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Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

AC 23 - Magic wand - space bar

Anonymous
Not applicable
Dear friends and avid sharers,

The infamous question thats seem's to have been artound for years. I am on a PC - AC 23.

My Magic-Wand tool is not doing as it should. What's worse - it's for a mesh terrain and I am trying to use the trace drawings countours, to crerate new points to which I can highlight (with help of the wand) and then set its Z height.

Am I correct in saying the magic wand on a PC - version AC 23 or other for that matter, just doesn't function as it should ?

I see colleagues on MACs having no problem with this functionality - basically hover over the contour --> space bar magic wand --> and highlight all points. Then set the points to the levels you require. This is done on an alrerady created terrain with the mesh tool - standard terrain created 4m depth and 100m x100m. I have the contours as trace on a survey drawing. So all is set as need be.

Is this something I am missing - is there a technique like for eg - make sure you click on xx twice and then on yy before reclicking on xx. etc. etc.? I see online some videos are showing this type of operation working - not with me. Hoping there iust a reason why.

Thanks all.

Siad
6 REPLIES 6
Barry Kelly
Moderator
I just did a quick search and these post may have an answer to your problem.

https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=66022&hilit=MESH+TRACE+MAGIC

https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=54459&hilit=MESH+TRACE+MAGIC&start=10

It seems DWGs in trace reference do not always work well or as they used to.

There are other options explained in these posts.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
The .dxf is infact already exploded in my project, which indicates its not to to with the file being referenced.

The contours just dont react when hovered over and the magic wand tool itself doesn't do anything either when hovering over the contour.
Barry Kelly
Moderator
atfonit wrote:
The contours just dont react when hovered over and the magic wand tool itself doesn't do anything either when hovering over the contour.

The contours need to be continuous and I think they will need to extend beyond the boundary of the mesh.
If they simply touch the edge I am not sure if that will work.

You also need to have the mesh selected and the mesh tool active - I sometimes forget to activate the mesh tool.

Usually the DXF/DWG contours are made up from many, many short line segments.
I tend to consolidate them or usually just draw over them with a spline, picking just a few points to get a similar contour.
Add more nodes to the spline if you need to and I extend it beyond the sides of the mesh.
You can better control the number of nodes resulting in the magic wand contour this way.

Also where is the DXF you are using as a trace?
I think it does not work well when it is in a worksheet.
I place it in another storey or a layer that can be hidden when not needed.


Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Barry - thanks - in fact the answer is to make sure the mesh tool is indeed also activated ....good news !
Anonymous
Not applicable
I've found an answer to my magic wand not working: The item (in this case a Spline) needs to be selected first. Then select the mesh tool , shift select mesh, spacebar for wand, then click on Spline again.
Only in this sequence does the magic wand work correctly.
Hope this helps too
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Jennza wrote:
I've found an answer to my magic wand not working: The item (in this case a Spline) needs to be selected first. Then select the mesh tool , shift select mesh, spacebar for wand, then click on Spline again.
Only in this sequence does the magic wand work correctly.
Hope this helps too

You shouldn't have to select the spline first.
But you do have to have the mesh selected and the mesh tool active.
Then just space bar (magic wand) the spline.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
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