Monday 15 August 2011

Design Options - A how too guide

I constantly forget how to create Design Options...... So here is a step by step "How To" for creating Design Options.

How to set up Design Options

1.      On the Manage tab > on the Design Option Panel   (or the Status bar), click on the Design Option icon. The Design Option dialog box will open.




 2.      In the Option Set area click NEW. A new Option Set with one design option is created. 

Rename the Design Option Set to reflect your design option set.



To add more design options within this set just click on the NEW icon under the Option title, (below Option Set). Rename these Design Options within to reflect each design option within this set.

3.      Repeat step 2 as desired to create multiple Design Option sets, for example one design option set for multiple options for the entry roof, one design option set for master bedroom ensuite layout options.

Close the dialog box.

4.      now you have created multiple option sets you can set the current design option in the Manage Tab.


How to Add Existing Elements to Design Options

To add existing elements from your project to a Design Option you must select the elements before you activate the design option you want it to be a part of.

·         Firstly make sure your design option is set to Main Model (see image in step 4), this makes the main model the Active Design Option.

·         Then select the items you want in your desired design option and click on the Add To Set icon.

·         This will then open up the Add To Design Option dialog box where you can select the Design Option within the Design Set you want to move the elements too.


Here you can select more than one Design option, you'll need to do this if you want to be able to manipulate these elements in multiple options.

Close the dialog box.

·         Only the elements in the Primary Design Option set are displayed in your view by default. 

They cannot be selected unless you uncheck the Exclude Options check box on the status bar before selecting.

  

How to Add New Elements To a Design Option

·         Set your desired design option to be current in the Active Option drop down list.

 ·         Only the elements that are part of that Design Option are displayed in black, all other elements on the other Design Options are grayed out.

·         These elements will then be added to the current Design Option.

·         Set the Active Design Option to Main Model when complete.


How to View Your Options

·         Create a new view by Duplicating an existing view, for example if I was to show the options for the Front Entry roof option I would create two front elevation views.

·         In the view open up the Visibility Graphics dialog box. On the Design Options tab change the Design Option under the corresponding Design Option Set from automatic to the desired design option.


How to Make One Design Option Primary and Delete Design Option

When you have selected the design option you want to keep you can open up the Design Option dialog box and select the desired design option and then select the Make Primary icon.

Once you have selected the design options and made them primary you can then select Accept Primary which will then delete all the other design options except the Primary design option.

you will get a warning dialog box asking if you are sure you want to delete the secondary design options. you will also get a warning dialog box warning you that any views that were associated with that design option will also be deleted.

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