I need to carve a cave in VW 2009 architect

[Markus Dohner]

Hi everyone--

I've got a really tough modeling project from a client who is designing "cave" for a children's museum. It's a faceted walk-in structure about 20 ft long 10 ft wide and about 7.5 ft high. Looks sorta like an old Air Stream motor home. To be made from common structural wood and masonite fill or similar. Any ideas where to start? Is this a project better for ArchiCad or SolidWorks or something else??

[mike m oz]

Vectorworks will handle it better than either of those two programs. You will need to model everything though. Start off with defining the internal volume in 3D spaces being mindful of what can be built. You may need to use a mixture of planar and curved surfaces. For regular plywood curves look at how furniture is built. For more complex curves look at how plywood boats are built.

[Benson Shaw]

You could start with a series of plywood panels, say 8'h x 10'w along the cave axis, 2'OC. Cut a hole in each panel - sort of a cave section at each plane. Connect the panels along outer edges w/ lumber so they stand up. Now you have sort of a big box with a cave shaped hole in it. Then form a surface between the the holes with combo of fiberboard, lath or fabric. Make the surface rigid with stucco or resin. Reshape the outsides of the panels and cover w/ lath if treatment for outside of cave is desired.

For VW model, loft the hole shapes in pairs - lofting the whole group may not work as well. These are kind of hoops, or boat ribs, as Mike suggests, connected by the loft. To get thickness in the model, shell the lofts, or add back in the (modified?) panel perimeters and loft again around the inner loft. A texture can give mottled or varied color treatment.

A drape surface could work, too, if no undercuts.

-B

[mike m oz]

I like your solution Benson. That would be a lot easier to model and build than how I was thinking.

[Pat Stanford]

Another way that has been suggested to model "Rocks" in the past is to start with an extruded rectangle or polygon and then use the split tool to chop off various "corners" by "randomly" changing the 3D view to make it "rough."

Probably not the best for the overall surface, but may help you get a feel for extra pieces or details.