Modify Wall Reference Line in ArchiCAD 17

Now that everyone is using ArchiCAD 17 and familiar with its new workflows (ok maybe not everyone has upgraded), I’d like to talk about some of the smaller features and enhancements I helped with in this version and explain things in a little bit more detail. To start I want to share some insight into the redesigned Modify Wall Reference Line dialogue, which supports the new references line locations and therefore replaces the previous “Wall Extras”, which modifies and removes some of the previous needed workarounds.

As the reference line is so important in ArchiCAD, for wall stretching, clean up and editing, we weren’t able to integrate the moving of the reference line within the element itself. We considered an additional pet palette option to graphically move the reference line, however the Modify Wall Structure dialogue can modify any number of Walls at once which graphical editing wouldn’t have been able to do.

AC16 “Modify Wall Structure” > AC17 dialogue removed

In ArchiCAD 16 and before, this dialogue was used as a workaround to switch the structure in selected Walls to another structure, whilst keeping the original core position intact. The result correctly moved those Walls but only calculated the appropriate reference line offset-semi-automating a manual process, but really just faking it. If the structure changed again, the process would need to be repeated, which wasn’t very intuitive compared to changing the structure directly in the tool settings and Info Box. In ArchiCAD 17, the newly integrated Wall reference line locations negated the need for this dialogue and workaround, so it was an easy decision to retire the dialogue completely.

AC16 “Modify Wall Reference Line” > AC17 dialogue rebuilt

Before rebuilding and integrating this dialogue into ArchiCAD 17 (side note: when I started working on this project, I learned that the dialogue was previously an add-on), we had to investigate the existing warnings and potential model errors resulting from issuing the command. For example, there were a number of Wall types that were not supported and therefore would give the user a warning message and cancel the operation (which wasn’t very useful is many situations). These non-supported situations included: no Walls in the selection, no editable Walls in the selection, Walls with a Center reference line, Profiled, Trapezoid and Polygon Walls. Some of these situations still remain, while others have been updated, or are now supported.

Whilst (for a number of technical reasons) Trapezoid and Polygon Walls are still not supported by this dialogue in ArchiCAD 17, if these types are in the selection the dialogue will still open but now provide a warning that those types will be ignored (instead of cancelling the operation as it previously did). Center and Profiled Walls are now supported but provide warning icons on the dialogue interface with tooltips to indicate they are not supported for those particular commands-like Offset for Center Walls or Reference Line Locations for Profiled Walls. If there is a missing Composite attribute in the selection this will also throw up a warning after the user clicks OK on the dialogue, indicating that the operation cannot be performed for those Walls. Whilst many of these cases may be rare, it was still important to address them.

As for the user interface overhaul of the dialogue, along with the new reference line locations, it allowed us to simplify and add a couple of additional features. With the left/right logic of ArchiCAD 16 and before replaced with Outside/Inside Face and flip, the previous “no change/left/right/invert all sides” radio buttons was replaced with “Mirror Walls in Place” checkbox regardless of the reference line locations in the selection. “Mirror Doors and Windows” was added to maintain the previous behaviour of Wall flip not affecting openings, and to simplify the previous workaround of using rotate and mirror on every opening. The previously faked offset was changed to relocating the reference line to one of the new locations with the option of an additional offset.

That was all maybe a little more technical than it perhaps needed to be, but basically we investigated the existing behaviour of the ArchiCAD 16 dialogues and used that as the basis of the new dialogue-as we couldn’t really reuse the previous add-on. For some Wall types like Trapezoid the dialogue would have provided very limited functionality so we decided not to add support for it (keeping it as per ArchiCAD 16, and avoiding more warning icons on the interface). Where possibly we tried to improve functionality and accessibility to various Wall types and with multi-selection. And I think no one will miss the old Modify Wall Structure dialogue, RIP.

Previously James wrote a guest post on ArchiCAD and Urban Design, you should read that next.

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