What is the easiest way to create a 3d patch?

[Anonymous]

Sorry if the question is absolete but i am new and learning fast

The problem is as follows.
I have a slab and a part of the side needs to be a different material.
So i have to create just a rectangular patch on that vertical side.

The problem is i dont know how to do it.
Witch tool to use. I want to construt it in the 3d window because there i have all the snap points.
Witch tool to use?

Thx in advance

[David Collins]

The patch tool is strictly 2d, but one thing you could try would be to use Solid Element Operations SEO:
Place a second slab where you need to show the second material.
Have it overlap the main slab by a millimeter.
Use SEO to subtract that thin slice from the main slab, using "inherit attributes of operator."
Keep the slicer-dicer slab on a separate layer, which you turn off.

David Collins

[Anonymous]

Isnt there a way to create a rectangual surface?

Or to keep it simple a triangular. I tried with the roof tool ( i must admit i have used it barely) but i could not make it. This surface is just perpendicular to the ground.

Thx for your answer (i ll try to reproduce it.. it will make me wirk with smthg i have never used anyway)

[David Collins]

I was thinking the SEO solution would keep your linework in plan view simple, by hiding the extra slab you need for your second material.

Without getting into GDL, it is possible to create simple 3d polygons in ArchiCAD. For vertical rectangles use the wall tool with 0 thickness. For horizontal polygons use the slab or roof tool with zero thickness. For vertical irregular polygons you'd need to start with a large rectangle and then slice it up with roof planes or SEO's. All these solutions lose the ability to show different materials on each face of the polygon and will doubtless have display problems and other issues. Things will get quite psychedelic in 3d if you try to place a zero-thickness element directly on the surface of another element.

ArchiCAD doesn't really like to think like this, which is why there is no 3dplane tool. A good thing, too. The idea is that you're constructing a building in virtual space, rather than creating a CAD model.