Complex Profiles VS. Composite Wall (is it obsolete?)

[Anonymous]

Hi,
By invent of Complex Profiles is Composite Walls obsolete?
If there are still advantages to Composite Walls, what are they?
Thanks,
Joseph

[Anonymous]

Scott wrote:
I'm on 1183, just checked for updates this morning and everything is up to date

Maybe in AC11, any news on that anyone?

[TomWaltz]

Laura wrote:

Scott wrote:
but sadly if you are changing profiles, even betweens profiles with a stretch zones, they don't stretch to match the height of the existing wall, they changes to the default height stored in the profile manager. so suddenly my 8' wall is not a 15" wall, that I have to change back to 8'

I'm pretty sure they fixed this with one of the last 2 hotfixes -- what build are you on?

They fixed if you modify a profile of a wall (in the Profile Editor) that the non-default wall height remains the same, not if you change one wall type to another.

I think the Stretch Zone is probably way too complex to be able to transfer from one profile to another, but some programmer could prove me wrong.

[Laura Yanoviak]

TomWaltz wrote:
not if you change one wall type to another

Ah -- I missed that.

[Anonymous]

Profiled walls are a relatively new feature and I would be cautious about wholesale replacement of composites which have been working for a long time.

There is, for one thing, a greater chance of bugs in newer features (such as the window trim macro that malfunctioned when placed in a profiled wall). But beyond that it is often hard to predict how the necessary and/or desirable aspects of the new feature will react in all the situations that the old one has been used for.

The wall height issue is a good example of this. Composites do not predefine any wall height at all so revisions to the composite definition will have no effect on the heights of existing walls. The profiled walls do define a default wall height and any changes to the profile will reset all the existing instances to the default.

The best rule is to continue using what works, adopt new features for what you couldn't do previously, and then slowly expand their use as you become familiar with their capabilities and limitations.

[Anonymous]

Matthew wrote:
Profiled walls are a relatively new feature and I would be cautious about wholesale replacement of composites which have been working for a long time.

There is, for one thing, a greater chance of bugs in newer features (such as the window trim macro that malfunctioned when placed in a profiled wall). But beyond that it is often hard to predict how the necessary and/or desirable aspects of the new feature will react in all the situations that the old one has been used for.

The wall height issue is a good example of this. Composites do not predefine any wall height at all so revisions to the composite definition will have no effect on the heights of existing walls. The profiled walls do define a default wall height and any changes to the profile will reset all the existing instances to the default.

The best rule is to continue using what works, adopt new features for what you couldn't do previously, and then slowly expand their use as you become familiar with their capabilities and limitations.

Gathering even more posts!

[Laura Yanoviak]

Matthew wrote:
The profiled walls do define a default wall height and any changes to the profile will reset all the existing instances to the default.

From the bug fix list:

ID# 52809 - Profile manager: Modifying a profile resets the default size of all placed elements that use that profile.

I know (all too well) that this used to be a problem (I had gotten to the point where I created a different Complex Profile for each individual size), but it works quite nicely now.