topic Re: Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles in Modeling

Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles

caconog — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:14:42 GMT

Hey everyone, I'm having a problem that I believe could be solved with adjustments in the Profile Manager.

The issue I'm facing is that we model very close to reality for highly detailed quantity take-offs. Also, our projects have many facade details that require either interrupting the composite wall to override certain parts for painting reasons, or for window details, etc.

The problem is that to achieve this, we would have to create many walls with complex profiles just for paint variations. For example: the bottom part of the wall is gray, the middle is black, and the top is gray again. And sometimes we need to change the colors or compositions of the bottom part when we have waterproofing or a change in ceramic blocks. If we click to override the surface of the profile, whether it's made with a beam or a wall, Archicad will paint the entire profile.

To solve this problem, I thought of a solution that could follow the same logic as profile modifiers, where we can increase or decrease the thickness of layers. We could have modifiers applied to the surface (e.g., create a surface modifier 1, surface modifier 2, and surface modifier 3, where by selecting the wall, I can change the surface of these profile sections individually). And also modifiers for the material of the profile section (e.g., currently I use a wall with more layers than I need, with waterproofing layers or paint layers that I sometimes zero out to make them disappear, or I use a positive value for them to appear).

I imagine that with the possibility of having a surface modifier and a building material modifier, it would make the beam and wall tools very powerful, allowing incredible flexibility for both modeling and model quality for certain quantity take-off workflows.

Re: Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles

Barry Kelly — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 01:16:51 GMT

If you override the surface of a complex profile, it will override the entire wall surface as you have discovered.

There are 2 ways to add separate materials to a complex profile edge.

1 is to add nodes to the fill edge and then you can edit the material for each segment.

2 is to add individual fills for each segment.

And as you have discovered, adding modifiers to the edges allows you to resize the height of the segments.

Add modifiers to the width as well and if you embed the start of the fill in the main wall, when set to zero width it will become hidden.

To actuall change the materials you will need to make multiple profiles.

Or use 'dummy' materials (material 1, material 2, etc), that you can then replace in the Attribute Manager with actual materials (this can get messy though).

Barry.

Re: Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles

caconog — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 12:04:08 GMT

Barry, thank you very much for your response. I've been using surface override by plot segments, and it serves me well. However, I have to create different compositions for different wall types. For example, if I have a wall with a facade detail featuring three colors, as I mentioned, I need several complex profiles to work with the detail using color "A," color "B," and color "C." In addition to this, I need a specific profile type for ceramic blocks that are 9cm, 11.5cm, 14cm, and 19cm.

Additionally, I have areas that are just plaster (for which I need to list the layers like scratch coat, plaster, sealer, plaster skim coat, first coat of paint, second, and third coats). In this regard, I need a different type for each block type I use. If the paint detail changes, I'd also need a new type. And if the internal composition or the interior room paint changes, I'd need another, because I can't overlay different parts.

With this intelligent profile, I would only need to change the core thickness from 9cm to 14cm and change the material modifier for the 14cm block. If paint "A," "B," or "C" changes, I can alter them to "D," "E," or "F." Alternatively, if it's not internal paint but ceramic tile, I can also change a material and surface modifier and switch the paint for ceramic tile, etc.

Not limited to walls, these properties could serve for an infinite number of possibilities, such as floors, low walls with drip edges, and situations involving waterproofing.

Re: Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles

Charlie64 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:04:46 GMT

I'm not sure if this would be helpful, but what I would do is make different wall composites to control the thickness and then stack shorter walls on another. Then it is possible to change the thickness rather quickly, and overwriting the colours.

Re: Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles

rakurs — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:33:47 GMT

This method opens another can of worms as it is rather tiresome to put doors and windows into walls that are segmented. You would need manual openings, and reveals themselves are very complicated "as is," and often times some things are not achievable in empty door / window openings.

Re: Material and Surface Control in Complex Profiles

rakurs — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:36:20 GMT

Complex profile as an intelligent object with more modifiers (pens, linetypes, surfaces, building materials...) would really be game-changing in some situations. Currently, only geometric modifiers are available. You should check if there is a wish on the wishlist and create one, I would certainly upvote it.