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

Modeling with composites

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi everybody.

. I am having trouble modeling whole structure of house in composite walls and slabs. You can see on JPG how the structure of house should look and what I managed to do so far. Two thing I am interested in is how to construct connection between wall and roof. And what is the bast way to model real 3d roof tiles? Thank you!

1.jpg
6 REPLIES 6
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
I would not use real 3d roof tiles. Then again in the NL library we have 2d parts to do the rooftiles in sections/details that work quite well.

For the 3D, elevation I just use an average thickness 'layer' in the composite of the roof with a simple vectorial hatch.

All those individual tiles make for a huge polycount and the elevation becomes rather 'busy' with all that linework.

Use a good texture for the 3D views, it generally works well enough.

You can model most of the roof with one composite, there should even be fills that scale to width for insulation like the one you show to the right. If the roof thickness becomes thinner towards the end, model it with 2 roofs and use 'merge elements' to get rid of the unwanted boundary lines in plan views.

Roofs/slabs are great for modeling the 'gutter' with. You can set on which stories you want to see them, which makes for easy control over your floorplan views.

Zero thickness shells are great for zinc gutter details. You can draw a polyline and extrude it, resulting in a nice clean section.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
Oh and use SEO to clean up the roof/wall/slab connections.

And as a final note, remember that you will probably print it at 1:50 scale at most, so some detail you see in hairline CAD views, will not be that obvious on paper.

In my workflow/experience you cut different corners to get quick results in 3D modelling than in 2D CAD.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
James B
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Erwin wrote:
Oh and use SEO to clean up the roof/wall/slab connections.
I'd suggested using "Merge Elements" from the context menu to connect Roof/Wall/Slabs together - then it'll be using the Building Material intersection priority, and clean up at the skin level (rather than SEO which is only at the element level).
James Badcock
Graphisoft Senior Product Manager
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
Unfortunately most of the connections of floor/wall/roof don't work the way those 3 composite will meet, at least in my experience

I ussually have a complex profile wall to clean up that connection as a sort of 3D patch.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
It works well though.

Sections below only have 2D annotations and the mentioned roof tile 2D object. That project was done in ArchiCAD17.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thank you for the quick reply. I will use your suggestions in further work.