Showing walls for removal

[Anonymous]

A beginner here. I've created a series of internal walls on a house plan. Is there a quick way for me to select some of these walls from an 'internal wall' layer and paste them to a 'removed wall' layer and show them greyed out?

[Anonymous]

Here's what we do at our office:

Have a 'demolition' layer and a 'demolition' fill. All walls/floors/roofs/etc... that are to be demolished, are put onto our demolition layer and given our demolition fill.

You have to manually change them both, so not exactly what you asked, but maybe of some use to you.

[Anonymous]

I use a similar method. Move the "demo" walls to a different layer and change the wall to display as dashed and with a lighter pen. Layer combinations then show when these walls show up. I do this with roofs and floors as well so my section drawings can contain the same information. You will want to adjust your intersection priorities in your layer settings dialog box such that the layer combos give the demo elements a different intersection priority number.

[SeaGeoff]

You could use favorites to save your preferred demo attributes and then quickly apply then to any number of selected elements.

[Anonymous]

Geoff wrote:
You could use favorites to save your preferred demo attributes and then quickly apply then to any number of selected elements.

I use groups of favorites for everything else, but had not included a demo group yet. I will have to add that to my saved favorite groups.

Another useful thing I did in my last project (I needed one extra layer) is use separate longitudinal and transverse demo wall layers - this cleaned up section views to only show the walls I was cutting through.

[Anonymous]

Another way to "show" the walls being removed in a sketch model is to make the items being removed, walls, roofs, floors, etc, out of glass. You can see right through them but they have a slight presence.

[Aussie John]

if all the walls are on the one layer and are identical in all other respects it is not possible to easily select the required walls except by individually shift clicking on the walls. If your demolition walls have used different pens or fills then use the Find & select command to filter your selection choices

[__archiben]

Graeme wrote:
You can see right through them but they have a slight presence.

except in the openGL window. because as we well know, archicad cannot do variable openGL transparency like most other simple openGL-using applications.

alternatively: ensure that the walls/whatever-is-being-demo'd are on a demo-specific layer and change the layers 3D representation status to 'wireframe' . . . same thing without messing up the materials of existing elements . . .

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

I want to show a couple of windows that need to be removed or made smaller, but not entire walls, and of course whatever changes are necessary in the interior finishes and the exterior siding. How do I show this sort of thing? Will I need to cut the walls in question into multiple pieces? Is there an easy way to go about changing all the line types in something like a window object so as to code them for demo as some have suggested doing with walls?

This is a pretty simple remodelling project, and I don't want to generate an entire set of construction drawings, not that I really know how to do that yet anyways, since everything I need except for this can really pretty much go on one drawing, except maybe for a detail page or two at most. I just want to somehow show the few items that need to be removed or resized as they presently are, and as I want them to be.

Should I basically build the model with the building as it is, turn those bits I want to change into something on a demo layer, and then have it the way I want it otherwise? I can't quite conceive of how this would actually work, how I'd need to set up layers and layer combinations.

If I put a window on a demo layer and turn the demo layer off, I presume it wouldn't show up on the main model, the presentation layer combo, and I could then put in the new window? But will they both somehow show up when I have the demo layer turned on, or do I just need to set up a new demo layer combination to make it work?

I suppose I could just show the way it needs to be since it's pretty obvious that the existing windows have to come out, but it seems like an incomplete way of drawing things.

And then to complicate things, a portion of the interior drywall needs replaced around part of what's already existing (having been removed as part of mold abatement), in addition to what will have to be installed as a result of the window change, with new framing. It's already out.

Then, several walls or parts of walls need further demolition to remove the remains of existing drywall and to replace it with greenboard (a shower surround); how do you deal with that sort of thing?

I honestly have no idea how to show this sort of thing, when it's just the face of the wall that's changing from the existing, not the whole wall.

I really could just show the contractor where to do what, which is already pretty obvious since the walls are open to the studs already, and of course that's exactly what I'm doing as I'm showing them around the place, but I want to actually learn how to represent this sort of thing correctly in AC while I'm at it.

Also, how would you go about showing finish work that needs to be done? I've got many, many areas where a ceiling needs levelling, a wall needs to be made straight, and rough edges left by a previous round of remodeling need to be finished decently. It's not really construction per se, but just mudding patching and smoothing, kind of all over the house. What do you do, clutter up the drawing with a zillion circles and arrows and identical notes, or just make some sort of general note to fix all of these kinds of things whenever they come across them? This doesn't seem to be the sort of thing a finish schedule as I understand that beast is meant to take care of exactly - or is it?

Part of this work is apparently also going to have to involve removing existing built-in cabinetry and reinstalling it because they can't reach some of the areas that need leveled with it in place enough to make the edges no longer show. And there's already existing built-in cabinetry that has already been removed that just needs to be reinstalled after the window and surrounding drywall and framing work is completed. Does one somehow draw this sort of remove and reinstall cabinetry thing separately? And if so, how?

I've discussed ways of dealing with the messed up drywall finish with a couple of contractors, and they all have different ideas about how to go about it, so it seems to me I ought to be the one to decide and lay it out somehow so that any workmen that come onsite can figure it out, and know they need to remove and then reinstall the cabinetry, etc.

TIA.

Wendy

P.S. Oops, my sig line still shows I'm using 9, but I've switched over to 10.

[Anonymous]

Wendy,
Some of your questions have to do with Archicad, some have to do
with traditional architectural graphic standards, and some have to do
with contracts.

I model a building as I want it to be not as it is.
In your context I would show the new windows sized and placed
as you want them. The existing windows to be removed or replaced
would be shown as dashed lines with a label note saying window removed
or a legend showing the dashed lines and indicating that dashed lines
indicate windows removed. In Archicad you can explode the window,
delete the empty opening, change the line type of the exploded window
to dashed, and put in a new window in the wall.

Some of what you want done can be handled with general notes
such as "repair and replace all trim, siding, finish surfaces, etc as
necessary". In the case of the cabinets, "remove cabinets as necessary
for access and reinstall", or again, as a label note.

Repairing, straightening, and finishing the drywall, is to some extent
a contracts issue. I have seen some people methodically photograph
all of the interior surfaces then circle and note these photos for the
drywall contractor. I am not sure this works or is necessary.
I have generally made sure that the dry wall contract
contains some statement like all existing drywall to be repaired
as necessary to conform with current trade best practices or some such language.
What is more reliable is to find a conscientious drywall contractor
who is not only a good tradesman but is also a good business man
who knows how to bid a quality job as well as deliver one.

Peter Devlin