Morphs and Extrude tool ('Tube')

[alexliz]

I need to create a simple drainage elbow segment.

Was going to use the Morph tool and an extrusion along a 3D Polyline morph. 

In theory it should be easy but in practice I find it impossible.

I find that the extrusion happens unpredictably, using arbitrary starting points.

All videos I have watched as well as the online Help from GS, present this as a very straight-forward matter.

Two things are going wrong:

1. The reference point on the cross-section to be extruded 'shifts' from the centre to the perimeter. And...

2. The first curved segment along the extrusion path becomes a straight bit; only the 2nd curve extrudes along the curved path.

What could I be doing wrong?

 

 

 

 

[Marc H]

In stepping back, why not use the MEP piping to create your elbows, etc.? 

[Mahmoud Qenawi]

Hi @alexliz,

As @Marc H said, you can use MEP tools but if you have to model it by morph here’s a video may help you enough.

https://youtu.be/XsdOBD_MGvA?si=nMrEPlKLS264tViz

[runxel]

I think the secret behind this is that the the extrude help line must be boolea unioned to the extrusion profile.

Here is video, german, but you will get the gist.

[alexliz]

Thanks y'all for the replies.

@Marc H : I haven't used the MEP modeler tools yet, so don't feel comfortable at this point. Plus, I have seen that really long thread on the 'feature that didn't happen in 27' so have got a bit discouraged from trying to learn it in the current version. But I also wanted to get comfortable with the Morph capabilities, so that added to my decision to stick with Morph for this.

@Mahmoud Qenawi : Yes, I had seen the video you linked to. In the end I did it that way. One key thing to keep in mind is that the extrusion/tube path must start from a point of the original Morph cross-section - it can't be, for example, the centre of the hollow section; this means that you have to use two parallel Morphs, one of which will be solid, and the hollow will follow the tube from the solid one.

@runxel : Thanks for the reply. It may have been the case back in v21 through to v25. However, in the current one, Archicad 27, the extrusion path doesn't have to be part of the extrusion profile. I now know this, after extensive trial-and-error since my OP above.

[Mahmoud Qenawi]

I encourage you to try the new MEP Modeler in 27 which became MEP Designer in 28TP, it’s really revamped and refined across the latest hotfixes & updates.

That will give you the ability to modify element’s parameters & extract all info you need from your model unlike Morph.

Whatever you choose it’s up to you & your workflow, wish you a good luck.

[alexliz]

Thanks, @Mahmoud Qenawi , I'm giving it a try as I type. I activated the MEP Engineering toolbar but it's full of 'empty' icons - no tools. Only if I activate the MEP Work Environment does the toolbar get populated with tools. Is this a bug?

  

[Barry Kelly]

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@alexliz wrote:

I activated the MEP Engineering toolbar but it's full of 'empty' icons - no tools. Only if I activate the MEP Work Environment does the toolbar get populated with tools. Is this a bug?

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No, it is not a bug.

You need to have the MEP commands added to your Work Environment toolbars and menus.

Or as you have discovered activate a WE that has them already.

Barry.

[Mahmoud Qenawi]

In addition to Barry's reply,

I see there's an area in your WE window which I couldn't understand, is it a default option in your WE or added by your custom (Alex 01) one?

* As the default WE window doesn't contain this area.

[Lingwisyer]

Regarding getting the center of the Morph extrusion, I usually place a slab at the start with the corner defining my center and perpendicular axis.

Ling.