Bent section cuts

[Anonymous]

Grrr. another problem with archicad - the more you find out the more you find out how much more there is to learn...

I've been trying to get the section cuts in AC10 to bend. I'm working on a large site with buildings at different orientations and need to be able to cut a site section to display the front elevations of each of the buildings. The difference between orientations is only 10 degrees.

Whilst I have managed now to get sections to bend by fiddling around a bit, I cannot find a way to get the bend to the correct angle. Also the method in which I’ve been using the section line does not yield consistent results.

Can anyone help??

[Anonymous]

22 views and still no response... hmmm... not looking good. HELP!!

[TomWaltz]

I'm not aware of any way to bend a section marker. You can offset it, but not bend it.

I suspect you would need to make different markers for each angle.

[Djordje]

TomWaltz wrote:
I'm not aware of any way to bend a section marker. You can offset it, but not bend it.

I suspect you would need to make different markers for each angle.

... and join them in the layouts if needed.

Elevation is a planar projection by definition; therefore it should not bend ...

[Anonymous]

Forgive me if I am missing your point but surely it is illogical to try to introduce a bend in a section/elevation. It's like trying to look at a different point with each eye! Something like trying to introduce a fold in the middle of the view if it were imagined to be on a sheet of paper?

[owen]

Djordje wrote:
Elevation is a planar projection by definition; therefore it should not bend ...

This is true but there are times when it would be very, very useful to be able to create a curved/bent elevation.

Such as drawing flattened/unrolled elevations of a curved curtain wall. Do this on just about every project I have worked on in the last few years and the fact these need to be drawn in 2D despite having a detailed 3D facade model frustrates me no end.

[Link]

There is definitely no way to curve or even bend an SE. They can be segmented, but every segment must face the same way.

Hopefully bent sections won't be too far away.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

owen wrote:
... it would be very, very useful to be able to create a curved/bent elevation.

Such as drawing flattened/unrolled elevations of a curved curtain wall....

Yes it would be a nice feature in theory BUT I cannot see it being practical for two reasons.

1. I get enough stupid questions from contractors without giving them "false" elevations to try and work with!

2. Unless the SE has a zero horizontal extent or at least a very very small one, then mathematically, it would be impossible because parts of the model would have to converge or diverge in some way.

It's fine to draw a schematic type elevation in 2D like this but it cannot work in true 3D

[owen]

Philip wrote:

owen wrote:
... it would be very, very useful to be able to create a curved/bent elevation.

Such as drawing flattened/unrolled elevations of a curved curtain wall....

Yes it would be a nice feature in theory BUT I cannot see it being practical for two reasons.

1. I get enough stupid questions from contractors without giving them "false" elevations to try and work with!

The facade contractors I have worked with generate shop drawings of exactly what I am talking about - a single, flat (i.e fake) elevation of a curtain wall which curves in several places. It is the only way to clearly lay out all the panel types along a facade. We provide the same type of elevations in our tender sets (together with the traditional 'true' ones) as we have found it easier for everyone to understand just how it all fits together.

Philip wrote:
2. Unless the SE has a zero horizontal extent or at least a very very small one, then mathematically, it would be impossible because parts of the model would have to converge or diverge in some way.

It's fine to draw a schematic type elevation in 2D like this but it cannot work in true 3D

Whilst it is difficult to achieve I disagree that it can't work - its just a matter of programming. Yes there would need to be a line along which everything flattened is a true dimension. Things infront/behind that would be stretched/compressed to take account of the horizontal extent.

I'm sure there must be applications out there that can do this for manufacturing but i don't know what for sure. Perhaps CATIA? A machine has to know at some point what 'flat' shape a curved metal sheet actually is in order to cut it?

[Anonymous]

I'm sure there must be applications out there that can do this for manufacturing but i don't know what for sure. Perhaps CATIA? A machine has to know at some point what 'flat' shape a curved metal sheet actually is in order to cut it?

TouchCAD is one such program: http://www.touchcad.com/tc3features.html

Provides nurbs modeling of complex shapes with unfolding and reverse engineering capabilities. Very good for modeling boats, sails and the like. A very neat program.