: ArchiCad 20
This is just something I found out while playing with ArchiCad and I think it could be useful for someone else.
Building materials
Labeling “Building materials” needs appropriate Cut Plane height (Document > Floor Plane Cut Plane Settings > Cut Plane height to Current Story).
The Complex profile wall needs to be cut by Cut Plane so ArchiCad can “see” what the wall is made of, so it can later send the information about Building materials currently seen to the Label. If the wall is partially cut, then only the information about the cut part is available. If the wall is completely over or under the Cut Plane, no information about Building materials is available.
Surfaces
Labeling “Surfaces” is, on the other hand, not depend on the Cut Plane height at all. It depends on how the profile is created. The location of the Cut fills associated with Building materials used in the profile plays the crucial role for this part. It seems that ArchiCad sees the Surfaces information according to the origin (the hotspot at 0, 0) in the Profile Editor window.
There needs to be at least one part of the Fill at y=0, it doesn’t matter which part (top, bottom, sides), for ArchiCad to “see” the Surfaces used in the profile. Or, may be it’s easier to say that only Fill that is cut by the imaginary x-axis will be seen. If there are multiple Fills that are cut by the x-axis, the left most Surface can be identified as “inside” and the right most is “outside”.
If the Override Surfaces is activated, in this case, the information about the Extrusion Surface is disregarded for labeling.
In the case that there’s no Fill cut by the x-axis, currently only the information from the Ends Surface (Override Surfaces) is available for labeling. For GDL, all of the WALL_MAT_A, WALL_MAT_B, WALL_MAT_EDGE report the same value as the Ends Surface (Even though the model looks correct).
Maybe this complex behavior is the reason why the “Surface Label 20” has only one option for labeling complex profile wall, “Custom Text”. Well, complex behavior for complex profile wall. It kinda makes sense, …doesn’t it?
