Work arounds for not having layer sets

[dsewell]

I'm looking for any advice on how to work around Home Designer Pro not having layer sets.  I'd like to create multiple different plan views with different viewable objects depending on what I'm trying to show.  For example, I have a walkout basement so for the same floor level (plan view) I could have a foundation plan showing the footings and frost walls, I could have a general floor plan showing rooms and basic fixtures, I could also have a ceiling framing plan, I could have an electrical plan and I could have a mechanical plan.  Putting all of these items in one plan would be far too messy and confusing so ideally this is 5+ separate views of the same floor.  So far, I have not been able to figure out how to force Pro to allow this.  I know Premier has layer sets by layout so it would be easy if I had an extra $2,000 laying around for Premier.  Seeing as I don't, does anyone have recommendations for faking or forcing layer sets?  I've thought about getting the plans to the point where I know nothing will change and sending views to layouts as images but that kills scaling and is a huge pain if anything did change late in the game.

 

I was initially hoping that creating new plan views would solve the issue but it appears they are simply creating exact copies with fully linked view options.  it would appear that new plan views offer no functionality as far as I can tell.  I'm not sure why I would ever want multiple copies of the exact same view that are fully dynamically linked.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I've been trying to find a solution for a couple of weeks now and the only thing I can come up with involve creating non-dynamic layouts or creating multiple models that aren't linked.  Both are unattractive options.

[solver]

Using Layer Display Options, you can turn on/off the display of things you want/don't want to see.

 

Add your electrical, then turn this layer off when you don't want to see these items.

 

 

[dsewell]

Thank you Eric.  I do have that part figured out but I want a complete set of construction documents so I want these layer sets to be saved by layout.  So far, if I change the view options, it changes what shows in all of my layouts so while it is helpful for drawing and viewing at the plan level, it is really unhelpful for layouts/documentation.  Do you know how to turn on/off viewable objects in individual layouts?  I know that isn't a feature of Pro but I'm curious if anyone has found a workaround.

[solver]

Pro has single page layouts, so typically you create an electrical plan with things displayed as you want, then send that plan to layout.

 

Open a new layout and send foundation, open a new layout and do framing etc.

 

What are you wanting to do that is different than this?

[dsewell]

So say I create a foundation plan and send it to layout.  Then I go back to the model and I create an electrical plan of the same floor and send that to a new layout.  When I go back to the foundation layout previously created, it now shows up as the electrical plan because the view options appear to be linked across the plans.  Does that make sense?

[solver]

 

Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/Tfw7Pgo0LeQ?hd=1

 

 

 

 

 

[dsewell]

It appears that video is utilizing Premier.  If I follow the exact same steps as shown in the video but I do that in Pro, when I reopen all the layouts, they all look identical to each other - they have changed when I changed the view in the other layouts.  (Pro can't save display options by layout)  I spoke with Chief technical support and they said this functionality is standard in Premier but not available in Pro.  I'm looking for a workaround in Pro to produce similar results even though the functionality is not native to the program. Any thoughts?

[dsewell]

So the more I've played with this, it appears that I can some display options to be different by layout (walls, cabinets, etc.) but not others such as dimensions.  I have some dimensions that I want displayed in certain layouts and not in others.  I think I can work around this with manual vs. automatic dimensions.  I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

[solver]

Using Pro 2016 -- newest full version I have.

 

 

Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/TkMHy7ypkMI?hd=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

[solver]

Things like dimensions will be a problem because you cannot have a Dimensions, Electrical layer for example.

 

What most people end up with is multiple plan files, one for each layout. 

[dsewell]

When you say multiple plan files do you mean multiple models?  I have plan views for each layout but the dimensions bridge across those.

[solver]

3 minutes ago, dsewell said:

do you mean multiple models?

 

yes

[dsewell]

Thank you for all your help.  I think I've got it about as good as I'm going to get it in one model.  I appreciate your time.

[bluesparrowllc]

I have Pro2020 and I'm creating different models for each plan view for each layout.  It's a pain.  However, doing it this way has forced me to clean up some areas I didn't realize needed fixing and also prompted some changes.

 

But it's a pain.