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

View composite materials in 3D window

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi. I was wondering if someone could help me figure out how to view the separate composite materials in the 3D window please. I've seen other examples where it is done, but all my composite walls are shown as different shades of grey. I have checked the 'Use Element Attributes' checkbox under Cut Surface Display in the 'Filter and Cut Elements in 3D' dialogue box but that hasn't helped.

I am using Archicad 20 on a Windows computer.

screenshot.jpg
5 REPLIES 5
James B
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Go to: Options > Project Preferences > Legacy

And review that "Use legacy intersection and Surface methods for model" is OFF.
Unchecking this, will use Building Material intersection priority for skins - so you're model and intersections will likely change as a result. Also, skins will be visible in the model.

It's good to review the Help here:
https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/guides/archicad-20/archicad-20-reference-guide/elements_of_the_vir...

(from this page onwards).
James Badcock
Graphisoft Senior Product Manager
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks James B.

That helped a little. I can now see the skin lines, but can't see the different materials or their fills. Any idea why that might be?
Anonymous
Not applicable
Also, what is telling the floor slabs and the ceiling to look like timber (This is not their material property) and the footing to look like brickwork? That seems to be the setting I need to find..
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Now you need to set the correct building materials for your elements.
And for those elements made with a composite or complex profile (i.e. wall or slab) you will need to set the correct building materials in those composites or in the profile editor.

For your external surfaces you either need to override with the surface material you want or turn the override off and let it use the building material.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks Barry. I had the correct materials set up but all the building materials were set to the surface 'General' which was making them not view. Now I know! Thanks for your help.