Polygonal Opening

The Opening Tool was introduced with Archicad 23 for mainly technical openings like MEP openings and shafts, having Rectangular and Circular geometry options. With Archicad 25, the flexibility of the tool was extended introducing the new Geometry Method called: Polygonal. With this method you can easily create openings of any shape by defining them graphically node by node or using the magic wand. You can also convert existing rectangular and circular geometries into polygonal shapes by using flexible editing options. Let’s start with a typical example of a polygonal opening. Here we have a floor plan of an apartment where we have a polygonal shaft. The opening in here is not following the shape of the shaft. To fit the rectangular opening to this new shape we can easily stretch the nodes. The new editing options will help us on that. The magic wand can also be a good design aid here. I can now delete this opening to demonstrate you this other possibility. Press the space bar on your keyboard, and with the help of the Magic Wand, we can quickly find the wall boundaries on top of this slab and create the opening with the exact same shape. Note that we have a visual feedback where the opening will be created. With this new development, any polygonal shape is possible. The 2D Symbol follows the same logic as we had before. Now, we are moving to another level of the building, where more technical details are to be created. Here we have a concrete wall where a provision for void cannot be left out. So, let’s create a void on the wall by picking an opening from the favourites. Since there is a slanted wall next to it, I would like to check and adjust the opening by using different views in Archicad. First, we can check it in the 3D View. I will use 3D Cutaway to take a closer look to the opening which I created on the Floor Plan. We are free to edit the opening in 3D window. Let’s adjust the first node. Maybe because this is a small space to move things around, the section could be a more reliable view to work on. Let’s switch to the section. Here we can freely adjust the contour of the polygonal opening to fit the duct, and this slanted wall together. The precise shape for the opening can guarantee an accurate quantity take-off and precise drawings.