Door with parallel sides in circular wall

[Anonymous]

I am trying to model a "medieval" tower in Archicad 11. But when I simply add a door to the circular wall, the sides of the door opening are not parallel to each other, but "vanish" towards the wall's center point. So, because the wall is very thick (around 3 metres), the door hole is significantly wider on the outside of the wall than on the inside.

How can I make a "rectangular" door in a circular wall? Thank you.

*Edit: It would be better to speak of a "tunnel" than a door.

[Dwight]

A one step method would be to use a slab block placed behind to SEO the wall.

[Anonymous]

Dwight wrote:
A one step method would be to use a slab block placed behind to SEO the wall.

Thank you, that works well for the 3D view (if I hide the layer with the operator element), but then the wall looks solid in the 2D view -- which makes this method a bit awkward, I think, when the building becomes more complex.

Is there another method?

Because the difficult part will be, when I try to model a spiral staircase inside the circular wall ...

[Anonymous]

The doors and windows still don't like to play properly with curved walls yet. There are still lots of little bugs that occur, mainly the 2d representation is incorrect, or incomplete.

Personally the best way I have found to do what you require is to use an shaped empty window opening, ie 'W rectangular Opening 11' which allows you to specify parallel or radiused sides. Put a door in the same position, turn off the lines at the side (ganging) and it looks more-or-less* correct in 3d and 2d.

A tip for placing the empty window - place pointing inwards toward the inside of the curve otherwise the 2d symbol is incorrect.

*Which brings out another little bug, in that the door may now display a true cut-through showing all the panels regardless of whether its projected, symbolic or otherwise. Trying various combinations of symbolic / projected for the door and window may or may not solve this, so a patch might be necessary.

The 'W Splayed Reveal' empty opening may be useful to you as well, as you can adjust the angle of the four sides to create arrow slits etc.

[Anonymous]

manfredkooistra wrote:
...Because the difficult part will be, when I try to model a spiral staircase inside the circular wall

No, spiral stairs are the easy part!

Using stairmaker - one of the presets is a spiral stair with a newell. Set the construction method to tread only, increase the thickness of a tread to the riser height, which gives a nice stepped underside.

Remember to post a picture when you're finished! I'd love to model an old castle or something in ArchiCAD, but its difficult to get the plans and photos to ensure you get a realistic model.

[Dwight]

Peter wrote:
I'd love to model an old castle or something in ArchiCAD, but its difficult to get the plans and photos to ensure you get a realistic model.

Yeah. Those old dukes and them don't want you knowing about their secret passages.

We did a casino in architecture school and our professor wrote to Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and asked for example plans. They just laughed.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Peter. Your window tips worked wonderfully for me.

But:

Peter wrote:

manfredkooistra wrote:
...Because the difficult part will be, when I try to model a spiral staircase inside the circular wall

No, spiral stairs are the easy part!

I have not expressed myself well: I don't want the spiral stair in the empty space enclosed by the circular wall, but inside the body of the wall itself.

Here's a quick sketch to illustrate this:

[Dwight]

And you just won't drop a cylindrical SEO down through the wall?

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
Remember to post a picture when you're finished! 😄 I'd love to model an old castle or something in ArchiCAD, but its difficult to get the plans and photos to ensure you get a realistic model.

It will be a while until the final image is finished. I'm drawing a comic and want to use a 3D tool to construct the architecture. I have used Blender and now try ArchiCAD, Cinema 4D and Maya, to see what they can and cannot do. This is only my hobby, so I'm going real slow: a few half hours late in the evenings, when my family is asleep. But I'll post what I have, when I have it 🙂

Here's an outside view of an early version of the tower: manfredkooistra.deviantart.com/art/Page-24-47756988

The tower I build is from my imagination and only medieval-like. But there is some good documentation in archeological publications for some castles, usually the ones that are ruins today. Go to a university library and browse the archeological / historical publications. Don't forget the periodicals, they contain most of what you want.

[Anonymous]

Dwight wrote:
And you just won't drop a cylindrical SEO down through the wall?

I guess by now you must have inferred that I am quite very new to ArchiCAD and 3D modelling in general. Thank you, Dwight. I will do that.

If you all ever come to Germany, let me know. I'll bake you a cake!