topic Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations? in Documentation

Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

BulldogBen — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:32:47 GMT

I'm using the "Three-centered Arch Top Window" from the window library. The sills are sticking out in elevations as shown below...

I can't find a setting anywhere that lets me hide the sills in these elevations (unless I over-paint them which I'm trying to avoid). I could just turn them off, but ideally they would appear in 3D.

Any ideas?

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

Barry Kelly — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:45:36 GMT

You can turn the sills off, but they will be off in all 3D and elevation views.

Unfortunately you can't turn them off only when they are viewed side on.

The sills protrude beyond the wall face, so from side on you will see them sticking out.

You could set them so they don't protrude, that way they will still look correct from front on in an elevation.

But they will be wrong in 3D.

You can't win.

If you really don't want to see them from side on, you will have to cover them with a fill, but that could be difficult trying to match the brickwork.

I would say that is how they will look in reality, so leave them as they are.

Barry.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

CosminF — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:50:00 GMT

Hi,

I tried to hide it using MVO, and couldn't. Graphic overrides won't help.

Same issue was expressed here, and again, the answer was: not possible.
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Documentation/How-to-hide-side-window-trim/td-p/277809

Worst case scenario you could try to model them separately on a different layer - which can generate issues of its own.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

BulldogBen — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 12:32:18 GMT

Well found Cosmin, I did try looking before I posted but missed this one.

I appreciate the quick responses, I thought it was an uphill battle. I'm leaning to towards agreeing with Barry that it matches reality so leave it in.

Well when we say matches reality, that would require clearing a flat plane of all obstacles out to infinity then using a camera with infinite zoom to get the same view. Oh and we'd probably best remove all of Earth's air to prevent image distortion - not to mention any pesky planets or galaxies in the way. Don't think I'd be popular 🙂

Seriously though, thanks guys!

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

Patrick M — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 22:49:55 GMT

model them separately as beams.
I know its a bunch of work, but you could have layers for Sills North, Sills East, Sill...
then each elevation has it's own layer combo.
...
there is almost always a way.
the great thing, and trouble with, BIM models... you can't fake it, unless you make things "less BIM"

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

mthd — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 01:46:46 GMT

Yes this is definitely a pain and needs to be fixed and made simple. A turn off sills tab for 3D views and for 2D elevation views could work ? Turning the elevations into 2D drawings doesn’t work if you want to keep the model live. Modelling sills separately takes up much time. 3D BIM takes more time to get the model looking correct but we do it so we can show our clients what the building will realistically look like.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

BulldogBen — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 07:33:29 GMT

I agree that a setting in the windows that allows you to turn the sills off in elevations is the ticket.

There is already a similar setting related to sections.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

Ahmed_K — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 13:02:38 GMT

I get an ispiration from @Patrick M ,

You can place your windows normally, including the sill, then, create a property for facade orientation,

Then assign it to windows and doors, it's already usefull for energy calculations ,

Then with graphic overrides you can hide the window of any facade you want , using the hide contours command

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

mthd — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 02:19:50 GMT

Great tip @Ahmed_K for an energy calculation workflow inside Archicad. I have searched for information on this topic but can’t find much information on it. Probably good for Graphisoft to provide us with a webinar on how to do it ? I am interested in your method but that would need to be put into a tips and tricks part of the forum.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

BulldogBen — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 12:39:19 GMT

I can imagine this working, look forward to trying it when I’m home. I’ll report back.

Thanks so much for everyone’s feedback so far.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

Ahmed_K — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:04:38 GMT

Hi,

Here is the result :

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

BulldogBen — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:41:04 GMT

Wonderful, and I got it working too. If anyone wants a full write-up of how I'm happy to provide it.

@Ahmed_K how is your "Vote d'air" surface setup? I can't get any of mine to show as actually transparent whatever I try. Unless you have transparency on at an elevation level as below, in which case I then get messy details through windows.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

Ahmed_K — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:42:04 GMT

Hi ,

it's an air material, 100% transparent

also , you have to activate the transparency command like you noticed, i forgot to mention that .

also, assign to your window glass an specific surface, before exporting your pdfs , make it 100% opaque, so you can't see through , than set back your transparency settings, this way you have a centralised controle of windows transparency with a minimal effort.

I hope this helps.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

BulldogBen — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:09:44 GMT

Ok, that's finally done it with the window glass changed to opaque.

Ideally this would be done in the elevations graphic overrides, however, so that when navigating the 3D model we can see through the windows. That bit's proving tricky.

Re: Hide window sills in exterior elevations?

Ahmed_K — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:44:45 GMT

with some gdl, you can add a rectangular shape on the interior side of the window , this plane receives an opaque surface to block the view from outside, it could be also controlled by MVO to hide it in 3D window, and show it on elevations ,