Hollow box/slab for massing studies?

[Anonymous]

I'm doing some concept modelling, and was thinking it would be so helpful to be able to model with a hollow box/slab, so that I have for example 200mm thick walls, slab, and roof. At them moment I'm modelling with solid slabs as rooms etc to test different massing ideas, but it would be great to be able to get a feel for the spatial arrangement without having to model all the walls and slabs separately.

One shortcut I've used is just to model another slab which is inset 200mm in all directions and use SEO, but then every time I push or pull a slab I have to make the change to 2 elements rather than one.

Does anyone have any other ideas at how I could do this in one move or if there is a library object for a hollow slab/box where you set the thickness?

Thanks, Jake

[Anonymous]

Also, I thought rather that using SEO, I could just make the inset slab have a higher intersection priority so that it automatically subtracts from the outer slabs, but I've set it to a material with a higher priority and it won't subtract from the other slab. Am I doing something wrong? I've taken legacy mode off and tried it with a wall and the wall subtracts from the slab no problem. Can a slab not subtract from another slab under priority based connections?

[David Maudlin]

jake_h03:

Slabs do not automatically subtract from other Slabs, in the help files see: Elements of the Virtual Building > Construction Elements > Model Element Connections > Basic Intersection Principles.

When editing the Slabs, use the Marquee Tool to stretch both Slabs at once.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David