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

Beam Tool Options

Paul King
Advisor
Need ability to show beams as dashed (overhead) lines on one OR MORE stories below home story and to be visable as normal lines on home story and on 1 OR MORE stories above.

It is currently impossible to do both even for one story above & below home story under AC11 under any beam view settings , yet so fundamental - eg for pergolas.

Also need masking fills to beams so that intersecting overlaps can mask appropriately in plan

Obviously we need ability to splay and miter beam ends and to curve beams and crank beams and notch beams without recourse to library parts that don't interact with other beams and walls properly.

I.E: beam tool should be able to represent all the things that are are routinely done with beams!
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-27 | Twinmotion 2023
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
14 REPLIES 14
Anonymous
Not applicable
I think we need more flexibility on "show on plans" on more tools than just beams.
alemanda
Advocate
...I wish also the possibility to edit the extremities both on plan and in section (like the edges of the roof) ... and also the covering fills ...
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Anonymous
Not applicable
I completely agree. The framework is there, but we aren't given access to it.
Geof Gainer
Booster
Two new versions have come out since this thread was first posted and the Beam tool is still lagging. And wishes for a beam cover fill go back even further! Is this really any more difficult than it sounds?

One other crucial aspect I'd add for a fully-functioning beam tool -- it should allow an X or slash or crosshair just like the column tool does, to appear in sections.

I'd really love to see an X plus glu-lam, or X plus LVL symbol. Better yet, allow whatever cross-sectional fill you like, plus the option of an X or slash over top of it.
AC fan since v 7. Currently on AC 26 Build 5003 USA FULL Apple Silicon,. 2022 Mac Studio, 32G ram. OS X 12.6.2
Anonymous
Not applicable
Good ideas posted so far. The beam tool is definitely in need of an update!

Geof, I agree these basic features should be built-in, but until this happens at least you can use Complex Profiles to achieve what you need. Use 4 triangles with alternate identical fills if you want to see an X in cross section. Use 2 triangles to form a slash.

I'd like to add a few - why can you only stretch the height of a beam downwards and not upwards in the 3d window? I know the beam height is measured from the top downwards, but so are slabs, and these can be adjusted in either direction!!

Also, why can't beams be curved in plan like walls can? Actually, beams should be bendable in the other dimension too for vaulted ceilings. Beams are far more likely to be curved than walls are!

As alemanda says, the angle of beam ends should definitely be adjustable in a similar manner to roof edges. The popular wish for this one is here - http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=139909

And yes, why don't beams have coverfills?!! Major annoyance!
Anonymous
Not applicable
I strongly agree!

1. Cover fills, essential
2. Curved beams, essential
3. Adjustable/improved ends/miters, essential
4. View on stories, important
Anonymous
Not applicable
The Beam and Column tools seem very primitive, yet they are the basic building tools in commercial work.... much more-so than the Wall tool. I must admit that I do not understand why AC created steel beam/column objects loaded with proper steel profiles instead of making this available through their existing Beam and Column tools.

Another nice addition would be End Conditions or Connections. Since we are getting this far into the realism of the 3D, it would be nice to start seeing bolted end conditions or welded end conditions, cutting back of top and bottom flanges for steel shapes, cut-end options for wood beams by using the Profile Manager for end conditions instead of length, etc.

To Geof, I really appreciate you noticing how far back this request goes -- I did not catch that myself. This is an issue I have with these online "wish lists." They tend to be a place for the customer to feel like they can vent or 'have a say'. Unfortunately, this stuff gets absolutely lost within the 20,000 other online requests. Then the simple stuff does not happen and they spend the last year on the really complicated stuff. Let's see if a fourth version will pass without this corrected.
Anonymous
Not applicable
SmileyMan wrote:
I must admit that I do not understand why AC created steel beam/column objects loaded with proper steel profiles instead of making this available through their existing Beam and Column tools.
The library parts were created before the beam and column tools existed.
Another nice addition would be End Conditions or Connections. Since we are getting this far into the realism of the 3D, it would be nice to start seeing bolted end conditions or welded end conditions, cutting back of top and bottom flanges for steel shapes, cut-end options for wood beams by using the Profile Manager for end conditions instead of length, etc.
This would be great. I have been wishing for this since I started modeling steel frames with the beams and columns.

I have long advocated for the ability to link GDL parts to other elements. Having discrete parametric steel connections could be accomplished by assigning a part to the connection.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Show-on-plan options should be the same for all tools and with all options possible!