solid element operation

[Anonymous]

So this is a difficult quesetion to fully describe.

I've modeled my building, including structural footings, slabs, and retaining walls.

I've also modeled my site from the survey.

Now I want to use "solid element operation" to subtract the building from the site.

I've tried a direct subtract, but that left floating pieces of "site" in my underground parking garage... and that didn't read correctly in my building section.

I've tried a subtraction with vertical extrusion and that didn't work because my structural footings no longer have any ground above them...

Then, just as a fair explanation of my morning thus far, I tried a combination of the 2 steps, and my computer started to lag and lock up heavily.

I think I'm missing some obvious solutions to making this easier.

Any advice would be wonderful.

[TomWaltz]

What are you using as the subtractor?

If you are selecting the entire building, that's the problem. You probably only need the lowest level slab and the foundation walls.

[Anonymous]

The way I always do this is to cut a hole in the terrain mesh using
the subtract pet pallet item the exact shape of the outside of
the foundation walls. Then I make a mesh "plug" of the same shape and size
as the hole and set its flat top elevation to the elevation
of the underside of the basement slab and it's base plane elevation
the same as the base plane elevation of the terrain mesh
and place it in the hole. I then go to a section that cuts through
the building and the terrain mesh and select the two meshes
and send them to the back. With some caveats this works well.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

originally I did select everything...quickly learned that was not the best solution. Then i started trying with a select few "cutting" elements to manipulate the site.

That helped, but for some reason, the process is a dynamic manupulation... so the more elements I cut with, the more references the file accesses continuously (ie- if I move the slab, the cut of the site moves with it)... how do I turn that option off, force the site to be a static element?

Also, can I format the site (mesh) to function similar to glass--- so I can see the profile of structural footings that are beyond the cut line... maybe they would show up lighter, possibly dashed.

[Anonymous]

My 2 Cents:

If your footings are Only footings, and by that I mean not part of a complex wall that makes up the foundation wall as well- then I would just use then and the mesh and do just a SUBTRACTION with the footings.
Then use a fake slab (that you will turn off and put on your solid element operators layer) and draw it to the outside of your foundation walls and do a subtraction with upwards extrusion.
This way you will have mesh and earth inside your footings, to he undrneath of your basement, and none in the basement itslef or it's walls.

Make Sense?
Thats what I would do, ayway.

[Anonymous]

???

Wierd... so now I've cut the site away (as good as I can for now) and when I look at the basement (parking garage) I still see the topo lines of the old non-manipulated site. Shouldn't this of gone away?

confused.

ps- thank you so much for your help and advice...if nothing else, i'm getting new ways to look at how to use this software.

[Anonymous]

seattleguy wrote:

Also, can I format the site (mesh) to function similar to glass--- so I can see the profile of structural footings that are beyond the cut line... maybe they would show up lighter, possibly dashed.

This you would have to do I think by making the material that your mesh is transparent in the Material Settings. - Like Glass.

[Anonymous]

seattleguy wrote:
if I move the slab, the cut of the site moves with it)... how do I turn that option off, force the site to be a static element?

You can't. Solid Element Operations are always alive. When you move your ooperator you move its effect on the target.

seattleguy wrote:
???

Wierd... so now I've cut the site away (as good as I can for now) and when I look at the basement (parking garage) I still see the topo lines of the old non-manipulated site. Shouldn't this of gone away?

confused.

SEO's do not display in plan, if that's what you're meaning here. This is where Peter's idea of cutting a physical hole in the mesh works.

[Anonymous]

Jesikuh123 wrote:
This you would have to do I think by making the material that your mesh is transparent in the Material Settings. - Like Glass.

This would only work if transparency was on in the section's settings. Another option would be to make the ground "wireframe" in layer settings, but this would cause all distant mesh contours to show as wireframe too (as would the glass option). Not sure it's a good idea at all.

Try turning your mesh off, trace some lines over the distant foundations / walls, turn the mesh back on and bring the traced lines to front. You'd probably make them dotted too, I would imagine.

[Richard Morrison]

It seems like you're making this more complicated than it really should be. I would not recommend using SEOs here -- too processor intensive. Similar to what Peter says, I would just use a fill or polyline around the exterior foundation and use the Magic Wand to cut a hole in the mesh. You can magic wand an additional mesh below the basement slab, if you wish. Done.