Plans and perspectives

Question: What's the difference between a plan and a layer?

Answer:

A layer is an organizational concept. A layer is a collection of related objects and results and each object and result resides on one and only one layer. For example, all slab elements are on the Element layer.

Plans, on the other hand, are a display and editing concept. Each plan is a filtered view of all of RAM Concept ’s layers. A plan can be set up to edit a particular layer, but the plan does not "own" the layer. All changes that are made to the layer using the plan will be visible in all other plans, because all plans are viewing the same set of layers.

See Understanding Layers and Using Plans and Perspectives for more information.

Question: How do I delete unwanted plans?

Answer:

Choose Layers > Delete.
A dialog box appears.
Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Question: Can I view all information on one plan?

Answer:

Yes, but it is generally not advised. You can turn on all objects from one layer in one operation, and then repeat for the next layer.

Make the plan or perspective the active window.
Choose View > Visible Objects ().
Click on the tab for the object’s layer.
The plan or perspective’s layer is the one initially selected.
Check the Show All box, and click OK.

Note: You can also right click to see a popup menu that includes the Visible Objects command.

Question: How can I tell if there is an object on a layer?

Answer: See Determining which plans contain objects .

Question: I have two items at the same location, how do I select just one of them?

Answer: Double click at the location and you should select just one object. Hold down <Shift> and double click again and you select the other object.

Question: Why do I see nothing in a perspective display?

Answer: The perspective "camera" may be looking in the wrong direction. Click Zoom Extent (

) or Show Print Viewpoint (

).

Question: Why can I not see the area springs in a perspective?

Answer: Area springs can take a long time to generate in a perspective and so are not turned on in the default files. You need to turn them on with the Visible Objects dialog.

Question: What does conflicting mean in a Selected Items field?

Answer:

This means that more than one object has been selected and they have different values for that property. For example, if you select two slab objects that have different thicknesses then the thickness field displays "conflicting".

Note: In versions prior to 3.0 the field would be blank in such instances.