By Jim Mahoney 
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This is Part 1 of 3 articles with tips on modeling masonry coursing in ArchiCAD. We will start off with the basics and get into some more advanced methods with parts 2 & 3. Different projects and budgets will often decide how far you need to take things to get the level of detail needed. In this first part we will discuss the basics of getting masonry coursing into your 3D model. Some basic setup is required before you even draw your first wall.
Part 1:
The first step is to go in and check some settings. First go to the Options Menu>>Project Preferences>>Working Units. When the dialog box comes up set Model Unit to 1/64” or the highest tolerance. This doesn’t mean you have to type all your measurements in 64th’s, it just means ArchiCAD will draw with this degree of accuracy before rounding. This is helpful when dealing with masonry which deals with 1/3’s when our units are in multiples of 2. The rounding will be as accurate as possible. Once again you are only drawing this accurately, you set your dimensional preferences elsewhere. This way you can draw in 1/64’s but dimension in 1/8’s or 1/4’s. By the way, this setting is stored in Project Preferences which is unique for each file. To avoid having to do this every time you open a new job, you should set it in the template file you use to start every new job.
Next you need to set each material you plan to use so it has the proper coursing. First let’s look at the materials settings. Go to the Options Menu>>Element Attributes>>Materials...
This will bring up the Materials Dialogue box. Pick your material from the popup list and then note or write down the name of the fill shown under Vectorial Hatching. In this case ”04 | Brick Running Bond”. At this point you may want to change the pen setting for the pen from “Elements Pen” to a fixed pen for all elements using this material. I usually set this to my lightest pen here and that way I don’t have to keep setting it in every element I draw. If you need wall by wall control, leave it set to “Elements Pen”.
Next we need to look at the Texture portion of the dialogue box. As shown below set the Sample popup from “2x2” to “1x1” so you will see a single piece of the texture. This makes the next step easier where we pick the size of the sample. The width is already correct at 8” and all we need to do is adjust the height. Since we are using US modular brick coursing where 3 brick courses occur in 8” of height we need to set the height of the sample to suit. Our sample picture in a 1x1 sample shows 2 bricks. Since one brick course is 8/3 or 2 2/3”, two brick courses equals 5 1/3”. Now I know what you are saying: ArchiCAD doesn’t do 1/3 of an inch. But watch what happens when we type in 5 1/3. After a brief delay ArchiCAD does the math and sets it to 5 21/64”. This is why we earlier set our drawing units to 1/64’s, so we could get as much accuracy as possible. Save these settings and close the dialogue box.
Next we go to the Fills Dialogue box to check our fill’s spacing. From before we noted the Fill’s name was ”04 | Brick Running Bond”. Go to the Options Menu>>Element Attributes>>Fill Types... When the Fill Type dialogue box opens up, select the fill you want to edit from the popup at the top of the dialogue. In this case set the spacing to 2 2/3” and after a few seconds the setting will change to 2 43/64” as shown below. Also make sure the radio button next to “Scale with Plan (Model Size)” is checked off. This makes sure the bricks are the same size no matter what the scale. You would use “Scale Independent (Paper Size)” for something like a concrete stipple where it is a symbol and you want the same density regardless of the scale. Change any other fills as required then say OK.
Now lets draw a wall. I am going to draw two walls actually. It is the same corner condition for a wall that stops at 4’-0” above project zero. The only different in the two walls is the base elevation of the walls. One wall is 12” above project zero (left below) and the other is 8” (right below). You will notice the coursing is off on the wall started at 12” and there is a reason for this. 
By default ArchiCAD starts all fills or textures for 3D at Project Zero where the global X,Y, & Z values equal zero. If your wall starts at a height that happens to be at a brick course dimension, such as 8”, the bottom of the wall will be on course. If the height of the wall base is not on coursing, such as 12”, the wall will be off coursing. So what are you to do if the coursing is off at the bottom of the wall? The easiest solution is not always possible - that is to set the bottom of the wall to a height that is on coursing. The second solution is ArchiCAD allows you to Align Textures in 3D. You select one or more 3D elements, such as walls, slabs or roofs and the you select a node on on of the elements to serve as an alignment point for the textures on all selected elements. Let’s take a look at this method.
The first step is go to a 3D view that shows al of the elements you need to adjust. Next select the elements. In this case I selected the two left walls whose base was at 12” above project zero, and were therefor off coursing. The next step is to go to the Design Menu>>Align 3D Texture>>Set Origin (above left). At this point you are asked to click on a Node to align the texture(s) to it. You MUST click on a Node or nothing happens. The picture above right shows the texture on the left hand wall’s corner with the correct vertical alignment. But if you look closely at the corner condition you’ll see I created an impossible condition. I have bricks that are 8” in both directions. You’ll remember I said you must snap to a node. Well right now we don’t have a node 4” off from the corner to snap to. We shall have to fix that. 
The easiest way to fix that is to insert an empty door or window opening and put one of it’s nodes at the base of the wall 4” off the corner. In the picture on the left above I have inserted the window and placed one of its nodes at a X value of 4” off the corner and it’s Y value at zero. I used this node to align the texture of the side wall and then deleted the window. As you can see in the right picture, the window is deleted and the texture remains aligned to that temporary node created by the window.
So far we have been using the Open GL 3D engine. The coursing will show in the Shaded & Hidden Line modes using the ArchiCAD Internal Engine as well. But initially you may not see the effect. To see coursing using the ArchiCAD Internal Engine, you may need to turn on an effect called Vectorial Hatching. 
To do this go to the View Menu>>3D View Mode>>3D Window Settings... (left above). When the 3D Window Setting Dialogue Box comes up make sure the 3D Engine popup is set to “Internal Engine” and under Effects set Vectorial 3D Hatching to “On”. Then you should see your brick coursing in the Shaded or Hidden Line mode (shown below).
Section, Elevation or Interior Elevation windows can show brick coursing as well. You must go into the dialogue box for the tool you are using and got to the Model Display portion of the Dialogue Box and under Uncut Elements check off “Vectorial 3D Hatching” and you will get the effect in these drawing windows as well. You can also use the Align 3D Texture command in that window, but it is a more limited experience in terms of what you can do. 
One last note: Vectorial Hatching can be a real memory and time hog, particularly on big models. I only turn it on in Sections, Elevations & Interior Elevations where I really need to see the coursing. The same goes for 3D. I often use the Hidden Line mode in the 3D Window because it is the best way to see if my stacked 3D walls are cleaning up. But I only show the coursing if and when I need it.
This article showed a simple and straight forward brick wall. The next article in this series will show what to do to create more complex walls with items like soldier courses or inlaid accent pieces.
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