In Architectural Desktop, you can customize how a wall displays endcaps at either openings or wall ends. Out of the box, the wall styles have endcap styles created and assigned to end conditions as well as for openings for doors, windows and assemblies. To see what endcap styles are assigned to a wall, you use the Style Manager to browse to the wall style, then go to the Endcaps / Opening Endcaps tab to see what t default styles are used. Standard can also be substituted for these predefined styles if you don’t wish to go to this level of detail in a 1/8” scale view of a drawing.
Endcaps/Opening Endcaps Tab:
- Assign endcaps to wall start/endpoints
- Can assign different endcaps for openings, windows, doors, assemblies
- Can edit or add endcap style
- Can view endcaps in previewer
Occasionally the endcap style doesn’t reflect what’s actually happen, so you might want to create a custom endcap style. The following exercise walks the user through creating a custom endcap style for the CMU-8 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 that ships with the program.
To Create a Custom Endcap Style
The image below shows a wall endcap condition that is not correct. The quickest method to correct this is to draw polylines over the top of the condition, then use the pick and right click menus to edit the endcap.
Incorrect endcap with insulation extending past brick return
1. Examine the wall style and note the index number and width of each component you wish to edit the endcap for.
2. Draw an open pline for each component (including air spaces). Draw the plines in the order they appear in the wall style example above. Use the example wall to trace how the endcap should appear in the drawing
4 open segment plines, drawn counter clockwise (since the left side of the wall is the example – for a right side, draw clockwise) – each component must have a pline segment, even if the segment is just two points.
3. Right click on the example of the wall and choose Endcaps > Calculate Automatically
4. Use a selection window to choose all of the plines.
5. Erase the layout geometry to remove the plines
6. You can now choose to either modify the current endcap style assigned to a wall style as default condition, or you can create a new style. You can also choose whether this endcap style applies to wall ends and/or wall openings.
The “endcap” result
Note: Once an endcap is created, you can also use the right click menu options Endcaps > Edit in Place to make adjustments to this style.
You can draw more than just rectangular ends - play around with the shapes and make all kinds of opening conditions!
thanks - David B.
