More complex objects

[wile e coyote genius]

While I like AC and its typical easy use there are still items that could be improved. As an example, let look at walls. When the user places a wall AC generates a block which allows the user to place doors, windows or openings that can be moved or resized  within the wall. That sounds great when the wall is a plain cement wall where all you have to generate for the BOM is the volume but not all walls are plain cement. Walls can include steel reinforcement in concrete, wooden or steel studs or inside and outside cladding. As an example we will look at a typical exterior wall for a house. One of these walls could have brick cladding on the outside and then a layer of insulation between the brick and studs. Then there is the studs with insulation between them followed by a vapor barrier and lastly gypsum/drywall. In today's AC you create a wall but the project BOM does not show any of the components and thus the designer has to manually determine how much of each component is needed. If on the other hand it was possible to specify more details about the wall and it was smart enough to modify itself when doors, windows and such are placed in the wall AC could fill out the BOM automatically saving a lot work and time. The same would work with steel reinforced concrete. Slabs, columns and trusses could use those features as well. I just finished an affordable house design to which I needed to know how many studs, floor joices, etc.. in order to work out the cost of materials. To save myself from doing a lot of calculations I used roof components to create the studs and others which made it easier to determine how many studs were needed, how much drywall, siding etc. The problem was that the walls were not smart and when placing a door or window into the wall it took a lot of work to resize all the affected studs and other components. If the wall was smart it would have automatically modified the studs and added the header and bottom plate if necessary. In the case of the wall I see it as a "script" that places objects as per the specification table. That is, the user opens the "wall specifications" window and selects all of the necessary requirements. The user next picks the wall starting point and then the end point at which time the wall function creates the wall with all if the necessary components. If the user inserts a door or window the wall function automatically recreates the wall with all of the necessary components. It would take the user a little longer to create new wall definitions but once done they can be saved as favorites for easy future selection. A feature like this would surely simplify the generation of other documents as AC would do the work while creating the design.

Regards.

[Barry Kelly]

Sounds like you want to look as 'component' schedules rather then 'element' schedules.

You will be able to get info on each skin of a composite.

Studs are a different matter.

If you model them, you can get quantities.

If you have a wall that just has a 'stud' skin, the best you will get is a length, area or volume.

You will need to start using 'Properties with expression' to calculate the number of studs required (i.e wall length divided by stud spacing plus one or two extra studs).

The more you can model, the more accurate your BOM will be.

If you don't model, you can only rely on formulae, either in Archicad with Properties & Expression or externally in a spreadsheet.

Barry.

[Lingwisyer]

I am not sure how is schedules, but there is a Wall Accessory for stud walls. It will create all of the studs in a wall run and adjust to any penetrations. I assume it has been updated to work with the Opening Tool.

[SenecaDesignLLC · Accepted solution]

The wall covering I've been working on has just about everything you are writing about.

It even handles some pretty complex framing situations with Windows.

A calculates all the baseboard and casing

Studs, exterior cladding on both sides, etc.

If you are willing to help me test it and work through some of the things I'm less knowledgeable on I'd be willing to let you use it for free.

Pm me if you are interested.