Complex geometry

[Anonymous]

Hi.

Quick introduction, as I am new to this forum:
I am a Norwegian architect, with a bachelor from Newcastle uni Australia. While studying there we used Archicad (then version 9 and 10). I have been working 2 years as an architect in Luxembourg, where we used Autocad Architecture. As I am going back to uni (this time in Germany) to take my masters degree, I would like to get back into ArchiCAD, because the uni here uses that.

I have a model I did for my firm in Luxembourg in Autocad which was fairly complicated, and I would like to redo this in ArchiCAD as a learning process.

My first problem are the non-rectangular walls, for instance the front wall. How to create this in ArchiCAD? Is it possible with the wall tool, or do I have to use another tool to create it? Or solid element operations?

I would greatly appreciate it if I could get some assistance recreating this model.

Cheers, Eirik

[Laszlo Nagy]

I would use Walls for the vertical walls.
I would probably use the Roof Tool for the sloping parts.
You could cut the holes for the Windows into the Roof with the Roof tool.
Then you could use the Curtain Wall Tool to create the Windows that go into those holes. Curtain Walls are good for this because you can create any polygonal shape and you can rotate it in 3D any way you like.
The Wall-Roof intersections can be done perfectly using Trim to Roof, or Solid Element Operation, which I like even more since it is an associative relationship.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Here is what I mean.
The Walls are Walls, the sloped elements with the red outline are made of Roofs.
There is a hole in the Roof.
The Walls are high enough so that the bodies of Wall and roof intersect.
I used Solid Element Operation (Subtraction with Upwards Extrusion) to cut the Walls with the Roofs.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Then I created the Roof window out of a Curtain Wall.
The original Curtain Wall I did was laying horizontal. I then rotated it to the slope of the Roof. Put it in its place and then moved the nodes to match the nodes of the Roof hole.

[Anonymous]

Hi Lazlo.

Thanks for your input. I have experimented with the walls and the roof tool, and I managed to get some of the building done. But maybe not with the best strategy?

Here you can see the finished shell. I haven't started on the windows yet, but I can imagine they can be a bit difficult because of the walls being divided horizontally in some places. I will try to explain the problems and methods step by step.

[Anonymous]

As you can see from the illustrations, I managed to make the triangular slanted wall by attaching the front wall and side wall to a wall that was slanted with 61.93 degrees, allowing the front wall and sidewall to meet up in a perfect point.
I adjusted the degrees until it fit.

The problem using this strategy is that the front wall and sidewall are now limited to 6.05 metres (height of slanted wall). I would like them to follow the slope of the roof.

[Anonymous]

I tried to add another wall on top of those walls (see illustration), and trim to roof (did not work) and SEO (worked), but then I have two walls in the elevation, and as far as my tests showed, a window will not cross the two walls?

Any other ways of doing this with the wall tool?

[Anonymous]

The roof was made with the roof tool; picking the three points of the plane and then the roof points. I needed to find the "mitred edge" of the two main roof halves. Unfortunately, when creating the roof I couldn't miter them? I tried to pick the edges and set mitred, but the option wasn't available, only angle/vertical/perpendicular. So I created another roof as a SEO operator and subracted with upwards extrusion the one half. I then created a roof half to meet up with this.

How could I miter the Roof edge tool?

[Anonymous]

Another issue I have is how the walls do not join when they are cut by SEO. Also, when using a roof as a trapezoid slanted wall, the other walls do not recognize it as a wall, and there is no join. The result is all these surfaces that lie on the same plane. Maybe I can solve this by angling the Operator-element in the SEO more than the plane of the roof, but there might also be a better way of doing this.

Let me know if you need the model and I can email it to you.

Cheers, Eirik

[Anonymous]

Ok, I have started on the windows, and I have a question on the strategy.

On the corner triangula wall I want to offset the window from all edges (blue) with 1200 mm (red).

In AutoCAD I set the cooridinate system to follow the plane of the wall, drew the outline of the wall, offset it 1200 mm, and moved the window edges to the triangle points.

How would one do this in ArchiCAD?

Is it perhaps possible to create an elevation paralell to the plane of the triangle wall and draw the outline and offset it, and then move the window?

Or can one do this in 3D?

As this is the strategy used on most of the windows, it will be very interesting to see some tips how to achieve it.

Cheers,
Eirik