Sloping slabs etc.

[Anonymous]

The slab tool doesn't seem to have any provision for drawing sloping slabs, only controls for elevation and thickness. How does one draw a footpath for example, which might slope away from a building by either being slightly tilted or reducing in thickness?

My other two problems are an inability to draw rebates for brickwork in slab edge beams, and likewise the 45 degree fillets where edge and rib beams connect with the underside of a floor slab.

Any help with these three problems would be greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Hey Karl...

(I think we met at the 8.0 demo in cda....at least I remember someone in Sandpoint)

The Revit tool is like the mesh tool you show, but when I mean by slab, when you specify a bottom elevation, the whole bottom is at that point....

Now, I remember somewhere/somehow with Mesh, I could bring the bottom of the mesh up....

Such is this, I have a mesh that has an elevation from 971' to 972', I dont want a thickness down to 0'. I thought in 7 you would do -100' or something like that....but I cannot get it to work in 8.1....

[Dwight]

You copy your solid mesh, drag it down the thickness you want and SEO the upper mesh to get the uniform slab effect.

Attached is a nominal example - but only okay for low slopes...

[Dwight]

Oh yeah - Apologies in advance to complainers resentful of workarounds requiring an extra step.

I am one of them - how hard can it be to make a mesh that has a uniform thickness? Geez.

Of course you can turn a mesh into a series of roof planes "meshtoroof" and if you keep the original mesh hidden you can edit it and turn it into roof planes again, but that is a really messy workaround.

[Anonymous]

Ah...okay....I see what is going on.... Now that I have tried it....
I dont know what is going on

What is SEO? I tried the stretch height, but it just kept getting taller, rather than shorter....

[Dwight]

1: create SEO - Solid Element Operation - layer - that's the wire frame symbol in the layer dialog.
2: make a solid mesh in a regular layer
3: duplicate mesh and while the duplicate is selected switch it to the seo layer and drop it the slab thickness distance.
4: Then do the SEO - see manual.

[Anonymous]

Ahhh....now I see.....like merge and intersection of solids in Autocad.....

Geez....been using Archicad for the past couple of years and never knew that the SEO was there.....

That could have helped me out on allot of things.....

Thanks for the eye opener....

[Dwight]

oops. droppping the other mesh means to physically drop it, not make it thinner..

[Dwight]

Yeah - a big deal - almost makes you feel like it is a real solid modeler - not just a bunch of curtains.