Trim top of wall

[Beginner]

I would like to trim the walls as shown in the picture. I can't trim them to the roof as they  go further up than the roof.

Hope someone can help me to the right, and hopefully easy method. I am new to Archicad, but have experience from Revit.

[mthd]

Hi DGSketcher, I performed some tests in AC24 to see if I could edit in elevations like I said above.

Your right, AC doesn’t allow me to add a node in elevation on walls and even on slabs like it does with morphs in elevation mode hmmm ???

I can trim to roof though but after that the gable shape doesn’t stay in place when I peel back the gable end.

I am a Chief Architect user as well and that program has been able to edit elevations for a quarter of century now. Like I described above. 

Why can’t Archicad allow us to do the same in elevations with walls by now ?

Anyway I better start learning more about SEO “Solid Element Operations” to tidy up my skills with Archicad.

I apologise for my lack of understanding and should not have assumed that Archicad could do what I said above in elevations with wall tops being converted to triangles, with add a node at the centre point and then drag each end down into place. I am getting old and forgetful.

Perhaps the person who started this post can tell us if it is more efficient in Revit and how they do it ?

Archicad is definitely more sensitive for more design precision and finer tuning of design detail. 

So there could be a reason why we are not allowed to edit walls in elevations like I said above just yet ?

Lesson learned: Never “assume” because you can make an “Ass” out of “U” & “Me” lol.

[DGSketcher]

@mthd Thank you for clarifying what has happened, such humility is a rare commodity around here. We all have our misunderstandings with what is a less than simple piece of software. I am a little disappointed, I was hoping you had found an undocumented trick or new feature in development. It is certainly something I would have found useful over the last 27 years. 

Perhaps you could raise a wish for such a feature? You never know, the grand children might benefit from the idea at some point. 😉

[mthd]

Thanks DGS, that’s all cool.

I found this excellent video and this might just work on the gable end also staying in place ?

Please see the “crop” method. Hopefully when we peel back the gable, the triangular top of the wall cut by the roof planes will stay in place ?

Then all we need to do is cap the top of the triangle formed as some have suggested above.

I will test it out tomorrow.

https://youtu.be/K7OZ_fU7eGA

Enjoy.

Edit: It appears that we can only crop to a single roof plane as demonstrated in the above video ?

So on a gable end with 2 roof planes the crop method may not work in this instance and I am not sure if a crop zone will work either ? If anybody knows if we can crop a gable end triangle please show us how. 

Thanks.

[Barry Kelly]

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@mthd wrote:

Please see the “crop” method. Hopefully when we peel back the gable, the triangular top of the wall cut by the roof planes will stay in place ?

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Yes, crop is a permanent crop, but you can 'undo' the crop to return the wall to its former state.

So to have the wall trimmed or cropped above the main roof, you will need to add a temporary roof in the position you want the trim/crop.

With crop, you can delete the temporary roof and the wall will remain cropped.

With trim or SEO you need to hide the temporary roof in a layer that you can turn off.

The roof must remain for the trim/SEO to remain in place, but the roof (or any other element you are using to cut with) can be hidden in a layer that is turned off.

Even with the crop I would be inclined to hide the temporary roof in a hidden layer, so you do not have to re-model a new roof if you want to adjust the crop.

But that is where the trim and SEO are better because they remain live to the position of the temporary roof.

Move the roof and the trim/SEO amends.

Trim will use the building material strengths to determine which skin cuts which skin.

Crop and SEO will simply cut the entire elements and not use building material strengths.

Barry.

[Brett Brown]

I'm surprised the Power users haven't described the easist method of shaping the wall top in elevation. Put an opening across the top of the wall and shape to your hearts content. Use it all the time. AC 25 onwards, no SEO in sight

[Lee Hankins]

Never even thought to do that. I guess it appears correctly in plan too as SEO's don't.

[mthd]

Whoa ! Sounds awesome BB.

I have to get my brain around it but I think putting a molding on top of the wall edge might also be easier as well now ? Particularly since architraves tend follow opening edges from what I know ?

Definitely need to hear more from power users.

Edit: I tested your method above in AC25 Demo and it works a treat.

[Barry Kelly]

I was going to suggest that, but you will have to play around with the floor plan display so you see the solid wall and not the opening.

I think 'Symbolic' or "overhead All' I think to see the solid wall and not the opening.

Also need to turn the plan symbol off.

I haven't explored all the settings yet so not sure if there may be others that need to be played with.

But yes, this is a good option too now - especially as you can have a polygonal shape opening now.

Barry.

[DGSketcher]

@Brett Brown Using the opening tool is a new & valid solution, but I am not yet convinced if it is any better for simple roofs. The problem I see is you are still managing a free floating & hidden cutting element. As @mthd suggested other software lets you modify the wall head which would be potentially a better solution to his problem. For me, I think the need to add a capping to the parapet sets the workflow logic to using a beam with SEO imho.

[mthd]

It would be very nice to be able to edit the wall top with add a node and shape with a future version of Archicad in the actual elevation plane. 

I hope that they do give us more editing options because that is definitely the aim of GS for future versions ?

I think for now, any work around method that works for any of us is quite acceptable. Let’s face it Archicad does give us quite a few options for solving this problem and others for now.

Capping the pediment is definitely important and needs to be represented correctly in 3D.

The amount of work arounds I used in Chief Architect really pushed that program to its limits. Thankfully Archicad gives me much more flexibility in design options that are much easier to achieve.

I am sure they will get around to it once they finish with model transfer between Revit for engineering.

I think that collaboration could have its own dedicated team and basic Archicad functionality, another team of developers. After all no building gets completed if almost everyone works in the engineering field.