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

Slab holes/materials

rgarand
Booster
Hello all,

I did a search for this but came up with nothing...

I have created a slab which becomes my exterior wall at the perimeter, which is how we were trained to do it. This all is great until I start to cut holes into the slab. My problem occurs in my section, I see my siding material in my slab hole. I am sure this has come up before. How do I change the material for my interior portion of the slab?

See attachment

TIA

hole-mat1.jpg
Robert J. Garand
ArchiCAD USA 28-Build 3110 USA FULL
Windows 11 Prof (64 bit) - Intel i9-14900K CPU 3.20 GHz - 64 GB RAM - NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation
9 REPLIES 9
Anonymous
Not applicable
robert

does your slab really extend to the outer face of the perimeter wall? i doubt it

is the edge of the slab made of siding?

at the risk of sounding rude i'd say the way you were trained to do it is wrong

bill

ps to answer your question, you can seo the hole from the slab with another slab (or wall, whatever) and set the operation to inherit the material attributes of the element that's being subtracted

sorry, my (and others here) little crusade - draw it as you build it
rgarand
Booster
Bill,

Yes my slab does extend to the outer face of the exterior wall. and yes the edge of the slab material is siding. Isn't this the way to do it...Chapter 4:Element Creation, page 90, ArchiCAD 8 user guide. How many other people on the list are doing it this way?

I was wondering about the SEO and how that would work...but it seems much easier to use the -,+ on the pet pallette to cut a hole in the slab.

So you draw your slab within your exterior wall? How do you do that? Do you have an exterior wall which is very thin that extends the entire hgt. of the wall? Or do you have a short thin wall just at the floor, which aligns with the wall below/above?

I know there are many ways to model in ArchiCAD and I am always willing to entertain a new way of doing something. Can you elaborate on how you would construct a simple first floor wall with a second floor slab and a second floor wall?

I am using composites for both the walls and the floor...is there a more efficient way of doing this?
Robert J. Garand
ArchiCAD USA 28-Build 3110 USA FULL
Windows 11 Prof (64 bit) - Intel i9-14900K CPU 3.20 GHz - 64 GB RAM - NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation
Anonymous
Not applicable
robert

i have to disagree with the ac guide on this

how i would do it (which is not necessarily the 'right' way)

draw walls structural slab level - structural slab level

magic wand the slab from the walls

offset the slab's perimeter to the correct position in the composite wall using the pet pallette

seo subtract the slabs from the walls so that the junction in section reads correctly

add the finished floor build-up using the interiors accessory

bill

whilst you say that the edge of your slab is siding, the siding is actually a seperate construction, part of the wall. the edge of your slab is concrete, timber framing, whatever
Aussie John
Newcomer
if you use solid element operations to cut a hole then you can apply the operator material to the cut surfaces
Cheers John
John Hyland : ARINA : www.arina.biz
User ver 4 to 12 - Jumped to v22 - so many options and settings!!!
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Dwight
Newcomer
and another way, regardless of how the exterior edges of the slab resolve, is to magic wand a new surface material on the edges of the slab "hole" using a thin wall... say 1/2" gypsum board… that will also show as a material in your section.
Dwight Atkinson
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
rgarand wrote:
How many other people on the list are doing it this way?
Hey Rob,

Both (and many more) ways are correct ... depending on what you're doing. (And SEO and magic walls are both valid ways of getting the hole materials 'right'.)

If you are only showing rough framing in your plans, then what you're doing is IMHO the 'right' way, and the exterior cleans up properly. As soon as you go to multi-skin composites to show sheathing, floor structure, etc., then Bill's method makes more sense. (There are so many issues with using multi-skin composites and getting drawings to look 'right', that I'd take a long look before going there if framing plans/sections are 'good enough'. Plus, if you have lots of SEOps on all of your walls/slabs/roofs and more, regen time begins to slow.)

Muddying the waters...

Karl
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sequoia 15.3, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
One of the forum moderators
rgarand
Booster
Hi Karl,

How is it up on the farm? Hope all is well with you.

We have, from day one, used composites. We have,however, questioned them. They seem to work in most situations. This thread has made me think a bit more about how and how far we want to go with modeling. After hearing Bill's explanation on how to use the SEO's, I now know where the advantages are.

The waters are still muddy...but I am now on the shore looking into the muddy water, instead of drowning in it.

Thanks to all who have commented.
Robert J. Garand
ArchiCAD USA 28-Build 3110 USA FULL
Windows 11 Prof (64 bit) - Intel i9-14900K CPU 3.20 GHz - 64 GB RAM - NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation
Anonymous
Not applicable
robert

glad i was of some help

fwiw my view is that:

you should model to a scale of 1:20 (1/2" for you guys over the pond) or thereabouts, or even 1:10 (1" etc)

otherwise you're driving a ferrari with the handbrake on

and now i'll shut up and let you work the way that suits you

bill
Vitruvius
Booster
I just draw my slabs inside the walls and start exterior walls at the underside of the slab.

The point of overall building sections are to show the spatial relationships and relative datums of various building components - not to show how you build the thing. And the virtual building will never provide an accurate rendition of the floor/wall interesection so in my opinion sections are best left as an abstract "key plan" which refer you to large scale construction details.

The ability to provide a highly accurate set of documents which show "how things look', and are coordinated is the real goal. But, as you can see from all these posts, a bit of fudging is still required!
Cameron Hestler, Architect
Archicad 27 / Mac Studio M1 Max - 32 GB / LG24" Monitors / 14.5 Sonoma