Configure project settings and location

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In this video, you'll learn how to configure project wide settings.

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These are settings that can be set up in a project template as well.

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You'll also see how to configure projects north and true north orientations

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as well as transfer standards between projects

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to begin.

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Let's look at various project settings that should

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be set up at the beginning of a project

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or in a project template,

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switch to the manage tab

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and then in the settings panel,

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we can see various tools for project settings.

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We'll begin by looking at project parameters.

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Let's say that we need a parameter to

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track the building area for various components.

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For example, if I select a wall and we take a look at the instance parameters,

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we see various parameters that will control the wall.

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But let's say we want a parameter for walls

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and also for loadable families such as doors and

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windows where we can specify a building area,

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we can do that by creating a project parameter.

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So back in the settings panel, I'll click project parameters

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and then in the project parameters, dialogue, I'll

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click new parameter.

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Once again, a project parameter allows us to create a custom parameter

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that can apply to any number of categories

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including categories for both system families and loadable families.

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I'll leave project parameter selected

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and then I'll enter building area for the name.

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Next, we can specify the discipline and we'll leave it set too common.

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And the discipline controls the type of parameters that are available.

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For example, you can select text integer angle area, so on and so forth.

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Since we just need to specify the building area, it can be a text based parameter,

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meaning we can input any information we want,

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then we can choose to group it under a specific section.

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And I'll choose other for this example.

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And if you wish, you can even add a tool tip.

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As far as the other options here,

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we can choose whether it's a type property or an instance property.

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I'll leave instance selected

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and then you can control whether the values are aligned per

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group type or whether they can vary by group instance.

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And I'll leave it at the default for now,

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lastly, we can control the categories of elements

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that the parameter will apply to.

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So I will select

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doors

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and then I'll also select walls and windows

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and then I'll click. OK.

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And then I'll click. OK to close the project parameters, dialogue.

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And now when I select a wall

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and look in the properties pallet

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under the other section, we can see building area

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and now I can enter whatever I wanted for the project area A area B area A one.

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And if I select a door, we can see that it also has the building area parameter.

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So project parameters can be very useful.

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Continuing on. You want to specify

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the project information

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and that can be accessed in that settings panel as well.

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I'll click project information

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and this is where we can specify

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information such as the organization name

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and description,

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as well as the project issue date, the project status,

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client name,

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even the project address, the name and the number

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all of these are text based parameters and you can simply input whatever you want.

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The project address has a more button which will open the

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edit text dialogue because it's a multi line text parameter.

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I'll click, OK to close that dialogue.

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And next we'll take a look at the project units.

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When I click project units, it opens the project units dialogue

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and we can set the discipline

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for the various units that we want to see.

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So once again, common,

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if we chose something else such as HV AC, then you can see those units change.

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So I'm going to switch back to common

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and we definitely want to control the length parameters. So when I click the button

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in the format field next to length,

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it opens the format dialogue

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and this is where we can control the units.

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So right now we have feet and fractional inches for length.

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But this is where we could switch it to feet or inches or

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millimeters or whatever you wanted for the project.

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You can also control the rounding

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and then depending on what you have selected, there will be various options

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such as use digit grouping suppress spaces.

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And once again, whatever you have selected for the units will control those options

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that are available.

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I'll click OK, to close the dialogue

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and you can go through each of the units and make sure those are specified as needed.

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I'll click OK to close the dialogue.

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Next, let's take a look at the object styles.

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When I click object styles, it opens the object styles dialogue

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and this is where we can control the graphic display

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of all of the categories for the entire project.

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So on the model objects tab, we can control the line weight line color line pattern

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and material

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for all of the model categories.

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Similarly, we can control the annotation objects,

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the analytical model objects and the imported objects.

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I'll click OK to close the dialogue.

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And next, let's talk a little bit about project location

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on the manage tab

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in the project location panel,

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I'll click location.

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This opens the location

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and site dialogue

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and this is where we can control the project location,

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you can do so by using the default city list or the internet mapping service.

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And really what this is tied to this is tied to energy analysis

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and sun settings, various sun settings,

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but it doesn't necessarily control the coordinates of our project.

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And so it's really more for analysis tools.

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So once again, you can use the internet mapping service,

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search for a specific project address

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and then select the weather station that you want to use

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and then you can click OK to close the dialogue.

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But in terms of how your project is oriented,

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that's where you want to use the position options.

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And when you expand the position button,

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you can rotate True North

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as well as rotate project North.

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But before we do that, let's back up real quick and take a look at

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the instance properties of the view.

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And we can see that the orientation can be set to project north

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or true north.

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And right now, when I select True North, there's no change.

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But when we use the rotate true

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North tool,

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we can then rotate True North.

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We can use one of the options here in the options bar or we can use the rotate tool,

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which is very similar to how the actual rotate tool on the modify tab.

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And I'll simply rotate it 25 degrees.

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And now, since our view is oriented to True North,

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you can see that the building adjusts

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if I change the orientation to project north,

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then it goes back.

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Additionally, you can rotate project north.

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And when you click, rotate project north,

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you can then choose one of the options such as 90 degrees clockwise

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or 90 degrees counterclockwise or 180 degrees

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or you can choose to align it to a selected line or plane.

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So Project North is really how you want it to appear on your sheets.

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Whereas True North is trying to align it

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to how it actually sits on the site

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based on the true North value in real life.

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I'll click cancel to close the dialogue.

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And lastly, let's take a look at the transfer project standards tool.

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First off,

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we have to have another project open.

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So I am going to click file new

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and browse for the default template

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to create a new project.

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And then I'll switch to the manage tab

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and in the settings panel, I'll click transfer project standards.

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And now in the transfer project standards dialogue,

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we can choose to copy from

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another project that is open.

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And what the transfer project standards tool allows us to do

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is transfer various project settings

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as well as certain system family types

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into our new project.

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So as I scroll through the list here,

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you can see things like object styles which we just looked at.

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There are

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even print settings, project information, project parameters.

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There's a lot of items that can be transferred.

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Typically I recommend you click check none

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and then choose specific settings or types

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that you want to transfer over.

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And so that allows you to set something up in one project

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and transfer it to another project. Or even transfer it to a project template.