End trim of semi-circular building

bob@innovativethermal.com · Posts: 4 Location: Michigan, USA

I am trying to create a building semi-circular in cross section with the ends of the building trimmed with a circular shape. I created the main building block and then created two blocks to use as cutting tools to create the end trim. Can I do that? How?

Thanks,
Bob Utter
Innovative Thermal Solutions, LLC
www.innovativethermal.com

Andy Tindale · Posts: 1196 Location: Stroud

Bob,

Do you mean something like this?

Please confirm this is what you want and I'll provide detailed instructions.

Thanks
Andy

bob@innovativethermal.com · Posts: 4 Location: Michigan, USA

Andy,

Not exactly. It looks like you split a dome, giving the building a hemispherical end. The building needs to have a cylindrical end. The attached photo isn't very good, but should give you an idea of the end shape.

Andy Tindale · Posts: 1196 Location: Stroud

Bob,

I think I understand what you're trying to do now - it's something like the picture below where you use a circular shape to trim your semicircular extrusion.

The way to do this is to:

1. Set up your model in exactly the same way you have in your first picture on the forum.

2. Select the main building block (the one in blue in your picture).

3. Click on the Cutting tool to start cutting the selected block.

4. In the Drawing Options dialog in the bottom left set the Cutting method as 2-Select plane.

5. Use the planes in the blocks marked in red in your picture to cut the main building block. So, click on the top face of one of the red blocks in your picture to cut the building block using that plane. You could imagine an infinitely large chainsaw slicing through the building block in the plane you have just selected.

6. Click again to confirm the cut.

7. Delete the slither you have cut away.

8. Then repeat by selecting the main building block again, starting the cutting tool and clicking on another face. You will need to make 6 x 2 separate cutting operations to get the shape you want.

You can get more information about the cutting tool by searching for Divide block in the on-line help.

When you have finished, select your main building outline block and convert it to a building block as described in the on-line help.

I hope this helps but it all is not clear please let me know. It's really much simpler than it sounds from the above!

Best regards
Andy

bob@innovativethermal.com · Posts: 4 Location: Michigan, USA

Andy,

That worked. But it is a lot of steps.
Does DB have any scripting or macro capability?
Is there any way to automate the creation of a building like this. I'd really like to be able to input length, width and height and have the software generate the main building block.

Thanks.

Andy Tindale · Posts: 1196 Location: Stroud

Bob,

DesignBuilder doesn't have any scripting or macro capability yet, though this is something we are considering for the future. You can't automate the creation of buildings like this, though if it turned out to be a common requirement we may consider providing a new block type with this capability.

The best I can offer at the moment is to save a simple building model in this form as a dsb template so you can load it in and stretch it in various directions to get the form you require. To do this copy your dsb file to the templates folder (accessed from the File | Folders menu command). Then, every time you create a new file you will have the option to create it based on your template model.

I hope this helps.

Andy

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