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Arch

Description

The Multi-Material tool defines a list of materials with, for each material, a name and a thickness value. This multi-materials list can then be added to an Arch object instead of a single Arch Material .

Not all Arch objects can currently make use of multi-materials, and the way they use them differs. Currently:

• Walls with a MultiMaterial will use the material definitions and thicknesses to create a multi-layer wall.
• Windows with a MultiMaterial will attribute materials with a given name defined inside the MultiMaterial to window components with the same name or type (see below). Material thickness is not considered.
• Curtain Walls with a MultiMaterial will attribute materials with a given name defined inside the MultiMaterial to curtain wall components with the same name or type (see below). Material thickness is not considered.
• Panels with a MultiMaterial will use the material definitions and thicknesses to create a multi-layer panel.

Usage

1. Create first a series of Arch Materials that you will need in your Multi-Material.
2. Optionally, select an Arch object you wish to attribute the new Multi-Material to.
3. Press the Multi-Material button.
4. Set the desired material layers.

Options

Upon creating or editing a multi-material by double-clicking it in the tree, the following options are available:

• Duplicate another existing Multi-Material from the same document. This only copies the values over, and doesn't link the two multi-materials in any way.
• The Name field will also set the material object's Label
• The Composition list is the list of the different material layers that compose this multi-material. Each layer has a name, a material and a thickness value.
• Click Add to add a new layer, Up to move a selected layer up, Down to move a selected layer down, or Del to delete a selected layer.
• The Name of a layer will offer you a drop-down list of available default window components, the Material will offer you a drop-down list of available Arch Materials in the same document, and Thickness can be set to any value in any unit
• The Name of a layer defines the components of a window or curtain wall, to which this layer will be assigned. It is mandatory
• The Material field is mandatory.
• The Thickness field can be left blank (it will then adopt a value of 0). It sets the thickness of the layer when used for walls and panels.
• If a multi-material contains layers with a thickness of zero, that thickness is considered variable. BIM objects that use the multi-material, such as Walls and Panels, will treat that accordingly, and give that layer the remaining space available given their own width or thickness.
• If a multi-material contains a layer with a negative thickness, that layer is considered empty. This can be used, for example, to represent air gaps.
• If you name the different components of a multi-material "Frame", "Solid panel", "Glass panel" or "Louvre", and apply that material to a window, the given materials will be applied to the corresponding window components.

Relation to IFC

This roughly corresponds to a combination of IfcMaterialLayerSet and IfcMaterialLayer.

Limitations

Scripting

Arch