New ArchiCAD Reveal Tool

[Anonymous]

I think a great addition to ArchiCAD would be a reveal tool that created reveals on and associated with ArchiCAD building elements. Since, often reveals are used to define differences in paint color or materiality, a natural extension of the tool would be incorporating a way to change materials within one object face using the reveals as boundaries. (Zero depth and width reveals could be used for just changes in materiality.)

Imagine going to a 3D or section/elevation window. You see a wall that needs a reveal. Right-click on the surface of the wall and select add reveal to wall. A dialogue box appears asking if you would like a horizontal, vertical, or user defined angle and the depth and height of the reveal. A reveal instantly appears on the wall where you clicked. The reveal has (3) 3D editable hotspots one at each end and one in the middle. You are able to manipulate the reveals location using the middle hotspot and the endpoints using the other ones and they snap to other model hotspots. Reveals automatically deal with windows and doors. Clicking the reveal with the reveal tool active activates a pet pallet with icons that allow you to change the properties of the reveal, adjust the angle of the reveal, perform transformations, and perform reveal specify actions like extend reveal to connecting Archicad building elements.

Now once you have inserted the desired reveals you right click on any surface with a reveal on it and are able to change the materiality based on the boundaries of its reveals.

Isn't this vastly superior to what we have to do to a accomplish the same results now? It take a lot of words to describe the use of the tool but a reveal or color break could literally be inserted and adjusted in a few seconds. For me this tool would save a huge amount of time. On many project I work on I don't add reveals and the overall color scheme to the model simply because it would be such a major time commitment using current methods. A reveal tool would go a long way to changing that.

A note on current techniques:
I've used reveal-maker but it is cumbersome and time consuming to use and kind-of disconnected because all of the input is basically done numerically in a dialogue box (making everything line up with windows, doors, and other reveals, creating reveals that aren't the full height of a wall and changing specific wall area materials is very time consuming). Using solid operations also works but it is also cumbersome and time consuming to perform, you need to add additional layers to get it to work right and you must manually avoid and adjust around windows and doors. (Not to mention the many bugs associated with solid operations in the current version.)

[Anonymous]

I don't vote in every poll, but this deserves a response. A GREAT idea and well thought out. Graphisoft, I hope your listening. Can anybody say AC10?

[Richard Morrison]

Michael:

In the meantime, try using trussmaker (with SEOs, if you wish). It's very quick to draw the reveals in an elevation and convert to a (very skinny) "truss". You can then place the "truss" and subtract from the walls, if you wish.

[Anonymous]

Richard wrote:
Michael:

In the meantime, try using trussmaker (with SEOs, if you wish). It's very quick to draw the reveals in an elevation and convert to a (very skinny) "truss". You can then place the "truss" and subtract from the walls, if you wish.

Thanks for the tip Richard. Right now I use slab elements because I can have one element wrap the corners (sometimes a large portion of the building) and they are easier to edit on the fly for building changes or window/door changes. But, this will definitely help speed things up a little for projects whose design is pretty much nailed down. I can see myself using this tip in the future. (Don't you wish you could snap to all points on the truss in the 3D window, that would make this tip even better.) All in all, another nice creative use for trussmaker other than making a truss.

[Richard Morrison]

Michael wrote:
Right now I use slab elements because I can have one element wrap the corners (sometimes a large portion of the building) and they are easier to edit on the fly for building changes or window/door changes.

Michael:

You might want to consider using walls instead of slabs. (e.g. a 2" high wall x 2" wide, set at whatever height you want the reveal.) They are very easy to draw in 3D (easier than slabs when you're wrapping corners) and very easy to edit on the fly.

I like trussmaker because you can combine vertical and horizontal elements, but for horizontal reveals only, walls are probably easiest.

[Anonymous]

Richard wrote:
You might want to consider using walls instead of slabs. (e.g. a 2" high wall x 2" wide, set at whatever height you want the reveal.) They are very easy to draw in 3D (easier than slabs when you're wrapping corners) and very easy to edit on the fly.

I like trussmaker because you can combine vertical and horizontal elements, but for horizontal reveals only, walls are probably easiest.

Richard,

One of the reasons I use slabs is because in my experience I seem to get less Solid Operation bugs when I used slabs vs. walls. I think some of the issues I saw derived from the fact that walls can mend to each other in plan. I discovered that the number problems can be reduced by placing the operator(s) on a layer with different a wall intersection number than the layer of the target element(s) (when using walls). It's certainly faster to input with walls but I guess I'm a little wary to use walls because of my past difficulties with them. What has your experience been?

I like your truss maker idea, but I also to like the idea of being able to modify the reveals quickly for window, door, and wall changes. I suppose for now I can't have it all but I will certainly add it to my arsenal of ArchiCAD techniques.

[Steve Jepson]

You probably already knew about this... but just in case.

www.objectsonline.com
RevealMaker 1.1

[Anonymous]

Steve wrote:
You probably already knew about this... but just in case.

www.objectsonline.com
RevealMaker 1.1

I'm not sure it I used the latest version of reveal maker but based on my experience with it, it ranks pretty low on a workaround chart because of the numeric input method and the fact it can only be used to affect walls and not also slabs and columns. In my opinion, for people with version 8, using Solid Operations is far superior choice until something better comes along.

[Richard Morrison]

"Michael Scott
I like your truss maker idea, but I also to like the idea of being able to modify the reveals quickly for window, door, and wall changes. I suppose for now I can't have it all but I will certainly add it to my arsenal of ArchiCAD techniques.[/quote wrote:


Okay, if you want doors & windows to modify the reveal, try the Wall Extras with a very thin flat chair rail. It will look good in 2D, and in 3D from a distance you can't tell that it's projecting out rather than in.