Composit walls - have they any practical use?

[Kamelite]

I have been using AC for some time now, mostly 16. And one question that comes to my mind when using it is: What is the point of having composit walls, and when am I supposed to use them? I mean, they are visually impressive when doing different kind of sections, and i Guess a Whole lot of other Things, but they serve no real use and purpose in my, although very Limited, use of AC.

Let me explain: I have been a carpenter for 17 years, thats what I do for a living. Using Archicad is mostly a hobby of mine. In all theese years , I've never ever seen a set of drawings that displays for instance the walls with all the layers that it really consist of. All the layers that together makes a Complete wall, is represented by an empty wall With the desired core thickness. I work With Residential homes, where the wall is either an internal wall or an exterior wall, so there really are no need for a detailed explanation of how the walls are constructed. But even on larger Projects, when they operate With many different composit walls, they are labelled With a certain id, and then you have to find a description of that ID in the Construction documents. And in these documents its likely to find a detailed drawing of the wall, like its done With a composit wall in AC

And even further, all the measurments on a set of Construction drawings are relativ to the core of the walls. Having a drawing that displays the wall even whith, for instance, gypsum Boards on it would only be confusing for the carpenter, and leave a lot of room for making errors.

If I'm to make a set of drawings for something, I prefer to use for instance Empty or simply Insulated wall as the wall type, set the thickness to whatever thickness the Complete core would have had in real life and then begin to Draw.

I have even tried to use "show core only" mode to Draw in, but that looked all weird, due to Natural reasons, the core wouldn't Connect properly..

Am I missing something vital?

Looking forward to some educational Reading 🙂

(BTW, how come a lot of my Words are in Capital first letter?)

.Thag

[NandoMogollon]

Hi Thag,
I understand your point, and it makes sense for a certain range of projects.
I'm an architect, and I get involved in more and more increasingly challenging projects in both size and complexity. In most cases it is necessary to add such a graphic detail to the drawings in order to inform the reader ( consultant / client / contractor / other) about the assembly of these walls ( or floors or roofs ).

It is not that you are missing something, If you don't need them, don't use them and keep things simple.

Regards

Nando M

[alemanda]

In my opinion AC should give the user the possibilty to switch from a detailed representation to a simple one.
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=43803
Actually it seem that it is no possible (very strange. It is or it should be a basic display option)
Here's my wish http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=43820

[NandoMogollon]

Hi there,

In my opinion AC should give the user the possibilty to switch from a detailed representation to a simple one.

Well, the option is there: By selecting ( and saving for future use) a couple of Model View Options.

in the image below you can see how simple it is to control on a View by View basis how detailed you can see Walls, Slabs, Roofs, Shells. The same principle applies to all other elements, including Scale-sensitive doors and windows.

Cheers!

[alemanda]

Yes, Nando
It would seem so easy but it doesn't work properly.
In many cases the representation is not clean.
Have a look at the topic I've pointed to.
Cheers

[Anonymous]

I use composite wall type almost exclusively, how else would you show that a wall has multiple linings, cladding etc this especially important where you have multiple linings and the dimensions are only to the structural core (3 layers of 16mm thick plasterboard to either side of a stair can cause all sorts of problems, ie stair no longer wide enough, when this is not considered when client chasing maximum yeild)

My current project has and exterior wall composite consisting of 25mm layer for alucobond cassette, 35mm for top hats, 0.5mm for vapour barrier, 150mm for steed studs plus insulation, and finally 2 No layers of 16mm plasterboard, this wall displays correctly in both plan and section and if i turn display to core only displays correct representation of core elements. For presentation / simplified representations I use the override of the display options.