Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Lock Intersection Group Numbers

David Collins
Advocate
First of all, I have to confess that I totally lack the self-discipline and foresight required to properly manage the little intersection numbers on the Layer Settings Dialog. I'm constantly addding layers or new layers sets and those intersection numbers are just plain never right. This has gotten worse with the use of complex profile walls for things like roof cornices and wainscoats. Consequently, I'm always finding these little gaps in my walls... and sorting this out after the fact is a pain.

Here's the wish: Can we please be able to optionally lock those intersection numbers so they don't change with the layer combination? And could a new layer automatically gets a unique intersection number, with the option to change it to another group if required?
David Collins

Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)
6 REPLIES 6
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Hi David,

I think this is not desirable. Having different intersection priorities based on combinations is essential to getting some views / drawings to look correct - notably related to remodels / refurbishment / tenant improvements.

You may have missed a new feature introduced in 12 (or 11?) that lets you select a layer in the right side of the Layers dialog and then go through any and all of the settings in the columns in the Layer Combinations list on the left - changing the intersection value, visibility, or whatever ... and all of those changes related to that layer "stick" with no need to click "update'. It is a PITA if there are tons of layer combinations, but not that bad if there are less than a couple of dozen.... and once layers and combos are set up, they become your template for future projects, so this is not something one should be fiddling with more than once, other than some fine-tuning every few projects.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
Karl wrote:
Hi David,

You may have missed a new feature introduced in 12 (or 11?) that lets you select a layer in the right side of the Layers dialog and then go through any and all of the settings in the columns in the Layer Combinations list on the left - changing the intersection value, visibility, or whatever ... and all of those changes related to that layer "stick" with no need to click "update'.

Cheers,
Karl
AC11. I like it. The only thing that bugs me is you can only select one layer at a time (in the right hand column). Being able to select multiple layers would be good, but might get a bit confused with layers that have varying settings (although a blank could indicate that settings vary).
Erich
Contributor
s2art,

I want to vote on your idea! I hate slogging through the layers when I make a change. Not that I have that many, it is just annoying.

You should make a wish....
Erich

AC 19 6006 & AC 20
Mac OS 10.11.5
15" Retina MacBook Pro 2.6
27" iMac Retina 5K
Anonymous
Not applicable
Has there been any improvement in AC13 with regard to multiple layer selection? Wouldn't want to make a wish that has already been granted.
David Collins
Advocate
Karl wrote:
I think this is not desirable. Having different intersection priorities based on combinations is essential to getting some views / drawings to look correct - notably related to remodels / refurbishment / tenant improvements.
No argument from me about the benefits of templates and being well-organized in general, Karl. Its just that the reality on the ground is never that simple. Here's the scenario: You've been working on a project for month and it suddenly occurs to you that the roof cornice you've just re-designed could be done very nicely with a complex wall profile. You create a new layer and in goes the cornice. Very nice. Except that now all your floor plans are full of gaps. So now you have to go into the layer settings menu and change the intersection properties for that new layer for *each and every* one of your layer combinations. If you add four or five new layers like this and you've got twenty pre-existing layer combinations, you've got a lot of mouse clicking to do, even with the new feature.

Maybe the optional locking idea is overkill. If each newly created layer had a unique intersection number by default, and the existing layer combinations respected that new number, that would save us a lot of fuss. I think new users would be spared a lot of grief as well.
David Collins

Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)
Barry Kelly
Moderator
One work around would be to change the intersection priorites of all your existing layers.
Say add 10 to each of their values.
Then when you make a new layer the it will have an intersection priority of 1 and won't interfear with what you already have.

I never said it was a good work around but it should do the job.
Great if setting up a new template but not so good to alter an existing plan.
Easier to add the layer and alter it in each layer combination.

It would be great if when creating a new layer you could be prompted for a default intersection priority as well as the new layer name.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11