Circular anything

[wile e coyote genius]

I have brought this up in the past but I am now finding my issue a detriment to my work. In the attached picture it shows a round wall, actually one half of it. If you look at the picture you will see that there are many many precisely placed windows. Because the wall is split into two halves it requires that I first place the windows in one half and then repeat on the other half. It wouldn't be too much trouble if one could mirror just the windows but AC doesn't allow that, the user must also mirror the wall. In my case I had to put in the interior walls before the windows and if I just mirrored the wall and windows I would lose the relationship between the inner walls and the outside wall. If on the other hand the circular wall was a single continuous circle I would only have to do one window set up and then do a multiple or multiply copy. No extra work doing one side and then the other. I have heard the story that a complete circular wall can't be done because the start point is the same as the end point. I don't by that anymore. If every mechanical CAD available today can make complete single element rings there shouldn't be any reason why AC can't do it. To make a circular wall all it needs is a center point, radius, a start point,  direction of travel and the number of degrees to travel. The end point is created based on those data. Thus the end point is at 360 degrees of travel. If make a circular wall that is less than 360 degrees the wall is a single element. What I wish for is the capability of AC to create single element circular walls

[Aurasphere]

Sure; but I would just use the rotate tool and apply copy to solve creation of consequent 180 degrees?

[Karl Ottenstein]

I agree with Auroasphere as far as the traditional workaround, but agree with your wish entirely.  I was surprised 25 years ago that Archicad had to create two 180 degree arcs to form a circle, and am disappointed that 25 years later it is still the case.

[wile e coyote genius]

Hello Aurasphere: I took some time to test out your suggestion. It worked but there are some procedures that need to be followed. In my design when creating the ring it requires that I first create the outside circular wall. Next I would have to delete one half of the wall. Next place and trim the interior walls. At this point I selected all of the elements except the two end interior walls and do a 180 degree rotate and copy. It was important to deselect the end walls because if selected you get two walls at the end points where one is trimmed and one isn't which needs to be deleted. So while your suggestion works it will require some procedural thinking on how to place the elements. If the outside wall was a continuous 360 degrees the steps taken simplify. First create the outside wall. Next place an inside wall and then use the "multiply" command to place the rest of the walls. Now I could just place the window pattern between 2 inside walls and again use the"multiply" command to place all of the windows. That only leaves the trimming of the walls as AC does not make copies of trimmed walls in this situation.

Thanks for the suggestion as it will be useful in future designs.

Karl: I am glad to see that I'm not the only one puzzled over the two halves thing. Maybe someone will fix that in the not too distant future.

Have a great Easter guys.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Another problem with the workaround method is that, being two walls, if you need a door or window where the two halves meet... it will only cut one wall and you'll have to use an empty opening to cut the other wall... and of course the original door/window and the associated empty opening are not jointly parametric, nor groupable...

[Barry Kelly]

Place a 360° circular wall and it will split in two as you have mentioned/

Select one half and stretch the circumference (reference line) so that it is only a very short segment (1° or less).

Now stretch the other half around so it closes the gap.

You will now have a 359° or greater single wall.

So long as you don't go the full 360°, you will have a single wall.

Position that tiny sliver where you have no windows if you can.

Yes, a full 360° wall would be preferential.

Barry.

[Aurasphere]

I was going to log back in and post what I normally do (but ridiculously sick with flu), same as you Barry...but you can actually enter 359.999 as you create the wall which is quite close and dont need to worry about the sliver so much

[Barry Kelly]

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@Aurasphere wrote:

but you can actually enter 359.999 as you create the wall which is quite close and dont need to worry about the sliver so much

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But if you don't fill in the gap, you will have a joining line in the elevation.

Barry.

[Aurasphere]

Of course!

I think I have used walls like this...prob twice in 25 years? lol

[wile e coyote genius]

Hello Guys:

Appreciate the response. I already new about the less than 360 solution but it still has troubles placing whole doors and windows across the tiny gap no matter how small. While I get  it that some users never use full 360 degree walls and for them this isn't a problem but personally I do. I have one design that has many castle like turrets with condos or apartments or hotel rooms. In the end all I am am hoping for is that the AC programmers make one element 360 degree walls a reality in the near future.

All the best and hope everyone had a great Easter.