Cavity Closure Macro

1. General Description

This macro is commonly used by ArchiCAD windows to draw cavity closure and turned plasters in 2D.

The macro's output fulfils the following requirements:

• all wall geometries currently supported in ArchiCAD (straight, trapeze or curved) are handled well
• handles curved panel windows in curved walls
• uses the composite line structure of the wall
• avoids overlapping polygons for DXF/DWG export
• handles contour / inner status of lines for DXF/DWG export
• all display modes (solid modes also) are concerned and handled well
• can turn any number of skins in traditional mode

The WallBlock macro is being used to draw the blocks that the skins are built from: this results in a uniform 2D drawing method regardless of the current wall geometry. The CompositeLogic macro returns the composite structure information required to draw the skins in the wall.

2. Parameters

Name	Type	Description
wndSide	Integer	0 Nothing is drawn. 1 Only the left side is drawn. 2 Only the right side is drawn. 3 Both sides are drawn. Note, that controlling wndSide lets you place adjacent windows horizontally without unwanted side-effects.
bWndCurved	Boolean	Is the window made of curved panels?
bCornerWindow	Boolean	Is the window part of a corner window?
bJambInner	Boolean	Identifies the window nominal width measuring method. 0 Default method. 1 Nominal size measured between jambs.
gs_turn_plaster	Title	Plaster
gs_bOverIn	Boolean	Only effective in the Parameter script
gs_bOverOut	Boolean	Only effective in the Parameter script
bOverIn	Boolean	Turn the plaster at reference side: (the thick line represents it)
bOverOut	Boolean	Turn the plaster at opposite side:
gs_closureMethod	Title	Cavity Closure
gs_cavity_side	String	Only effective in the Parameter script
gs_nTurnDir	String	Only effective in the Parameter script
cType	Integer	Closure method   Description Example 0 No cavity closure. 1 Traditional mode. 2 Heat insulation mode.
Traditional	Title	"Traditional" cavity closure method
nTurnIn	Integer	Number of turned skins from the reference side in traditional mode.
nTurnOut	Integer	Number of turned skins from the opposite side in traditional mode.
Strip	Title	Insulation strip (available only in traditional mode)
gs_bJoint	Boolean	Is there an insulation strip at the front side of the turned skins?
gs_thkJoint	Length	Thickness of the insulation strip.
gs_penJoint	Pencolor	Contour pen of the insulation strip.
gs_ltJoint	Linetype	Contour line type of the insulation strip.
gs_fillJoint	Fillpattern	Fill pattern of the insulation strip.
gs_penJointFg	Pencolor	Fill foreground pen of the insulation strip.
gs_penJointBg	Pencolor	Fill background pen of the insulation strip.
Insulated	Title	"Heat Insulation" cavity closure method
widthPlug	Length	Width of the insulation plug.
gs_penPlug	Pencolor	Contour pen of the insulation plug.
gs_ltPlug	Linetype	Contour line type of the insulation plug.
gs_fillPlug	Fillpattern	Fill pattern of the insulation plug.
gs_penPlugFg	Pencolor	Fill foreground pen of the insulation plug.
gs_penPlugBg	Pencolor	Fill background pen of the insulation plug.
StackedWindow	Title	Stacked Window
gs_stack_left	Boolean
gs_stack_right	Boolean
stClosureMethod	String	One dimension Array parameter for receiving value list of gs_closureMethod
stWndSide	String	One dimension Array parameter for receiving value list of gs_cavity_side
stTurnDir	String	One dimension Array parameter for receiving value list of gs_nTurnDir
gs_nTurn	Boolean	Only effective in the Parameter script

3. Usage

Coordinate system

Before using this macro, the caller window must align the local coordinate system to the x and y axes and place the origin into the natural opening origin marked with a black dot. The prevailing local y axis must be parallel with the end face of the wall cut:

Trapeze wall
Curved wall

Example scripts

The following example 2D script demonstrates the usage of this macro (see the WallLogic macro for further details on its parameters):

Master Script

dim stTurnDir[]
stTurnDir[1] = `Reference side`
stTurnDir[2] = `Opposite side`

2D Script

WOD = abs(WIDO_ORIG_DIST)

call "WallLogic" PARAMETERS EPS = 0.0001,
                            A   = SYMB_A_SIZE,
                            WOD = WOD

mul2 get (2)

curvedWall = get (1)
wallIsLeft = get (1)

angOrig    = get (1)
inRadius   = get (1)
ofsX       = get (1)
ofsY       = get (1)

bCornerWindow = ac_cw_function & ac_corner_window

if curvedWall & wallIsLeft then
	bOverIn  = gs_bOverOut
	bOverOut = gs_bOverIn
else
	bOverIn  = gs_bOverIn
	bOverOut = gs_bOverOut
endif

if gs_nTurnDir = stTurnDir[1] then	! 'Reference side'
	if curvedWall & wallIsLeft then
		nTurnIn 	= gs_nTurn
		nTurnOut 	= 0
	else
		nTurnIn 	= 0
		nTurnOut	= gs_nTurn
	endif
endif

if gs_nTurnDir = stTurnDir[2] then	! 'Opposite side'
	if curvedWall & wallIsLeft then
		nTurnIn 	= 0
		nTurnOut	= gs_nTurn
	else
		nTurnIn 	= gs_nTurn
		nTurnOut 	= 0
	endif
endif

call "CavityClosure" PARAMETERS A = A,
	bWndCurved = gs_IsCurved,
	bCornerWindow = bCornerWindow,
	cType = 1,				! 'Traditional'
	wndSide = 3,				! Both sides
	os_left = gs_left_oversize,
	os_right = gs_right_oversize,
	gs_stack_left = gs_stack_left,
	gs_stack_right = gs_stack_right,
	bJambInner = 0,
	bOverIn = bOverIn,
	bOverOut = bOverOut,
	nTurnIn = nTurnIn,
	nTurnOut = nTurnOut,
	gs_bJoint = gs_bJoint,
	gs_thkJoint = gs_thkJoint,
	gs_penJoint = gs_penJoint,
	gs_ltJoint = gs_ltJoint,
	gs_fillJoint = gs_fillJoint,
	gs_penJointFg = gs_penJointFg,
	gs_penJointBg = gs_penJointBg

Turned plasters

The bOverIn (bOverOut) parameters are independent of the cavity closure mode being used inside the wall. The turned plaster has the same thickness (marked with T in the following figure) as the first (last) skin in the compositete structure. Note, that the plaster is turned to the window frame.

The drawn plaster uses the same contour pen and linetype as the last composite skin. The second image displays only the contour lines which are used in DXF/DWG export.

The following table contains the minimum number of composite skins (nSkinMin) to draw these plasters:

Traditional mode

The nTurnIn and nTurnOut parameters cannot be nonzero at the same time. They control the number of skins turned from or to the reference line.

Let's assume, that there are N skins in the composite: in this case the following limitations are valid on these integer parameters (whether the plasters are turned or not):

If nTurnMax is less than one, then no skins are turned by this macro. Otherwise the macro turns as much skins inside the wall composite up to the given nTurnMax.

Heat insulation mode

This is the newer approach of cavity closure done in ArchiCAD.

	If there is no plaster skin modelled on either side, then the plug fits between the first and the last skins.
	If there is a plaster skin modelled on the reference side, and bOverIn is true, then the plug fits between the second and the last skins.
	If there is a plaster skin modelled on the opposite side, and bOverOut is true, then the plug fits between the first skin and the skin next to the last one.
	Finally, if there are plaster skins modelled on both sides, and both bOverIn and bOverOut are true, then the plug fits between the second skin and the skin next to the last one.

4. Remarks

At current time, there is no 2D wall cut in ArchiCAD. If we want to draw anything inside the wall, then a "patch polygon" of equivalent size must be applied before the draw operation. This can be carried out by drawing a polygon with Empty fill, where the background color is -1 (Transparent). See the following example:

The following steps are required to draw the desired area:

Step 1a: the original wall	Step 1b: the area where we want to draw;
Step 2: place the patch polygon	Step 3: draw the composite skins