Aligning walls on one floor to walls below or above.

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

What is the “proper” goto method for aligning walls directly over walls on stories below? (Or above)

...Other than using trace reference, because that requires to much fiddling and sometimes deceptively inaccurate.

So is there a way to click on one wall, say on story 1 and and make absolute certain it coincides with a wall directly above it on story 2?
Or is trace reference the only way?

I’ve been using parallel lines just outside the wall, copying them and pasting them below and dimensioning. This is an awkwardly bad approach, I realize, but it’s all I’ve been able to come up with to calm my neurotic fear that two particular walls are not lining up.

[Barry Kelly]

Trace & Reference is the way to go.
You can visually see if the walls align (there is even the peel back edge option - splitter is the proper name).
You can trace over the walls above/below when placing new walls.
There should be no problems with accuracy - you will be able to snap to nodes and edges.
Just don't reposition the trace - that can mess you up.

Remember you can also copy and paste from one floor to another if the walls are in the same position (and are the same type - although you can change that of course).

Barry.

[Lingwisyer]

If you do not want to use a trace, you could always pull out a Guide Line.


Ling.

[Anonymous]

Ok, I guess I just need to get more comfortable with trace then.
It’s not the initial placement of walls that is the problem as I use guidelines and copy and paste walls from one story to the next as you both suggested, the problem is when I go back and start resizing walls and stuff gets shifted. When I’m with a client, for example and they have suggestions etc. To compound the problem, when I move a wall on one floor and I forget to marquee and simply move one wall then not only is the wall below off, my slab is also not following the new move.
I’m having a rough time getting used to this as well.
I wish there was a feature that tied a slab to the walls that contain it, come to think of it.

[Lingwisyer]

Slabs that associate to walls... that would be nice. Quite a few times I've found holes between my stories due to floors that have not been stretched to accommodate changes to walls...

[Barry Kelly]

Michael wrote:
I wish there was a feature that tied a slab to the walls that contain it, come to think of it.

There is no link between a wall and a slab, but as you mentioned, using a marquee allows you to stretch or move all nodes inside the marquee at one time.

Also if you simply select multiple items and they share a common edge (reference line for walls) or nodes, and you move the common node or edge or create a new node on a common edge, then all elements will modify at the same time.
This can be done in 3D as well.

Barry.

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

You may be doing this already, but just in case: it makes sense to have a 'Transparent All' GOC (transparent zones, cover fills, walls) for this kind of checkup. With that and a bright color for trace reference any positioning error (not only between stories, but also slabs and objects relative to walls, etc.) becomes very obvious.

[Barry Kelly]

Ignacio wrote:
but just in case: it makes sense to have a 'Transparent All' GOC (transparent zones, cover fills, walls) for this kind of checkup.

Does this give a different result to just turning on the transparency in the T&R palette?

Barry.

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

Barry wrote:

Ignacio wrote:
but just in case: it makes sense to have a 'Transparent All' GOC (transparent zones, cover fills, walls) for this kind of checkup.

Does this give a different result to just turning on the transparency in the T&R palette?

[Should have added more detail in my description of 'Transparent All'.] Yes. A GOC with rules turning All Zone Fills, All Cut Fills, All Drafting Fills, and All Cover fills, into Empty Fill with a Ø pen background. You keep only lines, including skin separators, and nothing else clutters the view. You keep only geometry, which is what you are checking. This is also good for checking within the story itself, without Trace Reference.

[Erwin Edel]

Clever use of groups along with what Barry pointed out (common edges) can help this problem a bit.

If you group up similar repeating elements (that are not part of a module already) in 3D on different stories, it is a matter of enabling groups, selecting one of the elements in floor plan, disabling groups and offset one of the edges. All your ceilings, floors, walls etc sharing the same edge should follow along on all stories.

Building materials and 'proper' use of core / finish / other in composites / complex profiles help here too. A ceiling passing through a concrete wall is not a problem, when the wall will just cut through the ceiling without a problem, due to building material connection. The ceiling passing through openings in the wall due to 'finish' layers passing through window / door etc.

There is one downside with some floor plan elements (slabs for example) still being a true 2D projection of their shape, not taking in account the building material connections (or SEO!), however ussually I have no problems here with using display order (cover the bit I don't want to see with the wall that is cutting it in 3D).

It took some time to set up, but in our template we get decent sections pretty much out of the box this way.