Drawing a slab.

[Anonymous]

I have some questions about drawing a slab. For instance the slab of the flooring of the first floor, where should be drawn In the first floor with 0 relative elevation or in the previous floor with the real height elevation.

[Barry Kelly]

I would place it in the storey it belongs to (at zero elevation - but it could also be any height for say a raised or mezzanine floor).
That way when you view that story you will see the floor (if the layer is on).
You can also set a slab to display on storeys above and below in the slab settings.

Barry.

[Steve Jepson]

darwinland wrote:
.... the slab of the flooring of the first floor....

Are you sure you want to model that flooring as a slab? What is the flooring going to be? What kind of data would you like to be extractable from the flooring into an Interactive Schedule? How many flooring skins will there be? that sort of thing might make a difference too since not all elements can be shown in the same way relative to the Story they are on.

[Brett Brown]

Come on Steve, please answer your own questions and the reasons why you wouldn't use slabs. He's a new user and you have totally confused him as well as me. Make it a teaching session.

Unfortunately, Archicad is sadly lacking quality tutorials on this sort of thing. They show you what the tool is for and how to use it but none of them explains the reasoning of using it one way for better results further down the line.

I know Barry is the number one helper on this forum and hasn't the time to explain in this case why one way is better than the other, especially down the line for document output.

This is relevant for most of the tools in Archicad.

There is an opening for someone like you Steve to record and explain all these little rules (as in this question) in short tutorials at a minimal cost to the new (and existing) users.

What do other users think? cheers

[Barry Kelly]

I didn't think that darwinland was asking about why he should use a slab for the floor or not.
Just which storey it would be best modelled in.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

My question was about how can I have the uncut lines with dashed-poit lines if the slab is above of my plan view, and continuous if my slab is on my plan view. This is very useful for openings on the slab above.

[Barry Kelly]

darwinland wrote:
My question was about how can I have the uncut lines with dashed-poit lines if the slab is above of my plan view, and continuous if my slab is on my plan view. This is very useful for openings on the slab above.

I would model the ground floor slab in the ground floor and the first floor slab in the first floor.
Keeps it simple modelling it in the storey it belongs to.
Then in the 'Floor Plan Display' settings for the slab you can set the upper floor slab to "Show in home storey and one storey down'.
It will now show on the ground floor.
The line type will be as set in OPTIONS menu > Project Preferences > Legacy

Unless I am missing something very obvious, a slab does not have an option for overhead lines like a beam or wall does.

As much as I hate to say it though, sometimes it is best to manually draw in lines for the overhead slab extents and openings.

Barry.

[Erwin Edel]

I use an object for holes. SEO out of the slab for quantity take off, nice 2D symbol for floorplans. Win / win?

Large holes (mezzanine/loft, stairwell, etc) I do model in the slab, but I suspect this is more about typical holes for MEP and such?

[Anonymous]

Barry wrote:

darwinland wrote:
My question was about how can I have the uncut lines with dashed-poit lines if the slab is above of my plan view, and continuous if my slab is on my plan view. This is very useful for openings on the slab above.

I would model the ground floor slab in the ground floor and the first floor slab in the first floor.
Keeps it simple modelling it in the storey it belongs to.
Then in the 'Floor Plan Display' settings for the slab you can set the upper floor slab to "Show in home storey and one storey down'.
It will now show on the ground floor.
The line type will be as set in OPTIONS menu > Project Preferences > Legacy

Unless I am missing something very obvious, a slab does not have an option for overhead lines like a beam or wall does.

As much as I hate to say it though, sometimes it is best to manually draw in lines for the overhead slab extents and openings.

Barry.

When you mean ground floor you mean first level, and when you mean first floor you men second level right?

[Barry Kelly]

darwinland wrote:
When you mean ground floor you mean first level, and when you mean first floor you men second level right?

Who knows? - I think us Aussies have a slightly different naming convention.

Ground floor for me is the one on the ground (storey zero or storey 1 in the USA version).
First floor is the next one up.

It doesn't matter, just model the slab for each storey in that storey.
Set to 'Show in home storey and one storey down', then on any storey you will see the slab on the storey above.

Barry.