The Global ARCHICAD Community

[Michael Scott]

I think the ability to hide Segments of Slabs in Plan and 3D would be a great addition.

The reason I think this is important is simple. When modeling in ArchiCAD you cannot change the color of the vertical faces of a slab individually, so I often have to use multiple slabs to model changes in materiality. Often, I am left with extra lines in Plan and 3D that should not be draw. See attached image. As a result I end up having to hide the slabs and draw them correctly using the line tools. Not only is this a waste of time but it also means that I have to use non 3D elements which don't update as you work in with model. Thus, I must remember to change the lines when I modify the slab and I can't use the story setting to make them display on other floors.

The implementation could be very simple. When you click on a segment of a slab with the slab tool active the pet pallet pops up and one of the icons could represent hide line segment. When selected it would hide the selected segment by changing its pen to white, dotted, or 91 in plan (so it can be seen of editing) and hide it altogether in the 3D Window and when printing.

Another possible implementation could be for segments to auto hide when two slabs share a segment line and the slabs are the same thickness, height, and have same floor and ceiling materials.

Also why not let us apply different materials to vertical edges of slabs individually? Another topic maybe?

I think this would be a great time-saving addition. Please vote if you agree.

[Aussie John]

I agree and this should apply to fills and roofs as well

[James Murray]

I end up having to hide the slabs and draw them correctly using the line tools. Not only is this a waste of time but it also means that I have to use non 3D elements which don't update as you work in with model. Thus, I must remember to change the lines when I modify the slab and I can't use the story setting to make them display on other floors.

There's the rub.

The implementation could be very simple. When you click on a segment of a slab with the slab tool active the pet pallet pops up and one of the icons could represent hide line segment. When selected it would hide the selected segment by changing its pen to white, dotted, or 91 in plan (so it can be seen of editing) and hide it altogether in the 3D Window and when printing.

Hiding a line is a very reasonable wish, as it is the way most 2D and 3D polygons work in GDL as it is. The pen and linetype idea is more futuristic. I personally could live w/o it if I could hide lines.

Another possible implementation could be for segments to auto hide when two slabs share a segment line and the slabs are the same thickness, height, and have same floor and ceiling materials.

It is a long-standing wish and, I presume, GS's goal, to have all contiguous, same-material polygons clean up in 3D. In plan, I'm skeptical. If these are slabs which represent plan-visible stuff (floor finishes?), shouldn't you have a line where there's a change? And to show the material pattern you still need fills. (Fills-on-slabs-etc. may be the oldest wish there is.) If they are 'structural' slabs, their visibility should be handled with layers.

Also why not let us apply different materials to vertical edges of slabs individually?

I wished for this for years. It became less urgent when solid element ops came about. If you subtract from an element using 'Inherit attributes of operator', you can individually control the material of edges and holes.

Good, thorough wishing.

[Josh CSNZ]

Appears i'm replying to quite an old post, but wondering if there has been any improvements relating tho this?

[henriquelisboa]

Not only hide, but be able to change individual segments. For the same reason of this post, sometimes we need not to hide a segment, but to make it dashed for example.
I can not emphasize how vital is this feature.

[Pedro]

This post is from 2004! Wow!
But I will reinforce this question because I keep coming back to it.
I think this is an essential feature that the developers can easily integrate in a newer version.
Especially for people constantly working with renovations.

I build a simple example of the issue I come up with a lot of times.
(see attachements)

1 - existing floor plan
2 - renovations in red/green (demolished/new built)
3 - new floor plan

When I want to represent a replace/change on an old staircase of an existing building and that has implications on the slab hole (making it bigger or smaller) I don't want to see the slab outline either in the existing floor plan (img.1) or the new flor plan (img. 3)
In this case i want to delete the old round staircase and fill the round whole on the existing slab with a new slab. Then I want a new rectangular staircase with a respective rectangular slab whole. Meaning that I have to create another slab there set "to be demolished".
So in total 3 slabs and 3 outlines I don't want to see in floor plan.

Of course I wan't them to have the same finish. And I know that there are a lot of workarounds. But why can't it be as easy as walls in elevations - if they have the same surface, they merge.


I would like to suggest a couple of ideas to develop archicad in a way that this could work:
- slabs in floor plan act like walls in elevations (if they have the same surface, they merge)
- slab clicked polygons (yes, only that whole) can be set to have no outline, a different outline, etc.
- slabs can be partially edited according to the renovation (this would be incredibly good and possibly very handy with a lot of other elements like roofs for example) - the same slab is conditionally edited - so we would have an option to edit the selected element according to the specific renovation filter, instead of having 3 different slabs for the same thing (existing, patch demolished, patch filled in)

[LaszloNagy]

I would just extend this wish the following way:

Ability to specify the settings of every individual segment of polygonal type element geometries like Slabs, Fills, Polylines, etc. including: Show/Hide the Segment, set the Segment's Pen and Line Type.