Planes palette

The Planes palette displays the plane models of the current building structure; each plane model has its own tab. While creating components, you can keep track of the default planes and all other objects from which the components can take their heights.

In the Planes palette, you can create new plane models, modify plane models, and insert or replace roofscapes. These tasks are similar to those in the Floor Manager dialog box of the building structure. But if you want to insert reference surfaces and offset planes in a plane model, you must use the palette.

When Modification mode is on, the planes of the plane model are visible in all viewports. When you point to or select an entry of the plane model in the tree structure, this entry is highlighted in the detection color in all viewports. So, you can immediately check the position of the plane and see the effects of changes.

Behavior of the Planes palette in a workgroup environment

The Planes palette has the following areas:

Toolbar

Expand all entries of active model

Expands the tree structure so that all subordinate entries of the active plane model are visible.

Collapse all entries

Hides all subentries.

Update model

Updates the plane model in the palette.

Modification mode on/off

Activates modification mode and opens the palette for entries. When modification mode is on, the planes of the plane models are visible in all viewports. When you point to or select an entry of the plane model in the tree structure, this entry is highlighted in the detection color in all viewports. You can also find this tool on the shortcut menu.

New model

Opens the New model palette, where you can create a new plane model.

Modify model

Opens the Modify model palette, where you can modify the plane model on the current tab. You can also find this tool on the shortcut menu.

Insert pair of planes

Inserts a pair of planes as the top story in the current plane model. Allplan takes the offset values from the top pair of planes, incrementing the story name by one. You can change the heights and names in the palette. You can also find this tool on the shortcut menu.

Note: By using the Insert Pair of Planes dialog box of Floor Manager in the building structure, you can also take the default planes from a drawing file or an NDW file.

Insert offset plane

Inserts an offset plane in the plane model. The offset plane is linked with a default plane at an offset you define. When you change the linked plane, the offset plane adapts automatically, including all elements that are attached to this offset plane. When defining the offset plane, you can select the Applies to all floors option to apply this offset plane to all stories of the plane model. When an offset plane applies to all stories, you can see the symbol in the plane model.

Insert or replace roofscape

Inserts a roofscape in the pair of planes selected or replaces the roofscape selected. Use the Input Options to specify how you want to insert the roofscape in the current plane model (compared with the source):

Do not change roofscape (compared with source).
The bottom level of the roofscape is equivalent to the bottom of the story; top levels do not change.
The roofscape as a whole is moved to the height of the bottom of the story.

Select a roof plane or a custom plane in an active drawing file. Replacing a roofscape does not change the reference to all drawing files that use this roofscape. You can also find this tool on the shortcut menu of a story node.

Insert or replace reference surface

Inserts a local reference surface in the plane model or replaces the reference surface selected. The height of the reference surface is defined by the z-value of the lowest point in the reference surface. You can also find this tool on the shortcut menu of a story node.

Use the symbol between the height and name to specify how you want to connect the reference surface with the upper or lower plane of the structural level to which you have added the reference surface. Click the symbol to switch between the following settings:

Do not connect (default setting)
Connect with bottom level
Connect with top level

Note: By selecting Extract reference surface on the shortcut menu of a reference surface, you extract the reference surface from the plane model and insert the reference surface in the current drawing file.

Delete selected entry

Deletes the selected entry. You can also find this tool on the shortcut menu.

Restore previous model state

Opens a list of all changes in the plane model including date, time, and name of the changed plane model. Click Apply to restore the model state selected.

Note: Use the Restore previous model state tool to undo changes in the Planes palette. You cannot use Undo (How) or Redo (How).

Tree structure, shortcut menu

Displays all components of the plane models; each plane model has its own tab.

When Modification mode is on, you can change all height settings by clicking in the palette. As an alternative, you can use the handles or boxes in all viewports, views, and sections. In the Adjust height of planes dialog box, you can define how the planes above and below behave:

Move up / down: The height settings of the planes above or below change so that the distance between the planes stays the same.
Retain height: The height settings of the planes above or below do not change; the slab thickness changes. If this resulted in overlapping pairs of planes, the Retain height option would not be available.

You can find these tools, which you can select by clicking or by clicking symbols, on the shortcut menu of the tree structure too.

Bar at the bottom

Load favorite

Loads a setting saved as a favorite.

Save

Saves the current setting as a favorite.

Apply

Saves all the changes and updates the plane model in the active drawing files. Modification mode is still on. After you have changed the height of a plane, the Behavior of drawing files dialog box opens.

When you select the Esc key to close Modification mode, Allplan asks whether you want to apply the changes to the plane model.