Hidden elements for SEO's

[Anonymous]

Our office is in the midst of going mostly 3D for our construction documents and I need a little help.

I understand people use "things" on hidden layers to help with SEO's. What type of "things" do you use? I'm building a stair and want to cut a piece of it out. I've used a beam that I'll place on a hidden layer to act as the operator. After the operation, when I shut the beam off, It's affecting other pieces of the model (mesh and slab). How do you go about doing this? Should I not use a beam?

[Anonymous]

After SEO, looks ok.

[Anonymous]

Why is it doing this? I did not include anything else in the SEO...

[Anonymous]

Beam priority is also set to 0

[Anonymous]

From the Reference manual:

Beam Intersection Priority: A Beam’s intersection priority is set using the “Beam Priority” slider in Beam Floor Plan and Section Panel. When Beams cross Walls or Columns, the element of lower priority will be cut in 3D, which means that the intersection part will be removed. The element of higher priority will remain intact. This applies to volume calculations as well. Note: The priority of Columns vs. Beams is a global control set in Options > Project Preferences > Construction Elements.

Slabs and Beams: Beams always cut Slabs when the two elements join in space (provided that their Layers belong to the same intersection priority group). This applies to both the 3D Window and volume calculations.

Roofs and Beams: Beams can be trimmed to Roofs using the “Trim to Roof” command. (See Trim Element to Roof.)

Auto-Intersection of Beams with Other Beams: When a Beam intersects another Beam, ArchiCAD automatically cleans crossings, T and L
junctions of Beams if the Options > Auto Intersection feature is turned on.
If one end of the joining Beam falls within the contour of the other Beam, the end of the joining Beam will automatically adjust to the reference axis. Their appearance in 3D will be “cleaned up” accordingly, provided that the beams have the same intersection priority.

[Anonymous]

I did it using a slab with no problems. Should I just not use beams in this situation?

[Anonymous]

Change the layer priority number for either the layer of the slab or of the beam (I would change the beam).

[Anonymous]

Aahhhh, I see, the intersection group number in the layer dialog box. I've never used this because I never knew it existed, but now I see the power!