Can we add more Material Physical Properties?

[jrmrt]

Hello ArchiCAD Community!

I'm interested in adding more Physical Properties to ArchiCAD materials so we can show things like R/in or cost per sq ft.  Is that possible?  I opened the .xml file where the Physical Properties are stored, but when I tried to save my edits, it didn't let me.

 

Our office runs ArchiCAD 24 on macOS 12.7.2 (Monterey)

Thank you!

Justin

[poco2013]

AFAIK -- Physical properties of building Materials are hard coded as part of the Building material element structural. You would have to modify the API structure , but i am not sure that that would carry through to the UI --- probably not. You can, however, easily add a custom property to any Building Material through the Property Manager by just setting the proper material classification (availability) corresponding to the the one used on the applicable Building Material.

[jrmrt]

Thank you for the reply!  Yes, I figured out how to add the properties to the materials, but I'm not being able to figure out how to add expressions to them.

For example, I was able to add the R/in property as a number to my materials, but I'm not able to reference the thickness parameter of each individual material in a composite to create an expression that would show me the total R-value for that composite.  It doesn't seem like you can reference components in expressions.

 

[Laszlo Nagy · Accepted solution]

You will not be able to use Expressions when working with Properties assigned to Building Material classifications since Properties are element-level values, while Building Materials are relevant to sub-elements (skins of Composite Structures and components of Complex Profile elements).

[poco2013]

AFAIK --- One way to calculate the sum of  wall component resistance would be to use a Python script and the function:

GetPropertyValuesOfElementComponents().

One would get the names of the components (BM) of the composite for the Wall,

then the individual component values (thickness)using the above function,

then you would have to retrieve the R value for each material, do the math, and then sum them up.

Finally copy the resultant into a custom property which could then be scheduled.

Note that Python scripts can only be manually initiated.Valued would be returned in meters, you would have to do the conversions.