Stretching Walls

[Paulji]

It would be nice if one could stretch 3D walls easily. This is something that architects often have to do.

In the absence of a "stretch command" the following steps work fine.  One cannot stretch a wall while in the Shaded Work mode. This is because of the fact that Pick Area selection does not select segments "hidden" in Shaded Work mode (as far as I can tell).

Step 1: Select the Pick tool. In the Tools Options, set Topological level to Segments. Select Inside Only from the Frame pulldown. OR select the Pick Area tool. In the Tool Options, set Topological Level to Segments, pick a shape, deselect Pick Crossing.

Step 2:  Activate the Wire Frame Display mode.

Step 3:  Click-drag-release to form a marquee around only those segments of the wall you wish to stretch.

Step 4:  Select the Move tool. Move the wall segments as required.

Step 5:  Change to Shaded Work Display or other display modes as desired. 

See attached short mp4 video.

 

[vva]

hi Paulji

try to use the "Reshape Tool":

move the outer side of the wall first to the coordinate you want.

Then move the inner face of the wall the same distance. That's it.

btw: the Reshape Tool has become my favourite tool for such operationes.

 

vva

[Paulji]

Hi vva,

Yes I know.  I'm still experimenting.  Discovered another way within the Shaded Work mode that works by preselecting faces.

1.  Select a component door if necessary with Pick tool (Autopick) .

2.  Change topological level to Faces. Pick one side of wall.

3. Set View to opposite side of wall.

4. Select Pick tool again and Shift click opposite side of wall.

5. Select Move tool and adjust as needed.

[Bo Atkinson]

Visible surface picking only, is a useful feature for other design uses including crowded areas and navigating in 3d at the same time.

[ZTEK]

Hi Paulji,

Being an architect and a long time user, the following are my general tips to simplify and speed up this kind of operations for architectural modeling:

1. Use key shortcuts as much as possible and for the largest number of tools: my actual shortcuts list is the result off several revisions along the years with several progressive changes to optimize my use of the keyboard, mostly at the beginning when I started to use formZ and very few on the last years;
2. Make fluently use of both selection methods, Pick and Area Pick, with key shortcuts: always I use Pick in Autopick mode and Area Pick with the Alt key option to move around different topology; with Area Pick mode, normally, I select by segments or points, and some times by faces for specific tools (like Extend);
3. Deselect with a key shortcut too, apart of the normal mouse click in any free area on the screen;
4. Use the excellent key shortcuts to navigate your projects, they work great!… in particular, Set View about Center Of Scene with Command/Control + mouse right button, Hand with mouse middle button and Zoom In/Out with the mouse wheel;
5. Make intensive use of specific, and excellent, tools like Reapeat Last Transformation and Extend with both methods, To Face and by Distance;
6. Use numeric input, Grid Snap and Guide Snap always on, besides graphical input with snaps when necessary: personally I use numeric input a lot, I use the grid snap by 1 cm and mostly I use snaps by End Point, Middle Point and Center Face... I never use Intersection and never maintain active Segment, Perpendicular or Tangent, never, it’s very easy to make mistakes with them on, I use them only when required and then I turn them off;
7. Move smoothly between 3D views and projection views, and between shaded and wireframe modes, to make selections and use specific tools when required… again, with key shortcuts;
8. One more extra: in design fases, I always work in Shaded Full with edges on and no other "special effects”, with one ambient light 100% brightness and I use mostly materials with solid colors and constant reflection… little by little I start to add some textures and other parameters when I need them.

Espero que estas sugerencias te sean útiles para tu trabajo.

Best,

Marcelo

[Justin Montoya]

There's great flexibility to do things like this with formZ, many different ways to get the same result.  The real question would be whether you were still working with the original 'Wall' shape or was it a Union of more than 1 wall?  If just 1 original wall, then:

Just select the wall and toggle f6 to Show Controls.  Then I select the 2 corner points and press M for Move and then Click and drag to the new location (with snaps and grid snap ON ) then f6 Show Controls OFF.

 

This unfortunately doesn't work once a multiple walls have been Unioned together like I suspect from seeing your geometry.  For that I would use key shortcuts for most all common tools for efficiency so using a similar method to yours above would look like:

CTRL+6 (Top View)

CTRL+W (Wireframe)

Spacebar (Pick shortcut)

Click on the Faces option in the Tool Options - Pick Options window

Click and drag to select faces.  

Click on the Solid option in the Tool Options - Pick Options window

Shift Click and select your component door or other object.

M (Move)  them where you want.

...

CTRL+1 (3D View)

CTRL+J (Shaded View)

 

 

[Paulji]

ZTEK, Thanks for sharing. Very useful information. 

I also use Keyshortcuts extensively, however, I felt it was more appropriate in the video to show clicking icons. 

I've revised the video to show the process using key shortcuts.  I use Ctrl+Middle Mouse for Set View.  One doesn't leave the Pick tool command by using a key shortcut for the Set View.  

 

[Paulji]

Justin, 

You are correct in that all the walls had been unioned together.

Your method worked great.  I had to select Frame>Inside only to select only the walls that had to be moved.

Thanks.  

[Paulji]

I just happened upon a Youtube video by Evan Troxel that really helped me understand a clean method of relocating walls connected to non-colinear walls. The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyIyGF_asck    The video title is: "Day 2 — Extend tool — Preview of FormZ Fundamentals" 

Evan pointed out that the Extend tool moves a face a given distance while "...keeping all the edges glued together".  In other words, the edges of an object keep their planar orientation. On the other hand, the Reshape tool moves faces in a way that changes the planar orientation of the object's edges.   

It is for this reason that the Extend tool is superior to the Reshape tool when relocating walls attached to sidewalls.   I'll go through the steps.

1. Select the Extend tool from the T-Form palette.

2. Set the desired distance in the Tool Options Extend dialog.  (Note: This should be a positive number.  Whichever face of the wall you select will grow larger.)

3. Pick the face of the wall.

4. In the Tool Options Extend dialog enter a negative (-) to the previous entered distance. 

5. Rotate your view by using a middle mouse keyshortcut for the Set View command.

6. Pick the opposite face of the wall.

7. Using the Move tool move the door the same distance.

See attached.

 

[setz]

Wouldn't it be great to have an option added to the Extend Tool to allow faces to be interactively pulled with the distance field live for numerical input?

[Paulji]

setz,

Fabulous idea! 

I was thinking the Extend Tool Options might have a Dynamic toggle much like the Reshape Tool Options has now.  It might look something like the attached.

Would you like to make that suggestion on the Forum Suggestions?  I would definitely second that motion.

Good one.