Marquee from elevation in 3D

[Anonymous]

I am working on a commercial project, and would like to show the services (modelled with MEP add-on) between the floor above and the ceiling below in a 3D view. I would like to include the ceiling and the floor slab, and all structural members in the area, including walls.

Can I use the marquee tool in elevation to define the area I would like to see in my 3D view. I have tried and only get a few hundred mm's of model before it gets clipped.

Using 3D cutaway is not a solution unless it can be more accurately controlled. When I activate the tool, it is hard to draw lines on the 14 levels worth of representations.

Can anyone help?

[Karl Ottenstein]

You can enter numbers in the 3D Cutaway dialog in order to be precise. And, remember - that this, along with the marquee, will all be saved if you save a view once you get it right.

[Anonymous]

Hey Karl,

I take it that you can't use the marquee in elevation for this purpose

Thanks for the tip. It took me a while to figure how to numerically enter cutaway levels. Lots of tabbing involved if you haven't acticated the right field.

It is a shame that there is no way of selecting/deleting/moving cutaway lines once drawn, or am I missing something? I would love to be able to move these lines up each level easily, instead of deleting/recreating.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Right, no marquee other than floor plan and 3D, and you cannot move the cutaway lines.

An alternative that might work for you, if your computer is decent, is to create a slab that is big and thick enough to cover the area that you want to show, and do a solid element 'intersection' operation, and then move the slab up as needed to show other cuts.

Karl

[Anonymous]

Hey Karl,

This is a good suggestion, and I will bear it in mind in the future.

You will notice by my signature that my computer can handle most things, however, this is a 14 level monster with full HVAC and sprinkler systems. I already have serious crash issues and memory issues....

My best memory usage to date is 6.5GB of RAM to date (screen capture attached)

I do not think ArchiCAD is designed to handle multistory complex models...

I just did the math, turned everything off except ceiling slabs and used the cutaway tool to show each level.

Thanks for your help