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

Wall + Column intersections and custom window headaches

Anonymous
Not applicable
I have two issues currently that have been causing a bit of frustration.

1) When my concrete columns are adjacent to my wall, the column "activates" that portion of the wall to read as a cut condition. This is frustrating when I want the opening in that wall to be continuous, it is now interrupted by this collision "glitch". The building material priority of this column is much lower than that of any material found in the wall

2) I have been building custom windows and my biggest headache so far is the corner intersections between these windows. It seems that ArchiCAD really wants there to be a sliver of wall between window openings at corner intersections. I wonder if there is some easy way to resolve this, currently my work around is to extend the edges of the "WALLOPENING" slab past the edge of the actual custom window. This technique works fairly well, but now I am running into the issue that is illustrated in the attached image. There are now lines running parallel to my window opening that show this "WALLOPENING" extension. Curious that these lines disappear if the sill of the window is at the base of the wall. When I elevate this sill, the lines appear. So now in plan, I have these extra lines, that I can't seem to get rid of.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
4 REPLIES 4
Erika Epstein
Booster
It looks this might be related to the column setting which activates wrapping the skins of the wall around the column. Select the column and check that the wrapping feature is not on. See screenshot.
Erika
Architect, Consultant
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Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for the response. Since I posted this I worked out the issue with the columns. I don't want the interior skin to wrap around the column, instead I want the wall and the column to be separate entities and not effect each other based on their proximity. I solved this by changing the intersection layer priority of my column layer. By upping it to three this issue was resolved.

Still not sure what the best practice is to make a custom corner window
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Another thing you could do is just move the Column a very small amount (like 0.1 mm or 1/64" away from the Wall so they do not touch but on the screen and drawings it still looks like they do)
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Anonymous
Not applicable
I hope I'm not violating etiquette or hijacking a thread or anything. I'm still new to forum use. I thought this the right place because I have a wall+column intersection issue with a custom window corner that's giving me a migraine.

Also, I think I've done a thorough search of the forums, ArchiCAD Help, etc. without luck, so please excuse me if I missed something whilst wading through all the posts.

I'm trying to put a custom corner window in an exterior wall that's roughly 8 3/4" thick. I've specified a 9" frame so I can have it be around 1/8" proud of the surfaces inside and outside.

The problem is, because I have a 9" frame in an 8 3/4" thick wall, when I do the custom corner the window tool won't let me create a column any less than 11" square when I want the column to be 4-6" square.

Attached is a picture of what I mean. The upper red rectangle is there to denote the oversized column the AC window tool creates. The other rectangle is around a 4" steel column for reference where I would like the column to be.

I've tried using the "frame" and "glass" options in the custom corner setting. The former is almost as large and completely unsightly; the latter shows glass cut at a 45 degree angle without a sash or frame at the end so it doesn't work when I supply my own column. I've also thought about making the frame as narrow as possible and framing the balance using the beam and column tools, but it seems there should be an easier way that is not so labor intensive.

My teacher is stumped, too. I would appreciate any help I can get.
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