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

Modify Surface Finishes of Complex Profiles

Anonymous
Not applicable
We have created typical interior partitions using complex profiles to include modifiable wall base. But in using complex profiles, we have seemingly lost the ability to use the paint brush tool to independently override the surface finishes of complex profile wall.

When using a composite wall, I could, for example, paint one side of the wall blue, while the opposite side, and edge faces of the wall retained their building material appearance or whatever other surface finishes we had applied.

Now using complex profiles, if I use the paint brush tool to paint one side of the wall blue, the entire wall element - all sides and edge surfaces - are overridden.

is there an existing solution to making the complex profile and paint brush work together the way that composite walls currently function?
13 REPLIES 13
Lingwisyer
Guru
Use Profile Modifiers to create extra layers in your Complex Profile that match up to the surfaces you are wanting. Then set the ones that are not required to ZERO thickness.

I think there maybe a wish somewhere regarding an ability to define interior and exterior of Complex Profiles.

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Barry Kelly
Moderator
LowFalutin wrote:
is there an existing solution to making the complex profile and paint brush work together the way that composite walls currently function?

No, unfortunately not.
Composite walls have an inside surface, outside surface and end (includes top and bottom) surface.
Complex profile walls only have 2 surfaces - just the ends and another for the inside, outside, top and bottom combined.

So as Ling suggested you can use modifiers in the complex profile to create surfaces that you can activate by adjusting there thickness or height.
This is great as you can adjust each wall instance separately.

Otherwise you have to edit the surfaces in the complex profile itself, but this will alter all placed instances of the wall.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
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Anonymous
Not applicable
@LowFalutin

I think this is a valid important wish.
But I think you should rephrase the wish title to "Modify Complex Profiles Surface Finishes on individual elements".
This would avoid creating extremely complex Complex Profiles (sorry for the pun ) with offset modifiers.
Individual Element surface editing is the logic way to handle this, as it is not very logic to create a special CP or BM just to change a CP BM Surface. Paint/tile finish is a good example.
It could be included on a wish I had already made here.
Minh Nguyen
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Hi All,

Thank you very much for creating this poll, and for those of you who voted to express their opinion.

I am happy to say we took notice of this wish and I have added it into our WishList database (please refer to it in the future as Wish #12657). Hopefully, our Product Management team will adopt this one in the future.

Thank you all once more, and I wish you a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

Minh Nguyen
Technical Support Engineer
GRAPHISOFT

Barry Kelly
Moderator
Thanks Minh,
If you can tell us some time in the future that we can now modify the individual surfaces of a complex profile, you will reach "Hero" status in this forum.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Lingwisyer
Guru
So, that would be implemented through the Profile Modifiers dialogue? Select edge => define as customisable surface.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Adding a customisable surface would have nothing to do with profile modifiers.
Many profile surfaces do not have modifiers.
Any surface needs to be customisable.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Lingwisyer
Guru
But at current, there are only the three surface settings, so using those would be severely limiting in regards to Complex Profiles. So I figure they could implement it similar to the Profile Modifiers. You add how ever many you want, and link them to each other when they are related.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 
DGSketcher
Legend
I would imagine this is handled more like morph faces e.g. you click on an exposed face, if AC finds a closed boundary then that face is tagged with the required finish. The solution will need to sit somewhere between surface overrides in a complex profile definition and the new beam segmentation in AC23.
Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)