Wall end parameters are missing

[Patrick M]

I rarely (never) use the wall end tool, but one of my clients pointed out that the wall end has no parameters for pen settings. I found that going to edit selection set allows me to change the pen of the internal face of the wall end. But this really should be a setting somewhere in the tools dialog.

[Barry Kelly]

That particular wall end should automatically get the fills and pen colours from the wall you place it on.

Some of the others you can control them separately.

Barry.

[Patrick M]

yes, thats how it should work, but there are no gray pens in the walls settings, composite, or bMat settings; and yet the pen separating the wall end from the wall is a gray pen. Obviously it's a variable, since the edit selection set kicks it to the correct pen; but it's not an accessible variable from the wall end settings.

[Barry Kelly]

Can you show your wall composite settings?

You are turning 2 outer skins but there seems to be 3 outer skins in that wall (all empty fill)?

I am wondering if it has to do with the wall lines between skins or the end lines of those skins.

Barry.

[Miha_M]

The wall end tool is present in Archicad since version 8.1, if I remember correctly. Up to v.27, this tool has had no significant changes.

The functionality of this tool is very limited, wrapping an outer skin to the wall core thickness only (like it is possible in windows/door reveal types) is not possible.

In an advanced (open) BIM enabled software, which Archicad should be on v.27, this is not acceptable. Exporting to ifc each wall end is not part of the wall, but it's own element which has to have it's own properties. In Archicad, scheduling on an element level subtracts the wall-end surface, but the wall end surface on it's own doesn't give any value at all. The same problem is present with scheduling on the components level.

The window reveal is part of the wall, as it should be.

In the given schedule example the wall is 3m long and 3m high with no openings. 

If you are working on a BIM enabled project, or want to schedule quantities, don't use the wall end tool. But, in Archicad, we do have all the MEP and Structural Analytical tools.

[Patrick M]

sure, but the one engineer I know using archicad doesnt use teh structural analytic tools. and the MEP tools are so riddled with bugs and half baked components, they cause more crashes than they save time.
as for IFC export, the wall end works just fine, provided it is classified appropriately. it actually works better than the composites, since the individual composite layers do not have their own classification, unless you are managing a separate bMat for each material, which most residential firms dont do.
but the only part of this that is remotely relevant is the fact that wall ends have not been updated in nearly 20 years. I have noticed they are now using bMats in their parameter lists, and are even cleaning up better in plan than they used to, probably because of the inclusing of bMat into GDL in the last version or two.

the issue I am seeing is a common one with many OOTB gdl parts; that is, they bury, hide, or hard script parameters so that a file has to match exactly what the objects author intended and have little or no customization of applied attributes and parameters. This one wall end's pens is just one example

[Miha_M]

The MEP and Structural Analytical Tool part I mentioned was just a sarcastic example of how an essential architectural design and drafting tool (wall end) has not been upgraded for 20 years and is still not working as it should, but we got brand new non-architectural related tool sets (which also don't work as they should).

As for IFC export - do you have an advice for how to set up the wall ends (classification) so they are not exported as separate entities? I would like to make this work as I want a wall to be one single entity in IFC, not two with a wall and a separate wall-end.

I would not want to do this by changing this two elements into morphs and then merge them.