Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Be aware of the Parts Category
Because parts are considered a separate category of elements, you should pay careful attention
to how they might affect your views and view templates. take a look at the visibility and graphic
overrides for any view, and you'll see that Parts is listed as an object category. This means that
once you create parts for a model element—whether the original object was a floor, ceiling, wall,
or roof—the parts are all treated as a singular type of object. For example, if you have surface pat-
terns for floors hidden in a view and you create parts for a floor, the surface pattern will appear
again unless you have hidden surface patterns for the Parts category as well.
Scheduling Parts
Another valuable aspect of using parts is the ability to schedule them—essentially a cleaner way
to generate material takeoffs. You can create a parts schedule in the same manner as you would
for other object categories. Go to the View tab, click Schedules
➢
Schedule/Quantities, and
choose the Parts category.
Select the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog box, and you will notice the potential
of the available fields (Figure 19.25). With a part schedule, you can report the original category of
the object along with the part material and the usual geometric information.
Figure 19.25
a part schedule
has access to some
unique fields for
reporting.
There is also a field named Construction that indicates whether the part was derived from
a Core layer or a Finish layer. This field can then be used as a filter and/or sorting criterion in
your schedule. An example illustrating the results of a part schedule is shown in Figure 19.26.
