Wall Profile

[Anonymous]

Attempting to draw a main common wall from a federation house which has a few twists and turns. What's the best was to tackle this in ArchiCAD?

[Barry Kelly]

blimp wrote:
I'm planning on purchasing Eric Bobrow's tutorials, but haven't had the chance to get around to it yet

Better get in quick.
I believe they are on sale for the next few days over Easter.
Barry.

[Anonymous]

Barry, are you talking about the "webinar special offer" or is there a easter advert somewhere else?

[Barry Kelly]

I just had an e-mail earlier touting Eric's Best Practice course for half price.
In the e-mail he mentioned he would do a similar deal for his Master Template and his Internet Marketing course.

Here is the link he posted in the e-mail.

http://www.acbestpractices.com/march-madness/?inf_contact_key=a1a012022cb312858415e682298c8190b894db...

Barry.

PS Eric - should I be getting a commision?
Just joking of course.

[Anonymous]

Cool thanks for the tip, I sent Eric a private message via facebook.

[Anonymous]

Stuart,

Am I right to saying (and from what I've read from other posts), it seems you can pretty much use any tool to create whatever massing or form your after.

For example I read a posts where a guy was advised to use a roof tool to create a sloped driveways.

I'm just brain storming here, but if that's the case, would it then be possible to draw the parapet or wall shaped in plan view as a slab, then rotate it to sit vertical and act as a wall with internal wall elements?

[David Maudlin]

blimp wrote:
I'm just brain storming here, but if that's the case, would it then be possible to draw the parapet or wall shaped in plan view as a slab, then rotate it to sit vertical and act as a wall with internal wall elements?

If you use this method, the slab will be transformed into an object, and so will act as an object, not a wall: for example you will not be able to put doors or windows into it, and it will not clean up with other walls. Same issues if the slab is transformed into a Morph.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

[Dwight]

blimp wrote:
Stuart,

Am I right to saying (and from what I've read from other posts), it seems you can pretty much use any tool to create whatever massing or form your after.

Archicad is disciplined so that all forms aren't plastic primitives. Having elements with constraining properties like slab, wall and roof distinguished Archicad from other modelers at the time [1990]. Understanding primitives this way made inserting doors in walls, for instance, revolutionary at the time. As the program evolved and we got away from using steam to run our computers, its designers made increasingly convoluted and complex ways to achieve unlikely form - like your parapet wall challenge. Remember that Archicad isn't merely a modeler, but seeks to logically resolve building elements into quantifiable construction quantities, even if that capacity is beyond most users.

With the addition of the Morph tool, any element [and its built-in constraints/quantities] can be dissolved amorphically. But that doesn't mean that removing all constraints on an element is a good thing.

The main drawback beginners have using any modeling program is the tendency to think in plan. Try thinking about what can be extruded in section…

You'd still be advised to investigate Archicad's tools thru the complex profile tool applied as a column, beam or wall. For instance, once a shape is defined in the complex profile, it can be extruded without distorting, sloped as a beam, since beams slope. There's your parapet coping, for instance.

The complex profile also has the advantage of being recorded somewhere for easy repetition and editing in future.

My approach is to build what is possible with the standard tools, then morphicalize the weird bits for custom modeling.

[rocorona]

would it then be possible to draw the parapet or wall shaped in plan view as a slab, then rotate it to sit vertical and act as a wall with internal wall elements?

Nothing so easy, here, as you have just heard. But with some trick you can use one element to borrow a shape to crop a Wall. I recommend to use these techniques only when really needed.
There are examples in the Graphisoft tutorial movies, or just have a look to this one: http://youtu.be/v0l8UulwyOA