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

How do i create a organic curtain wall(blob arch.)?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Dear forum readers,

So i am trying to create a organic free-shaped curtain wall around an existing rectangular simple building. I am kinda lost in archicad in how to achieve this, tried all kinds of options and haven't been able to get what i wanted.

So ill try and explain what im exactly trying to do. As seen in pic.1 the red line is the old building and the shaped black line is the organic curtain wall I'm trying to make around and on top of the old building.

How do i create this custom curtain wall in archicad? any help would be appreciated.

The curtain wall will have different heights and would be made of triangular shaped glass panels like in the photo.

Thanks in advance!

Schermafbeelding 2013-01-08 om 17.01.23.png
5 REPLIES 5
TMA_80
Enthusiast
Hi,

Lets be honnest, in ArchiCAD it will be very very difficult to acheive as the curtain wall in ArchiCAD doesn't allow such freeforms ( or you have to go to GDL programming) .

These posts may, maybe, help:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=35910&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=40
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBmZZTeW-D0


As in the first link you may try to recreate the form using the mesh tool , and then use the addon mesh-to roof ( You will not have a detailled curtain wall )

But, IMHO; I think you will have to use an external sofware:

you need a sort of a panneling tool, I'm sorry to tell you that you have to look into the competition ( revit which could pannelise such forms ) look for tutorials on the web.

There is also Rhino , but needs extra works than Revit.

Or sketchup
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=49583&p=447199&hilit=triangular#p447199
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=49838&p=448874&hilit=triangular#p448874
AC12_27 |Win11_64bit|
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi there, thank you for your reply. So i gave up at trying in archicad and made my organic curtain wall in Cinema4D. It worked out just fine, though it left me with a couple of questions that i would like to ask.

Archicad has it own cinema4d plug in but for some reason my laptop cant cope all that well with this plug in. It keeps crashing the moment i save the changes back to archicad. So i had to find a way around. I exported the 3D model in cinema4d as a 3ds file, then imported it to archicad using the 3ds plugin.

I now see the model in archicad, all is well. Though the materials didn't import as right as i hoped it would. The model shows the right cuts in my section drawings but it does not cut the model right at the height in my plans.

So the most imported question i have is, how do i make this model show the right story levels in my plan drawings(see picture)?

Thanks in advance,
Schermafbeelding 201322-01-12 om 00.06.44.jpg
TMA_80
Enthusiast
I'm not really familiar with the c4d and archicad exchange process but have a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rsE7mwRuI&list=PLZZCZuOB4IQ-yOGCSDv0fSrS0wu61ImN4
the correct representation should follow...

If you are using ArchiCAD16, you could also convert this form into a Morph object and then you'll have the correct representation ( be aware that it could generate a heavy 3d model, save your original file before converting )

For the texture problem, have you tried to import the material library in through the library manager ? or reaffect it through the object parameters
( search in this forum, there were a lot of posts about this issue, you may find an answer if the above doesn't work )
AC12_27 |Win11_64bit|
Hmooslechner
Moderator
Mayby You are able to understand german - and this videoTut could be interesting for You..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi1IPnOoaeE&feature=youtu.be


It is possible to create blob-meshes with a Ruby-Script-Program in google Sketchup 8 (free) and load it into Archicad with the Google-Earth connection. This brings the mesh into a library-Part in archicad - where You can change it into morph to further work within Archicad.

In the german forum: forum.graphisoft.de/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=20380&sid=f4500e09f637a5f0a736774fa5342a77
AC5.5-AC27EduAut, PC-Win10, MacbookAirM1, MacbookM1Max, Win-I7+Nvidia
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
View > Elements in 3D View > 3D Cutting Planes...

Setup the proper horizontal cut here (dutch standard would 1.500 mm above floor level).

View > Elements in 3D View > 3D Cutaway

Switch to Axonomtry and set it up as a top downview, right click in the window and choose Capture Window for 3D Document...

You should end up with a proper cut for your form. With smart layer usage you can save a view of only the blob. Turn off the layer on the floor plan and place a floorplan + 3D document view.

Repeat this process for the other floors.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

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