Mass Elements and Mass Groups
Mass elements are primitive parametric objects that have specific shapes, such as arch, box, cylinder, and gable. They
function as the building blocks of conceptual design (also schematic design) in AutoCAD Architecture. You can create
preliminary studies, or mass models, by grouping mass elements together in mass groups.
Mass Groups and Mass Models
When you create a mass group, you can combine the shapes of mass elements in the mass group by adding, subtracting,
and intersecting them in a specific order. The resulting complex shape of the mass group forms your conceptual building
design, or mass model. The mass model defines the basic structure and proportion of a building model.
Developing Mass Models
As you continue developing your mass model, you can combine mass elements into mass groups and create complex
building shapes by adding, subtracting, and intersecting the mass elements.
You can change mass elements in the mass group as necessary to reflect the building design. You can edit individual
mass elements that are attached to a mass group to further refine the building model. You can also nest mass groups
within other mass groups. For more information, see “
Creating a Mass Group
” on page 612.
Using the Model Explorer
You can use the Model Explorer to create your entire mass model, or you can create your mass model in the current
drawing. You can also modify your mass model or change the relationships of mass elements in the Model Explorer.
In addition to a graphics area that displays the mass model, the Model Explorer has a tree view in which you can drag
and drop mass elements and mass groups to arrange and view the building blocks of your model in a hierarchical
structure. For more information, see “
Using the Model Explorer to Create Mass Models
” on page 623.
When creating massing studies, you can create mass groups with any AutoCAD three-dimensional (3D) object, including
AutoCAD ACIS solids. These can be combined with mass elements in the Model Explorer to allow more complex studies
of potential designs. However, only objects that have volume affect the appearance of the mass group. For example, a
polyline, even with thickness, does not contribute to the mass group.
Continuing Building Design from a Mass Model
The mass model that you create is a refinement of your original idea that you carry into the next phase of the project,
where you can slice floorplates from the mass model. You can convert the floorplates to space boundaries to start space
planning, or you can convert them to polylines and then to walls to begin your building design.
Display Configurations and Layouts for Mass Modeling
Drawings created from templates provided with AutoCAD Architecture contain display configurations and layouts that
enable you to work effectively with mass elements and mass groups. For example, a layout has two viewports: one is
assigned a display configuration that displays only mass groups and the other is assigned a display configuration that
displays only mass elements.
Materials in Mass Elements
In AutoCAD Architecture, you can assign materials to a mass element. These materials are displayed in wireframe and
working shade views, or when rendered. Materials have specific settings for individual components of a mass element,
such as linework or surface hatches.
576 | Chapter 14 Creating Conceptual Models
Summary of Contents for 00128-051462-9310 - AUTOCAD 2008 COMM UPG FRM 2005 DVD
Page 1: ...AutoCAD Architecture 2008 User s Guide 2007 ...
Page 4: ...1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
Page 40: ...xl Contents ...
Page 41: ...Workflow and User Interface 1 1 ...
Page 42: ...2 Chapter 1 Workflow and User Interface ...
Page 146: ...106 Chapter 3 Content Browser ...
Page 164: ...124 Chapter 4 Creating and Saving Drawings ...
Page 370: ...330 Chapter 6 Drawing Management ...
Page 440: ...400 Chapter 8 Drawing Compare ...
Page 528: ...488 Chapter 10 Display System ...
Page 540: ...500 Chapter 11 Style Manager ...
Page 612: ...572 Chapter 13 Content Creation Guidelines ...
Page 613: ...Conceptual Design 2 573 ...
Page 614: ...574 Chapter 14 Conceptual Design ...
Page 678: ...638 Chapter 16 ObjectViewer ...
Page 683: ...Designing with Architectural Objects 3 643 ...
Page 684: ...644 Chapter 18 Designing with Architectural Objects ...
Page 788: ...748 Chapter 18 Walls ...
Page 942: ...902 Chapter 19 Curtain Walls ...
Page 1042: ...1002 Chapter 21 AEC Polygons ...
Page 1052: ...Changing a door width 1012 Chapter 22 Doors ...
Page 1106: ...Changing a window width 1066 Chapter 23 Windows ...
Page 1172: ...1132 Chapter 24 Openings ...
Page 1226: ...Using grips to change the flight width of a spiral stair run 1186 Chapter 25 Stairs ...
Page 1368: ...Using the Angle grip to edit slab slope 1328 Chapter 28 Slabs and Roof Slabs ...
Page 1491: ...Design Utilities 4 1451 ...
Page 1492: ...1452 Chapter 30 Design Utilities ...
Page 1536: ...1496 Chapter 31 Layout Curves and Grids ...
Page 1564: ...1524 Chapter 32 Grids ...
Page 1611: ...Documentation 5 1571 ...
Page 1612: ...1572 Chapter 36 Documentation ...
Page 1706: ...Stretching a surface opening Moving a surface opening 1666 Chapter 36 Spaces ...
Page 1710: ...Offsetting the edge of a window opening on a freeform space surface 1670 Chapter 36 Spaces ...
Page 1956: ...1916 Chapter 42 Fields ...
Page 2035: ...Properties of a detail callout The Properties of a Callout Tool 1995 ...
Page 2060: ...2020 Chapter 45 Callouts ...
Page 2170: ...2130 Chapter 47 AEC Content and DesignCenter ...
Page 2171: ...Other Utilities 6 2131 ...
Page 2172: ...2132 Chapter 48 Other Utilities ...
Page 2182: ...2142 Chapter 51 Reference AEC Objects ...
Page 2212: ...2172 Chapter 52 Customizing and Adding New Content for Detail Components ...
Page 2217: ...AutoCAD Architecture 2008 Menus 54 2177 ...
Page 2226: ...2186 Chapter 54 AutoCAD Architecture 2008 Menus ...
Page 2268: ...2228 Index ...