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

Geodesic Dome Modeling

Anonymous
Not applicable
Has anybody created a Geodesic Dome Model in Archicad 23? I need to model a 40' 3/5 dome and haven't found resources to assist. thx
10 REPLIES 10
DGSketcher
Legend
Try searching YouTube I have seen some amazing modelling on there that can be done with the curtain wall tool.
Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
I've had to model a dome ages ago and found a video for sketchup that was easy enough to use for defining all the triangles using morph/roof/curtain wall in archicad.

It showed the principles of how to determine the shape and triangles quite clear.

Edit: those videos were on youtube too.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
vistasp
Advisor
Here's a thread from 2005 that has a link to an object (and yes, the link works).
= v i s t a s p =
bT Square Peg
https://archicadstuff.blogspot.com
https://www.btsquarepeg.com
| AC 9-27 INT | Win11 | Ryzen 5700 | 32 GB | RTX 3050 |
vistasp
Advisor
Just had a try, and it looks like a pretty good object.

= v i s t a s p =
bT Square Peg
https://archicadstuff.blogspot.com
https://www.btsquarepeg.com
| AC 9-27 INT | Win11 | Ryzen 5700 | 32 GB | RTX 3050 |
Lumpy8 wrote:
Has anybody created a Geodesic Dome Model in Archicad 23? I need to model a 40' 3/5 dome and haven't found resources to assist. thx
It's all about the connectors. Select the appropriate connector system for your project, then model the structure with ArchiCAD parts/objects for that specific system. You may need to make some of your own library parts.

https://www.sonostarhub.com/pages/standard-dome-calculator You can convert this .skp into a morph after you import it to ArchiCAD. Merge the morph parts for the connectors together and save as .gsm ( add hot spots where needed) model the struts with beams. ? Show us what you are making ?

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

Hmooslechner
Moderator
on Archicad from scratch: (german)

there are 6 following vids..
AC5.5-AC27EduAut, PC-Win10, MacbookAirM1, MacbookM1Max, Win-I7+Nvidia
Lumpy8 wrote:
Has anybody created a Geodesic Dome Model in Archicad 23? I need to model a 40' 3/5 dome and haven't found resources to assist. thx


Keep in mind that if you are making Construction Drawings/Plans for such a building that the geometry is only part of what you need to consider. Another important aspect of such Plans will be to design it for as many prefabricated and uniform parts as possible. That will result in some useful deviations from the rational geometry for the sake of fit and function in some important places. This depends on what the building is going to be used for of course. A careful review of the kits for this kind of building will certainly be helpful if you are making Working Drawings and Interactive Schedules for this kind of structure. It would be nice if you could show us what you're making. I think this is an interesting project.

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

Patrick M
Advisor

sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I recently had to model a geodesic dome project, and was able to start with an object, converted to a morph, then matched roof angle/slope/shape to the morph faces in order to get something that looked like this (linked image):


Screen Shot 2022-05-24 at 9.09.34 AM.png
BIM solutions and trouble shooting (self proclaimed) expert. Using Archicad 26 5002 US on Mac OS 11.5.2

I actually have a template for this.

I used mesh to roof so all the angles come together and even wrote a skylight for it.

I'll see if I can dig it up.

Sorry just realized it was an old thread but let me know if you want to see the file I did some basic rendering too