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At Rill & Decker Architects we run ArchiCAD on Mac OS X. If you work at Rill & Decker, this is your stuff. If you don't, but you work in ArchiCAD, you may find something interesting. Anybody else, I don't know.
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Jack

Materials for rind, flesh, and stem. Expression can be happy or sad. I've had this for nine years; I finally took the inline material definitions out.

Download (AC11)

Ellipse Vault

I added an option for an elliptical curve. Original and download link here.

Brick Rowlock
Location: 04 Masonry

An extrusion in the shape of a sloped brick rowlock course. Set the Angle and Brick Width of the rowlock, and the Thickness and Air Space of the veneer it rests upon.

Rowlock Section
The Mortar Bed option will draw a wedge of mortar below the brick in large scale sections. The brick itself uses the object's fill setting. At building section scale, the whole thing is modeled using the object's fill.

Yes, you could use a custom profile for such a thing. But if you wanted to change the slope or the brick dimensions you would need to draw a new profile. And profiles can't change in response to the scale.

Profiles are simpler, at least until you have too many of them. Objects are smarter. Now if we could script a profile...

Bracket Strut JM9: More top and bottom end shapes: Cove, chamfer, and fillet.

Chamfer Cutter JM9: Chamfer multiple corners at once.

Rafters Decorative JM9a: Like the eave ladder, you might want to see exposed rafters in the reflected ceiling plan. But you need to be able to hide the portion of the rafter object that is hidden by the main roof. Adjust the Top Hide Distance to meet the main roof cut:

Hide rafter top

Location: 06 Wood & Plastic

A sloped series of boards to support a flying rafter.

This thing is hard to show in place; here's a section through the eave of a dormer, showing the dormer wall in elevation:

Eave ladder section

The Roof Slope can be selected from a familiar list of n/12 slopes, or you can use a custom angle.

You can choose the board Stock from the list, or use a custom Height and Width. Spacing is measured along the slope.

eave ladder plan
The boards are shown in plan as a bottom view, taking the roof slope into account. By default, all the boards are shown.

eave ladder RCP
Why a bottom view? This is a trim object, and will often go on a 3D-only layer such as F Trim Ext Hi. You would never see it in a regular plan. But you might want to see it in a reflected ceiling plan.

eave ladder hide edit
But in the case of this dormer, you would want to hide the boards that are obscured by the main roof. Stretch the Top Hide Distance to do this.

Location: 06 Wood & Plastic / Brackets

An Arts & Crafts type bracket. Parameters: Length, height, width, top/bottom thickness, top/bottom end treatment, strut thickness, width, and top/bottom inset.

The end treatments are Square, Ogee, and Pyramid. May 2008 update: Cove, Fillet, Chamfer.

You can turn on "Both Ends Same" to use the same values for the top and bottom. In this case, the bottom-related parameters are hidden.

Most of the parameters are editable in 3D.

Though I kept the '9' in the name, this is for Archicad 11.



Originally posted 2005-03-29

Location: 06 Wood & Plastic / Trim & Moulding

A series of battens for board and batten siding. There are parameters for Width, Thickness, and Spacing. For a single batten, set the spacing to zero.

In order that you can do a whole wall with one Battens object, you can have up to eight Holes in the batten arrangement. Turn on as many holes as you need and fit them to the windows and doors. You can do this in section or elevation using the editing hotspots.

Battens 1
This is an excellent throw-down-and-fix situation. I placed the object along the wall in plan. Now I can fine tune it in elevation. Note the gap in those two battens; that's one hole.

Battens 2
You can stretch the height using the editing node at the center of the top. The ordinary nodes at the ends won't work, don't ask me why.

Use solid ops to trim the battens to the roofs.

Battens 3
Each hole has two editing nodes. The lower one moves the hole, and the upper one stretches its height and width. The red box shown here is optional; turn on the Show Holes parameter if it makes it easier. You can still edit the hole if the box is not shown.

Battens 4
Position the hole first, then stretch it. In most cases, you'll do this by detecting the intersections at the casing corners.

Battens 5
So that's that.

Battens 6
If you need another hole, turn it on by increasing the Holes parameter. By default, additional holes will appear at a small size at the bottom of the object.

Battens 7
With Show Holes on, the holes are also visible in plan. But to align the holes precisely (not to mention vertically), you need to work in section or elevation. Hole editing will also work in the 3D window, but you won't be able to snap to the casings very effectively.

Download (AC11)

Location: 01 General / Drawing Tools

System requirements:
Accessories add-on in Add-ons folder

An accessory as a special object that can be associated with another element. When you edit the element, the accessories edit themselves to keep up. This kind of automatic geometry is rare in Archicad, and welcome. Yet the accessories live in the limbo of semi-features known as the Goodies, where they are not installed by default, and you have to download them, and they're soaked with disclaimers. Anyway.

This accessory traces the slab perimeter with a line that can switch its parameters in response to the ceiling switch. So, while that switch only works on objects, by using an accessory (object) we can trick it into working on slabs too.

The main application is a continuous soffit around a room. You should build such a thing with a slab with one big hole in it. With the accessory, you can show the hole perimeter correctly in plan and RCP. The slab would go on the A Ceiling3 layer, and the accessory object would go on A Ceiling All.

The parameters are the same as ceiling line. The only additional option is Holes Only. This traces only the holes within the slab, not the main polygon.

To place the accessory on a slab:

Select the slab.

On the Design menu, Design Extras -> Accessories -> Slab Accessories...

In the object dialog that pops up, choose the Ceiling Line Aceessory.

When you edit the slab, the lines will update automatically.

Location: Doesn't matter.

Zone stamp
This is our main (only) zone stamp. A zone stamp is a special object associated with a zone. If you use zones, the stamp takes the place of 'dumber' room name objects or texts. I always use zones instead of room name objects.

Unlike the room name object, the name and number are not parameters. They are native settings of the zone, and are available at the top of the settings dialog or info box. Further, the font and text size for the room name are settings of the zone.

The rest of the parameters are in the 'Zone Stamp' area of the zone settings dialog.

More»

Location: 08b Windows / Vents (A window)

Triangle Gable Vent
Frame thickness refers to the box around the louvers.

Louver parameters: Thickness, Spacing, Angle. The Louver Pen should be thin.

Exterior casing: Typical moulding options, or custom width and thickness.

Interior casing: Same deal.

Either casing can be turned off. The same Casing Reveal is used for both.

Masonry Cut Depth: Same as a window or door. Sill is drawn with the Masonry Sill Pen, though in most cases you would not see this vent in plan.

Location: 08b Windows / Vents (A window)

Triangle Gable Vent
Roof slope / slope angle: The familiar roof slope picker; similar to Rafters Decorative, Curved Roof, etc.

The width and height of the vent are both tied to the slope. If you change either one, the other is adjusted to maintain the slope.

Frame thickness refers to the box around the louvers.

Mullion thickness: The center mullion, where 0 means no mullion.

Louver parameters: Thickness, Spacing, Angle. The Louver Pen should be thin.

Exterior casing: There are separate widths for the sides and bottom. All parts are the same thickness.

Interior casing: Same options.

Either casing can be turned off. The same Casing Reveal is used for both.

Masonry Cut Depth: Same as a window or door. Sill is drawn with the Masonry Sill Pen, though in most cases you would not see this vent in plan.

Location: 11 Equipment

A rather vague but configuration-complete washer and/or dryer.

Stack
Stack: If on, the dryer sits on the washer...

No top panel
...otherwise, they are side by side.

Front load washer: If on, there's a porthole in the front, otherwise, a lid on top. Automatically on if stacked. You can set the glass material.

Side by side
Top control panel: The 'fin' along the back of the side by side arrangement. Automatically off if stacked. If it's off, the panel is drawn on the front.

Undercounter
Under counter: This switch forces stack off, control panel off, and front load washer on. The under counter version is drawn with the dashed line type in plan.

The fill pen should usually be 91, unless you want the plan symbol transparent for some reason.

Text size and font are obvious. The object labels itself 'W/D' for the stacked version, or 'W' and 'D' for the side-by-side.

In the rare case where you want just one of the units, you can set Units to 'Washer' or 'Dryer' rather than the more common 'Both'.

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