Construction Joints / reveals: how to model?

[Anonymous]

Does anybody have any good suggestions on how to model reveals (ie construction joints in concrete or stucco) in walls? The problem I'm having is that the using the old long skinny niche trick doesn't turn corners and leaves little pieces at intersection. Is also a pain to make horizontals.

The results of the log wall method is really all I need, but my joints are not evenly spaced, and I also need verticals. Not about to spend $200 (!) for the joint maker untility. Seems like there ought to be a better way to do this. Any tips much appreciated.

BTW I'm on 7 still, not 8.

[Richard Morrison]

Try the Trussmaker tool. (Really!) You can draw lines in elevation pretty much wherever you want, convert to a VERY skinny truss and it looks pretty good in a model, even though the reveals project out, rather than in. You can't really tell.

Of course if you upgrade to 8, you could use SEOs and do it "right".

[Anonymous]

Richard wrote:
Try the Trussmaker tool. (Really!) You can draw lines in elevation pretty much wherever you want, convert to a VERY skinny truss and it looks pretty good in a model, even though the reveals project out, rather than in. You can't really tell.

Of course if you upgrade to 8, you could use SEOs and do it "right".

Thanks for the Tip, Richard. Am doing a pretty high-resolution image and the corners are visible. Truss method might be ok w/ post work in photoshop. For that matter, I could just make my niches of zero depth and just darken them.

Guess I'll have to try to talk my boss into spending the extra $,$$$ to upgrade to 8. Am sort of dissappointed that AC doesn't have a simple method for this... seems like a common modelling operation.

[Richard Morrison]

Jason:

Trust me, if you make a 1" high x 1/8" thick, dark grey band, tight to the wall, you won't be able to tell if it's recessed or projecting, even at a very high resolution, unless you're zoomed in very close.

[Karl Ottenstein]

JasonBarish wrote:
Guess I'll have to try to talk my boss into spending the extra $,$$$ to upgrade to 8. Am sort of dissappointed that AC doesn't have a simple method for this... seems like a common modelling operation.

Shouldn't be disappointed when using an older version of the software. 😉 AC does have a simple method for this: SEO in 8.1 with Trussmaker, as Richard has said.

Karl

[Anonymous]

if it's just an image you're after then do it with a material assignment

use the alpha channel as a bump map

vertical joints will obviously only work if they are regularly spaced as per your texture

[Anonymous]

JasonBarish wrote:
Guess I'll have to try to talk my boss into spending the extra $,$$$ to upgrade to 8.

The upgrade to AC8.1 is a HUGE improvement. It is money very well spent.

[Aussie John]

In my experience CJs arent always equally setout and can need to be individually placed. Hence alternative is to make a library part- an object can show a vertical line (or two) in 3d or if you need to model it create a window which back fills the wall materials leaving a little rebate.

the GDL scripting of the first option is pretty simple

[Anonymous]

We use RevealMaker, which you can find at objectsonline.com

[Dave Brach]

I would like to revisit this question. I always used small slabs with SEO to do this, but recently thought that the "opening" tool might work better.  It seems to work OK, but I'm having 2 problems:  first, in plan they show up in a way that I do not like and it's impossible to turn them off because they are a part of the wall;  second, they don't seem to want to wrap around wall corners?  I think that maybe just using SEO to create reveals is better.  How do other people do this?