Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

offset arc

Anonymous
Not applicable
I wonder why is it that hard to offset an arc? I mean when you select offset from the toolbar, you can only give distance from arc's center point to offset arc. If you want to give offset distance instead of this, you should use magic wand but sometimes it takes too much time.
Ceren
9 REPLIES 9
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Here is what you have to do:
1. Issue Offset command from Pet Palette.
2. Hover your cursor over the Arc, so the Tracker shows the radius.
3. Type the Offset value, then press + so the value will be added to the radius.
4. Press ENTER to finish the operation, the radius of the Arc will be modified to the value in the Tracker, effectively offsetting the Arc by the value typed by you.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
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Barry Kelly
Moderator
The correct terminology here is quite important as there could be two things you are trying to do.

By 'offset' do you mean stretch (adjust) or do you mean to offset with a duplicate.
And by 'toolbar' do you mean the 'radial stretch' option in the 'Pet Palette' or the 'offset' tool in the 'tool bar'.

To adjust the radius, do as Laszlo suggested.
Select the arc, choose radial stretch in the pet palette, hover over the arc and type your figure then + (i.e. 50+) to increase or figure and - (i.e. 50-) to decrease.
You will need the 'tracker' to be active to do this.

To offset with a duplicate then activate the circle tool, pick the 'offset' command in the tool box, magic wand on the arc and offset where you want to go - it will measure from the arc.
Again you will want the 'tracker' on for this.

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
Miha_M
Advisor
Here is what I do (Windows), if I want to offset a copy of multiple connected segments, a polyline or polygon:
1. ALT+click the existing element (this way you will activate the element tool and get the existing element attributes)
2. activate the offset tool in the command box (or use a keyboard shortcut for that tool, which I have defined in my shortcut scheme)
3. SPACE+click on the existing element (this way you'll define the offset path) and move the cursor in the direction of the wanted offset
4. press R (my shortcut and I think the default one for relative distance) and type in the wanted distance value

The above works with all linear or polygonal elements (lines, arcs, polylines, walls, fills, slabs, ...).

If it's just one element segment I prefer a quick element copy and manual offset by moving (or streching the copy if it's an arc segment). Everything with keyboard shortcuts (copy, duplicate, (or move a copy), perpendicular to,...), which roam to every new version of archicad with my pre-defined work environment.

Probably most of long time Archicad users who know most of what Archicad has to offer, have their own way of doing things, as there is usually more than one way to achieve a specific goal. You just need to find one that works for you best.

| Archicad 4.55 - 27
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| HP Z4 G4 | W-2245 | 64 GB RAM | RTX A4000 | Windows 11

Anonymous
Not applicable
Thank you for your answers. Really helpful
Ceren
aryastark
Enthusiast
Miha_M wrote:
2. activate the offset tool in the command box (or use a keyboard shortcut for that tool, which I have defined in my shortcut scheme)
didn't work can't understand why archicad not allow to "duplicate offset" like any other line works.
circle also line but we can not simply click ctrl and duplicate it and offset ;((.

Ver: AC23
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
Chip type: GeForce GTX 960M
Miha_M
Advisor
Sorry, this was the "offset" I was talking about. The button in the control box, which I keep in an extended form.

| Archicad 4.55 - 27
| HP Z840 | 2× E5-2643 v4 | 64 GB RAM | Quadro M5000 | Windows 10 Pro x64
| HP Z4 G4 | W-2245 | 64 GB RAM | RTX A4000 | Windows 11

aryastark
Enthusiast
hmm, apparently version 23 doesn't have that feature...
thanks.
Ver: AC23
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
Chip type: GeForce GTX 960M
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
aryastark wrote:
hmm, apparently version 23 doesn't have that feature...
thanks.

Activate the "Window > Palette > Control Box" menu item to display the Control Box. This option is located there.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
aryastark
Enthusiast
found!!
Ver: AC23
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
Chip type: GeForce GTX 960M