Use of composites for wood frame buildings

[Dennis Lee]

What is the best use (or non-use) of composite walls / slabs / roofs for doing typical wood frame buildings in the U.S.?

I have been going back & forth on doing
1) full blown composites showing stucco, sheathing, framing, gyp along w/ all the corresponding fills to
2) using composites w/ all empty fills & hidden separator lines to
3) just using regular walls w/ the rounded off thickness (6", 8", etc.). I've tried this option modeling just the thickness of structure too.

The trouble w/ 1) is that I need to have so many types of walls to try cover pop outs & different framing situations - like if I wanted a 12" thick free standing wall for instance. Also in section, walls & floors don't really clean up nicely so I'm bound to do a lot of clean up manually. The advantage of showing all the skins already w/ the correct fills are nice, but there is a lot of clean up to do.

The trouble w/ 2) I believe - although I haven't really pursued this option fully yet, would be that - it will be difficult to tell which wall is which as readily as w/ the correct fills showing, besides from the fact that the sections won't show any skin fills automatically.

The option 3) seems most flexible & robust way to model things in 3d, where I don't have to worry about automatic joins etc. taking out some skins, having to have hundreds of composites to deal w/ all the different thicknesses in walls & soffits - but then again this will not really show things as accurately.

I know it all depends on what level you want to take it to, but just curious how other people work. Are the pros and cons I listed above similar to what other people have experienced? Is there some creative work around that can get the best of the given circumstances?

Thanks in advance!

[TomWaltz]

Until Archicad 10, we used composites almost exclusively to model wood framing at its actual size with drywall, sheathing, etc.

With Archicad 10, we started using Profiled walls to include top and bottom plates in the walls.

We also have some simple walls for minor conditions where a composite is not practical.

The column tool can be used to bump out skins of the wall for a pilaster or other bump

[Dennis Lee]

Thanks Tom - I also thought that's the only way to really get the benefit of using ArchiCAD. I was just a bit slow / lazy in digesting extra thinking (working out the design) involved in modeling w/ the actual thickness of everything. I'm thinking though, that this should help me out in wall sections / details stages tremendously.

BTW, how do you draw the X lines for the top & bottom plates in section? Is that part of the profile wall or do you draw them in manually?

[TomWaltz]

Dennis wrote:
Thanks Tom - I also thought that's the only way to really get the benefit of using ArchiCAD. I was just a bit slow / lazy in digesting extra thinking (working out the design) involved in modeling w/ the actual thickness of everything. I'm thinking though, that this should help me out in wall sections / details stages tremendously.

BTW, how do you draw the X lines for the top & bottom plates in section? Is that part of the profile wall or do you draw them in manually?

It's part of the Profiled Wall.

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:
...With Archicad 10, we started using Profiled walls to include top and bottom plates in the walls...

I'm not sure what benefit you gain from this....can you please further explain your reasoning? I, personally, like to keep my overall building sections simple...this would add addtional plate lines I might not want. It's easy to add plates via an object if I'm doing a detail of a wall condition.

Thanks,
Dan K

[TomWaltz]

Dan wrote:

TomWaltz wrote:
...With Archicad 10, we started using Profiled walls to include top and bottom plates in the walls...

I'm not sure what benefit you gain from this....can you please further explain your reasoning? I, personally, like to keep my overall building sections simple...this would add addtional plate lines I might not want. It's easy to add plates via an object if I'm doing a detail of a wall condition.

Thanks,
Dan K

Because it beats placing them manually. Nothing like moving a wall then having to go back and move all your 2D plates in all your building sections...

K&A's standard is to show plates at 1/4" and larger scales. If we need to place them, I'd rather have them be 3D than 2D.

[James Murray]

Dan wrote:
I, personally, like to keep my overall building sections simple...this would add addtional plate lines I might not want.

You could use a dedicated pen for the X and use pen sets to control the visibility. Though I'm with you, I only want to see plates in large wall sections. Depends on your standards.

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:
Until Archicad 10, we used composites almost exclusively to model wood framing at its actual size with drywall, sheathing, etc.

With Archicad 10, we started using Profiled walls to include top and bottom plates in the walls.

We also have some simple walls for minor conditions where a composite is not practical.

The column tool can be used to bump out skins of the wall for a pilaster or other bump

Tom, with the Profiled walls have you still been able to display the Drywall and sheathing in plan/section? can the Exterior Siding and Drywall have a separate pen so that one could give them a white pen so that they do not print for the Structural Sections, where I only want framing and Shear plywood to display?

[TomWaltz]

Jay wrote:
[Tom, with the Profiled walls have you still been able to display the Drywall and sheathing in plan/section? can the Exterior Siding and Drywall have a separate pen so that one could give them a white pen so that they do not print for the Structural Sections, where I only want framing and Shear plywood to display?

I'm not doing structural sections, but there's nothing preventing you from setting sheathing & finishes to a group of pens that print white on some drawings if you wanted.