Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

EDIT MATERIAL IN MODEL INTERFACE

Anonymous
Not applicable
IN 3D ELEMENTS (WALL-WINDOW,ETC) IN "MODEL" INTERFACE

IF THERE WOULD BE A "EDIT MATERIAL" BUTTON (OPEN THE MATERIAL SETTINGS) , IT WOULD HAVE SAVE TIME IN PREPARING THE RENDER.
14 REPLIES 14
TomWaltz
Participant
Oooohhhh...... I like it 🙂
Tom Waltz
Anonymous
Not applicable
Yep! That's a good one Gergazi!
Anonymous
Not applicable
And it would be nice if the material editor opened at the right material!!!
Anonymous
Not applicable
I think s2art hit it onthe head ABSOLUTELY.

I don't know how many times in flurry of action i've ended up editing the wrong material. AC material editor opens up on the vaugest of the materials. by some obscure logic that i just can't figure out, though I guess it's based on the material number or something like that. And thus I end up clicking okay and then cursing to high heavens. And that brings me to my pet peeve, Why isn't there a 'undo' in material editing??? I really can't understand this. SO MANY times i've done intutive changes that I didn't like and there was no way to go back esp if you haven't duplicated/saved(?) the original material.

The button to enter materials lab 'd nice but I'd say a right click menu might be much easier/faster. I almost always use kbd shortcuts to access the material/line/fill editor but the right click specific material editing menu item might be extremely fruitful.
I'd say essential!
ashy
Anonymous
Not applicable
Actually, I may have been a bit premature with my accusation. Just checked in 10 and there does seem to be some logic to the current material in the material editting dialogue.

Depends on what tool is active, eg. if wall tool is active material on reference side of wall is current; slab tool - bottom surface( ); roof tool - top surface( ). This seems slightly more logical than AC9 where it appeared that the last material assigned to any tool (not editted within a tool's settings) was current. You could use the syringe to pick up properties, but if, for instance, you selected a slab you didn't know which of the surfaces it was going to take the material from.

As gergazi suggested, if you could pick up a material from the 3D window and go straight to it's properties, you could select a material from deep within an object (eg window sash material) and edit accordingly.
__archiben
Booster
s2art wrote:
Actually, I may have been a bit premature with my accusation. Just checked in 10 and there does seem to be some logic to the current material in the material editting dialogue.
materials . . . fills, composites, linetypes, whatever ...

before you go to edit attributes, ALT-click on an element that uses the one you want to edit. doesn't work for object parameter-based attributes though . . .

back to the original wish - great idea! but rather than have the button inside the material pop-up dialogue, i would prefer it alongside. that way, selecting an element in the 3D window, and clicking this new 'Edit Material' button in the info box would take me straight to the materials editor without having to use the materials list.

next, thinking deeper into this: the materials editor needs to be integrated into archicad's attributes and set-up at a far lower level than it currently is . . . ideally it's the material definition that holds plan, section and cover fills. it also potentially holds physical information (structural and environmental analysis), and more . . ?

sorry - it sounds a bit rambling - i'm not feeling particularly eloquent today! but the point is: we should be choosing our materials and having their graphical representation (and physical properties) taken care of automatically . . .

~/archiben
b e n f r o s t
b f [a t ] p l a n b a r c h i t e c t u r e [d o t] n z
archicad | sketchup! | coffeecup
Anonymous
Not applicable
thanks for your support and new ideas. All of us has the same problems in materials or element atributes. Editing material is little bit weak in AC. And you can not see the materail texture in model interface. So they have to link material settings with model interfaace.

Also "undo material" is perfect idea.
I think right click on material is better idea than edit button.
You can add edit,undo,redo material or some other usefull comands in that menu.
Anonymous
Not applicable
~/archiben wrote:
we should be choosing our materials and having their graphical representation (and physical properties) taken care of automatically
Excellent idea, I can't think of a reason why when you assign a composite with brick on one side, gypsum board on the other that the wall wouldn't automatically get assigned these materials accordingly.

I guess basically this would mean integrating fill patterns and materials into one entity, we are almost there I guess since you could assign a vectorial hatching to a material, but it doesn't work the other way, I think purging fills and materials into one entity would simplify things and bring them closer to representing the physical world.
Geoff Briggs
Mentor
I like the idea of an Edit Material button in the Info Box!

Big Picture, I totally support Ben's idea. It's been a long time wish of mine that the concept of Materials in ArchiCAD would evolve from computer based surface textures to the real-world based building materials we all know. Thus 12mm plywood would hold graphic, physical and pricing info. It could be used alone, by say the wall or slab tool, or in Assemblies, which I envision as the future merging of composites and complex profiles. The beauty of this approach would be immediately evident in take offs and cost estimating, and it would greatly simplify the process of creating multiple similar assemblies as well as enable global editing of them afterward.
Regards,
Geoff Briggs
I & I Design, Seattle, USA
AC7-27, M1 Mac, OS 14.x