SEO (Solid Element Operator) of Beams for rafter tails

[ares997]

We are accustomed to creating rafter tails with beams and complex profiles to give them some sort of curving shape at the ends of the beams, but it seems that beams aren't affected by SEO's of slabs, walls, or anything else except for other beams (but they don't show up correctly in plan once operated on), roofs or shells. Is this correct or am I totally missing something? (Or maybe it is fixed in the latest update.)

[Erwin Edel]

Put the SEO element on a layer with a different priority number, that will stop it interacting with the beams.

Solid Element Operations will not show up on floorplan.

[Erich]

See page 998 of the AC 17 Reference Guide in your Help menu.

Beams and Other Elements
For information on how intersections (junctions) work among construction elements:
See Element Intersections.
The following other features also affect Beam intersections:
• The Adjust Elements to Slabs function lets you adjust horizontal Beams to specific levels of one or more Slabs that are located above and/or below them.
See Adjust Elements to Slabs.
• Beams can be trimmed to Roofs or Shells using the “Trim to Roof/Shell” command. See Trim Elements to Roof or Shell.
• You can also crop a Beam to a Single-plane Roof.
See Crop Elements to Single-plane Roof.
Auto-Intersection of Beams with Other Beams
When a Beam intersects another Beam, ArchiCAD automatically cleans crossings, T and L
intersections of Beams if the Options > Auto Intersection feature is turned on.
If one end of the joining Beam falls within the contour of the other Beam, the end of the joining Beam will automatically adjust to the reference axis. Their appearance in 3D will be “cleaned up” accordingly, provided that the beams have the same intersection priority.

[ares997]

That's what I suspected. Initially I changed both the beam and the slab to the same layer and found that didn't work. Then I read that section in the manual and tried a roof and that worked, but it should be noted that what I was attempting to do was to create a curvy rafter tail. So I then tried a beam tool which also work and would be the ideal starting point for a curvy complex profile to trim the beam ends. It should be referenced in the manual that this is also a possibility. Though I guess from a programming standpoint I guess that is an obvious interaction; beam to beam.

[Anonymous]

A wall will automatically cut a beam, so you could use a complex profile wall shaped like the cut (removed) section of rafter tails and there is no need for SEO. Just make sure the wall's priority is higher than that of the beams, and its layer is turned off.

[ares997]

That is no longer the case.

[Barry Kelly]

It depends on the strengths of your Building Materials.
Barry.

[Laszlo Nagy]

So this is actually a new way of cutting shapes out of elements: create a Building Material with an Intersection Proirity of 999, so it will be stronger than any other Building Material.
You can then create a Layer named "SEO Cutting Bodies" or something and place these cutting elements there. It is a good idea to set this Layer to Wireframe. That way when you see it in 3D, the cutting bodies will be in wireframe.
Then create the needed cut shape in the Profile Manager, assign the Building Material defined to its section fill, and just place Walls using that profile onto the "SEO Cutting Bodies" layer. It will cut its shape out of everything without the need to perform SEOs.