New/custom composite walls ?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm looking for any new(er) wall fills in Archicad. I've been researching and I'm not sure if you can actually make custom walls. When I mean custom, I mean 'greener' walls, or at least new technologies in wall structure.

Thank You

[Anonymous]

It is possible to make all sorts of new and custom fills, composites and profiles which may be used to represent pretty much whatever you want. I'm not quite sure what your question is. Do you not know how to create new wall types or is there a particular assembly you are trying to make?

[Anonymous]

Both. Wer'e not ' allowed' to use traditional walls i.e block, air space,insulation, block,plaster... I don't know how to make profiles either.

I think that a wood clad would be good for the outside of my design, but not too sure what to use as the wall structure.

Thank You

[Anonymous]

For the details of making new wall types I suggest you check out the manual. Composite walls are multiple skins (we don't call them layers to avoid confusion with the organizational layers) making up assemblys of uniform thickness. Profiled walls allow you to make assemblies of just about any cross section. These will be uniform along their length nso any discontinuous parts have to be added (or subtracted)

[Anonymous]

Ok, I will do that. I take it you can just change the wall, without actually drawing it again ?

I've got another basic question, the floor slabs have a weird render, why is that and what are the orange lines over the windows for ?

Thank you very much.

[Anonymous]

NStocks wrote:
I take it you can just change the wall, without actually drawing it again ?

Yes just select it and make changes in the Info Box or settings dialog.

I've got another basic question, the floor slabs have a weird render, why is that and what are the orange lines over the windows for ?

Those are graphic devices to show the opening/swing direction. They are mostly for elevations (which are special case 3D views). I have never undestood why any one would want them in perspective views. They can be turned off. This has changed with AC13 and I haven't time for the details.

Have you tried running the tutorial? It should cover a lot of your basic questions and save the good will of the folks around here for more troublesome problems.

[Anonymous]

The "weird" slab is most probably a wall or other object on the story below whose height happens to exactly match the top elevation of the slab. Try shortening the wall (or other object) by an inch or so.

Use the marquee, in its heavy line setting, to cut through the offending area, then hit F5 to see only this area in 3d, that should give you an idea as to what is going on.

"Wood clad" is pretty traditional, requiring studs, air cavities, insulation, etc. I think looking a little further out is what the teacher is after. Once you decide which part of "green" you are focusing on, the answer will follow.

Snap
PS Matthew is right, give the tutorials a go.

[Anonymous]

snapcrackle wrote:
The "weird" slab is most probably a wall or other object on the story below whose height happens to exactly match the top elevation of the slab. Try shortening the wall (or other object) by an inch or so.

Use the marquee, in its heavy line setting, to cut through the offending area, then hit F5 to see only this area in 3d, that should give you an idea as to what is going on.

"Wood clad" is pretty traditional, requiring studs, air cavities, insulation, etc. I think looking a little further out is what the teacher is after. Once you decide which part of "green" you are focusing on, the answer will follow.

Snap
PS Matthew is right, give the tutorials a go.

I understand exactly what you mean. The problem is that the University put too much work on students and there isn't enough time for us first year students to research things in detail ( most staff and student agree with that ). Like this project, we have 2 weeks to design it, make a model, draw it in CAD, explain why we want to use the materials we've chosen and show analytical data, on top of a assignment we have in another module.

I'm not at all moaning about it, I really enjoy learning and I know that Architecture requires a lot of effort and knowledge, but I'm learning. I've started to read a few books in the past weeks to boost my knowledge on construction, but most books cover construction methods and technology from the ' past ' . ( I also subscribe to ' Detail ' magazine which has a few newer technologies but their so new, they haven't been incorporated into domestic buildings which is what we design at the moment.

Thank you all for your help, I've learnt more from this forum than from my studio tutor !

[Anonymous]

Good luck! Enjoy the process.
Snap

[Anonymous]

Well, I've spoken to my Tutor and after all that, she said that I can use a timber frame structure. I questioned this because it's not at all a new technology or construction method, and she said that's ok because it's economical..

Now I just need to create a fill that represents timber frame wall. Could I also show the timber frame wall in 3d ( which in turn would create the plans etc. with the stud wall properties ). I'm guessing you could use the' Beam' tool and set all parameters to match wood?m but this is before I checked the manual...


Thank You