Object library

Library objects are components with a baked 2D symbol: full geometry in 3D, a clean symbol in plan. Same idea as windows and doors, but for things you place rather than draw.

Insert one

1. Click Object on the toolbar to open the Object palette.
2. Pick a category, then a tile.
3. Click where it goes.

← / →	rotate in 45° steps
Type a number + Enter	exact angle

The object is placed at the floor of the active storey plus its mounting height — a wall-hung WC lands at 400 mm, a basin at 850, a bath on the floor. You never position them vertically by hand.

Placing library objects

Two libraries

System	ships with Archeform, read-only
User	yours, in a folder you choose

Point the user library at a shared drive and the whole office draws from the same set. Only user elements can be deleted.

Making your own

Plugins → Archeform → Create Library Object turns a selection into a library element.

1. Model the object in 3D — a group or a component.
2. Draw its 2D symbol beside it, flat on the ground, and make it a group too.
3. Turn the view the way you want the tile to look — the thumbnail is taken from the current camera.
4. Select both, then Plugins → Archeform → Create Library Object.
5. Fill in name, category, IFC type and mounting height.
6. Click a point on the 3D and the matching point on the symbol so they can be aligned.

The element is saved to your user library and appears as a tile in the Object palette.

Caution

The 3D and the symbol are drawn side by side, so they need a shared reference point, or the symbol would land somewhere else in plan. The click pair gives the most precise result. Insertion point: Bounding box centre in the dialog skips the clicks and aligns centre to centre, which works when the symbol is exactly the footprint of the 3D.

Downloaded components usually carry their own tags. Archeform strips them on a copy of the definition, so your model’s tag structure stays yours and the source file is untouched.

Objects over 10 000 faces get a warning — a library of heavy components will make a full building crawl. It is a warning, not a refusal.

Connection ports

Ports let pipes snap to fixtures. You do not type coordinates — nobody knows where the outlet on a WC is to the millimetre.

1. Insert Connection Port places a marker component.
2. Snap it into position with normal SketchUp inference. Its long arm points outward, in the direction the pipe leaves.
3. Select the object and its markers, then Attach Port.
4. Choose system, catalogue and size.
5. Save Ports writes them back into the library file.

Caution

Without step 5 the port only exists in the open model. Reinsert the object in a new project and it will be gone.

Ports are stored on the component definition, so every instance has them, and they use the same format as the ports on pipe ends — one convention, so the two always meet.

In IFC

The IFC class sits on the definition, since a type is a property of a type. Names and identifiers sit on each instance.

Definitions are deliberately not made unique per instance. Fifty identical chairs share one definition; making each unique would multiply the geometry and bring a large model down.

See also

• Services (MEP)