Matthew wrote:I think you're spot on Matthew.
....I also have been asking for external materials libraries (and shared attributes in general) so that a project material can be assigned by application (such as "first floor siding", "lobby paint" or "trim color") and then specified from an external reference (such as "Brick veneer, running bond, Belden, Frosted White", "White, Benjamin Moore, Aquavelvet", etc.)
BTW: I also feel strongly that the "materials" need to be renamed "finishes" to eliminate the confusion with components. In other words, a wall may be made of concrete (the component) but be painted, sealed, or left as untreated concrete (the finish).
First of all, I agree, get rid of the word ‘material’. It suggests that an element is made entirely of something, rather than just a coating affecting its exterior appearance. The description of what an element is made of internally should be left to hatches.
To organise finishes, how about a feature similar to the Project Info Autotext, (AutoFinish?
) maybe under a separate tab, where you have a list of user-configurable entries, each specifying a particular 'finish' that you wish to utilise in your building in a particular position.It should be set up in orderable columns. (Same as project info list) The default list of columns could be something along the lines of the following.
- The first should specify its use and would be the descriptive name used to identify it e.g. Bed1 floor, Study walls, External brickwork, Roof tiles, Electrical sockets, Stair carpet, Inside of the cupboard under the stairs!!
- The next could specify the surface it is applied to e.g. wall, floor, ceiling, architraves, roof.
- The next could specify interior, exterior or landscaping use.
- Lastly select the actual texture with any bump mapping or shaders applied to it as we do currently.
This would allow you to alphabetically filter the list under each column heading. For example, you could clearly show all the external finishes being used or show all the finishes to a particular room.
There could actually be any number of user-defined headings to the columns, their use purely to help organise the list in any order that would be the most useful. E.g. Surface finish – gloss, matt, eggshell, natural. Application – brush, sprayed, trowelled, laid. Manufacturer – Dulux, Farrow & Ball etc etc. You could possibly add quite detailed specification notes and link this all into the scheduling functions in AC, which could be quite powerful.
When working in any elements settings dialog you should only be able to select one of the preset finishes for each face with no option of picking a material specifically. Even if you need a one-off you should be forced to create a new AutoFinish entry.
This would cut down the on the currently long list of materials to choose from when choosing finishes on an element, therefore speeding things up, and would also allow you to globally change all of the textures assigned to a particular use at the same time (assuming you had set all the outer wall faces to ‘External brickwork’ for example!!)
You also should be able to export this list to other projects if you have a standard ‘palette’ of finishes and then add project specific ones afterwards to save time.
It would also be nice if any library parts used added AutoFinish entries automatically, and removed them if they were deleted.
All in all, this would be a hugely powerful tool over what we have at the moment, and could save much time, ensure greater consistency, and would enable the rapid evaluation of different finish palettes, both for interior design and architecture.
Any thoughts or suggestions on the above ramble?
Cheers,
Pete.
Sorry to bump this to the top again! I've been playing with my idea of how finishes might work as I was a bit bored.
I've mocked up roughly what I would expect to see in the Project Finishes box and also how the finish would be displayed and selected in the elements settings.
Each column in the Project Finishes box can be ordered alphabetically by clicking on the column title, as you can currently with Project info and Layers. The 'Use' and 'Position' columns are there purely to organise the list to quickly find a finish if you have many to choose from.
Clicking each Finish Texture button opens the material list as we have now (should be called 'texture list' or something instead).
When selecting a finish in an elements settings box it should actually launch the Project Finishes window rather than just a long list, so you can use the columns to quickly order and find the required finish.
Also note that the default finish for any element should be the undeletable 'ArchiCAD Finish' with a suitably garish texture to visually alert you that you need to assign a finish.
Any more thoughts? Is it still too complicated? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Have I wandered completely off-topic?
I've mocked up roughly what I would expect to see in the Project Finishes box and also how the finish would be displayed and selected in the elements settings.
Each column in the Project Finishes box can be ordered alphabetically by clicking on the column title, as you can currently with Project info and Layers. The 'Use' and 'Position' columns are there purely to organise the list to quickly find a finish if you have many to choose from.
Clicking each Finish Texture button opens the material list as we have now (should be called 'texture list' or something instead).
When selecting a finish in an elements settings box it should actually launch the Project Finishes window rather than just a long list, so you can use the columns to quickly order and find the required finish.
Also note that the default finish for any element should be the undeletable 'ArchiCAD Finish' with a suitably garish texture to visually alert you that you need to assign a finish.
Any more thoughts? Is it still too complicated? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Have I wandered completely off-topic?
Proposed element settings dialog box.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Still looking?
