Poly Line Solid Default Material

[olyconstruction]

 

Hi Chiefs, 

 

When I create Polyline Solids, the out of the box default material is concrete. Is there some place in settings that I can change the default material for Polyline Solids to something else, like wood, fir instance?

 

Thank you so much!

[Alaskan_Son]

This is an odd one...

 

Polyline solids as well as a number of other things get their material defaults from the Foundation/Slab material defaults.  You can change that but then it affects a whole bunch of other things as well.  Might be a good one for the suggestion forum.

[dshall]

2 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

This is an odd one...

 

Polyline solids as well as a number of other things get their material defaults from the Foundation/Slab material defaults.  You can change that but then it affects a whole bunch of other things as well.  Might be a good one for the suggestion forum.

The Alaskan comes up with another great answer.  I am not sure if this is very important.  What would you want the default material to be?  When I create a psolid,  there are any number of materials I might want to use.  I say it ain't worth wasting any time on.....  whatever your default material will be,  90% of time I bet you will change it.

[Chopsaw]

Alex,  Is there a particular application that you are trying to streamline?   Depending on the situation there may be another tool that would work for you.  Could you elaborate a little more.   If it was something standard or repetitive you could make an architectural block and put it in your library with predefined materials and then add it to your tool bar for 1 click access.  Or there may be an even easier solution.

[olyconstruction]

Thanks guys, looks like I got the all star line up again. 

 

The situation that makes me ask is that there is this really funky as-built model I am working on right now. It has a really strange foundation and also a sort of post and beam roof extension thing going on.

 

I was going to do all the footings first in concrete, then do all the foundation posts and beams with fur, then all the outside ones with the sort of aqua color. 

 

I realize that you will probably say: why dont you just use the post or beam or footing tools for all of that like a normal person?

 

My answer to that: It did not occur to me until now. I am pretty comfortable working with Polyline Solids. They are pretty easy to control and sort of dummy proof. 

 

Am I going down a dark path right now? What are the disadvantages of this workflow?

 

Guys I need help.... 

[Joe_Carrick]

The disadvantage is that PSolids are "dumb".  They do not have the "Intelligence" of the specific objects.  You only get the geometry and you have to control the materials, sizes, colors, line weights, layers, etc manually.  The specific objects have all that built in via defaults and have much more that can be edited in their dbx's.

[olyconstruction]

Thanks Yoda, 

I will definitely start my next project with that in mind and try to do it the right way. 

 

[HumbleChief]

Alex,

 

You could always have a template plan with 3 or 4 of your most common materials for p-line solids set up ready to go with each new plan - kinda like a default but a bit more flexible. I just use the concrete default, change materials, then copy and paste that solid wherever needed.