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Wall Style or Build with Individual components?


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I'm designing a small lane house (see my thread on walls with multiple materials) and want to explore different siding options in my 3D renderings. One of the finishes I want to use is a cement panel rain screen system. The panels would be sized to suit the fenestration of the house and, rather than butt the panels against one another, there would be gaps (reveals) both horizontally and vertically to delineate each panel. I can't imagine defining something this complex in a wall style and have thought of two ways I might achieve my goal. The first is to simply create a wall style with a seamless exterior panel with the colour and texture I want and then simply add lines to represent the reveals after I've created elevation views and perspectives on their own sheets (by adding the additional information to the viewports). The second method would be for me to use a wall style that shows studs, exterior sheathing and interior drywall and then add the exterior components (the rain screen strapping/air gap and cement panels) as individual extruded shapes (these objects would be separate from the wall style behind them). This would be more work but might give a more realistic appearance in my 3D views and exterior elevations, sections, etc.

Has anyone down anything like this before? Any recommendations or feedback on successful work flows for such things?

Thanks in advance!

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Well to be honest, VWs i lacking in this when it comes to its PIOs (Plug In Objects) I'm struggling with a similar problem at the moment. I've tried using the (Create Wall Recess) command but it just doesn't cut it, for simple single objects it is OK but with many recesses and recesses stretching round corners it's a no go (strange things happen in Top/plan view when many recesses are added to the walls)........

For mainly presentation purposes I would recommend one of 2 ways of doing this depending on the level of reality your after:

1. Acceptable reality: use 3D polygons superimposed on your walls representing the panels. Put these in their own class i.e. Exterior Walls-3D so that you can easily show and hide them when needed.

2. Realistic: Similar to the above but instead create each panel as 3D geometry.

Obviously both these options will take more time, and changing the design is cumbersome.

If many versions are expected perhaps creating a texture for each wall is preferable instead until the design is fixed?! This way you simply can change the image in the texture to account for any changes.

Christiaan, if I remember correctly (and if you read this) you had this problem a while back how did you solve this in the end? ArchiCAD :grin:

Edited by Vincent C
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Guest Wes Gardner

Hi Cameron,

I think you have about nailed it as far as your options. Depending on how many "real" drawings you need to produce, I'd be tempted to suggest your methodology of using the wall tool to develop the "back up" wall (studs, sheathing, drywall) and then model a panel, create a symbol and place them accordingly. This will result in "real" sections indicating the proper reveals, etc., etc.

Quick visuals might be accomplished by including a "faux skin" in your wall style that's later removed that is textured in such a way that it alludes to a panelized system (won't survive the scrutiny of a section but might suffice for a quick client presentation)

Or a third option might be some sort of hybrid, once again it might not give you the sectional information

Wes

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Thanks for the feedback, Vincent and Wes. I started exploring the option of creating individual panels and assigning them their own class. I can place these adjacent my 'back up' walls (sheathing, studs, drywall) and adjust their size depending on where I want my reveals.

Hopefully it works and I'll be able to post the results here.

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1. Acceptable reality: use 3D polygons superimposed on your walls representing the panels. Put these in their own class i.e. Exterior Walls-3D so that you can easily show and hide them when needed.

2. Realistic: Similar to the above but instead create each panel as 3D geometry.

Obviously both these options will take more time, and changing the design is cumbersome.

If many versions are expected perhaps creating a texture for each wall is preferable instead until the design is fixed?! This way you simply can change the image in the texture to account for any changes.

If it is only for 3D presentations / or rendered 2D ones, I also would go for the texture solution, fast and no additional work.

What I mostly do when having multiple components that are stacked, is create the outer component and use the offsets in the wall style, so that I have one of them correctly drawn with the wall. Then I create the others with other walls on an other layer, so I can put them on when needed. This is the easiest way I found, as walls are easy to edit, and you will get info out of them more easily in worksheets.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Agreed with Dieter. It's really very simple, and you said you have Remarkable Renderworks . . . Just create a generic wall type, set your work plane on the wall, draw polygons on the wall in section however you like to define, extrude the polygon to the right thickness, then give them a texture either left, right, or overall depends on the orientation. I am sure you have the texture already, if not, just create an image texture -- it's easy to do so.

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Cameron,

Looks good, what did you end up doing regarding the exterior panels? Texture or "real thing"

Wes

Wes, I went with 'real thing'. I created each panel by extruding a rectangular shape. I then assigned a texture to the panels. It didn't really take all that long to create the panels. I like to be able to draw components in 3D, as I have the impression that it will translate to creating more accurate working drawings. My experience is limited, so my assumption may be incorrect. But I figure if putting in more work developing the design in 3D can pay off with better working drawings the effort will pay off. At least that's my theory and I'm sticking with it!

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Guest Wes Gardner

@ Cameron,

Nice Job!

Personally, I think this is the best approach - model what's going to be built. You can use symbol technology to keep your file size as small as possible.

There will always be the exception - perhaps a quick visual for the client so exploring how to create, manipulate, etc. textures is probably worth it.

Wes

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