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Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.
SOLVED!

Curved glass block wall

Marky
Contributor
Does anybody know how to build this type of wall?
Neither Cadimage Wall Coverings nor ArchiWall is able to do it.
AC 6.5, 13 - 19 Pl, OctaneRender for ArchiCAD, MoI 3D, Blender; W7 Pro 64;
i7-4790K/32 GB; GTX 980/4 GB
18 REPLIES 18
Barry Kelly
Moderator
There is a "Glass Block Wall" window object in the standard GS library.
But I don't think it is all that good.
You can't set the block size and number and mortar width and have it automatically set the overall size.
You have to set the overall size, nominate how many blocks, then you can choose to set the block size and it will set the gap (mortar) or you can set the gap size and it will set the block size.
It also does not tell you what the adjusted (gap or block) size is.

It does sit in a curved wall though.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Well is not bad, for circles is working properly, but for a custom wall made of a polyline built with different radios, there is some problems.
The window brick glass tool work properly in each radio separately, but not in the whole polyline, bcz between radios it is left a piece of the wall and cut the bricks not join the brick from different radios properly.
Is there a way to fix this?
Barry Kelly
Moderator
The polyline wall will be made from individual curved segments - one for each different radius as you have discovered.
The glass block window can only belong to one wall and it can only have one radius.
So the best you will get is to butt each glass block window up to each other.
Not a very good solution.

The best as shown before would be to create a glass block surface and apply that to the wall.
The image shown here is with tiles (as I don't have a glass block surface material created).
There are glass block materials in the standard surface catalogue.
Otherwise create a stack of glass blocks (one block wide) from walls, beams, slabs, morrphs.
You may want to experiment with the tool you use.
Then distribute copies of this stack along your polyline.
If you use a beam for the block and model it so the length is the thickness of the block (i.e. perpendicular to the wall), then if the building material is stronger than the wall, it will automatically cut it.
So you could create a wall of 'mortar' (a little thinner thickness than your blocks and then place the beam (block) into it (at perpendicular angle).
You will need to play with the position a but as the block will need to sit a little in front of the wall.
This is just a very quick attenmpt - not perfect but with some trial and error you should be able to find a solution.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thank you Barry, as a former user of auto cad I am not happy using surfaces, obiouvsly you can't extract plans from them so I prefer using the beams. Lets give a try.
Thanks again
Anonymous
Not applicable
It was perfect with the beam.
Barry Kelly
Moderator
darwinland wrote:
It was perfect with the beam.
Excellent.

When in doubt, model it from basic elements.
Even if it is the long way of doing it.
At least you should get the results you want.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
To make the beam approach a bit quicker, you could make a complex profile for a whole row, meaning you only have to rotate copies of one whole row.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Erwin wrote:
To make the beam approach a bit quicker, you could make a complex profile for a whole row, meaning you only have to rotate copies of one whole row.
I think Erwin means make a complex profile for a whole column instead of row.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
Yes, apparantly my english definition is off. Vertical stack!
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5