00.

 View Custom  chair  

I start in the 3D window with the bounding geometry of the seating. I use flat shape Morphs
with push-pull. Let’s slant their side edges, create a copy of the horizontal, and unify them into
one Morph element.
Select the horizontal face with SHIFT+CTRL+click, and select Push on the Pet palette.
Extrude it to the top of the wireframe cube. (Note: if you select the element by clicking on its
corner or edge, the Tube command is available. You can use this as well, clicking twice on
the top point of the wireframe cube.)

Select the vertical face, and repeat the push interaction to the surface of the already created
element.
Select the upper surface of the vertical part (SHIFT+CTRL+click), and distort the element by
dragging its upper surface to the corner of the wireframe cube, as shown below. Note: you
can be accurate, if you drag it by the upper left corner point, which exactly moves to the
corner of the wireframe cube.

Select the upper surface of the lying part, and distort it, so the upper surface edges meet the
ones of the vertical morph element. To have an accurate result, use the surface point marked
with a red arrow on the image.
Select the lying morph, activate the Pet palette, and select Drag command icon. Hold the ALT
key down to create a copy of the element to the other corner of the wireframe cube.

Select the three parts, and press the key combination you set up for ‘Create Morph using
selection’ command (ALT+M).
Note that the redundant or unneeded edges are automatically removed, and co-planar
surfaces are automatically joined.
Now, let’s create the leg. As you can see the Morph Tool also supports the creation of
revolved shapes. This is again an illustration of the very rich modeling capabilities of this
great new tool.
Zoom in to the leg profile. Activate Morph favorite 05 Chair leg, and select Revolved creation
method.

Similar to the Shell tool, space-click on the pre-set profile, set the endpoints of the straight
edge as axis, and use the appearing feedback to set a 360 angle.

Select the axis element, right+click, and select Layers > Hide layer, to hide the construction
geometry.

But now, the leg is lying on the ground. Luckily, I can use the free rotate command to turn it to
any direction in 3D. Moreover, from now on, this command is consistent for all elements in
ArchiCAD, and also it has a nice feedback in all views.
Activate the Editing plane by pressing the pre-set shortcut you added before (ALT+E).
Select the leg, and click on the smaller end surface. Hold down the mouse button to keep the
Pet palette close. Select the Rotate icon, and click on the approximate middle of the surface.
The editing plane appears parallel to the surface.

Click the Vertical icon on the Standard toolbar to set the editing plane perpendicular to the
existing one. Set the X axis as rotation reference, and move the cursor upwards to the Y axis
to set the rotation angle.

It looks nice, so let’s move it under the seating.

Select the leg, click on any of its surface, and click on Drag command icon on the Pet palette.
Drag it under the seating about 1200 from its original position. Hold down the SHIFT button to
constrain its movement to the X direction.

Let’s apply some fancy textures on the seating to make it more interesting.
Select the seating, and change its material to Demo Carpet - Chair_inverse.

However it doesn’t seem to be a very comfortable bar stool at the moment. To make it
comfortable we can smooth the entire shape with just one click. Just imagine how long it
would have taken to make such a smooth shape with GDL scripting.
Select all surfaces of the seating, except the two end surfaces, by holding down the
SHIFT+CTRL keys, and drawing a cutting rectangle around the surfaces. This way, only
those edges and faces are selected, which are intersected or contained by the rectangle.
Select Design > Modify Morph > Smooth & Merge Faces.

All morph related editing commands are grouped here in the Design menu.
Select Smooth boundaries to also make the unselected face contours curved. Leave the
slider in the middle position. Click OK.

It needs only some fine-tuning. Let’s fillet the rigid edges at the end.
Select the two flat faces, with SHIFT+CTRL+clicking on both of them, and run the Fillet
command. Enter 20, and hit ENTER.

Select the leg and the seating elements, and click Edge type: Soft button on the Info box to
remove unneeded edges and soften the surface.
Turn off the editing plane (ALT+E).
This took even less than 2 minutes, don’t you think?

Now I would like to use this stool in my project. What is the most convenient way of working
with repeatedly used elements in ArchiCAD projects? Naturally you can save them as library
parts. Let’s save this great new bar stool as a GDLobject. From now on, objects are saved
intelligently; there is no need to go to the top view of floor plan any more.
Select the seating and the leg, and choose File > Libraries and Objects > Save Selection as
Library Part > Object…
In the appearing Save Object dialog, enter a new name (e.g. Demo chair 01), and click on
Options.

As of ArchiCAD 16 all library parts are saved intelligently, all the attributes like materials, pens
and fills are added to the objects as editable parameters.
Set Editable GDL Script radio button in the Library Part Options dialog. Click OK.

Click Save. In the Change Object’s Basic Settings dialog, overwrite parameters Material 1 to
Seating, and Material 2 to Leg. Click on the texture icon next to the material to show the list of
available materials. Hit ESC to close the material list.
Click the Change details button.
From now on, library parts will be easier to find with the new keyword and description fields.
Let’s fill them out.
Type your name into the Author field.
Click Set Preview to find the pre-set preview picture for the chair. Select Demo chair
preview.png.
Enter ArchiCAD 16 demo chair to the description field.
Enter custom bar chair design to the keywords field.
Click Change. Click OK.

Now, the element is part of the embedded library, and can be used immediately in the current
project.

00. View Bar chair

Let’s place a copy in the 3D view.
Activate Object tool, Chair bar favorite, and place an instance onto the 3D line on the ground.

Unfortunately it’s a bit short for the counter; so we need to extend its leg. What can we do
now? Shall we go back to the original geometry and re-save the element, or open the 3D
script for editing? No, we can make the modifications right here.
Because all library parts can be exploded to their original Morph parts we can make the
required geometry and attribute changes in this view.
Use the Orbit command to turn the view, so that the shortness of the chair is more visible.

Select the object, and click the Drag icon on the Pet palette. Select any hotspots as
reference, hold down the SHIFT key, to constrain the movement to the Z direction, and move
the cursor upwards approximately 500 millimeters.

Select the object, and choose Explode into Morphs. Click Delete in the appearing dialog.
Select the leg, and choose Box Stretch on the Pet palette. Use Orbit and Zoom commands to
get a view to the bottom of the leg.
A nice visual feedback shows the bounding box of the morph. Depending on which parts I
click, I can have several stretching options. Now I want to stretch it into one direction, so I will
use the bottom surface.
Click on the bottom surface of the bounding box, and drag it to the floor. Click aside to finish
the changes. Note: if you hit ESC, the morph will have its original shape back.

As before, I can select and save these morphs as new objects or optionally I can also
overwrite the existing one.
I think we are at a very important point now; so let’s stop here for a while.

00. View Object workflow

From now on, you have a revolutionary new workflow for creating and editing custom library
parts.
Converting a library part to a morph element allows you to modify any objects even if you are
not familiar with GDL scripting. This workflow is very natural and available for all ArchiCAD
users.

01. View Openings

Now, let’s see another example. Doors and windows are also stored as GDL library parts. So
what happens, if we want to make our own custom door?

02. View Door placement

Let’s create a new entrance door for the bar. The double door that we use from the standard
AC library is almost perfect but some important details like the frame, the panel texture and
the door handle have to be adjusted. We need a simple way to make the required
modifications without GDL programming and then save our own new custom door.
Activate the Door tool, Door demo favorite, and place an instance at the middle of the wall.
Click outside the building to set the opening direction to the outside as well.