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

Extrusion - Face/ Area

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello there,

I just switched from AutoCad and Revit to ArchiCAD, and there are quite a number of tasks I couldn't figure out how to achieve in ArchiCAD, like,

Is it possible to extrude an area/ face in ArchiCad and turn it to a 3D model?

Coz in Revit, if I want a simple 3D extrusion, I can just draw the profile on a plane and give it the 3d dimension to make it 3D model/ mass. However, from the guides I found online for ArchiCAD by using Shell tool to create 3D object, it requires a thickness value of the profile I drew, then the height value to make it 3D.

I found it very annoying sometimes when I have an irregular geometry and I want this particular shape to extrude instead of its outline (especially when the profile has voids, it'll became several Shell objects instead of ONE in AC). Is it a way to do that in ArchiCad?

Or do I just create my 'odd' model in Revit and import it to AC? But I don't think this is very practical if you have a lot of work to do, but you just switch back and forth between two applications just to finish up one tiny model.

Please refer to the attached image,

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2 REPLIES 2
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
There are multiple ways of doing this in AC:
- Draw the shape with:
• Morph tool and then extrude
• Use the Slab or Mesh Tool with the Z height already specified
• Use a custom profile applied to a column
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Recommended option is to use either the slab (easier) or mesh.
The assumption that you are making is "not" correct for AC. In AC you would only draw the object using the slab tool in floor plan and then change the height in its parameter because the extrusion is already part of the Tool.
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

Macbook Pro M1 Max 64GB ram, OS X 10.XX latest
another Moderator

Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
You should prepare yourself that many of the Tools and concepts are different in ARCHICAD. They are two different applications based on different design philosophies.

For generic modeling, the Morph tool is your best friend. Also, learn the geometric capabilities of all Tools, plus the power of Complex Profiles and SEO and you will see that you can do a lot of stuff in ARCHICAD as well, just in a different way.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
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