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

Wall coverings vs. complex wall profiles

Anonymous
Not applicable
It has been brought up now inside our office as to finding the best way to draw the house with out having in-consistencies. We are at a crossroads between using custom wall profiles and cadimage wall coverings. Does anyone have any input that could help us make a better decision? right now our issues with the coverings are that there are rare occasions that opening dont update thus causing more work, as well as not being able to set a standard inside the wall covering. with the complex walls that is never an issue. we also are moving toward generating take offs. is one way better than the other in that aspect? any input is greatly appreciated. experiences are welcome as well.

we are using archicad 15
2 REPLIES 2
Tom Krowka
Enthusiast
We usually create a new material (duplicate an existing material) for each material in a project as a wall covering. Share amongst user libraries. Once it is assigned to an element, it's also easy to change the texture therefore changing the material across the project.
Tom Krowka Architect
Windows 11, AC Version 26
Thomas@wkarchwk.com
www.walshkrowka.com
Anonymous
Not applicable
I did have trouble in 14 with Coverings not cleaning up when exterior openings were moved, but so far my test of Coverings cleaning up in 16 has worked fine.
Best to not apply Coverings till all the openings are set.

Two advantages of Coverings are;
1 you can set the opening trims per wall and not in the respective openings dialog (window/doors) for consistency and per individual walls.
2. You can easily set up multiple siding material for each wall.
Of course you could do this with thin siding only walls, but that's a pain.

Initial cost is fair but cost of upgrades each year is a bit steep if you don't use it a lot before the next upgrade cycle.