Problem With Section/Elevation Views

[Anonymous]

I've run into a problem in a class I'm taking. I have not figured out if ArchiCAD can generate an elevation view that truly just reflects what the eye would see. For instance, you will see lines in my views that represent joists. I also see wall ends of intersecting interior walls through exterior surfaces they meet. The link below takes you to the examples. Thanks!

The link was invalid - sorry! Here is an example of an elevation view generated by ArchiCAD versus the view that the lesson plan depicts as the result.

My generated view:



The lesson view:

[Karl Ottenstein]

I've moved this to the "Working In" forum as this isn't just a student issue... although since you are using AC 9 and not a current release, there may be unique issues here that are not of interest to most users...

marklross wrote:
I have not figured out if ArchiCAD can generate an elevation view that truly just reflects what the eye would see.

Clearly, AC can generate proper elevations, or there would be lots of people asking why something so basic isn't working, right? 😉

There are several possible reasons why your elevation doesn't match the view in the AC 9 lesson. From looking at your screenshot, part of the reason is that your model does not seem to match the lesson screenshot... so there could be issues with not following all of the modeling steps.

If all modeling is correct, then the common reason for linework showing in elevation is that the surface materials / fills for the elements do not match. For example, the horizontal line between the (triangular) far gable-end and the wall below will appear in elevation if either the two walls do not touch and are not precisely co-planar... or if the walls have differing fills associated with them - even if 'vectoral hatching' is disabled in the elevation settings. (Fills differ NOT based on appearance, but based on being unique names/ID numbers.)

The last possibility, is that the settings for the placed elevation marker (via the section/elevation tool) do not match exactly those in your lesson.

Cheers,
Karl

PS Is everyone in your class also using AC 9? If so, then others there would likely be your best source of help.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply. Your explanation made sense, and helped me eliminate a few disparate lines. The "class" I'm taking is unofficial. Info here: http://homedesign.8m.com/

I am using AC 9 because it just happened to be on my machine. As I understand, AC 10 is the latest version that will run on my boat anchor! I really appreciate your help. I am trying to gain enough proficiency in architectural drafting to be able to offer drafting services. I am disabled, and this seems like work I might actually be able to do at home.

So, ultimately the question I have, that you may or may not be able to answer is: If ArchiCAD allows me to assign actual materials to elements, but in doing so, my elevation views will appear more complicated - is it acceptable industry standard for elevations to appear with "extra lines" in them? Or for the clients' sake, should I just not assign different materials to different elements?

Thank you very much!

[Karl Ottenstein]

marklross wrote:
So, ultimately the question I have, that you may or may not be able to answer is: If ArchiCAD allows me to assign actual materials to elements, but in doing so, my elevation views will appear more complicated - is it acceptable industry standard for elevations to appear with "extra lines" in them? Or for the clients' sake, should I just not assign different materials to different elements?

Lines should appear between differing materials, but not between similar ones (if they are coplanar) - ArchiCAD does it the way standard drawings should appear. Mostly. There are some glitches in AC 9 - many of which still exist in 16 - where AC will show a line on an exterior wall face that doesn't belong there. An example glitch and workaround is shown here:
http://www.onland.info/archives/2010/07/fixing_wall_corners_with_columns.php

The other method for what James shows in the blog post above is to change the priority of the interior wall so that it does not penetrate and clean-up with the exterior wall... but honestly I cannot remember what if any priority control we had in AC 9.

[Karl Ottenstein]

PS Also, now that you've shown that the class is a generic online 2D drafting class... you should know that you will not be able to readily match some aspects of the "lesson view".

For example, the lesson view shows no bottom to the chimney chase. That's not possible with a real model. I cannot imagine that someone does NOT want the line at the bottom of the chase - but if it is a requirement, then the only way to get rid of the line in AC is to either draw a (2D) white fill over the line in the elevation window, effectively masking the line. Or, use the "Patch Tool" in AC 9 to basically take a snapshot of that area (bottom of chase) and edit the created patch object - a 2D capture - to delete the line.

You will not be able to get a continuous empty fill for the rake ends, down through the soffit, as shown in the 'lesson view'. You can create the soffit with a wall or slap and trim to roof in this example, but you'll have a line between the bottom of the roof element and the trimmed soffit mass. That can be acceptable, as it could be built that way. If your instructor does not want that line then, again, you'll have to go to the white fill or Patch Tool approach. (I'm 'pretty sure' that identical fills between a roof edge and a touching, coplanar wall, will still show a line in AC 9.)

The problem of course with 2D elements like fills or patches is that if the model changes - you have to remember to modify the fill/patch if it should change too. (The goal is to have as much of all of your drawings generated automatically from the model without any manual intervention.)

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
(The goal is to have as much of all of your drawings generated automatically from the model without any manual intervention.)

That is exactly what I am trying to accomplish! Thanks again. Your insight and tips have been a great help. I already "doctored" section and elevation views with white lines and polygons to match some of the instructor's diagrams in the class, but now, I have begun to ask him whether some of my generated views are acceptable since I want to use ArchiCAD's features with as little "manual intervention" as possible. I am already very encouraged by the response, and amount of help I have received from this community. Thanks!