We value your input!
Please participate in Archicad 28 Home Screen and Tooltips/Quick Tutorials survey

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

How to trace a map and make a massing model

Anonymous
Not applicable
I believe I'm looking to do something quite simple that I'd ordinarily done in Sketchup in the past. I'm looking to trace a 2D digital map and make a simple massing model of a region of city in order to present my model in context. I just wondered if anybody could tell me the workflow for this process?

Many thanks.
4 REPLIES 4
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
One option:

After tracing the map you can use slabs and the magic wand to fill the buildings.
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

Macbook Pro M1 Max 64GB ram, OS X 10.XX latest
another Moderator

Anonymous
Not applicable
Monolith,

Massing in AC is easily done with the zone tool. In AC14, Z-axis push - pull functionality is built into the zone tool. Place in 2D, change Z size in 3D.
You can also place zones with the magic wand.

Snap
PS Are the trashbats using 14? Please complete your profile with a signature line that states your AC version and OS.
I don't know if this would be useful for you but you might want to place the map as a texture on a slab or mesh so your buildings look like they are a 3d part of the map. You can do this to scale too.

If you could show a sample of the end result your after it would be helpful in making suggestions about how to do it.

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

Anonymous
Not applicable
If I remember correctly, you can set Elevation points in Archicad, then use the Mesh tool to create a 3D land mass if that's what you're looking for. I did it several years ago but can't remember the Details. That's at least the direction to head.