Items greyed out in Renovation Palette

[Anonymous]

Relatively new to Archicad, and working in V21. But not a total beginner. For no reason that I can think off my model has started behaving really weirdly, and I can't get any work done. First I noticed that doors and windows were "greyed out" in the renovation filter, so couldn't be changed. The i decided to draw the walls again from scratch to see if that would clear the problem, but now my walls don't stay when I draw them. I draw the line but when I click to close the operation the wall just disappears.

[Anonymous]

Eduardo, I'm back on this and still mystified. Yes the weird walls were due to a height issue, although that in itself is strange because I had set them correctly and somehow the settings defaulted back to almost zero height. But the real mystery remains the doors and windows being greyed out in the renovation palette. I attach a screenshot in which everything is reactive in the renovation palette.....all roof, walls, chimneys downpipes ect. But windows are greyed out despite being visible

[Anonymous]

I recently had to reinstall Archicad 21. Could that have anything to do with this?

[Eduardo Rolon]

Reinstalling should not be the issue, though you don't have in your signature your OS version. Anyway grayed out windows might be that they are "locked" (Edit Menu -> Locking). BTW the screenshots do not show the problem.

[David Maudlin]

Ian:

The Window Renovation Status will be greyed out in the Renovation palette if the Wall hosting the Window is New. I guess this is because an Existing or Demo Window would not be in a New Wall.

You should add your ArchiCAD version and operating system Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

[Anonymous]

Thanks gents. I've checked the Lock and it isn't that. I think that it probably is to do with new walls/old windows, although by now I've slightly lost the thread of all my actions.
I have been in real difficulties with how to upgrade a simple masonry wall to one with insulations and linings, while retaining the existing windows, and I've made so many botched attempts at this that perhaps I've created this "greyed out" problem myself.
I'm still not sure how to add insulation and linings while retaining the old windows. The only way I can see me doing this is by marking the existing wall "to be demolished" and then adding a new composite wall with the same windows added back in. But it feels wrong to be marking these walls "to be demolished" when in fact they won't be demolished>

[Richard Morrison]

Based on this information, David seems to have the correct answer. The usual approach, I think, if you are leaving the masonry walls and windows untouched, is to leave those tagged as existing, and add a second NEW wall with the insulation materials, along with empty openings at the locations of the existing windows.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Richard, but surely that leaves a lot of problems with cills, external facings, linings etc?
Ian

[Anonymous]

Sorry to be so troublesome, but I really am having trouble here. It does seem as if the software is suddenly doing things that I've not previously encountered. I'm very aware of my own limitations, but even the basics now seem to be behaving strangely.
I decided to redraw the walls, but now the new windows (the same ones as before imported from favourites) do not show properly. They seem to be hidden in the thickness of the wall, and I can't see how that would happen?
I attach a 3D view and a section to show what I mean. The window cill just about shows on the external face of the wall but nothing shows on the internal face. And the window doesn't show on the plan. Once I click to complete the operation the window disappears.

[Anonymous]

This may be a clue to what's going on.
When I extended the wall beyond the boundaries of the building in question, I can easily add windows as normal. But if I try to add windows to the same wall back in the body of the building, I get this hidden window effect? And yet it's the same wall extended lengthways?
What can cause this? It's as if theres something different in the wall characteristics in the zone of the building.
Ian