Brick catenary arches

[Anonymous]

Hi,

i've been reacquainting myself with Archicad after a few years of using other programs. After hearing about it's new shell and morph commands, i decided to give it another go. I'm currently doing my final year project where my structure basically consists of a series of large catenary arches, not too dissimilar from a brick viaduct. I would have normally modelled something like this on rhino/sketchup and the drafting in autocad but since time is tight, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone by using virtual building program such as Archicad. I was no expert using AC before so yet again I feel like a bit of a novice!

I have tried 2 different approaches to drawing the arches. The first was using the shell command and extruding a spline profile to form the arch, then lifting it upright and moving it into a straight brick wall of the same thickness. I then used the Trim Elements to Shell command to form the arch opening in the wall. http://postimg.org/image/tbbmjb8uf/
This seems relatively straightforward but my main problems is trying to align a brick texture to follow the line of the arch. I would maybe like to use the sketch renderer but cant get the proper textures on the arch.

The second approach was using the morph command. Again, I drew a spline, offset it, closed the profile and extruded it to form the arch morph object. I saved the morph in the library as a door but when applying it to a wall, the opening is the rectangular extent around the object and not the arch. Frustrating! The photo shows what i mean:

The morph allowed me to draw panels along the face of the arch, where I could apply textures individually and align them along the curve of the arch to some degree of accuracy. However, when trying a quick render, the textures were back at their default position as shown in the photos.

Sorry for the long message, I hope its clear what I am trying to achieve! Can anyone shed any light on this or maybe suggest a better way of drawing the arches? I also have Artlantis, is that a better way to apply textures? Any help would me much appreciated, I feel like i have wasted a lot time trying to get this and deadlines are fast approaching!
http://postimg.org/image/d61sa05mb/
http://postimg.org/image/vrkkl5a0h/

[Dwight]

It is always nice to see the results of all this advice posted. [Hint.]

[Anonymous]

Of course, how inconsiderate of me!

Thanks again Dwight