Layer Combination, Scale, and Display Options have been saved.
d'oh! thanks Laura... that's why I have referred him to bug-reporting as I haven't assumed other way of doing it...
::rk
Anonymous
Not applicable
Good idea, Paul! I am struggling with the same issue these days.
Essential!

P.S. I envy you for the big display - mine is just 24". 😉
Paul King
Advisor
Laura wrote:
Paul wrote:
try placing a trace reference with different layer combo in current window, then click "activate reference" to edit something in that reference - sure enough a new window containing that reference appears - but then try clicking back on your original window... - You will find the wrong layer combo is now active for that original view, so you still manually need to reselect desired layer combo & other display settings & regen that view to continue working. Then you need to do it over again every time you need to edit in another view window
That's because this is the wrong process. Click on the "Switch Reference with Active" button on the Trace & Reference Palette to access the Reference, and again to return to the Active. Also, I suggest working in Views not Viewpoints, where the Layer Combination, Scale, and Display Options have been saved.
Quite right "switch reference with active" swaps two saved views within a single window, but that is not the point.

For a start, there are many short comings with working that way if editing from multiple saved views is intended - e.g. user can only toggle between two views at a time, the difficulty in managing screen real estate within a single window when user wants the important parts of each saved view visible simultaneously but not overlapping each other yet needing both are zoomed in enough, the need to regularly toggle or shift trace reference backgrounds out of the way when they do overlap confusingly in the current view, then shift or toggle them back in cases where you actually want them for normal trace functionality, the slowdowns while zooming and panning as current window tries to update effectively two views and display all those extra elements , all the extra snap confusion as you edit overlapping views, sacrificing the ability to display one view at a different zoom to the other view simultaneously, sacrificing ability to read text & dims on both views simultaneously etc.)

Unfortunately even if you get past the shortcomings and do regularly work by toggling saved views within a single window via the new trace reference feature, this still doesn't address the existing core problem that occurs when user simply moves mouse pointer focus directly between different views that are open in different windows

Using separate windows for different views is from a user perspective by far the quickest and most intuitive way to navigate within & between different kinds of information and to see it all simultaneously, and to independently control what you see of each view! both Mac & PC operating systems are fundamentally predicated on this well supported principle!

After all, if ArchiCAD didn't mean for us to have multiple windows open to show different views simultaneously, why do they exist?

This is long overdue to be fixed
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
Rob
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
After all, if ArchiCAD didn't mean for us to have multiple windows open to show different views simultaneously, why do they exist?
Paul,
this is a very good point indeed. And I do really mean it. That should be definitely reconsidered.
::rk
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Maybe there could be a setting in the Work Environment Dialog which would control this behavior.
In one state, switching from one Viewpoint to another would carry over the View settings, on the other state it would return to the state the Viewpoint was in before switching to another Viewpoint.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Rob
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Laszlo,

I do not think we need another button in the WE maze...
I would really want to tackle the problem itself and that is the need of multi-window environment. Do we really need it with the current functionality? Especially after introducing the T&R tool...
::rk
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Personally I can imagine situations when I would prefer the way it is working now. For example, I switch to a "Model" Layer Combination and check the Floor Plan and several sections to see how things look in each. I do this now regularly. It is fast because I just need to activate the Viewpoint I need and the current state of Layer will be the same.
One case for this was just yesterday when I was modeling a Stair Railing and I had the Floor Plan, plus 3 Auto-rebuild Sections taken at various point so I could see and manipulate my model from all needed angles.
So this is why I would not want the old way to disappear, instead have a choice of which way I would want to work with it so everyone could be happy.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Rob
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
this is a bit different topic as I do not want to highjack this one.
more here:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=142675#142675
::rk
Paul King
Advisor
Rob wrote:
Laszlo,

I do not think we need another button in the WE maze...
I would really want to tackle the problem itself and that is the need of multi-window environment. Do we really need it with the current functionality? Especially after introducing the T&R tool...
We absolutely need multiple windows - there very few situations where sharing a single window for multiple saved views is better. Leaving the user a choice about how to update windows is a good thing though
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
Shaun Coomber
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Changing between multiple windows in ArchiCAD works in the same way as using the Project Map, even if they were originally opened from the View Map. That is to say that the global settings (layers, pen sets, model view options...) will be updated accordingly, should they be different in the previously active window.

However, it is a useful suggestion to allow windows to retain their own settings, and we will be looking at this for future versions. Thank you for bringing this topic to our attention.
Shaun Coomber
Technical Support Team
Graphisoft
Budapest, Hungary

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