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

how to do parametric streets in archicad?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello,

I have to do some urban planning drawings in archicad (it may be in 2D only) and in thought about finding some way to parameterize the streets in order to represent at once the street, the sideways and the tree lawns and more important to modify them (like a polyline) without having to redo all the work again and again. The exact contours and calculus in intersections, roundabouts, inclinations are not that crucial at this phase because there will be a specialized road project, this being only the urban planning proposal. At first I tried to do some custom line types from Symbol Line Types but I could't fillet the intersections and couldn't snap in other points than the axis line along with other shortcomings. Any suggestions for that?

Thanks
10 REPLIES 10
Have you tried Profiled Walls? is not a "parametric" in the way your looking for, but you can change the profile any time.

On the other side, I can only imagine scripting an object for street profiles, but those won't work as poly-lines but separate objects

HTH

Regards
Nando Mogollon
Director @ BuilDigital
nando@buildigital.com.au
Using, Archicad Latest AU and INT. Revit Latest (have to keep comparing notes)
More and more... IFC.js, IFCOpenShell
All things Solibri and BIMCollab
Steve Jepson
Virtuoso
You could use walls/custom profiles/composites for making roads with curb, gutter, sidewalks, striping, all at one time.

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

Anonymous
Not applicable
This is what I achieved so far. I used composite wall structure. The problem resides in the filleted zone of the intersection, the street must intersect with fillet at a min. 4.00m not angular.
Currently I draw a sketch with the walls then I explode the walls in 2D elements, erase the fills and then manually do the fillets. Is there any method to take things further in order to automate the fillets?
Thanks
screencap.jpg
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Do the sides of the roads using Profiled Walls and do the roads using Slabs.
You will not be able to achieve these results by modeling one road with one wall.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
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Dwight
Newcomer
The simplest way is, as Steve says, a custom profile for the sidewalk, curb, gutter, but create only one half of the roadway. You are then drawing each side of the road independently. This lets you crown the road.

When you come to an intersection, draw your corner radii. Viola!

There will be a void in the center. This part can be filled with a magic wanded slab.

Of course, no road is flat for very long, except in South Dakota. You'll need OBJECTIVE to create descending curves.

Also investigate ArchiTerra.
Dwight Atkinson
Dwight
Newcomer
And, of course, you can constrain the complex profile stretching to the roadway segment only for a horizontal stretch, keeping the sidewalk, curb and gutter undistorted.
roadway example.jpg
Dwight Atkinson
Steve Jepson
Virtuoso
It's always a good idea to educate yourself about how it is actually done in the field. This will guide you very well for how to go about modeling things in ArchiCAD.
What are the critical points you can add now to your model that will be useful when you refine the model into something more than a concept sketch.

learn about the equipment and the CAD files they use with it.

Just like everything you model with ArchiCAD, let the actual construction process determine how you do the modeling.

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

Dwight
Newcomer
Of course we can do plain, twisted ramps.

Now show this with a unified section depicting sidewalk, curb, gutter and crowned roadway together. [Without creating a hard-to-manage GDL TUBE]

Only OBJECTIVE can take this articulated section and easily extrude it.
Dwight Atkinson
Steve Jepson
Virtuoso
Extrusion is not the only way to make a road.
SEO works very well for this as well.
The trick to making curved sloping roads, curbs,gutter, etc... is learning how to make a thin surface that mimics the surface of the mesh/terrain.
You can use this as an SEO operator to subtract with upward or downward extrusion. This is how you get walls and things that follow the curve of the terrain exactly.

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25