Phase 4 - Using More Than Three Floors

Punch! long has had the limitation that it could only provide three floors to the users. This is somewhat a misconception (as the article The Ten Commandments of Punch! Basics points out); what Punch! actually provides is three sets of drawings per single file, each set consisting in nine separate "feature" drawings. What ties these three sets together is that they are laid out in a common place, tied to the same piece of the earth's surface, so the three are identically registered. By design they have a link through the vertical, as well, which makes them convenient to use to represent different horizontal planes through the structure.

However, there are only the three. It is certainly possible to draw in a single Punch! file a 12-floor building, but there are two problems with doing so. Since every object has its own elevation, the Punch! Floors and their contents are not necessarily bound together. It is possible for an object on Floor 1 to be elevated so that it actually occurs (in LiveView) above the roof, but the plan will show it on Floor 1. The floor plan in each of the three Punch! floors will hold multiple real floors. Unless they have identical wall plans, though, the appearance on the plan will have all the floors jumbled together, with no way to tell where an object in the plan is vertically. The other problem is that Punch! gives each floor a way to define the elevation of a new object, but only one way, so all objects newly drawn on the plan will reside at only one elevation, and they will have to be edited individually to set them where they should actually go.

(As we noted earlier, to alleviate some of the confusion, the word "Floors" with a capital 'F' hereafter will stand for one or all of the three Punch!-provided floors; the word "Levels" will mean one of the six HighRise-provided level plans.)

What TKE has done is to provide for six Levels in place of Punch!'s three Floors. At any given time, two of those Levels are displayed in two of Punch!'s floors (Floor 2 and 3), where they can be edited and handled normally. All the remaining Levels' objects are kept in Punch! Floor 1, jumbled together as we noted they would be above. HighRise then provides a way to easily swap the levels about. Suppose there are four building levels in the design, named "Basement", "Main Floor", "Upper floor", and "Study", which is located above the bedroom floor on a fourth floor of the building. First the user describes the vertical design to HighRise, just as From the Ground Up does, but four levels are declared instead of the former maximum of three. Thereafter, HighRise allows for displaying any two of those floors on Punch! Floors 2 and 3, with all the rest gathered on Floor 1. The intent is that floor data on Floor 1 is never edited; it is simply stored there. Only on Floors 2 and 3 is editing really allowed, and HighRise easily switches between the following situations:

The sharp cookie will immediately ask, "Why can't I edit the Basement and the Study in the two editable floors at the same time?", and the answer is that, sure, it would be possible to do that, but it would cause problems when an object is moved from one floor to the floor above or below that floor using the commands Edit->Copy/Move to Floor..., if the floors were out of order. There are other places in Punch! where the floor ordering is assumed (see the Tutorial below for an example with the Roof Designer). Keeping them in order works better, and so HighRise enforces that. As an additional result of that action, Punch! will not allow the highest level shown in the list to be on Floor Two; only the next-to-the-highest floor or below is allowed on Floor Two, thereby placing the highest on Floor Three.

HighRise maps all objects in the three Floors to Levels in the HighRise scheme. The first order of business, then, if this is the first time HighRise is in use and there are more than three levels declared and there are objects on the floors, is to map those objects into your levels. The usual circumstance is that everything on the three Floors that exists when HighRise is used for the first time map to the same numbered level: the first Floor to first Level, second Floor to second Level, and third Floor to third Level, and your fourth and higher Levels are empty as yet. But, it might be that you are adding a sub-basement rather than a new attic level (or both), so that assignments will be different; say, 1F->2L, 2F->3L and 3F->4L. HighRise gives the option of doing this one-time shuffling to get things where they need to go.

Note this is a one-time option to assign Levels to the existing objects in your design, and all the objects on each Floor will be assigned to a single Level. There can be no picking and choosing objects here to go to different levels. Later on, you can use the Punch! Edit->Move to Floor->Upper/Lower Floor command to move individual objects up or down levels, as described here. Also, all unassigned objects (and that's all objects, when HighRise is first executed) must be assigned to a level, even if it is the usual one described above. This dialog box will not let you go until all objects are assigned.

On the left are buttons for the Floors to be assigned - there are only two possibilities, the 1st Floor and the Floors 2 and 3 together; on the right is a listbox containing the names of all the Levels. The buttons will only be active if there are any objects on that Floor(s) needing to be assigned. To assign, select a Floor and the associated Level, and click the Assign button. The assignment will be made, and that radio button will no longer be available for use (since there are no longer unassigned objects on that floor). Again, the usual process would be to assign all objects on the first floor to the first level, and the objects on the second (and third) floors to the second (and third) levels.

Later in Punch!, any object created on Floor 2 or Floor 3 will be automatically added to the Levels that are currently assigned to those Floors. For example, if Floor 3 is assigned to Level 5, then an object created on Floor 3 will automatically be assigned to Level 5. It is not recommended that any new objects ever be created on Floor 1 in a plan where HighRise is in use, because the first Floor is never assigned to a Level; it always contains all the objects not on the Levels assigned to Floor 2 and 3, so avoid adding or editing objects on the first Floor. If any new objects are later found on the first Floor a warning will be issued (the next time HighRise is called to swap floors) and the object will be assigned to the first Level, and will have to be moved up one Level at a time if it should have been on some other Level, a slow, cumbersome process. Note once again that Floors 2 and 3 are assigned together; the object on Floor 2 will go to the selected level, and those on Floor 3 will automatically go to the level above that. When all the objects have been mapped to levels, the dialog will be changed so as to appear like this:

Having assigned all the objects, we can now proceed with Floor swapping. Choose the Level that will be transferred to Punch! Floor 2 from the list of Levels. The Level just above that (physically) will be displayed in the Floor 3 display, indicating that choosing the level appearing on Floor 2 automatically chooses the one on Floor 3 as well. The top level for Floor 2 will not be able to be selected, as we spoke of above.

There are a pair of checkboxes giving access to a couple of options. The top checkbox has the legend Generate reminder to set ceiling heights in Punch!. Remembering back, the Punch! ceiling height is used to establish each floor's default working elevation, which determines the elevation of any newly created objects. Without setting this value for the Floor to be edited and all the Floors below it, a newly created object may wind up anywhere vertically. It may need to be set for any of the real floors any time we swap levels around, but unfortunately, the PowerTool interface allows for no way to do that, so the user has to do it. If the checkbox is left checked and the ceiling height changes with a floor swap, then a text message will be generated in the center of the current floor, current plan in large text (as shown to the left), reminding the user that the ceiling height on one or more Floors needs to be set to the values given in the message. The user can use that information to set the heights, and then delete the text from the floor by selecting it and pressing the DEL key. If it is not deleted, it will automatically be deleted anyway at the next floor swap. The reminder will not appear, obviously, if the checkbox is unchecked; it is checked by default.

One further quirk. Punch! doesn't allow a ceiling height to be less than 12", so one can't go all the way to zero as the program might wish to do in certain circumstances. Since that's the case, it recommends the minimum of 12" for the first floor, and subtracts that amount from the second floor height to compensate. Since the user isn't supposed to be creating objects on the first floor anyway, this has no effect on the final results. If the user should place an object of Floor 1, however, it will float in the air 12" above the floor due to this problem, which of course can be changed with a re-elevation of the object. Another reason to stick to the rules!

Remember, if the warning is turned off and the ceiling height not reset, then objects created on that floor may be at any elevation above or below where they should be set. They are, of course, easily reset to any given elevation, but it is much more convenient when they are properly elevated from the start.

In the middle on the left is a list of the assignable floors and the Ceiling Heights that need to be assigned to each floor for correct elevations, given the current choice of Level is swapped in. The numbers that are in red indicate that they are different from the existing heights for those Floors, and so will need to be changed. A reminder to that effect will be issued if reminders are turned on, as described two paragraphs above.

The buttons at the bottom of the Swap dialog control what happens afterwards. Swap proceeds to cause the requested floor swap to occur; No Swap causes any requested swap to be ignored, but other edits will be performed. The Cancel button immediately ends HighRise without entering any of the edits down in this session. The Back to design button is discussed below under Maintenance.

After a couple of swaps, a user could easily get lost and not be able to remember which floors are available for editing, and which are not. The second checkbox, Show level hint window, allows for a small "hint" window next to the Punch! plan tabs that keeps the user posted on which levels are assigned to which Floors. It looks like this:

This window is displayed whenever the user checks off the box requesting such in the Level Selection dialog. It is always on top, so using the Punch! editing window doesn't affect its visibility, and it has no further use beside simply displaying the two active level names, so it can be deleted without effect by clicking on its red "X" checkbox at any time. It will automatically be redisplayed when the next level change is made, if the checkbox requesting it is left on. It may, in fact, continue on even after Punch! is exited; the user will then need to close it when finished with Punch!.

After the floors have been set up the way the user desires them to be, one of two things will happen. If the floors were already setup the way the user requests, the Swap button will be grayed out, and a No Swap or Cancel is appropriate. If there really is a change to be made and the Swap button pressed, then the PowerTool will martial the instructions it needs to send to Punch! and close the HighRise dialog, sending the changes to be done. Punch! will start making the floor changes, which may be extensive and take a minute or two to accomplish, depending on the complexity of the drawing. While it is doing this, in Punch! version 8, a normal arrow cursor is shown, rather than an hourglass - this is an error in Punch!, fixed in later versions. It may still be working on the changes. If it is and the plan is clicked on, it will display a dialog which explains that a PowerTool is still in operation. Click No. That will have no effect on operations - Punch! will continue making the changes. When Punch! is done with the changes, it will take over normal operations again. The screen may flash briefly when this happens; that is the only indication that it is ready for input, in version 8.

Level Maintenance

We have described the process that takes place the first time HighRise is used to plan and setup a Punch! model. After the first time it is understood that the user usually wants to simply swap floors. Therefore, after the first use, HighRise will automatically go directly to the Floor Swapping window above, if the design has more than three levels defined. If the user wants to edit the level names or any of the planned values or vertical configuration data, the Back to Design button will display the vertical measurement editing windows.

If a level is deleted that had assigned objects, a popup will ask the user which Level they want the objects reassigned to. Just select a Level or select the Delete them option and click on OK.

If a model is setup with HighRise, and then Punch! is exited normally, when Punch! is restarted with the model later, everything is as it was when Punch! was closed. The floors display window will not become available until HighRise is invoked for a swap; even if there is not swap indicated, the window will then be displayed.

Always, after changing levels, visit the two open levels on floors 3 and 4 and make sure what you expect to be there is really there. HighRise is a complex tool, and there have been a few cases where all the items have wound up on the 1st floor, and lost their levels. In this case, backups are your best friend, and fortunately, Punch! can take care of that for you (if you have correnct options set; see "Most Important Tip"). Most basicly, simply undoing "HighRise" will make things as they were before calling HighRise.

In summary, then, The Rules to be followed while in Punch! with HighRise Levels in use:

• Once you have started using HighRise with more then three floors, never edit Floor 1 of your plan; edit only on Floor 2 and Floor 3. Use the hint window (shown above) to remember what Levels you are editing on these two Floors. Yes, it can be frustrating to have to look at the current Floor number, and then the hint window to see what Level is on that Floor which you are currently editing. Don't guess.
• Whenever you need to move an object to a different level, you can only move it up one level if it is on the Level assigned to the Second Floor, and you can only move it down one Level if it is on the level assigned to the Third Floor. Punch! won't keep you from moving it to Floor 1, but the Level won't then change. Moving multiple Levels will require alternately moving to the next floor up or down, and then swapping to the next level up or down to make the next step. Yes, it is cumbersome, but required by the way Punch! and HighRise must work together.
• If you have just used HighRise to swap the floors, look for the reminder message in the center of the current plan and Floor. If there is a bold message in the middle of the plan, then do as it says: pull down Design->Default Ceiling Heights, set to the value(s) given, and click OK. Then delete the message in the plan. That will set it up so that newly created objects have the correct elevation for the Level they are on by default. You can skip this step (and simply delete the message) only if you are not going to create any objects or you will set their elevations manually.
• When you decide to print your plans, you will need to use HighRise to draw out two of the Levels at a time onto Floors 2 and 3 and print them from there, just as you would for any other operation, and then swap to other floors to be printed in turn.

HighRise and the contents of this help file are
Copyright©2006 by ThistleKeep Engineering; all rights are reserved.
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"Punch!" and other titles of Punch! operations are trademarks of Punch! Software L.L.C.
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