Load-bearing masonry solution

[Electric Flute]

Is there any parametric object or add-on for ArchiCAD that makes load-bearing masonry? It is great to estimate quantities. There are many for Revit, but I didn't find anything for ArchiCAD so far.
Thanks,

[Podolsky]

I'm not sure it's necessary to model each block and especially brick, as it make model much heavier. You can find some library part objects on BIM objects web-site, that do have model of each block.
There is another way to calculate amount of masonry blocks or bricks - to create expression property, that will calculate amount of blocks based on wall volume and thickness.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Based on your screenshots, I think you may be able to use the Curtain Wall tool to model these in Archicad. You would have to create custom panels to represent the bricks.
Another possibility is to use the Archicad-Grasshopper Connection, which can take the geometry of the Wall and you can create a Graph that would parametrically create the load-bearing bricks.

But as Podolsky pointed out, modeling every brick can result in complex models with a large number of polygons, so if you need to do that, you have to take this into consideration as well. In that case, it may be advisable to save a separate PLN file, and model the brick walls only in that file. You could even create an empty project file based on your file, hotlink your model into for reference, then generate the brick walls there.

[Electric Flute]

Podolsky wrote:
There is another way to calculate amount of masonry blocks or bricks - to create expression property, that will calculate amount of blocks based on wall volume and thickness.

Thanks Podolsky, but actually there are different sizes and types of load-bearing blocks on the same wall. See picture above, each color of a block is a unique size or type of block. The expression property calculation works only with traditional bricks, since they are all equal. Not with load-bearing blocks.

I don`t want to model and place each block. I want a parametric solution, like Revit have.

[Electric Flute]

LaszloNagy wrote:
Based on your screenshots, I think you may be able to use the Curtain Wall tool to model these in Archicad. You would have to create custom panels to represent the bricks.
Another possibility is to use the Archicad-Grasshopper Connection, which can take the geometry of the Wall and you can create a Graph that would parametrically create the load-bearing bricks.

But as Podolsky pointed out, modeling every brick can result in complex models with a large number of polygons, so if you need to do that, you have to take this into consideration as well. In that case, it may be advisable to save a separate PLN file, and model the brick walls only in that file. You could even create an empty project file based on your file, hotlink your model into for reference, then generate the brick walls there.

Thanks Laslo. Yes, it is possible to use Curtain Wall tool do model a load-bearing wall. There is a Youtube video that showed how to do it. But this workaround is very limited, not a proper solution. We need a solution that works for real, not to just presentation.

Load-bearing masonry is the evolution of the traditional masonry. ArchiCAD as a BIM, needs to address it.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

have a look at the videos on this subject - block made with curtain wall - by Contrabim. Very useful:

[Electric Flute]

Aaron wrote:
have a look at the videos on this subject - block made with curtain wall - by Contrabim. Very useful:

Thanks Aaron. It's a great video, but as I said, Curtain Wall tool isn`t able to deal with all the different sizes of blocks of a Load-bearing masonry. That`s because CW tool uses a fixed size of Scheme along a wall.

Load bearing masonry needs different sizes of blocks (schemes in CW tool)
Normal block - 1 scheme
T block - 1 +1/2 scheme
1/2 block - 1/2 scheme
3/4 block - 3/4 scheme
See images below where I need to use different sizes of blocks.
In the video, you can see that he didn`t place any door/windows on the wall masonry option. That's because he can`t do it with CW tool.

[Eduardo Rolon]

I think it is doable. You just need to duplicate the joints were you want to cut.
Also you can "push-pull" them back to make the T's.
All the 3/4 schemes, 1/2 scheme etc can be configured by either duplicating or moving joints.

[Electric Flute]

ejrolon wrote:
I think it is doable. You just need to duplicate the joints were you want to cut.
Also you can "push-pull" them back to make the T's.
All the 3/4 schemes, 1/2 scheme etc can be configured by either duplicating or moving joints.

Thanks Eduardo. Very Interesting! But I don`t find "joints". Do you mean Junctions? Could you please elaborate it? Thank you.

[Eduardo Rolon]

The mortar joints are frames in CW.