topic radial distorted fill in Modeling

radial distorted fill

mIRage66 — Wed, 24 May 2023 06:47:00 GMT

can't believe it took me years to realize that archicad actually has a way to make a proper radial fill... - very useful in many situations, for example when trying to draw radial stone paving

here i've seen it mentioned only in an old post discussing undocumented improvements in ac15...

the method is a classic AC workaround

the documentation says:
A fourth option is the Radial Distorted Fill construction method, with which you can graphically adjust the vector’s radial distortion. This is available only for a selected symbol Fill and only if:
•the symbol fill was used as a skin of a composite structure; and
•the skin’s Fill Orientation was defined as Fit to Skin in the Composite Structures dialog box; and
•you have selected this symbol fill after exploding a curved composite wall.
...

sounds complicated, but what this actually allows is that you make your own radial fill:
1. draw a hatch pattern yourself with lines (can be over an existing hatch that you want to make radial) and be careful that it can multiply seamlessly - then select & copy
2. go to element attributes - FILLS, make a new SYMBOL fill - paste the pattern here and be sure that the CUT fill is checked
3. go to BUILDING MATERIALS - make a new material with a this new fill as a 2D representation and as fill orientation select FIT TO SKIN
4. draw a wall with this material, make it radial and use the wall to roughly fill the area you need to be hatched
5. explode the wall(s) and adjust

(this is the way to do it with a new custom hatch - of course it's possible to use the existing symbol fills - just be sure they are cut fills)

sure it's not ideal, takes a lot of tinkering and adjusting the scale of the fills/materials but i think this is amazing...
it's also amazing that a program has a feature like this hidden so well
maybe there's a proper stairmaker out there, accessed through a series of keyboard shortcuts...

Re: radial distorted fill

Dontknow — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 05:32:16 GMT

Thnx for you info!

Re: radial distorted fill

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 05:48:36 GMT

I can't figure it out.
after 6 years of archicad i wanted to do it right. bit even with the text explanaition i can't figure it out.

i searched for video's but can't find it.
Can someone help. maybe that Archicad (youtube) have made a video or can make a video for this?

Re: radial distorted fill

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 06:28:18 GMT

Dear GuillaumeArchicad, you need to take closer attention to what mIrage66 wrote.
Only if you make a composite with the building material and construct the wall with composite it will distort the fill / fit it to the skin!

mIRage66 wrote:
A fourth option is the Radial Distorted Fill construction method, with which you can graphically adjust the vector’s radial distortion. This is available only for a selected symbol Fill and only if:
•the symbol fill was used as a skin of a composite structure; and
•the skin’s Fill Orientation was defined as Fit to Skin in the Composite Structures dialog box; and
•you have selected this symbol fill after exploding a curved composite wall.