Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Better Mesh Tool

Anonymous
Not applicable
ArchiCAD's Mesh tool is well due for improvements. I know there are third party tools that make up short comings, the best being the defunct ArchiSite and then there is ArchiTerra (which has a lovely personality but boy does it bite). However their existence just proves that Graphisoft has to bring the mesh tool up to speed instead of relying on small (and sometimes very slow) third party developers. We need a;
- road tool (which modifies the surface based on user defined rules),
- path tool (vertical sides that follow the surface),
- an earth balance calculator,
- configurable contour lines,
- Walls that follow the surface (ie a fence),
- a surface painter,
- surface dimensioning tool (ie click on a point to show the height/slope at that point or even better a colour coded slope/height map),
- importing tools
- 3d vegetation that can be placed on the surface (eg 3d grass)
- oh and maybe a Nurbs surface tool would be nice to.

I could go on but I'll stop myself there before I get carried away. Please please please, update the mesh tool.
Z.
    12 REPLIES 12
    Matthew Johnson
    Advocate
    Zedster,

    I agree the mesh tool is overdue for some improvement.

    Recently working on suspended concrete slabs with complex falls has been a nightmare. The only way to achieve the correct geometry was to use two meshs (one below the other) and the subtract the lower to leave a 200 thick contorted slab. Editing the resultant shape was time consuming as each point had to be edited twice (once for the top surface and then the bottom surface).

    A mesh option that gave a base surface that followed the top would increase the usefulness of the tool immeasurably.
    Matthew Johnson - POWE Architects
    AC4.5 --> AC27 & Revit 2019 --> 2023
    Asus Zenbook Pro 16x i9-13900H w/ Nvidia RTX 4070 4K dual, Windows 11 64bit
    I'd rather be sailing.
    James B
    Graphisoft
    Graphisoft
    I totally agree with both comments above.

    The mesh tool is the only tool that can allow freeform modelling. And it can't even do that!

    Nurbs, Yes definately.

    I also proposed new 3d tools. Include a 3d spline/polyline tool. where each point has an X,Y,Z. If I select these and aply a "surface" I could easy convert my 2d contours to a 3d mesh. The mesh itself could like directly linked to the 3d splines/contours.

    It's annoying that you can't have curved contours in a mesh. And the way a mesh is created with triangles ... I won't even go there! lol.

    I also can't have 'caves'. One point can't be above another point.

    Anyway, don't need to go on. i think we all get the picture
    James Badcock
    Graphisoft Senior Product Manager
    Aussie John
    Newcomer
    Agreed to all of the above.
    On a simple level when youhave to delete anumber of points it is very tedious. The pet pallete needs a delete option. or be able to select multiple points and press the delete button. This might be better as you can then perform multiple elevations changes in one go.

    A delete tool would be applicable to all poly line elements (slab, fill etc)
    Cheers John
    John Hyland : ARINA : www.arina.biz
    User ver 4 to 12 - Jumped to v22 - so many options and settings!!!
    OSX 10.15.6 [Catalina] : Archicad 22 : 15" MacBook Pro 2019
    [/size]
    Thomas Holm
    Booster
    Aussie wrote:
    A delete tool would be applicable to all poly line elements (slab, fill etc)
    Agreed! A Delete Point tool would be VERY useful. It deserves its own wish list item!
    AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    Totally agreed!

    I think there a whole new set of tools for free- form modelling must be created. And especially for NURBS modelling!

    I really welcome the way ArchiForma handles its 3D- forms, which can be modified again AFTER their creation - this is the right way that Graphisoft must follow and develop.
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    I was just over making some really negative comments about Archicad's 3D abilities in another wishlist topic, but it seems that you guys are on to something when you write that the mesh tool needs serious upgrades, and that it could become the basis for Archicad to implement some more powerful, flexible 3D options.
    so that's one more "essential" vote.
    PatriciaLe_o
    Participant
    I agree with all the wishes above! If we're dealing with small terrains, we can handle with mesh tool... but with huge terrains I get crazy giving the points z's! I also had this dream: editing the terrain and still having the original one somewhere, so that when I do a section it would appear the edited one and the line of the old one! Yes, I can keep the original in other layer and just unfreeze it on sections, but I think it'd be a economy of file space. And if ArchiTerra calculates how much terrain was cut or added, it has to know the original terrain shape, so why not show it?
    Patricia Leão

    AC21 INT Full
    MacOSHighSierra
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    OK, it's two years since I asked for this and things have got worse. This needs to become an urgent project now. I used to use the mesh to roof tool to create roads/drives etc and for trimming the base and top of walls to create fences that follow the terrain, and in ArchiCAD 10 there is no Mesh to roof tool, and the old one from 9 wont work with 10 arggggg! I just had a look at Vector works and there terrain tools kick ass, I don't like much else about Vector works, but as a CAD lecturer, ArchiCAD isn't looking like the best option. Please Graphisoft sort this out fast! If we don't get this sorted I'll have no choice but jump ship to some other CAD package, something I'd rather not do.
    Z.
    __archiben
    Booster
    Zedster wrote:
    ... and in ArchiCAD 10 there is no Mesh to roof tool, and the old one from 9 wont work with 10 arggggg!
    it's a downloadable goodie now (it was always a user-installed 'goodie' in AC9 anyway). go to your help menu, choose 'Archicad 10 Goodies' and download it from the resulting webpage.
    I just had a look at Vector works and there terrain tools kick ass, I don't like much else about Vector works, but as a CAD lecturer, ArchiCAD isn't looking like the best option.
    it's definitely time to start looking around. there are so many unfinished features with an even longer list of long-standing wishes that go with them. i went to a revit demo last week - their terrain tool even calculated relative existing/proposed site displacement volume . . . hmmm...

    32 essential and 10 important votes too. i'm also waiting to see what architerra 3 might bring . . . fancy letting us in on it fabrizio?!

    ~/archiben
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