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Best approach for sculptural wall elements?


girwin

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Any thoughts on the best way to add sculptural wall elements (i.e. recesses, changed in thickness, etc.) to a VW model? It would likely be constructed with a EIFS approach (exterior insulation on a wood framed wall that varies in thickness.) Not sure how to do this most elegantly so that the BIM functions are best preserved.

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Hi @girwin if you have a change of thickness in a wall with components you can butt the two walls up to each other (but don't join them) then use 'Wall End Cap' tool to add material to the exposed edge of the wider wall:

1752452858_Screenshot2021-01-30at09_01_50.thumb.png.a43dc009619fb71f6cec86c7dd593f45.png

619605689_Screenshot2021-01-30at09_02_01.thumb.png.56dc0daf84256af2c0ee2fdab213fb19.png

To create recesses or projections in a wall with components you can use the 'Create Wall Projection...' + 'Create Wall Recess...' tools in the AEC menu which give you options for wrapping the components into the recess or around the projection

2038942839_Screenshot2021-01-30at09_11_19.thumb.png.21d4a30257cae259253f2539ed71dfed.png

675692393_Screenshot2021-01-30at09_11_30.thumb.png.914e92b1baefa8696a7a9d289a9492a3.png

It should be said the Wall tool isn't great when it comes to this sort of thing. The hope is that before long it will be given the same kind of functionality you have with Slabs to add/remove material + otherwise manipulate components

But the advantage of persevering with the in-built tools to try + get what you want rather than modelling it using extrudes etc is that like you say you've maintained the BIM functions + can report on component quantities etc

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7 hours ago, girwin said:

Reshape tool in conjunction with Wall Projection tool?

No, not if all you're looking to do is create a wall that has an angled top but which is straight/parallel in plan. Just use the reshape tool to get the wall shape you want.

 

If however you want to combine the two it gets tricky because when you reshape the top of a wall you're not actually changing the technical height of the wall + so the wall projection stays where it is at the actual wall height. So if you use reshape tool to angle your wall downwards the wall projection will be left projecting above the top of the wall + vice versa:

313065880_Screenshot2021-01-31at07_12_44.thumb.png.ef9e19b421780a46c95c9a0758099805.png

 

In the RH example you can use subtract solids or split tool to level off the offending projection but then your wall becomes a solid subtraction which isn't what you want. But if you instead use 'Create Wall Recess...' to subtract the projecting geometry it will work:

 

804955874_Screenshot2021-01-31at07_17_19.thumb.png.1a411a5186cc8bca09955ee92d2dc9f0.png

 

 

 

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Tom,

Thank you for introducing me to this tool. It took some fussing, but I got what I wanted, though the act of adding wall projections seemed to "unjoin" some walls and exploded my bound slabs! Also doesn't seem to handle the corners well - will need to fill in with an extrude. Picture below (yellow surface is the exploded slab.)1359815039_ScreenShot2021-02-04at10_10_41PM.thumb.jpg.b9e236c2bd27d66c9ca971648bd63dca.jpg

 

Regards,

Graham

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Cool!

Yes you can just about get what you want but not the most straightforward of processes. You can't wrap the components on horizontal surfaces either, which relates to the other posts about wall capping: if your wall feature if offset from the wall top you can show components on the sides but not the top. The same if you make a wall recess that's offset from the floor + from the wall top.

I don't know if you've done any of this with slabs but it's a way more satisfying experience: much easier to get what you want + very easy + flexible. You just draw a 3D shape where you want to add material + choose which component you want it to be. Need the same for walls... It is being worked on I believe...

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Tom,

 

 

The reshape tool is really clunky & difficult (hard to align from story to story, doesn't wrap around corners) to deal with. The only advantage I can see with its current iteration, over using and extrude or an additional wall, is that you don't have to cut windows and doors into it. For it to be very usable, aside from predictable behavior, you'd want to be able to specify which wall components were used, and have it look good in elevation and plan, all wish-list items at this point, I think.

 

Thanks,

Graham

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18 hours ago, Tom W. said:

I don't know if you've done any of this with slabs but it's a way more satisfying experience: much easier to get what you want + very easy + flexible. You just draw a 3D shape where you want to add material + choose which component you want it to be. Need the same for walls... It is being worked on I believe...

 

Wondering if VW has any good official videos on the workflows for this?

...I remember watching one on youtube with Jonathan Pickup but can't remember the name.

 

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5 hours ago, hollister design Studio said:

 

Wondering if VW has any good official videos on the workflows for this?

...I remember watching one on youtube with Jonathan Pickup but can't remember the name.

 

Jon Pickup has probably covered it but I'd struggle to pinpoint which video/s it was sorry...

 

However the main things to know are that you can use 'Add Surface' + 'Clip Surface' on Slabs in various ways: either to add/remove the entire thickness of the slab or just specific components.

 

Plus there are the 'Add 3D Object to Slab...' + 'Subtract 3D Object From Slab...' commands in AEC menu which are even better. With the latter you can remove material from the slap to any depth you want, on top or bottom surfaces or on the edges. With the former you can basically remodel your slab component by component in any direction you want. So components can be wrapped around edges of slabs v easily, like if you had a split level floor + needed to show material on a riser. You can plant a 3D object on the surface of a slab + have it merge with a particular component. Or you can place that object in the slab + do the same, thereby not changing the overall size of the slab.

 

One proviso: once you've done any of this editing the overall slab becomes a bit of a pain, in terms of reshaping/moving it.

 

You can also use 3D symbols with wall hole cutting components on slabs like you can on walls. 

 

And the 'Create Solid Section from Grad Objects' command (AEC) can be used for creating ramps, either extending up from the slab surface or downwards into the surface.

 

I like slabs. 

 

I'm sure there is a very good reason for it but you wonder why all this can't be done with walls when they seem essentially the same thing, just arranged vertically instead of horizontally. 

 

 

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On 1/31/2021 at 8:22 AM, Tom W. said:

No, not if all you're looking to do is create a wall that has an angled top but which is straight/parallel in plan. Just use the reshape tool to get the wall shape you want.

 

If however you want to combine the two it gets tricky because when you reshape the top of a wall you're not actually changing the technical height of the wall + so the wall projection stays where it is at the actual wall height. So if you use reshape tool to angle your wall downwards the wall projection will be left projecting above the top of the wall + vice versa:

313065880_Screenshot2021-01-31at07_12_44.thumb.png.ef9e19b421780a46c95c9a0758099805.png

 

In the RH example you can use subtract solids or split tool to level off the offending projection but then your wall becomes a solid subtraction which isn't what you want. But if you instead use 'Create Wall Recess...' to subtract the projecting geometry it will work:

 

804955874_Screenshot2021-01-31at07_17_19.thumb.png.1a411a5186cc8bca09955ee92d2dc9f0.png

 

 

 

Hi Tom,

 

a tipp for the RH example (wall with angled top and wall projection) picture above.

 

You can model a 3D solid with the dimensions (angled top) you need and then

do a wall projection. The wall will stay as a wall and will not become a solid subtraction!

… so not only 2d objects can be wall projections.

 

Greetings

Tobi

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tobias Kern said:

You can model a 3D solid with the dimensions (angled top) you need and then

do a wall projection. The wall will stay as a wall and will not become a solid subtraction!

… so not only 2d objects can be wall projections.

Very true! But if you do it in 3D I think you're only able to assign the projection a single component, you can't display the multi-component build-up I showed in my examples...

 

44 minutes ago, Tobias Kern said:

 

… does anybody know how to get the masses (length, width, height, ground area, volume,),

for the wall projections into a table?

 

Greetings

Tobi

Good question. I use a worksheet that returns the surface area or volume of wall components + assumed it would pick up the additional components included in a wall projection but it doesn't - in fact it does the opposite + subtracts the area/volume of the components taken up by the feature-in-wall!

 

Maybe the only option is to add a record format to the 'feature in wall' + manually assign the relevant data to it...?

 

With Slabs, when you use 'Add 3D Object to Slab...' command the extra components ARE added to the worksheet calculations. Walls have a bit of catching up to do

 

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