topic Re: End caps for lines and polylines in Documentation

End caps for lines and polylines

Mickor85 — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:33:37 GMT

We need an option to edit the shape of line and polyline end caps. I believe this is an issue that has already been raised ( wish #12512 if I'm not mistaken )

This is an essential thing and it shouldn't be too difficult to do.

One way of doing it is adding shape selection option to marker menu.

Or it could be done the way AutoCAD does it - by adding thickness setting to polyline itself along with placement options - inside, outside, center.

Operating system used: Windows 11

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:40:45 GMT

I am assuming you are talking about the arrowheads at the start and end of lines, arcs, polylines.

In Ac29, a new feature is the ability to specify a different arrowhead type for either end.

If I understand correctly, you would like the ability to set any type of custom 2D geometry (a 2D library part, in essence) for each of the two ends.

If this is what you want, you should head to the Wishlist and make a wish for it. People then can vote so the Graphisoft Product team can have an idea of how much demand there is for such a feature:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/idb-p/wishlist

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

runxel — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:10:46 GMT

@Laszlo Nagy I'm pretty sure @Mickor85 talks about the literal line end cap controlling the shape (round or square), which can be universally set in about every other program than Archicad. It's indeed a long standing wish, but I guess it has been lost due to the last wish list cleaning.

See Illustrator for example:

The heavier the line the more one will observe the negative side effect of the forced round corners and end caps in Archicad, making drawings look sloppy.

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Mickor85 — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:40:57 GMT

@Laszlo Nagy , I did not mean the arrows although this could be one of the ways to implement those changes. @runxel was corrext to point out what I was talking about and that other software seems to have it covered.

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:03:55 GMT

@runxel wrote:

@Laszlo Nagy I'm pretty sure @Mickor85 talks about the literal line end cap controlling the shape (round or square), which can be universally set in about every other program than Archicad.

After doing some research, I need to push back on this generalization.

Yes, Rhino 8 has this feature (new feature in Rhino 8, called Cap Style), and SketchUp as well (called Stroke Style).

AutoCAD (as well as BricsCAD) has such a feature but it is only when plotting, and in your Model View, you do not see the result, you see rounded line ends, just like in the BIM apps.

BIM applications generally do not have it.

Revit doesn't have it.

Vectorworks doesn't have it.

Allplan doesn't have it.

Anyway, there is an existing wish for this in the Wishlist:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/Pen-width-offset-and-corner-display/idi-p/665343

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

runxel — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:46:20 GMT

Apparently in Vectorworks it is indeed possible with custom line types:

In the end it's needed no matter which other app already does it or not.

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Patrick M — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:03:59 GMT

Imagine, Archicad having a feature that has been requested for almost as long as I've been using it (over 2 decades now) that Revit, Vectorworks, Allplan, Bentley, etc. etc. don't have!
TBH though, rounded vector junctions/ends is just a graphic that anyone not using flat cad has just been used to by now. At first, it seemed like a really important graphic; but much like "never issue redundant drawings" became obsolete once redundancy was accounted for via model based documentation, rounded line ends just doesn't matter that much.
I say embrace the graphics that the tool gives you. If you want it to look like you drew it by hand, draw it by hand. If you want it to look like you drew it in autocad, draw it in autocad. This is archicads (and most bim) unique graphic output...

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:17:16 GMT

That is still not "every other program".

As for how much demand there is for the feature: the wish was posted over 14 months ago, 10 votes in total.

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Patrick M — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:21:28 GMT

a lot of this stuff is years (decades) older than the current forum structure, let alone the wishlist threads...
I know its a random tangent, but how long have bMats been around, and they still don't work reliably and consistently between anything but walls and slabs!?
...
I just don't think we can judge the demand for a feature based solely on the "likes" of an obscure thread on this platform.
I remember bringing the line end shapes back in about 2010 when my employer who was new to Archicad asked about it. No idea where that post on the old forum ever went to.

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:40:44 GMT

Well, we can compare wishes only to other wishes that were active for about the same length of time and see how many votes each have.

Or we can compare wishes with about the same number of votes and check how long they have been active.

Like a 1-week old wish about Search fields everywhere in the UI - it already has 11 votes.

I just checked: the Top 100 Top Voted wishes all have more than 40 votes. That is also a point of reference.

Re: End caps for lines and polylines

Lingwisyer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 01:17:17 GMT

A lot of very long term wishes disappeared with the Great Cull and Great Cull 2.0... There is also the fact that all of the wishes from the Talk forums basically got reset if they even got migrated...