What is the accepted practice in creating composites for floors?

[4hotshoes]

I know I can build a composite floor with all of the material layers (Drywall ceiling below, Joist, OSB sub-floor, hardwood finish). However, for construction drawing dimensions, I don't need the Drywall or hardwood layers when figuring structure: bearing heights or floor to floor heights (also, how do these composite layers effect the stair?). Yet, I would like to see them in 3D and in the detailed wall section. But I want to show them so they do not mess up the stud wall heights. I am completely new to how this can be managed, if it can. I suspect that it can. But where do I begin? Is there a training video that addresses this?

Thanks
Todd

[Richard Morrison]

I don't think there is an easy answer. It depends on how detailed you want your final output to be. It is possible to create very detailed slabs, roofs, and walls, and let the building material priorities do their work. Here the walls might be defined as floor to floor. This gives you great-looking detailed sections, but can be daunting to set up. OTOH, you can define fairly simple walls with their plate heights, with a floor slab sandwiched between, and this might be defined to be just be joists and subfloor, so you end up with, essentially, a structural model. You can set walls up to have plates be created automatically, maybe with use of complex profiles, or use 2D overlays for framing. Then you can magic wand in finishes for floors and ceilings. Just depends on your tolerance for pain to get to what you think you actually need for output.

[Karl Ottenstein · Accepted solution]

4hotshoes wrote:
I know I can build a composite floor with all of the material layers (Drywall ceiling below, Joist, OSB sub-floor, hardwood finish). However, for construction drawing dimensions, I don't need the Drywall or hardwood layers when figuring structure: bearing heights or floor to floor heights ...

Hi Todd. This is what Partial Structure Display (PSD) is for. You tag the drywall and hardwood layers of the composite as "finishes", tag the joists and subfloor as the structural 'core' - and then save the desired PSD setting - entire, without finishes, core only - with the view to see what you want.

In your case, you would want without finishes for your construction drawings it sounds like (I would include them - as without the drywall and flooring, you cannot dimension and guarantee that you meet minimum code ceiling height for example). Structural drawings would of course typically be core only, and in some cases, load bearing only.

This allows your model to contain all information, but to selectively display what you need for specific drawings.

Attached are screenshots of where you tag skins of a composite, and one of the many places in the interface where you can select which skins to display.

See the section of the Help: https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/guides/archicad-21/archicad-21-reference-guide/views-of-the-virtua...

[4hotshoes]

Yes, that is very helpful! That gets me in the right direction. I am sure wrinkles will need to be worked out still.