how can i create sphere curtain wall or wall ?

[Anonymous]

i am trying to use the curtain wall tool to create sphere form building, for example, the national grand theatre beijing.

however, i can't use any method to create this building shape in ArchiCAD.

i realized that AC can't slant a polylined curtain wall.

so do you have any alternative to do so?

[Dwight]

Thank you, but the real beauty is Artlantis's instant fresnel ocean shader.
Talk about your limpid pool, eh?

[Karl Ottenstein]

I second that - great tips, Dwight, and nice examples of Artlantis renderings!

I especially like your tip of magic wanding a wall to the spline and then exploding to get a constant thickness profile shape. Seems much easier than the alternatives.

Dwight wrote:
And if you use the ellipse to define the general form, convert it to glass and then apply the ribs as I originally described. Use a section cut to guide you. Resize ribs horizontally to match the varied form.

In the elliptical form, aren't the ribs in a quadrant unique, requiring a section cut and profile for each rib? Like, a lot of them? 10's, 100's? (Then the quadrant can be multipled circularly to fill in the other three.) Seems that resizing the ribs would distort them?

Thanks!
Karl

[Dwight]

You are absolutely right. The poster wants an automatic parametric object and i have driven him into the modeling ditch with wacky ideas requiring much manual work.

A possible solution here is what they did to form the Sydney Opera house ribs.

You might remember that Utzon made a seductive scribble and said "ferrocement" as if it was necromancy, but by the time the naive genius's shells were to go up the crew had created a complex segmented formwork to cast the thick tapered ribs. This is the true solution to making a series of ribs with a varied length along a path.

But, depending on the actual shape of the dome, those thousands of ribs might simply be elevated and sliced off at the bottom all at once with an SEO.
Or, perhaps instead of every window mullion, we only model the larger steel framing.

I attache a related example of using a segmented arc complex profile to quickly adjust the positions and lengths of radiating dome rods while maintaining a predictable anchor point.

[Anonymous]

For sure its a nice example... but documentation ? is totally a different matter when using SEO and complex profiles ...

any how with the "LIVE" 3D documentation I think that we have some workarounds now....not so perfect but at least we have the tools !! to have layouts of floors.

still..thanx Dwight

[Thomas Holm]

Dwight wrote:
I attache a related example of using a segmented arc complex profile to quickly adjust the positions and lengths of radiating dome rods while maintaining a predictable anchor point.

I see why the Artlantis guy is running away from this collapsing structure...

[Dwight]

haha.

We public artists have to endure this kind of ridicule all the time: that the structure is too fragile to resist drunken punks or gravity. But once you actually look at wrought iron and the like, you see that it is quite sturdy.

The attached is a favorite of mine in Lincoln, Nebraska.

[Dwight]

Absolutely true. Once you SEO an element, you really need to convert it to an object to see it properly in a real document.

But I see that the complex profiles present excellently in story cuts making multi-story structures a delight to form up.

[Thomas Holm]

Dwight wrote:
haha.

Well, it was you who made him run... I already wrote I like your examples above. And the Nebraska thing is amazing!

[Dwight]

Yeah, running.

Artlantis doesn't have a 3D figure of a punk holding a joint and a spray can that would make this scene photoreal.

[Thomas Holm]

Couldn't you model that with a complex profiled wall or two? (there's no whistling emoticon)