topic Load-bearing masonry solution in Parametric design

Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 06:29:17 GMT

Is there any parametric object or add-on for ArchiCAD that makes load-bearing masonry? It is great to estimate quantities. There are many for Revit, but I didn't find anything for ArchiCAD so far.
Thanks,

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Podolsky — Wed, 26 May 2021 00:44:05 GMT

I'm not sure it's necessary to model each block and especially brick, as it make model much heavier. You can find some library part objects on BIM objects web-site, that do have model of each block.
There is another way to calculate amount of masonry blocks or bricks - to create expression property, that will calculate amount of blocks based on wall volume and thickness.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Laszlo Nagy — Wed, 26 May 2021 03:37:11 GMT

Based on your screenshots, I think you may be able to use the Curtain Wall tool to model these in Archicad. You would have to create custom panels to represent the bricks.
Another possibility is to use the Archicad-Grasshopper Connection, which can take the geometry of the Wall and you can create a Graph that would parametrically create the load-bearing bricks.

But as Podolsky pointed out, modeling every brick can result in complex models with a large number of polygons, so if you need to do that, you have to take this into consideration as well. In that case, it may be advisable to save a separate PLN file, and model the brick walls only in that file. You could even create an empty project file based on your file, hotlink your model into for reference, then generate the brick walls there.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:53:26 GMT

Podolsky wrote:
There is another way to calculate amount of masonry blocks or bricks - to create expression property, that will calculate amount of blocks based on wall volume and thickness.

Thanks Podolsky, but actually there are different sizes and types of load-bearing blocks on the same wall. See picture above, each color of a block is a unique size or type of block. The expression property calculation works only with traditional bricks, since they are all equal. Not with load-bearing blocks.

I don`t want to model and place each block. I want a parametric solution, like Revit have.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Wed, 26 May 2021 13:08:16 GMT

LaszloNagy wrote:
Based on your screenshots, I think you may be able to use the Curtain Wall tool to model these in Archicad. You would have to create custom panels to represent the bricks.
Another possibility is to use the Archicad-Grasshopper Connection, which can take the geometry of the Wall and you can create a Graph that would parametrically create the load-bearing bricks.

But as Podolsky pointed out, modeling every brick can result in complex models with a large number of polygons, so if you need to do that, you have to take this into consideration as well. In that case, it may be advisable to save a separate PLN file, and model the brick walls only in that file. You could even create an empty project file based on your file, hotlink your model into for reference, then generate the brick walls there.

Thanks Laslo. Yes, it is possible to use Curtain Wall tool do model a load-bearing wall. There is a Youtube video that showed how to do it. But this workaround is very limited, not a proper solution. We need a solution that works for real, not to just presentation.

Load-bearing masonry is the evolution of the traditional masonry. ArchiCAD as a BIM, needs to address it.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Aaron Bourgoin — Wed, 26 May 2021 13:30:21 GMT

have a look at the videos on this subject - block made with curtain wall - by Contrabim. Very useful:

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Wed, 26 May 2021 20:32:36 GMT

Aaron wrote:
have a look at the videos on this subject - block made with curtain wall - by Contrabim. Very useful:

Thanks Aaron. It's a great video, but as I said, Curtain Wall tool isn`t able to deal with all the different sizes of blocks of a Load-bearing masonry. That`s because CW tool uses a fixed size of Scheme along a wall.

Load bearing masonry needs different sizes of blocks (schemes in CW tool)
Normal block - 1 scheme
T block - 1 +1/2 scheme
1/2 block - 1/2 scheme
3/4 block - 3/4 scheme
See images below where I need to use different sizes of blocks.
In the video, you can see that he didn`t place any door/windows on the wall masonry option. That's because he can`t do it with CW tool.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Wed, 26 May 2021 22:22:57 GMT

I think it is doable. You just need to duplicate the joints were you want to cut.
Also you can "push-pull" them back to make the T's.
All the 3/4 schemes, 1/2 scheme etc can be configured by either duplicating or moving joints.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Wed, 26 May 2021 23:11:07 GMT

ejrolon wrote:
I think it is doable. You just need to duplicate the joints were you want to cut.
Also you can "push-pull" them back to make the T's.
All the 3/4 schemes, 1/2 scheme etc can be configured by either duplicating or moving joints.

Thanks Eduardo. Very Interesting! But I don`t find "joints". Do you mean Junctions? Could you please elaborate it? Thank you.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 27 May 2021 02:01:46 GMT

The mortar joints are frames in CW.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Thu, 27 May 2021 13:03:57 GMT

ejrolon wrote:
The mortar joints are frames in CW.

I see, thank you for your help.
But too much hassle. Not worth it.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 27 May 2021 15:19:46 GMT

Curious as to why it is a hassle?
- CW is part of AC so no extra cost
- It only took me less than a minute to place the door and edit the CMUs
- Once the first Scheme is done then you can save it as a Favorite
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Is it that the other plugins automatically create and select the CMUs once you place an opening?

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Aaron Bourgoin — Thu, 27 May 2021 15:48:25 GMT

I liked ContraBIM's video because I learned more about pattern editing with blocks as the example than I ever did from a Graphisoft video. I've got a complex tower facade (actually 2) that I will finally get to apply some of what I learned. Looking forward.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 27 May 2021 16:00:08 GMT

On another note the original screenshot from RVT indicates that the wall is a Curtain Wall too.
So now I am more confused as to why using the CW tool in AC is too much hassle.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 27 May 2021 16:07:24 GMT

Aaron wrote:
I liked ContraBIM's video because I learned more about pattern editing with blocks as the example than I ever did from a Graphisoft video. I've got a complex tower facade (actually 2) that I will finally get to apply some of what I learned. Looking forward.

You should have seen Laszlo's presentation during ARCHINTENSIVE 2021

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Thu, 27 May 2021 18:04:24 GMT

ejrolon wrote:
On another note the original screenshot from RVT indicates that the wall is a Curtain Wall too.
So now I am more confused as to why using the CW tool in AC is too much hassle.

Thanks Eduardo. You are right, the Revit exemple above is made with their CW Tool, I just notice it by you.
I had an idea, I will use the CW tool in a different way to deal with the multiple sizes of blocks in the running bond intersections. I will test it and return you.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 27 May 2021 19:43:29 GMT

Electric Flute,

I will also be interested in the solution you come up with.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 27 May 2021 19:57:51 GMT

I would also like to know about those RVT add-ons.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Electric Flute — Sat, 29 May 2021 14:21:49 GMT

LaszloNagy wrote:
Electric Flute,

I will also be interested in the solution you come up with.

As the first (odd) row blocks differ from the second (even) row blocks, the load-bearing masonry project needs 2 plan views (1st row view and 2nd row view). Therefore, I created 2 CWs for the same wall, each CW in a unique layer for each Plan Views. One CW starts on the first row and another CW starts on the second row in between. With this method I model the wall like the real world and solved the following need:
- 2 Plan Views of each row. (1st row view and 2nd row view)
- There is no need to always delete intersection and corner blocks from the running bond masonry

Ok so far. But I got trouble in one display situation, I think it is a ArchiCAD bug: One of the CW don`t show it properly on plan view, because of the "Floor Plan Cut Plane". No matter what I do, the CW don't show as projected top view. So, this stopped me so far.

Re: Load-bearing masonry solution

Eduardo Rolon — Sat, 29 May 2021 20:28:21 GMT

That line happens when you have two of the same object occupying the same space. If I am correct then moving one of the CWs should fix it.
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On the other point you don't need 2 CWs to have different rows. The Contrabim video shows how to do it.