The Global ARCHICAD Community

[Matt Balaam]

We need the ability to schedule the length of the reference line for beams.

It is incredibly frustrating not being able to schedule the length of the reference line of a beam. It can be scheduled for walls, so why not beams? Length Left and Length Right are not adequate in a lot of situations.

Example: Eave/gutter profiles. The beam has eave sheets on one side of the reference line and fascia & gutter on the other yet industry standard is to schedule the length at the edge of the roof plane i.e. the reference line. Currently we can only schedule the inner edge of the eave (not useful) or the outer edge of the gutter (also not useful).

[Lingwisyer]

Have you tried using a railing instead of a beam and scheduling that instead? It allows your eave/gutter to be associated with your roof which is nice.

Related thread: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=61547&hilit=railing+eave



Ling.

[Barry Kelly]

Example: Eave/gutter profiles. The beam has eave sheets on one side of the reference line and fascia & gutter on the other yet industry standard is to schedule the length at the edge of the roof plane i.e. the reference line. Currently we can only schedule the inner edge of the eave (not useful) or the outer edge of the gutter (also not useful).

This is a good example.
Personally I model my eaves and gutter separately, but we should have consistency.
We can schedule the length of the wall ref line, we should be able to do the same for the beam.

If you want to play around with 'Properties' and 'Expressions in properties', then you could take the left and right length and apply a shift to calculate the length of the fascia position.
Then schedule that.

Barry.

[Matt Balaam]

Have you tried using a railing instead of a beam and scheduling that instead? It allows your eave/gutter to be associated with your roof which is nice.

I'd never thought to try using a railing but after a bit of quick testing there is definitely potential! Thanks for the idea.

At the very least it can be scheduled correctly.

[Matt Balaam]

Personally I model my eaves and gutter separately, but we should have consistency.

Modelling separately in our case just opens up another possibility for model inaccuracies when modifications are made, particularly given the only reason we would have to do it is the scheduling of the length. For all other purposes the single profile works well.

If you want to play around with 'Properties' and 'Expressions in properties', then you could take the left and right length and apply a shift to calculate the length of the fascia position.
Then schedule that.

I have toyed with this idea, the hard part being working out the shift as all profiles are different widths and some have horizontal stretch planes to adjust the width of the eave sheet. Would also be hard to determine what type of join is at each end (no join, internal corner, external corner) within the available parameters of the expressions in properties as this will also impact the calculation.

Seems like a lot of complicated calculation for something that should be a standard schedule option.

[LaszloNagy]

We need the ability to schedule the length of the reference line for beams.

It is incredibly frustrating not being able to schedule the length of the reference line of a beam. It can be scheduled for walls, so why not beams? Length Left and Length Right are not adequate in a lot of situations.

Example: Eave/gutter profiles. The beam has eave sheets on one side of the reference line and fascia & gutter on the other yet industry standard is to schedule the length at the edge of the roof plane i.e. the reference line. Currently we can only schedule the inner edge of the eave (not useful) or the outer edge of the gutter (also not useful).

How about using the "3D Length" parameter in the "General" group?

[Barry Kelly]

How about using the "3D Length" parameter in the "General" group?

I tried this and it just uses the 'left' length - not the reference line.

Barry.

[Matt Balaam]

I tried this and it just uses the 'left' length - not the reference line.

Barry.

It doesn't even seem to be using the Left Length. In my quick test I got Left Length = 113.85m, Right Length = 100.78m and 3D Length = 119.15m. All totally different and not sure how the 3D Length ended up being so much longer than any other length.

[Barry Kelly]

Interesting.
I just tested with a couple of beams mitring at a corner.
Ref lines 1000mm long with a 500mm offset to the beam.



Barry.