Modelling custom folding shutter

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone!

New to this forum but not new to ArchiCAD I'm trying to create a custom shutter element for my project. The perforated shutters will be concealed within the opaque exterior finishing of the building. I use a default bifold door for that purpose. What I need is to have 10 panels, each one having different surface materials, within 1 “door”. Unfortunately, ArchiCAD doesn’t provide this option for default library elements.

So, what I've tried so far is:

1. Convert the default door to morph and manually apply a desired surface material to each panel. It works, but if only I need to change the size of the whole “door” it will require me to remodel the entire element. Other inconvenient is that I can't change the shutter's opening width/angle. I’d like to keep this option available because I need to make 2 renderings - 1 with shutters opened, and other having them closed to better show my architectural purpose.

2. With the Library Part Maker plug-in that I've learned about on this forum, I've created a “door” based on the AC’s default one and manually assigned 10 different materials to the panels. The issue of this method is that the LPM plug-in (or ArchiCAD??) can't save more than 8(!) materials linked to door panels. So, 2 panels of my newly created “door” don’t have a surface material at all. Also, a LPM doesn’t create the needed opening hotspot.

I regret I’m not familiar with GDL. But if anyone of you has a precise idea of which parameter should be modified in the default bi-fold door’s script to achieve the desired result (10 different panels within 1 door) – I swear I’ll go in!
I don’t know whether Cadimage plug-in is capable to do the job, but I’d like to proceed with free methods...

Any other idea would also be appreciated

[Anonymous]

Here is the preview for the result that I’ve got with LPM.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I am only guessing but I think this is how the GDL Objects that Library Part Maker uses are scripted: only 8 Surface Materials are defined within the GDL Object. I guess the developers though this many would be enough for any purpose, looks like they were wrong.