fixed Building Material thickness

[LukaS]

Please add option to insert thickness of material in "Classification and properties" section of Building Material settings. Consequently, using this material in Composites dialog box would have greyed out (fixed) thickness.

Most materials have specific thicknesses and makes no sense to input (incorrectly sometimes) value for each time material is used creating composites.

Cheers!

[Barry Kelly]

If you are going to have an option for a fixed thickness, then there should also be an option for multiple default thicknesses.

For example MDF boards or plywood sheets - 3mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, etc.

Probably just easier to set the thickness in the composite as we do now?

Then you still only need the one building material in case you do still want the option for a custom thickness.

Otherwise you will need at least 2 materials - one that is fixed and one that is not.

Barry.

[LukaS]

That is precisely why it should be and "option" and not a required property.

Most of membranes and prefabs have fixed values.

User could decide.

Alternatively there could be and option (tick box) to use fixed value or input it manually in Composites dialog box. 

It is not on top of necessary upgrades, we can agree on that.

Best!

[Barry Kelly · Accepted solution]

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@LukaS wrote:

That is precisely why it should be and "option" and not a required property.

Most of membranes and prefabs have fixed values.

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Yes, I agree it should be an option ,but you will need one building material with a fixed value and another that is not, just in case you do ever need a custom thickness.

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@LukaS wrote:

Alternatively there could be and option (tick box) to use fixed value or input it manually in Composites dialog box. 

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But when you create the composite you are setting the fixed thickness anyway, so what ever you type, that is it.

So, what you would need here then is, every building material would have a default thickness.

When you create a composite it uses that default thickness unless you tick a box to override that and set a thickness that you want for that particular composite.

So again you would need a pre-set building material for each allowable thickness, if you want to use it without allowing for a custom thickness.

If I was creating a composite with a plywood skin, I would need building materials for each possible ply thickness, or I have to tick the box to to say allow a custom thickness so I can type it in.

That is why I think it is just easier to type the thickness you want in the composite as we do now.

It is the composite that sets the thickness.

I think this would be over complicating the way it works now - just my opinion of course.

Barry.