It dawned on me that this thread could point toward a solution to another long running thread in interface wishes, Matthews 'the new working environment'.
I was interested in the idea of directly editing the model by cutting horizontal or vertical sections anywhere, the problem with the archicad interface is that there are two distinct environments;
1. plan and section windows 2D drawing; fills, lines, arcs etc
2. 3d window; surface amaterials, walls, roofs etc
The 3d environment already allows us to cut the model anywhere and make orthogonal plan and section views, but what we see from these cut views is just solid wall/ roof etc because the modelview does not contain the essential information on composites, ie a wall is a wall whether it has one leaf or 6: The 2d representations in plan and section are the only way to access and edit this information. BUT this is crucial information ie what happens at wall/ eaves, wall/floor junctions etc etc. With the increasing sophistication and performance requirements of building envelopes for thermal, space and cost reasons, the need to access and edit composites, particularly at junctions is critical.
if composites were accurately modelled rather than a 2d cover fill, we could edit in (multiple windows would be nice) the 3d window as orthogonal views, with true thru 3d hatching/materials representing each leaf of a composite.
This could be straightforward to use; composite walls, roofs, floors could be drawn as now but 3d composites would be 'grouped' leafs which are aware of each other (as gdl associative labels are aware of what they are labelling). By default they would be grouped and editable as one entity, which could be suspended to edit individual leafs; at junctions, edge of solid floors, eaves etc. in 3d.
Another major benefit of this approach, apart from ease of editing, would be in the calculate menu; if individual materials are linked to a database of physical properties, then the composite properties would be more accurate in terms of quantities(where we cheat at the moment with 2d patches at junctions) and could feedback a swathe of environmental and structural data into the design: heatloss, thermal lag, thermal mass etc.
eg: gdl lintols could size themselves and tell the designer what deadload is being imposed from the wall above for each leaf...
Both structural and environmental feedback from the database, which is totally lacking at the moment, would have enormous positive impact on tools available within the current ArchiCad environment.
I dont think this is technically asking for the earth is it?.. please vote for this as essential...
Richard Swann
Mac OS X 10.11.4 , 27" Imac 4k ArchiCAD 4.5-20