Update: I have expanded on this topic here". I have strikethrough'd the really wrong bits here.
(I am planning a tech meeting for this topic the week of the fifth.)
Q What is a detail window.
A new kind of window in AC8. A hybrid of a section window and a patch.
Like a patch, they can be generated from existing geometry. Like a section, they can be renewed. Unlike a section, they cannot be model views, only drawings.
Q What are they for.
Details. Also, odds and ends formerly stored in little sections, such as the title block. Since details don't require markers, they are better suited for this. The templates are already configured this way.
Q What is the detail tool and how does it relate to the detail window.
The detail tool creates detail windows, just as the section tool creates section windows, but with more flexibility. While sections are all unique, detail markers can be linked to existing detail windows, so several markers can point to one drawing.
Q Can you have a detail window without using the detail tool.
Yes. In the Project Map, right-click on the Details header and select 'New Independent Detail'. Give it a (unique) ID and a name. The windows for the title block etc are created this way.
Q Does the ID have to be unique.
Yes.
Q That's a pain.
Yes.
Q Why would I choose to use a detail instead of a section.
My personal theory is that the detail window represents the recognition on Grapisoft's part of the limit of the virtual building concept. That is, even people who model everything don't model everything. At some scale, you have to start drawing. Perhaps you even use drawings that are highly general, that you include in many projects. Like details. Standard details aren't views of the model, any model. They are more like specifications with pictures.
The details tool recognizes that details: 1) Will be relatively abstract (from the model) 2) Will be drawn, 3) Will be reused and re-referenced.
Use the detail windows where these conditions obtain. Use sections to document the model.
Q What other tricks does the detail tool know.
Perhaps the detail tool seems like a great solution to a problem that's not bothering you much. After all, you could continue to use unlinked, dummy sections anytime you need a window.
Well, how about this. Detail markers know *where in the documents their details are placed*. [Pause for effect] You're thinking, that would be great if it worked like it should, where I move the detail drawing and the numbers in the marker update automatically, but it probably doesn't work.
Well, it works. And, since multiple markers can point to a single drawing, they all update.
(Q On a side note, can section markers do the same thing.
Yes, but. The section tool has limited options for scriptability that make it impossible to show a section line different from the true cut line. We like abstracted, simplified section markers, for pretty plans. So we have to use a regular object rather than a section tool. I'm still working on this. What I can offer (in the future) is a section tool exclusively for wall sections, of the old detail type.)
Q Should wall sections be details or sections.
That's a tough one.
So...
If they're sections, you can't use a detail marker to refer to them within sections, so they can't number automatically. If they're details, you need a section window to start them in. If you're not happy with one of your building sections (cut-location-wise), you need a section for the sole purpose of creating the detail, which seems convoluted, but what do I know, maybe that's OK. Haven't tried it. It's a tough one.
Q Why haven't we been doing this in AC8 all along.
Because I never had time to figure out the detail marker code stuff. The "Standard Detail Marker" in the Archicad Library is, well, substandard. Use se Detail Tool JAM81 for a detail area. Use Assembly Marker JAM81 for wall and other assembly types.
See Also:
The Detail Tool