About Complex Profile Elements

If customizing a standard construction element gets very complicated, or you don’t find a specialized construction object in the library, you can place a profiled Wall, Column or Beam, known as a Complex Profile.

Complex Profiles are predefined and custom defined walls, columns and beams that can be edited by hand to take nearly any desired shape. Like other construction elements, a Profile’s essential structure derives from its Building Material, although various surface overrides are available on an element-level basis for profile elements.

For example, the following image shows two curved walls to which the “Brick Wall with Footing” profile has been applied. The back wall uses element-level surface overrides on the extruded surfaces and ends.

A Complex Profile element is composed of a cross-sectional profile that is extruded perpendicular to the profile’s plane. To place a complex element, you can use or modify a predefined profile, or create a new one.

Note: You can also place a Standard steel Column or Beam profile from a catalog.

See Use Standard Steel Column or Beam Profile.

A saved Complex Profile element is handled as an attribute of the Wall, Column, and/or Beam element. Saved profiles will appear in the Settings dialog box of the respective tool. Alternatively, you can apply a custom profile to any selected element in the model window on a one-time basis without having to save it as an attribute.

ArchiCAD ships a number of predefined profile elements for these tools. To use them, do the following:

•Open the Wall (Column, Beam) Settings dialog box.

•Choose Profiled Wall from the Geometry and Positioning panel.

•From the “Profile” pop-up below, choose the desired profile

•Click on the plan to place.

Once you place a complex profile element, you can modify it graphically on-screen, similar to other construction elements.

Or select an existing Complex Profile Element, then click Edit Selected Complex Profile from the context menu.

See Creating or Editing a Complex Profile Element.

Special pet palette commands are available to stretch and rotate profile elements.