BIM Coordinator Program (INT) April 22, 2024

Find the next step in your career as a Graphisoft Certified BIM Coordinator!

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

Modeling Snow

Any tips modeling snow with ArchiCAD ?

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

4 REPLIES 4
NCornia
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
I like it! A seasonal idea. Not enough snow in my town right now. We need it.

My approach:

a. Surface - I see the need to have a Snow surface on BIMComponents.com. I'll see if we can get that posted. Or if there are any users out there who would like to do this also, please do. But in the meantime you can duplicate an existing surface to get the snow-like look that you prefer. I started with the USA "Generic - Wall Exterior" surface, lightened the exposure on the Color->Image channel and added a slight Reflection channel and a "cloud" Diffusion channel.

b. Draw an extruded Shell with slight curved segments.

c. Apply the "Snow" surface to the shell.

d. Convert to Morph and use the Edge Type: Soft to make the element look soft in the OpenGL environment and render.

e. Use the Bulge command in the Pet Palette to add further texture or piles of snow if needed.

Maybe I'll make a video about it (if I can find time).

Best regards,
Nicholas Cornia
Technical Support Team - GRAPHISOFT North America
ARCHICAD on Twitter
Tutorials
GRAPHISOFT Help Center
Thanks. I forgot about the Bulge Tool! That will do it!

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

David Maudlin
Virtuoso
NCornia wrote:
a. Surface - I see the need to have a Snow surface on BIMComponents.com. I'll see if we can get that posted. Or if there are any users out there who would like to do this also, please do.
Nick:

During the BetaTest, one of the developers created a Snow and Snowy Grass Surfaces, you should check with them. I don't know that I have the rights to post these Surfaces.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
There is a snow add-on for 3D Studio Max
http://www.zwischendrin.com/en/detail/261

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

Learn and get certified!