Creating a Contour Line with Magic Wand

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to create a site contour.

- I've placed a DWG of a site contour as a worksheet.
- I made that Worksheet to Show As Trace Reference.
- On the Ground Floor, I drew a rectangular mesh following the boundary of the site.
- I selected the newly drawn mesh, activated the Mesh tool and made sure the Geometry Method was set to Polygonal.
- I held spacebar to activate the Magic Wand and clicked on one of the contour lines of the Trace Reference.
- A window to Add New Points appears and I click OK.
- No new nodes appear and nothing happens.

What am I doing wrong?

[Anonymous]

I've been having exactly the same problem. I am learning Archicad so it is difficult to solve this without knowing the ins and outs of the software.

I am following the Graphisoft Training Videos but am using Archicad Solo V20, so maybe the videos are outdated now.

I have found (as the other posts mention) that this method did work with the full version 19, however does not with V20 solo as you can not import XREFs. So you are stuck with importing using the Drawing Tool then merging.

The problem I now have is that the magic wand tool is only recognising parts of the contour line and not the full lines. It seems erratic to me. This worked fine with V19, what do I need to do?

[Barry Kelly]

You can either place the DWG with the 'Drawing Tool' found in the tool bar and then 'explode' it or you can 'Merge' the DWG form the 'FILE menu > External Content' - the you won't need to explode.

Either way you should end up with the DWG in you plan and you should be able to 'Magic Wand' the contour lines.
However those lines need to be continuous with no gaps (no matter how small).

Can you post a screen shot of the contour you are trying to magic wand or better still also post a link to the original DWG file?

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Hi Barry,

Thanks for your reply - I have found that the problem was with the way I was using the tool. If I moused over, then waited for the line to highlight, then clicked, it would only ever pick up part of the line. However, I discovered that if I just click the line straight away, it does select the whole line. I am sure I didn't have this issue with the trial full version of V19. However, it seems like a slight tweak in V20 Solo, however no problem now, just as long as you know to click the line straight away!

Thanks,

T23

[Da3dalus]

TIP TO REMEMBER:
You must EXPLODE a DWG Linked Drawing before you can use the MAGIC WAND to trace it!

Thank you all for the explanation here. I've used ArchiCAD for 20 years, and traced DWG contours on to a Mesh a dozen times, but I forgot that one critical step, Explode. Or did I ever encounter it? Maybe I always happened to be working with Exploded line work. Either way, I was pulling my hair out for an hour before I thought to search ArchiCAD-Talk.

[Anonymous]

Bumped into topic this while searching for answers about another problem.
Anyway, you can always use trace & reference on a worksheet from your floor plan view to create mesh contours, whether the reference is from A DWG or native archicad lines etc.

Just wanna add notes to other who might have bumped into the same problem, you can try to check for or any gaps on:
-the lines itself
-any intersection between lines

also try converting the contour from dwg into polyline if it's made from spline

-John

[Anonymous]

Hello!

Having the same problem as OP. Tried to import the DWG fie, didnt work. Then i tried to place it with the drawing tool and then exploding. Now when i choose the mesh tool and hold spacebar nothing happens...
I even tried to make some simple spline lines and use the magic wand on them, but nothing..

Now i made the DWG as trace reference but still the magic wand won't appear...
https://i.imgur.com/lRXqrcZ.png

Nvm solved it and figured out i am a complete idiot.

[Anonymous]

I seem to be a complete idiot too. What did you discover was wrong?

Joe Simmons
Denver

[Anonymous]

DUH! In addition to highlighting the mesh, the mesh tool needs to be highlighted as well. I love that ArchiCAD unfailingly works and it comes down to operator error.