Level Manager

Where can I find this command?

Keyboard:

vaLevels

Icon:

left click

Toolbar: Documentation

Menu:

Viewport:

The vaLevels command opens a dockable Level manager dialog box from which it is possible to create, delete and edit new buildings and levels.

From the Level manager dialog box you can control each level CPlane (construction plane), visibility and its Elevation and Cut Plane values.

Level Manager dialog box.

Level 1 parts and parameters
Parameters for Level "1":

Level 0: Elevation and position of CPlane of "Level 0"
Level 1: Elevation and position of CPlane of "Level 1" (and top limits of Level 0)
Level 2: Elevation and position of CPlane of "Level 2" (and top limits of Level 1)
H.: Height of Level 1
C.P.: Cut plane elevation of Level 1
T.O.: Top offset distance of Level 1
B.O.: Bottom offset distance of Level 1

The Level manager dialog box is divided in two parts:

Toolbar line
List of buildings and Levels and their parameters.

1. Toolbar line

New building

Creates new buildings from which you can add levels.

When creating a new building, a Level is automatically created by default.
Each building has its own elevation value and the elevation values of the contained levels can be displayed in relation to the building's elevation.

New level

Adds a new level to a selected building. More details:

The new level will be automatically created above the upper existing level (3 meters above by default).
A building element must be created to create levels.
The height of a level is defined by the elevation of the next level above.

New sub-level

Adds a new sub-level to a selected level.

The new sub-level has its own elevation and construction plane.
A Sub-level has its own Cut plane, which is measured from its elevation.
The height of a sub-level is determined by the elevation of the level above.
By default, sub-levels are created one meter above the host level, with a cut plane of 10cm.

Delete

Deletes a specific level, sub-level or building.

Note:
This action does not affect all Rhino and VisualARQ objects which are contained within the deleted level or building. They remain in the same place.

Toggle Cut Plane

This button turns On or Off the Cut Plane of a selected level, in the active viewport. More details:

The Cut Plane represents an invisible horizontal section plane that each level has, situated at a specific height (Cut Plane height) from each level elevation.
A building and a level must be created to enable the Cut Plane status.
When the Cut Plane is turned On, everything above the cutting plane of that level will NOT be displayed.
When the Cut Plane is turned On in Top viewports, the VisualARQ objects, such as doors, windows, stairs, etc... will show their 2D plan view graphic representation.

Level 0 and Level 1 view with the Cut Plane on Level 1 On.

Floor plan commands

Align view to level This icon shows the following commands in a drop-down menu:

Floor plan view commands.

Align Floor Plan

This button does the following actions in the active viewport for the selected level:

Changes the view to Top view
Turns the Cut Plane On

Set Floor Plan

This button does the following actions in the active viewport for the selected level:

Changes the view to Top view.
Turns the Cut Plane On.
Changes the display mode to Hidden.
Zooms the viewport to fit with the building boundary where the level belongs. If the building has no boundary, the zoom extends to show all objects in the model.
Turns any Dynamic Section off that was enabled in the Section Manager.

Level 1 after clicking the button Set Plan View To Viewport.

Insert Floor Plan View

This button runs the vaPlanView command to insert a 2D plan view of the selected level, in the model space.

Ceiling plan commands

Align Reflected Ceiling View to Level This icon shows the following commands in a drop-down menu:

Reflected ceiling plan view commands.

Align Ceiling Plan

This button does the following actions in the active viewport for the selected level:

Changes the view to Top Reflected Parallel view.
Turns the Cut Plane On.

Set Ceiling Plan

Set Reflected Ceiling Plan View to viewport

This button does the following actions in the active viewport for the selected level:

Changes the view to Top Reflected Parallel view.
Turns the Cut Plane On.
Changes the display mode to Hidden.
Zooms the viewport to fit with the building boundary where the level belongs. If the building has no boundary, the zoom extends to show all objects in the model.
Turns any Dynamic Section off that was enabled in the Section Manager.

Insert Ceiling Plan View

vaPlanView command for Reflected Ceiling Plan

This button runs the vaPlanView command with the Reflected plan option selected to insert a 2D reflected ceiling plan view of the selected level, in the model space.

Note
The ceiling plan shortcut commands in the Level Manager are not available in the VisualARQ 3 version for Rhino 7.

Sync levels in all views

This button toggles the synchronization of the level states in all model viewports.

This option doesn't affect views with reflected ceiling plans.
This button is disabled in page layouts.

Toggle level's elevation

This button toggles how the the levels elevation is displayed in the Level manager and in the viewports (Front and Side views) elevation references:

The levels elevation is displayed in relation to the building elevation.
The levels elevation is displayed in relation to the document World origin Z coordinate.

Level states

This button opens the Level states dialog from which it is possible to save and load different configurations of level states:

New state: saves a new level state.
Load: loads a selected level state from the list into the active viewport.
Delete: deletes a level state from the list.

Level States Dialog.

2. List of Buildings and Levels

Name

This column shows the list of the different spatial entities that appear when new buildings or levels are created.

Buildings are ordered alphabetically, and the levels and sub-levels inside each building are ordered according to their elevation.

Environment

The environment is the area around building boundaries.
It can be hidden as soon as there is a building with a boundary.

Building

Buildings are the level containers. They have a specific elevation.
Buildings can hide if they have a boundary.

Level

A level represents a construction plane at a specific elevation from where you can work.
The level vertical limits are determined by its elevation and the elevation of its upper level. If the level has no level above, it has no vertical top limit.
The level horizontal boundary is determined by its host building boundary, if it has any.
Levels can contain sub-levels.

Building Boundary

Buildings can have a boundary. The area of this boundary will allow hiding or showing all objects and part of the objects included in this area.

A building boundary can be rectangular or can be defined by a curve. To assign a boundary to a building, click on the boundary icon Plan view on next to the building and follow the steps in the command line:

Rectangular boundary:
1. Select first corner of the rectangle
2. Select the opposite corner of the rectangle
Boundary from Curve:
1. Select the FromCurves option in the command line
2. Select a closed curve in the model. This curve must be a closed convex polyline (which is a polyline that doesn't have any angle higher than 180º) with at most 8 edges.

Once a boundary has been assigned, the building boundary icon changes:

The building has no boundary.
The building has a boundary.

The building boundary is represented as Dots linetype and it is displayed projected on the ground plane of the building elevation when selecting a building.

Change building boundary:

Click on the building boundary icon and define a new boundary (as a rectangle or from a curve).

This option is also available from the building context menu.

Remove building boundary:

Click on the building boundary icon and select None option in the command line.

This option is also available from the building context menu.

Extract building boundary:

Right click on the building name and select the option Extract boundary.

CPlane

The CPlane (construction plane) determines the plane elevation from where you are working on.
Click on any level CPlane icon to move the CPlane into the elevation of that level in the active viewport.

Note
The CPlane can't be activated on hidden levels.

On/Off

The level On/Off visibility status shows or hides the objects or parts of the objects situated between the current level Elevation, and the upper level Elevation (taking into account the Top and Bottom offset values).

The level is visible and you can see objects or parts of the objects on this level.
The level is not visible, and you cannot see objects or parts of the objects on this level.

Different levels (even if they are not consecutive or they belong to different buildings) can be selected and hidden at once.

Note
Hiding a level that has the construction plane on it will switch the construction plane to the level below.

Plan View On/Off

The Plan View displays the 2D representation of any level, in the CPlane (construction plane) of the active viewport. This 2D representation is not editable and only shows the sectioned objects in the selected level, according to the Cut Plane position in that level.

The selected level 2D representation is visible in the CPlane of the active viewport.
The selected level 2D representation is not visible in the CPlane of the active viewport.

Note
The color of reference plan views is the same as locked objects, which can be changed in Rhino Menu > Tools > Option > Appearance > Colors > Locked objects.

Constraints

This option lets you link objects to levels. When the constraints are enabled on a level, objects located within the level elevation and the elevation of the next level will move when the elevation of the level or the building where they are contained change.

Objects sitting on a level, whose height is the same as the contained level, will change their height according to the new level elevation.

Objects with their Link to level setting unchecked, in the Constraints section , in the Rhino properties panel , won't get affected by this level constraints status.

Level constraints enabled.
Level constraints disabled.

Set Current Floor

To set a specific level as the current floor in the active viewport, double click on level name. This operation will apply the following changes:

Put the CPlane onto the selected level
Turn this level on in case it was hidden.
Unhide the upper levels of the same building.

Elevation

The Elevation value tells the base height of a building or a level and therefore the position of a Construction plane relative to each one.

The elevation of a level can be entered by editing this field, or editing the Height field of another level. In that case, the elevations of all affected levels will be recalculated.
The building elevation value is always measured along the z-axis of the document.
The elevation of levels can be displayed in relation to the building elevation or in relation to the 0 Z document coordinate, with the Toggle level's elevation button .

Elevation marks
The elevation mark of current level appears highlighted.

Height

The height of a level is determined by the distance between its elevation and the elevation of the upper level. If the level has no level above, it has no specific height.

The height field of a level is editable as long as there is a level above.

Cut Plane height

The Cut Plane determines the elevation of the horizontal section of each floor; i.e., only the objects in that elevation or right under it are included in the representation.

Top offset

The top offset determines the value by which a level's upper limit is increased or decreased when hiding entire levels. This is especially useful when you hide the upper part of a building and want to hide also the upper slab of the last shown level. This value is irrelevant for the top level of a building and only affects viewports that have the Cut Plane off.

Bottom offset

The bottom offset determines the value by which a level's lower limit is increased or decreased when hiding entire levels. This is especially useful when you hide the lower part of a building and want to hide also the lower slab of the last shown level. This value is irrelevant for the bottom level of a building and only affects viewports that have the Cut Plane off.

Elevation marks
The top (L1 T.O) and bottom (L1 B.O) offsets affect the visibility of Level 1 when hiding the lower and upper levels.

Context menu:

Most of the actions affecting the entities of the Level Manager can be run through the context menu. Doing right-click on any of these entities will display the options available:

General (for Environment, Building, Level and Sub-level):
- Show all: unhides all buildings and levels in the Level manager and turns the Cut plane off.
Building:
- Isolate: turns the building visibility on and hides the Environment and other buildings. (This option is only available if the building has a boundary.)
- Show building: turns the building visibility on.
- Set boundary: assigns a new boundary to the building.
- Extract boundary: extracts the building boundary as a polyline in the model space. (This option is only available if the building has a boundary.)
- Remove boundary: removes the boundary from a building. (This option is only available if the building has a boundary.)
- Duplicate: creates a new building with the same number of levels and settings.
- Add Level: creates a new level in the building. The new level is created 3 meters above the last level by default.
- Add Levels...: option to add multiple levels to the building at once. This command opens the Add Multiple Levels dialog, that has the following parameters:
  - Number of levels
  - Name pattern
  - First level elevation
  - Height between levels
- Delete: deletes the selected building and all the contained levels.
Level:
- Isolate: turns the level visibility on and hides the rest of the buildings and levels. The CPlane is automatically set to the isolated level.
- Duplicate: creates a new level with the same settings.
- Add Sub-level: adds a new sub-level.
- Add Sub-levels...: option to add multiple sub-levels to a level at once. This command opens the Add Multiple Levels dialog, that has the following parameters:
  - Number of levels
  - Name pattern
  - First level elevation
  - Height between levels
- Delete: deletes the selected level and all the contained sub-levels.
Sub-Level:
- Duplicate: creates a new sub-level with the same settings.
- Add Sub-level: adds a new sub-level to the sub-level.
- Delete: deletes the selected sub-level and all the contained sub-levels.