topic Re: Wall reference line location in Parametric design

Wall reference line location

Czaja — Thu, 11 May 2023 09:07:13 GMT

Is there a way to control wall reference line location through grasshopper? I wanted to use the same curve for creating a slab underneath the wall. Without specification of the wall position towards curve, the slab is too small.

Re: Wall reference line location

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 12:42:42 GMT

Try this:
In ARCHICAD, create a Favorite from a Wall with the desired Wall Reference Line Location.
Then in Grasshopper use the Favorites Node to get this Favorite and connect its output to the Wall Settings Input of the ARCHICAD Wall Node.
Please note that (as far as I know) the Grasshopper Add-On does not modify elements in ARCHICAD the way ARCHICAD modifies elements. It always deletes the previously generated instance and generates a new instance in its place. (This is interesting only if you for example dimension a GH-generated Wall in ARCHICAD. If you then modify the Wall from GH, the dimension will disappear - unless it was a static dimension - since it was associated with the previous instance of the GH-generated Wall.)

Re: Wall reference line location

Czaja — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 01:32:30 GMT

Thank you. I will check this workaround. However, I am Rhino & Grasshopper user firstly and I am testing this plugin to see if it can make my life easier. I can't understand why there is no 3-way toggle in the Wall Settings component in Grasshopper. Can any of developers write something about it?

Re: Wall reference line location

Czaja — Sat, 02 Feb 2019 19:27:26 GMT

Dear LaszloNagy,
Unfortunately, your tip with favorites doesn't work for me. I created favorites with different Reference Line Location and of course, it works inside Archicad for native and Grasshopper walls (until I change Grasshopper curve, then it resets).
When I connect Favorite component to Wall Settings it changes wall types and all that but does nothing in terms of location towards curve.

Is there anyone who successfully overcome this challenge?

Re: Wall reference line location

leceta — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 15:48:49 GMT

+1 !

Re: Wall reference line location

Daniel Kovacs — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 11:09:23 GMT

Hi,

Yeah, this is on our to-do list, and we want to get to it this year (task #211580) - hopefully by the time ARCHICAD 23 comes out. The reason it hasn't been developed so far, is that at first it seems easy, but translating the same settings you have in ARCHICAD to GH is not so obvious when you take a closer look. We are currently designing a new GH component that should let you choose the position of the Reference Line.

Until then, the way it works is that it will always have the reference line on the center of the wall. Here are 2 options I like:

Offset the curve in GH by half the width of the wall. This way the edge should align.
Save the composite as a complex profile instead. Complex Profiles are always extruded along their origin, so you can simply place the origin wherever you want the reference line to be. I personally prefer this method.

Let me know if this helped!

Regards,

Re: Wall reference line location

Joe Putnam — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 18:22:52 GMT

dkovacs wrote:

Complex Profiles are always extruded along their origin, so you can simply place the origin wherever you want the reference line to be.

I am using this now and the pain point is that you have to manipulate the profile in AC and if you need a few different insertion points you need several profiles. This is just not intelligent design in my opinion.

It would be extremely useful to not only be able to create profiles on the fly in grasshopper but also be able to manipulate this origin on the fly as well. As far as beams and columns are concerned an integer value of 1-9 has been useful in other software for standard placement of these items and this would also be useful here.

Re: Wall reference line location

Joel Koilpillai — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:03:11 GMT

First of all, great job doing this cooperation with Grasshopper.

Second, has this issue been solved?

Re: Wall reference line location

k_lis — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 13:47:41 GMT

Hi Daniel!

I stumbled upon this thread because I have noticed the same problem that the placement of the Archicad wall in relation to the input curve in Rhino/Grasshopper seems to always just be in the middle. The 'Wall Settings' component doesn't seem to contain a Reference line position functionality. Has this issue been solved or addressed anyhow? Can we expect it to be addressed at some point still? 🙂

Kind regards

Katarzyna Lis