topic Classification of composite walls in Project data & BIM

Classification of composite walls

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 07:56:04 GMT

Hi,

Why is it impossible to classificate composite walls by layers? Is it any used method for this? Do ARCHICAD developers think about to make an option to explode composite walls in order to make it possible to classificate it by layers? Thank you for your response in advance!

Re: Classification of composite walls

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 15:07:48 GMT

Good question. It would seem useful and natural to be able to do that. I guess this is just something that has not been implemented yet in ARCHICAD.
I wonder how difficult it can be since each skin of a Composite or Complex element needs to be considered separately. There are cases where this is already done, for example, in Component Schedules, in Partial Structure Display modes, when saving Component separately during IFC Export.
(There are many other things that would be great to have on a component-basis, like Renovation Statuses, or ability to edit each skin geometry separately, etc.)

I think you should make a wish about this, then post its link here.

Re: Classification of composite walls

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 20:04:29 GMT

Dear Laszlo,

Thank you for your response. I've made this wish and the link is here:

https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=59733

Re: Classification of composite walls

stefan — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 10:10:45 GMT

FWIW, this is not possible for now. A "workaround" of sorts is to ensure that the building materials as referenced in each skin in the composite has an ID that you may use to filter and classify.

Re: Classification of composite walls

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 09:38:13 GMT

Interesting point. I replayed under wish with kind of existing solution. I hope I will help.

Re: Classification of composite walls

agroni — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 19:02:44 GMT

Based on the IFC 2x3 and IFC 4 Scheme a wall is an IfcWall of IfcWallStandardCase.
You cannot do a separate classification for each layer of the composition since we are defining geometries here.
But the IfcWallStandardCase has a relation for embedded materials. Here is a quote from the Schema Text:

As an additional use agreement for standard walls, the IfcWallType should have a unique IfcMaterialLayerSet, that is referenced by the IfcMaterialLayerSetUsage assigned to all occurrences of this IfcWallType

But where is this in Archicad and how can it be embedded, I have so far no idea. I never came accross this subject so I would need to do more research.

Re: Classification of composite walls

stefan — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 12:00:40 GMT

This is done in the backend of ARCHICAD. Every wall with "normal" geometry and no funny connections will become an IfcWallStandardCase, which requires an extruded profile and than a MaterialLayerSet (list of layers having material and thickness).

This is not supported with complex geometry walls (complex profiles, Solid Element Operations, Priority Based Connections) and than an IfcWall is used, which does not support MaterialLayerSet.

Materials are really underused with current IFC implementations IMHO.

Re: Classification of composite walls

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 07:31:32 GMT

Little update. It is possible in AC22 to export Wall breaked in Building Materials. The composite layer is classified as IfcBuildingElementPart class.

Re: Classification of composite walls

PeterPetersen — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 23:34:26 GMT

4.5 years forward -> am I right that in AC26 we cannot assign any custom parameters to the individual skins of composites ( IfcBuildingElementParts )?

Re: Classification of composite walls

Jaime-airc_digital — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:35:08 GMT

That is what properties in building materials are meant for. You can even define expressions and mappings like with the rest of the properties.

Re: Classification of composite walls

Christian Muntean — Tue, 13 May 2025 08:14:40 GMT

only Partially. If you have a Composite Wall with a Concrete Layer and an insulation Layer and you would for Example want to add parameters only to the concrete layer. By doing it on a material Level you would need every possible combination of a Concrete type as a seperate Material (Reinforcement per Volume (positive Number), Strength Class (~ 10 Possibilities) and Exposure Class (~ 10 Possibilities) )

Having (positive Number)*10*10 Material Instances is not realistic. That´s the important part, we want the same material applied to the Wall Layer with different Parameters for that Material within the Wall Layer, not within the Material itself.

Betreff: Classification of composite walls

Christian Muntean — Fri, 16 May 2025 12:51:10 GMT

Hi everyone, please check out the newest wish which I submitted. It is essentially exactly the same as this one, but a little more precisely described. Feedl free to vote on that wish and share with your colleagues/local Archicad resellers, thanks!

Here´s the wish:
Classification on Composite Layers and Complex Pro... - Graphisoft Community