Confused yet? How does one navigate through all the flexibility that Punch! allows and get the ceiling heights set up correctly so that most of the drawn objects start out with the right elevations, and don't have to be adjusted? That's one of the things that HighRise helps to do.
HighRise organizes the settings for the vertical defaults, and tells the user what those settings should be for the project. Once they are set as recommended, they will stay that way throughout the project, even when Punch! is shut down and later restarted. The user can change a working elevation, switch floors, and when he comes back, the working elevation will return to its base value as explained on the preceding page. Furthermore, basements can be set with a working elevation which corresponds to the basement floor. This has the additional effect of giving the Zero Plane a real meaning, namely that it will now correspond with the top of the basement (lowest floor) floor surface, and all measurements in elevation will thereafter use that reference instead of an abstract, unmarked height in the plan.
Besides the Ceiling Height values, HighRise will deliver a set of measurements, which, if used as described in this document, will yield the desired wall and manual or autofloor measurements. It will give correct values for the roof and top story ceiling elevations. It will optionally add a text table of those measurements to the plan, so they may be consulted as the model design proceeds.
HighRise was initially meant to be executed only once at the beginning of a project to specify the vertical defaults properly. After that, the defaults will remain in effect throughout the project, unless changed manually. Starting in version 2.0.0, however, HighRise now has the ability to optionally scan through an existing design and change the heights, elevations and other parameters of the walls, floors and roof in the project, making them consistent with the user's wishes. Also, the measurements placed on the plan in the first execution of HighRise may optionally add to or replace those from the earlier execution.
Finally, if there are already have floors, walls or roofs in the drawing, HighRise will optionally search them out and make the suggested changes to heights, elevations, and thicknesses (and roof pitches) to bring them in compliance with the specifications. This is done an object at a time, with permission sought for each change, so it may be retracted for anything for which it would not be appropriate (like an exterior retaining wall). All the changes may be logged for later examination.
If more than three floors are specified in the drawing, HighRise will exercise its ability to allow for editing of more than three floors. This is described on the page entitled Phase 4 - Using More than Three Floors. Following that page there is also a tutorial on how HighRise can be used to plan and execute a four-floor building.
I will mention one piece of nomenclature here. Floors (with the capital F) refers to the Punch! Floors 1, 2, or 3. The word "Level" (with the capital L) refers to six "floors" that HighRise allows the user to define and use. When we get to talking about Editing more than three floors in Punch!, the difference will be crucial to understanding the descriptions for these closely related concepts. The Floors are numbered 1 through 3 (in ascending order) and are referred to as Floor 1, etc, while the Levels are numbered 1 through 6 (also in ascending order), but may also be assigned names by the user. Within HighRise the names are used by preference.
Flow control is a bit complicated in HighRise; for that reason, a Flow Control Diagram will be presented here so that it may be referenced in later discussions.
HighRise and the contents of this help file are
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