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

How to edit a objects - Dormer

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello!

As a beginner i have some problem to edit the dormer. My plan is to have a dormer with three windows but I´m not able to edit the dormer in Archicad. I´m not able to choose more than one window. How do I edit this object or do I have to built a whole new dormer? How do I built a new dormer if I have to?

Best regards

Henrik
21 REPLIES 21
Erika Epstein
Booster
Unfortunately the dormer you show doesn't have a parameter for quantity of windows.

You can construct your own dormer using walls and roofs instead of being limited by the dormer library part.
Erika
Architect, Consultant
MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Yosemite 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OSX 10.11.1
AC5-18
Onuma System

"Implementing Successful Building Information Modeling"
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ok, thanks. Do I save it like an ojbect or do I have to built directly on the houes? All angles on the roof of the dormer does it a little bit complicated for me as well as the the inside adaptation of the house.

/Henrik
Mats_Knutsson
Advisor
henein wrote:
Ok, thanks. Do I save it like an ojbect or do I have to built directly on the houes? All angles on the roof of the dormer does it a little bit complicated for me as well as the the inside adaptation of the house.

/Henrik
Hi,
You choose. I'd go for "build directly on house" if it's a one-off dormer. It's a good practice of basic element editing. Check Solid Element Operation for cutting the dormer walls to the roof and roof-trim for trimming the dormer roof to the main roof. PM me your email and I'll send you a pdf (swedish) on the roof trim.
AC help also works great. Search for "Trim Element to Roof" and start from there.
Mats
AC 25 SWE Full

HP Zbook Fury 15,6 G8. 32 GB RAM. Nvidia RTX A3000.
Rick Thompson
Expert
After you build one, you can select all the "pieces" and drag a copy for the others. You also have the option to group those pieces. It is a lot to work through, but very educational to do so, and much easier there after. I sometimes will copy a dormer from one file to another one.
Rick Thompson
Mac Sonoma AC 26
http://www.thompsonplans.com
Mac M2 studio w/ display
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks again!

Ok. As you can se from the attached picture i tried to build my own dormer. At the moment the walls from the dormer go inside the house through the roof. How do I trim the walls so they will be exactly 34 degree like the roof?

/Henrik

AC 12
WIn XP
Bild 3.jpg
Anonymous
Not applicable
henein wrote:
Ok. As you can se from the attached picture i tried to build my own dormer. At the moment the walls from the dormer go inside the house through the roof. How do I trim the walls so they will be exactly 34 degree like the roof?
Hi Henrik,

Place some more roofs in position above the dormer walls, then use SEO to trim the walls to the roofs.

To use SEO (Solid Element Operations) activate the SEO palette, then in the 3d window select only the dormer walls and press 'Get Target Elements'. Now select only the roofs and press 'Get Operator Elements'. Choose 'Subtraction with Upwards Extrusion' from the list of possible operation, then press 'Execute' to trim. If the roofs are deleted the walls will return to their original height.

Using SEO has the advantage of being able to change the height or pitch of the roofs and the walls will continue to be trimmed to the underside. Using the alternative 'Trim to Roof' function will create a static trim that doesn't self-adjust if the roof moves.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks Peter!

I would try to do as you described.

/Henrik



Peter wrote:
henein wrote:
Ok. As you can se from the attached picture i tried to build my own dormer. At the moment the walls from the dormer go inside the house through the roof. How do I trim the walls so they will be exactly 34 degree like the roof?
Hi Henrik,

Place some more roofs in position above the dormer walls, then use SEO to trim the walls to the roofs.

To use SEO (Solid Element Operations) activate the SEO palette, then in the 3d window select only the dormer walls and press 'Get Target Elements'. Now select only the roofs and press 'Get Operator Elements'. Choose 'Subtraction with Upwards Extrusion' from the list of possible operation, then press 'Execute' to trim. If the roofs are deleted the walls will return to their original height.

Using SEO has the advantage of being able to change the height or pitch of the roofs and the walls will continue to be trimmed to the underside. Using the alternative 'Trim to Roof' function will create a static trim that doesn't self-adjust if the roof moves.
Rick Thompson
Expert
Henrik, You may want to check the trim to roof command. While it is static, if you want be reworking the pitch, that's not an issue, and "Undoing" is a simple process if needed. Trimming to the roof command is a simple key stroke with no panels to be opening for each trim... just Command click (Mac) the wall with the roof tool selected and you are done. So, there are several useful ways to do this depending on your needs. Personally, I trim to roof.

Often the biggest issue with dormers is the wall above the roof, and what happens inside the living space. Generally you don't want it showing on the floor plan. Again, probably several ways to handle this (adjust cutting plane), but I put that wall on a layer that is visible in "work" view, and hidden in "print" view. I'll attach an example, but it is more complex .. as in when the dormer needs to show part of the wall in floor plan, the part below the roof, and not the part above it that would be in the living space. This example is cleaner to do.
Picture-5.jpg
Rick Thompson
Mac Sonoma AC 26
http://www.thompsonplans.com
Mac M2 studio w/ display
Erika Epstein
Booster
Along with what Rick just said, I usually have a separate wall that goes from the roof to the floor. This is specifically a separate wall from the dormers as the finish conditions are different. Under the main roof the wall has an interior finish on the room side, and either another interior finish on the attic or other room side. The dormer walls above the main roof will have int. finish on one side and ext. finish on the other.
Erika
Architect, Consultant
MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Yosemite 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OSX 10.11.1
AC5-18
Onuma System

"Implementing Successful Building Information Modeling"
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