Autodesk 00128-051462-9310 User Guide - Page 273

■ when you have not yet decided on the larger structures of your building Elements can be small units like a desk/chair combination or large units like an entire apartment layout or a generic furniture layout. You might use an element as a placeholder until you have more specific information, like placing a generic furniture layout on a office floor or placing a building core with bathrooms, elevator shafts, and heating rooms. You can also define an element that uses other elements as external references in its content. A generic building core element, for example, could contain references for bathroom elements or staircase elements. You can nest external references multiple levels deep. Keep these points in mind when creating elements: ■ An element needs to be referenced into a construct before it can be used for views. ■ An element is re-usable; if you do not need the element more than once in your drawing, create a construct instead. Processing Elements in the Building Project Once you have created and modified a number of elements in your project, you need to decide how to use them further downstream in the project. The following list describes typical uses for elements and where to find additional information: Plan view of furniture layout with highlighted element Use reference an element into a construct reference an element into another element Further Information This is the most frequent use case for an element. A generic element, like a bathroom layout, is referenced into a specific construct, like a floor plan. For more information, see "Referencing Elements into Constructs" on page 225 and "Referencing an Element into Multiple Constructs" on page 226. For example, if you want to have different elements for single cubicles-a 4-cubicle group, and an 8-cubicle group-you could create an element for one cubicle, and reference that four times into the 4-cubicle group element. For more information, see "Referencing an Element into Another Element" on page 239. NOTE When you reference an element into another element, the host element still needs to be referenced into a construct before it can be used for views. reference an element into a plotting sheet convert an element to a construct You can directly reference an element into a plotting sheet. This can be useful for title block elements or the documentation of a detail. If you have created an element, and realize that it shows a unique portion of the building, for example a staircase, you have the option of converting the element into a construct. For more information, see "Converting an Element to a Construct" on page 241. Creating a New Element Use this procedure to create an element. 1 Click Window menu ➤ Project Navigator Palette. 2 Click the Constructs tab. Processing Elements in the Building Project | 233