WALL REFERENCE LINE MODIFICATION

Wall reference lines are an important aspect of ARCHICAD. It is how the program calculates the connections of walls; if the reference lines connect, so do the corresponding walls.

As such, the placement of these reference lines can cause issues, especially with the way that ARCHICAD builds the corresponding 3D wall.

During various phases of an architectural project, the reference line in relation to the placed wall can change due to the requirements of the phase.

This can cause issues when someone wishes to change the reference line of the wall, without changing the exact placement of the wall.

The above statement may sound confusing but below I will outline two methods of changing the wall reference line.

SWITCH REFERENCE LINE IN WALL SETTINGS
(NOT ADVISED)

The most common way of adjusting the wall reference line is to open the Wall Selection Settings and modify the Reference Line Placement.
E.G: Internal Face > External Core

The issue with this method is that it uses the reference line as the stationary point and rebuilds the wall around it. This leads to Building Envelope and Zone Area issues.
The GIF below highlights the problem.

MODIFY WALL REFERENCE LINE… (PREFERRED)

The preferred method of reference line change is for the wall to stay stationary, and the reference line to move.

We can achieve this through a single setting within ARCHICAD.
This can be found in:

Edit > Reference Line and Plane > Modify Wall Reference Line…

As can be seen above, the wall has stayed in the exact same place but the reference line has moved within it.

This can therefore help to move the project into the next project phase, without encountering building envelope and zone area issues.