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

Offsetting Walls

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi Im new to the forum but very interested!

Can anyone tell me how can you offset a wall from any given point. For example if I draw a rectangle room of 10 x 5 metres how can I start a new wall say 3 metres on the 10 metre length.

Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?

Please help!
16 REPLIES 16
Anonymous
Not applicable
steveacad wrote:
Hi Im new to the forum but very interested!

Can anyone tell me how can you offset a wall from any given point. For example if I draw a rectangle room of 10 x 5 metres how can I start a new wall say 3 metres on the 10 metre length.

Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?

Please help!
You can drag a copy of your wall at the required distance (you can do that by selecting the wall, pressing CTRL+SHIFT+D (that's the shortcut for "drag a copy" command) and dragging the wall at the required distance). To be more specific, in your case, select the wall, press CTRL+SHIFT+D, drag it (after you begin to drag it, hold down the SHIFT key (if you want to drag it horizontally or vertically) and press the "R" key (pressing the "R" key enables you to enter a specific value for the distance - 3m in your case).

Another way (but not as fast) would be to press the "O" key (which enables the "offset" mode), select the "Wall" tool, press and hold down the "Space" bar (enables "Magic Wand") and click on the wall you want to offset. Now drag it (hold down the "SHIFT" key, press "R" and enter the desired offset value (3))
That's a lot of keyboarding! Another way to copy a wall is just to hover over the edge of the wall until it highlights then left-click drag it while clicking the CTRL key. (I have CTRL mapped to a mouse thumb button) Then let the guidelines appear and while on the correct guideline, type 3 and ENTER. (Tracker should be on.)

To just move the cursor to a new location, say 3 meters to the right of a wall edge, you can move the cursor to the wall edge and type X3+ . These shortcuts should be in the Help section.
Richard
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Richard Morrison, Architect-Interior Designer
AC26 (since AC6.0), Win10
Djordje
Ace
steveacad wrote:
Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?
Offset is very much there.

If you want to start anything at a distance from an existing point, place the cursor there, type xVALUE+, press enter and the cursor will jump the VALUE to the right. You can also use yVALUE+, or VALUE-. Can be also used for Z coordinate in 3D, and also for R.

Coordinate management and input is still a weak point in training, huh?
Djordje



ArchiCAD since 4.55 ... 1995
HP Omen
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks guys a lot! I just couldnt figure out how to do it!

Cheers
Anonymous
Not applicable
is there a way to offset a line (say in a drafting view?) I want to offset a line that is drawn at an angle say 32 degrees. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.
Anonymous
Not applicable
As above, but for a single line (or wall or whatever) what I do is "drag a copy", pick a starting point next to the line you are copying, move perpendicular to the line and when you get the perpendicular cursor start typing your distance (with Tracker on). Very quick, and almost foolproof. Another way is to use guidelines, but this can take a little longer as you wait for them to appear. Play with the different techniques and see which you prefer.
Anonymous
Not applicable
It's also handy to use "Multiply" if you want to offset multiple times the same distance. Just right click the wall, line etc., click multiply, spread and put in the distance you want to offset. I like this because unlike in Autocad you don't have to click something over and over to get multiple copies of it. It's also easier than "Array". You click once and drag your cursor in the direction you want to offset.
Stress Co_
Advisor
pencrush wrote:
is there a way to offset a line (say in a drafting view?) I want to offset a line that is drawn at an angle say 32 degrees. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.
Use the offset button (in the control box pallette) .... Click the button... "space-click" (magic wand) the line you want to offset from... drag the desired distance (or "R" and type distance)
Picture 2.png
Marc Corney, Architect
Red Canoe Architecture, P. A.

Mac OS 10.15.7 (Catalina) //// Mac OS 14.2.1 (Sonoma)
Processor: 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 //// Apple M2 Max
Memory: 48 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 //// 32 GB
Graphics: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB //// 12C CPU, 30C GPU
ArchiCAD 25 (5010 USA Full) //// ArchiCAD 27 (4030 USA Full)
Djordje wrote:
steveacad wrote:
Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?
If you want to start anything at a distance from an existing point, place the cursor there, type xVALUE+, press enter and the cursor will jump the VALUE to the right. You can also use yVALUE+, or VALUE-. Can be also used for Z coordinate in 3D, and also for R.
Djordje, you can't use VALUE-. It has to be -VALUE+. Unless I'm seriously missing some setting to allow this.

To the original poster. If you wanted another wall to be offset 3m to the right of your upper-right wall corner, simply "float" your cursor over the spot until you get the check mark, type x so the field highlights, then while the current x position is highlighted, type 3+. This will ADD 3m (or feet) to your current x position. Click (or Enter) and draw!

If you wanted it to be 3m to the left of the point, then -3+ would be the data to type. 3m up is y, then 3+, 3m down is y, then -3+. This also works in the z field, as well as a, r, and n.
Rex Maximilian, Honolulu, USA - www.rexmaximilian.com
ArchiCAD 27 (user since 3.4, 1991)
16" MacBook Pro; M1 Max (2021), 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 32-Core GPU
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Creator of the Maximilian ArchiCAD Template System
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