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

Clean wall intersections

Anonymous
Not applicable
I'm trying to intersect multiple composite walls with different thicknesses made up of a single core and a plaster finish to both sides. I've tried every way i've remembered (priorities, reference lines, etc.) so that they can cleanly intersect to no success. The closest i ever came to it was as described in the image. Can anybody help me?
Thanks in advance.

Wall Intersection.jpg
29 REPLIES 29
Geoff Briggs
Mentor
The vertical lines in 3D that occur in a number of different intersection situations is a long standing grip of mine and a real blow to the goal of model based documentation. Please consider it a bug and treat it as such, i.e. report it.
Regards,
Geoff Briggs
I & I Design, Seattle, USA
AC7-27, M1 Mac, OS 14.x
Geoff Briggs
Mentor
Ok, here's another one for you guys. I have two identical walls joined at an outside corner. One wall is taller than the other. On top of the shorter wall is a thinner wall that I want to join to the upper part of the taller wall. When I do this it wrecks the (previously perfect) miter of the two thicker walls. The screenshot tells the tail. The last image is the plan view of the lower junction after the thin wall has done it's damage. Ideas?
Thick-thick-thin.png
Regards,
Geoff Briggs
I & I Design, Seattle, USA
AC7-27, M1 Mac, OS 14.x
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
What happens if you create a Complex Wall instead of placing two walls on top of each other?
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Chris Phillips
Contributor
One thing you could try:

select wall either side as target object,
wall in middle as operator
select SEO addition
exicute


Chris Phillips
Anshen + Allen
AC12 and 13, user since 1989 and Mac fanatic stuck in a PC world
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Hi Geoff,

Yup. Know that one well, as should most people doing US residential work. I've never found a satisfactory solution to get everything to join and clean up in all views. While priorities and butt joints can address plan - they do not address section / elevation / 3D. While SEOp can address those views, they do not address plan. You're stuck making a patch at some point.

Many years ago, Graphisoft suggested that the answer was that the adjacent wall should be broken vertically... which is not a solution at all, since (1) it is not how the wall is built [not BIM] and (2), it would force you to wrap the break around the building as the clean-up would percolate - and create havoc if anything had to be adjusted. Especially on a building on an irregularly sloped site, where wall heights vary all around the perimeter (e.g., stem walls with ponies), there is no "live" solution that I know of. 😞

Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Barry Kelly
Moderator
I was going to suggest like Karl that you can model in horizontal bands.
But as Karl also said this is not always practical.

Have a look in the OPTIONS menu > Project Preferences > Construction Elements.
Turn on the Enhancedconnections for walls and beams and see if this makes a difference.
It should help in a situation like this.
But you need to be a little more careful in how your walls (and beams) trim to each others reference lines or not.
I'll add an image in the next post to explain a little better.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Barry Kelly
Moderator
This hopefully shows that you need to watch how the reference lines trim with each other (or not).
Because reference lines trim automatically you may have to go around and re-trim some walls.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Seems like i've hit a nerve regarding this subject. From what i've read, seen and learned there's no clear, easy and definitive way so that model and documents can achieve a completely clean result without resorting to workarounds - always an undesired resource. The only solution that comes to mind (as Braza has said) is to achieve the cleanest result in the 3D model as possible (and as last posts show, even this isn't as clear topic as it would be desired!) so that 2D information such as plans, sections and elevations can be "patched". The "patch" expression says it all: you have to put some kind of "mascara" to hide the dirt (and this too is somewhat dangerous for you could miss some of the dirt only to find it when it's irreversible!).
Having said the above, i must be clear that i haven't found a better architectural BIM software as Archicad (even 2D documentation is far better than the competition). If i'm taking the time to write and read what is said in these forums that's only because we all want to push this software to a far better and fine tuned place. Let's hope these questions (yes, they must be considered problems, bugs or whatever) can be addressed so that in the end we can get a better product.
Last and not least, i would like to thank everybody that took the time to answer this question. Thank you all.
Anonymous
Not applicable
@Barry

Nice pictures with good explanation.
Thank you
Geoff Briggs
Mentor
I found an easier way to do what I needed, using a single wall, although it does require SEO.

Thanks for the great image Barry. Saved my tips & tricks folder.

May latest conundrum involves thickened walls returning to meet thinner walls with the same outer skins. I've crocked it with a wall end, but really need one that allows each skin to be stretched. I also see the wall end is not properly recognized as a Finish element by PSD, nor does it appear to pick up the skin priority from the composite.

The left shot shows what I want, although ideally the lines at the core should not be there since the fills are the same. On the right is the wall end that I used (top) and my fantasy wall end (bottom). I'm not sure if a wall end can be scripted to do that.
Picture 2.png
Regards,
Geoff Briggs
I & I Design, Seattle, USA
AC7-27, M1 Mac, OS 14.x