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Help Center > Guides > ArchiCAD 17 INT Reference Guide > User Interface Reference >
Dialog Boxes > Building Materials Dialog Box
Building Materials Dialog Box
Use the Options > Element Attributes > Building Material dialog box to define and/or edit
Building Material definitions. These include:
Cut fill
Cut fill pens (foreground/background)
Intersection Priority
Fill orientation (if used for a composite or complex element)
Surface (known as Material in previous ArchiCAD versions)
Physical properties
For details on how to use them, see Building Materials.
On the left side of the dialog box, the Building Materials predefined for your project are listed by
Name and Intersection Priority.
Sort the list by name or priority by clicking on either of these list headers.

If you have clicked the priority header to sort by priority, you can then edit the intersection
priority of any selected item by dragging it up or down in the list.

Any Building Materials used by elements that are selected in the current ArchiCAD view are
listed with a selected icon at the left of the list and highlighted in green.
Edit Building Material
1. Select the Building Material(s) you wish to edit from the list.
2.
Use the fields on the right side of the dialog box to edit the properties of the Building
Material(s) selected in the list. You can select and edit multiple Building Materials
simultaneously (in this case, you cannot edit their names).
Structure and Appearance Panel

Cut Fill: Define a Cut Fill for this Building Material from the pop-up. The Fills you see here are
those defined as Cut Fills in the Fill Types dialog box. (Only cut fills are available.)
Cut Fill Foreground Pen/Fill Background Pen: From the pen chooser pop-ups, define the
foreground and background pen for this Building Material.
See also Line Elimination Between Building Materials.
Fill Orientation: This option affects the appearance of the cut fill pattern of Building Materials
applied to composite elements and Complex Profiles only.
Project Origin: The fill pattern is displayed so that the pattern originates at the Project Origin.

Element Origin: The fill pattern is displayed so that the pattern aligns with the elements
direction.

Fit to Skin: (Available only for symbol fills.) The pattern will be drawn so that it fits within the
limits of the Skin Thickness.
For more information, see Set Orientation of Vectorial or Symbol Fill Patterns.
Define Building Material Surface
Define a Surface for displaying this Building Material in 3D.
Note: It is possible to override a particular element Surface in its Settings dialog box (Model
Panel), or by using the Surface override pop-up in the elements Info Box.
Change Intersection Priority
There are two ways to change a Building Materials intersection priority:

Use the slider at right to adjust this Building Materials relative priority in its intersections with
other construction elements. (Expressed in numbers, an intersection priority can run from weak
a minimum of 0 to strong maximum of 999. This will affect the elements intersections
and display in model views.

See Basic Intersection Principles and Intersecting Elements with Identical Priorities.
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Another way to adjust priority is on the left side of the Building Material dialog box: If you
have clicked the priority header to sort the list by priority, you can then edit the intersection
priority of any selected item(s) by dragging it up or down in the list.

Be aware that Building Material definitions are global; any changes you make here will affect all
project elements which use that Building Material not just the selected elements!
If you want to adjust the priority in just one element of the project, you can create a duplicate
Building Material with a different priority. (See Create New or Duplicate Building Material,
below.)
For general information on modeling intersections, see the topics at Element Intersections.
Physical Properties Panel
For the selected Building Material, enter data for its
Thermal conductivity
Density
Heat capacity
These data are predefined for ArchiCAD Building Materials, but you can edit them directly.
You can also access the built-in Material Catalog (click the Material Catalog button), and click
the name of a material having the characteristics you need; its physical properties will then be
applied to the Building Material you are editing.
For more information, see Material Catalog.
Create New or Duplicate Building Material
Click New at the bottom of the Building Materials dialog box.
In the appearing dialog box, choose whether to create an entirely new Building Material, or to
duplicate the current one.

Give the new Building Material a Name, then click OK.
Adjust the settings for the new Building Material, then click OK to close the Building Material
dialog box.
Delete Building Material

Delete: Select one or more Building Materials from the list, then click Delete. Elements using
that Building Material will be shown as having a Missing Building Material.

Delete and Replace: When deleting a Building Material, you have the option to replace it with a
different one.
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Note: In Teamwork, only elements, composites, profiles or favorites reserved by you will get the
replacement Building Material. All others will have a Missing Building Material.
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EcoDesigner add-on with an older-version ArchiCAD project (ArchiCAD 15)
Read more

Building Materials
The appropriate and consistent use of building materials is crucial not only when developing the
final construction documentation sets, but also when creating building energy analysis reports.
New, intelligent building materials ensure correct graphical
Read more

Interior Elevation (IE) Tool Settings
For a description of generic settings common to all tools in the Toolbox, see Working in Tool
Settings Dialog Boxes . For details, see Interior Elevations (IE) . Interior Elevation General
Panel Settings in this panel depend on whether the selected
Read more

3D Document Settings
The 3D Document Settings dialog box is available from: the context menu of any 3D Document
item listed in the Navigator the Settings button at the bottom of the Navigator Project map, if a
3D Document is selected the context menu of a 3D Document
Read more

Surface Settings Dialog Box
Use the Options > Element Attributes > Surfaces command to open this dialog box. For general
information, see also Surfaces . The pop-up palette at the top of the dialog box displays the
surfaces available in the Project. At the top of the pop-up
Read more

Fill Types Dialog Box
Use the Options > Element Attributes > Fill Types dialog box to define and/or edit fill types and
patterns, and determine the category of each particular Fill (Drafting Fill, Cut Fill, and/or Cover
Fill). For details on Fills and how to use them
Read more
Dialog Boxes
This section describes ArchiCADs dialog boxes and palettes in detail. The list on this page is
divided into four categories to help you navigate to the dialog box you need. Other interface item
descriptions can be found: in Tool Settings Dialog Boxes
Read more

IFC Translators
Importing and exporting model data using IFC takes place according to the settings of the
translator you are using. ArchiCAD provides predefined, factory-default IFC Translators, but
you can define your own. IFC Translation Setup command ( File > File
Read more

Set Orientation of Vectorial or Symbol Fill Patterns
Use the Orientation Method controls to manually define or change the orientation of a vectorial
or symbol fill pattern. Here is a composite wall that uses vectorial and symbol fills. You can
adjust the orientation of these fills to make the wall look
Read more

Advisory Messages
The Advisory Messages dialog box appears if: the required input data are insufficient See
Additional Data Assignment and Input . there are simulation errors See VIP-Core Dynamic
Simulation Engine . Errors will be required to be resolved before
Read more

Structure Property Settings
U-Value (R-Value) Calculator U-value refers to the heat transmission coefficient of the selected
structure. Use the U-value Calculator to estimate the thermal physics performance of the
structures in your projects, based on the physical properties of the
Read more

Fine-Tune Intersections
To adjust the intersection of elements (or their skins/components), you can do one of the
following: Change Building Material Priority (Affects All Project Elements) Select the element
that is problematic. Then open the Building Materials dialog box
Read more

Basic Intersection Principles
In ArchiCAD 17, the basic principle of intersections (or junctions) is that the construction
elements must collide in space. All construction elements will clean up correctly in all views,
provided that they collide . In the case of Shells, Morphs and
Read more
Element Intersections
Basic Intersection Principles Specific Element Intersections and Junctions How to Make Sure
Elements Collide for Best Cleanup Results Intersecting Elements That Dont Clean Up Best
Practices for Intersections: Conceptual Design Phase Fine-Tune
Read more

Info Box
An Info Box is available for each tool in the toolbox. When you activate a tool or select a placed
element, its Info Box palette will display current settings for that tool/element. If several
elements are selected, the Info Box displays the controls for
Read more

Attribute Manager
Open the Attribute Manager from Options > Element Attributes > Attribute Manager. Displaying
the dialog box might take some time, since it has to list all the attributes of the project. This
dialog boxallows you to copy (append, overwrite)
Read more

Building Materials
A Building Material is a super attribute, a combination of multiple attributes having defined
properties. Starting with ArchiCAD 17, all model elements use Building Materials instead of Cut
Fills. Building Materials are defined globally, in the Building
Read more

Building Material
The new Building Material attribute, which combines cut fill, surface material, priority,
physical properties and pens, is defined globally, then applied to any construction element,
simplifying the user interface and allowing the same cut fill to be
Read more

Assign a Cut Fill
For construction elements (Wall / Slab/ Beam/ Column / Roof / Shell / Morph / Mesh): Cut fills
are assigned via the Building Material attribute. The construction element will use the cut fill
defined for the assigned Building Material. See Building
Read more

Fill Availability and Screen-Only Pattern Panel
This is a panel of the Fill Types Dialog Box ( Options > Element Attributes > Fill Types .)
Check one or more of the Use with checkboxes to define its Fill Category, which determines
how the selected Fill type can be used in the Project: See
Read more

Fill Orientation Methods
Link to Project Origin Link to Fill Origin Distorted Fill Distorted Fill for Roofs Radial Distorted
Fill (Symbol Fills only) Link to Project Origin If you choose Link to Project Origin , the
orientation of the hatching will always be drawn orthogonally
Read more

Column Display
When a Column and a Wall intersect: The display of their intersections depends on the
Intersection priority of the Building Materials: the higher number will prevail. Note: Each
Building Material has a separate Intersection Priority, set in the Building
Read more
Line Types Dialog Box Fill Types Dialog Box
Line Types Dialog Box Dialog Boxes Fill Types Dialog Box
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ECbytes Tips and Tricks Issue #59 (Sep 21, 2011)
Using the Shell Tool to Create Custom
Objects in ArchiCAD
Thomas M. Simmons
President, ARCHVISTA Building Technologies
Introduced in ArchiCAD 15, the Shell Tool provides the opportunity for expanded modeling
options. It is now possible to create custom geometry for furniture, lights, structural components,
retail exhibits and more. This article will review how this new tool can be applied to creating
custom forms using the Extruded and Revolved geometry methods.
Exercise 1: Using the Extruded Shell Geometry Method
The rst form we will start with is an extruded structural metal base for an exterior bench and the
extrusion of the wooden seat that fits onto these metal supports.

To create the metal base, first draw an outline of the form to be extruded using the Line Tool
with the Chained Line method. As you draw the outline of the curving metal support, you will
need to switch back and forth in the Pet Palette between the Straight Line option and an Arc
command.


Next, set the Shell Tool to the desired thickness and select the Extruded Geometry method with
the Detailed Construction option.

While pressing the Space Bar, click the Magic Wand on the outline and give a length to the
bench support.

Go to the 3D Window, select the metal base with the Arrow Tool and click a node along the
base of the element. In the Pet Palette that appears, select the new Free Rotate command. Click
two points along the base to establish the rotation edge and click a third point along the height of
the support to set the edge to be rotated. Rotate to a vertical position as shown below.

Select the metal support in plan or the 3D Window and create a duplicate using the Drag a Copy
command from the Move sub-menu in the Edit menu.

Finally, to create the curving wood bench, use the same steps above with the top portion of the
curved outline you drew via the Line Tool to create the wood seat and back extrusion. Then
rotate and place on the supports.

Exercise 2: Using the Revolved Shell Geometry Method
The second element we will create in this exercise is an outdoor cooper street light that will use
the Revolved Geometry Method within the Shell Tool.

To begin the exercise, select and copy the image above to use as a reference to create the
revolved profile for the light. Next, go to ArchiCADs Floor Plan Window, select Paste from the
File menu, and select as a Single Figure. To scale the image, select the image and click on one
of the corner nodes. When the Pet Palette appears, select the Stretch command and scale image
as required.

Next, select the Shell Tool with the Revolved Geometry method and the Detailed
Construction option. Click at the middle of the bottom edge of the light, and begin drawing the
Light profile using the image as a reference.

Draw the outline from the bottom center edge along the left of the light profile until you reach
the top center point. As you draw the outline of the light, you may need to switch back and forth
in the Pet Palette between the Straight Line option and an Arc command. When you reach the
top center of the light, drag your cursor back to the bottom center start point and click to finish
the outline.
To define the rotation edge, click a second time on the bottom center start point and click to
define the rotation edge on the top center point of the light. A dialog will appear asking you to
Enter Revolution Angle. Since we want to create a revolved light that demonstrates a complete
revolution, enter 360 degrees and click the OK button.

Go to the 3D Window to see the completed light element. To rotate the light to an upright
position, select the light with the Arrow Tool and click a node along the base of the element. In
the Pet Palette that appears, select the new Free Rotate command. Click two points along the
base to establish the rotation edge, and click a third point along the height of the light to set the
edge to be rotated. Rotate the light to a vertical position as shown below.

The light is now complete and ready to be placed onto a vertical support.
To learn more about modeling with the Shell Tool, including how to create compound curves
and twisted forms with Ruled Geometry as well as additional methods for creating extruded and
revolved forms, visit www.learnvirtual.com/ArchiCAD. This exercise was part of a series on
design focused modeling that included:
Complicated Roof Forms for Residential Design
Modeling Unique Building & Structural Forms
Creating Product and Exhibit Displays for Retail
Broaden the Scope for Furniture & Object Design
Modeling Landscape Forms and Site Elements
As a LearnVirtual member, youll have access to recordings of each eClass in the series
mentioned above as well as over 160 other recorded eClasses on a wide range of topics including
modeling techniques, drafting techniques, process management, revision management and design
review. Also, new LIVE eClasses occur each week! To learn more about LearnVirtual, go to
www.learnvirtual.com.

About the Author

Thomas M. Simmons, the founder of ARCHVISTA, Inc. and LearnVirtual, has spoken at major
industry events including AEC Systems, Ecobuild, AIACC Desert Practice Conference, and the
AIACC Monterey Design Conference. He has authored several books on Building Information
Modeling, ArchiCAD and architectural technology. He was formerly the Director of Technology
with the award winning firm of EHDD Architects, San Francisco, and has earned a Masters of
Architecture from UC Berkeley. He can be reached at tsimmons@archvista.com..


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