Best Approach to Multiple Storey Plans

[artitech]

We recently drew a four storey condominium project with all four floors more-or-less identical in shape. We made a decsion later in the process to change the relationship between the exterior walls and the grid line which involved moving the walls slightly all around the building on all four floor levels.

Seeing that all the walls align vertically around the perimeter, what would have been the best method for making chnages to exterior walls that would in fact take effect on all four floor levels?

I thought of drawing the wall from the lowest level and attaching it to the roof at the uppermost level, but in the end we drew it one floor level at a time...

What approach do others use for this sort of control over vertically aligned walls?

[dhurtubise]

I would personnally draw them as built, in your case, from level 1 to roof.
But your method shouldnt pose a problem if you lock all walls to the grid, all level would then adjust when moving the grid.

[ejburrell67787]

We tend to draw them as close to how they would be built in a sense - ie external walls go the full height that they do (eg Ground to Roof) and internal partitions only go floor to ceiling. Party walls tend to go full height also even though technically they do stop at each floor slab.

I do think that there are advantages to modeling external walls floor-to-floor only though and locking them - for instance if you want to change the wall type on one floor you can easily... I have also had problems with external walls modeled floor-to-floor moving independently or being locked wrong somehow!

Cheers

[artitech]

I do think that there are advantages to modeling external walls floor-to-floor only though and locking them - for instance if you want to change the wall type on one floor you can easily...
Cheers

What are some of the methods you use for locking walls to one another (ie. the first floor exterior wall to the second floor exterior wall above it).

Also, this brings another question to mind... if you had windows that line up on the face of a building from main floor to the fourth floor, how would you lock them together so if one moves they all move together to keep them aligned?

[kpaxton]

What are some of the methods you use for locking walls to one another (ie. the first floor exterior wall to the second floor exterior wall above it).

Also, this brings another question to mind... if you had windows that line up on the face of a building from main floor to the fourth floor, how would you lock them together so if one moves they all move together to keep them aligned?
Allow me...

I agree with dhurtubise, in that if you're using Grid lines (and you should be!), that you're exterior walls should be locked to these from the start. IF this gridline is your basis for controlling the exterior shape & extents of the building then this is a great tool to keep these constrained. The only time you would go out/in from these controls might be for cantilevers, bays, insets, etc.

For me, I wouldn't necessarily lock one wall on one level to another, but keep them locked to the gridline. But you certainly can lock them to each other if you wish. When you need to do this, the Align tool is your friend! The two main ways oflocking one wall to another are:

Underlays : Turn on Underlays / Select Align / Pick your upper wall to the one below / Click on the lock to lock the two together.
3d: Go to a 3D view / Select Align / pick the outer face of the lower wall / next Pick the face of the upper wall / Click on the lock to lock the two together.
As for the windows, if you have a multi-story building it becomes difficult and time-consuming to do the underlay method. The trick is the following:

Get your first floor windows where you want them.
IF they're the same, you could select them all and copy them up per level... OR
Go to your elevation view(s)
Click Align, then select your first floor windows Vertical Centerline.
The select the Vertical Centerline of the windows above
Click on the lock (to closed) to lock the two together.
Now, if the windows move, they will all move together (BE CAREFUL !!)
This is obviously one way to do this if you're building floor to floor. You could also use groups, in which case whenever a change is made to one floor, they all change. Before you use this method, you'll need to plan out how much similarity will be on each floor.

I hope this helps!
Kyle

[artitech]

Great feedback Kyle :D

Thank-you.

Cory Stechyshyn

[anders.hedman]

We turned the exterior walls and interior bearing walls into a group and copied it three times on different but similar floors. I has had some advantage when walltypes and exact places changes. The house is to be built of concrete elements so it is in fact built the same way. When all is set we will ungroup the groups, if/when the file tends to loose mobility. The groups can be pinned so that they don´t move around. We also made groups of the kitchens and bathrooms but this had to be abandoned because the file didn´t move anymore.