How do you deal with door/window casings?

[Richard Morrison]

I'm putting this issue out for discussion. The standard Graphisoft door & window casings are pretty basic, and don't reflect standard construction practices, at least in the residential arena. There are no profiles -- flat casings only -- and no good way to apply different complex profiles. I've been using SmartParts and Cadimage doors & windows as an alternative, but there are still some limitations on those, too. Cadimage, for example, has no ability to use a different head casing except on one side, and the standard "fancy" casings are fairly limited. In a nutshell, doors and windows seldom look exactly the way I want them to in 3D. So, do you:

1) Just show generic doors/windows in 3D, with 2D explanatory details?
2) Model trim components separately, and apply it to generic doors/windows?
3) Something else?

[Anonymous]

Morph, self-made objects.
Casing is a pain in the "torso supporting construction". Especially when specifications enter the game.

[Stephen Dolbee]

1) Just show generic doors/windows in 3D, with 2D explanatory details?
And we also use Cadimage doors and windows.

[Barry Kelly]

We just use a construction method that doesn't use casings.

I guess it would depend on how detailed you want the model to be and how 'automatic' you want detailing to be.

If I needed fancy casings I think I would model with fairly basic ones and detail the fancy features separately.

However if needed for a detailed model or rendered image then you really do need to model them.
As soon as you go away from a fairly simple casing I would assume it would be easier to model them separately for better control.
Less 'automatic' I know but it gives you better control.

Barry.

[Erwin Edel]

Generally speaking, I do not model any interior trim.

I don't model plaster finishes either, as I don't dimension to the plaster finish.

All the linework from trim clutters up my sections. Lots of lines close together might look fine when looking at them as hairline thickness on screen, but they print out as one thick black mass.

I have, on rare occasions, modelled fancy trim, but only for interior rendering purpose. I generally hotlink my 'technical' model to a presentation pln where I can just freely add a ton of objects, etc to make things look good for the render, I just don't want this stuff cluttering up my technical drawings.

Like Barry, I have my 1:5 scale details to show excactly how things should look.

If I do find it essential to show some trim on my 1:50 drawings I either use the standard casing to mock this up or I just make a simple upside down U shaped complex profile that I can easily stretch around the windows. This last method works on small residential projects, I would not bother with that on big projects.

[Erwin Edel]

I have a fairly simple rule of thumb: my typical uncut line pen is 0,18 mm. At scale 1:50 (my smallest 3d sections/elevation scale typically in use) that means it is pointless to show anything smaller than about 20 mm, because it starts turning into one merge thick line at that point.

Most of my interior detailing (plaster, trim etc) falls below this treshhold. Furthermore the person going to make this stuff on site, is unlikely to use my 1:50 drawing for it. That leaves the person doing the cost and quantity take off and that can be handled in a different way.

Just our method, might not be the best, but it saves some time.

[DGSketcher]

I have learnt that just because you can, it doesn't mean you should! The level of detail we can model is far in excess of typical output even when viewing with fine pens in a PDF. I typically just use the generic rectangular trims where relevant to the scale. I have on occasion added detailed mouldings for rendering purposes which are normally hidden at construction drawing stage.

The ability to swap the generic casing mouldings for rendering purposes might be handy, but you just know that they will get used all the time which will lead some users to complain their drawings are slow to regenerate.

[Richard Morrison]

Part of what prompted this discussion was re-watching a video presentation by Andrew Passacantando, which opened my eyes to what is possible in modeling a very ornate, very large house by using complex profiles and morphs to the max. (See https://www.behance.net/passacantando for the types of projects he is doing. This one, https://www.behance.net/gallery/12423935/MENDHAM-SHINGLE-STYLE-ESTATE, was the subject of the presentation. Incredibly, the interiors at the bottom of the page were pretty much all modeled accurately. The presentation is still available for free here: http://mastersofarchicad.com/guest-pass-2016-optin/, and is very much worth watching. No connection to Bobrow, although I've enjoyed his training and MoAC "Summits.")

The other factor is that I've been using Chief Architect about 50% of the time, which makes adding complex trim VERY easy for rendering purposes, without major slowdowns. It has nowhere near the overall horsepower that AC does, so I'm trying to get closer to what Chief Architect can do, but in AC, and finding it far slower to create. But most of my clients (exclusively residential) actually WANT to see these details, as do I. Also, I am not certain that the considerations of model size relative to regeneration time still apply as they did in the past.