• TechNotes
• Creation of Symbol Fills in ArchiCAD

As a handy extension to the ArchiCAD Help file, here is how to create new Symbol fills:

1. Draw the fill pattern on the Floor Plan. Make it fit into a rectangle shape. Use Lines and Arcs (do not use a PolyLine or a Spline; they will not paste into the Fill Dialog). Make sure it is not very complicated. Very complicated vectorial fill patterns may drastically increase redraw time, when large fill areas are created with that pattern, and one such pattern may increase the size of the Project File considerably. Also, make sure the top and the bottom of the pattern are in continuation with each other, and also the left and right sides are in continuation with each other as well. This means, when you place two such unit of the vectorial fill next to or on top of each other, the fill lines will be in continuance.

2. Select these drawn lines/arcs.
3. Copy these to the Clipboard (CTRL+C on Windows, CMD+C on Mac).

4. Go to the Options > Fill Types Dialog.

5. Click the New... button.

6. Type in the name for the new fill to be created and select the Symbol Fill radio button. Click OK.

7. Now that you are back in the Fill Types Dialog, click the Paste button. The pattern will be pasted into the Preview rectangle of the Dialog.

8. Set Scale and Angle values as needed for the new fill. Also, select whether you want it to scale with the scale-changes of the plan or remain the same motif size at all scales (scale-independent). Check the appropriate check boxes to make this fill available to construction elements/fills.
9. Create/edit the 8x8 pixel bitmapped pattern of the Fill as well.

10. Click OK to exit the Dialog and save these changes.

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