Composite Wall problem

[Anonymous]

I have a composite wall which has 2 layers of plasterboard on the inner face. The skins have a gypsum fill and a separator line, and the 'Use Skin Separator line' box is checked. So far so good.

Now I have another similar wall, also with 2 layers of plasterboard, set up in exactly the same way - but Archicad insists on merging these 2 skins, and not showing the separator line.

I thought that the fills might be obscuring the separator line - but if I explode a section of wall, I find that there really is only one skin in place of my two.

Has anyone any ideas?

[David Shorter]

Hi Keith
In the complex profile window identical fills which touch merge to one body. This is something which we should have generally. In the profile window it can be a pain as you have discovered.
The solution (workaround) is to duplicate the fill with a new name and use this for the second plasterboard skin. This way they won't join.
I sometimes use this feature if I have a lot of fills on the floorplan which I want to merge into one.
select them all, cut and paste into a new complex profile, save it and open again select THE fill (its now one body) and paste back to the floor plan. Only worth doing with a lot of fills.
Hope this helps

[Barry Kelly]

Keith,
Are you sure the skin separator line is checked in that composite?
I just duplicated a wall that has 2 skins with the same fill and turned the separator line off.
It looks in plan like the fills have merged.
But oddly when I explode them it creates the separate fills (both the same type) and adds in its own separator line but it has no pen number.

I just noticed you are version 14 on Mac.
I just tried in 15 on Windows.
I will try 14 in a few moments.

David wrote:
I sometimes use this feature if I have a lot of fills on the floorplan which I want to merge into one.
select them all, cut and paste into a new complex profile, save it and open again select THE fill (its now one body) and paste back to the floor plan. Only worth doing with a lot of fills.
Hope this helps

David,
Have you tried the fill consolidation tool?
Much easier.

Barry.

[Barry Kelly]

It is the same for me in version 14.

By any chance was your composite created in an older version before the separator lines existed?
(I'm clutching at straws here).

Barry.