Third Guild

The Arch-E kit for MODO enhances your workflow via a set of 20, handy, custom-built C++ tools.

What’s included?

• 9 plugins for various tasks e.g. sweep and stairs tools.
• 6 plugins for making and aligning windows.
• 5 re-mastered plugins from the mARCH arch-viz kit.
• Online user guide with instructional videos. Show me »
• 3D window furniture models and test scene.

11th Nov 2019: Sales are temporarily offline in readiness for latest release featuring the new Stairs tool.

A valuable tool that has many uses outside of arch-viz work, Sweep extrudes individual or groups of profiles (polygon islands and open-beziers) along a path of selected points, creating UVs (segmented or peeled) and part-names for easy selection and texturing.

Useful for a wide variety of tasks,

• Window and door trim or moulding;
• Fascia, rafters, soffits, drip edges and some types of guttering;
• Baseboards (skirting boards) and other mouldings around the inside of a room;
• Door liners and door stops;
• Window and picture frames;
• Shiplap cladding;
• Curved walls;
• Architectural window shades;
• Plus much, much more...

Discover more about Sweep's workflow »

Two plugins that help you to prepare polygon profiles for use with Sweep.

You can use them to,

• Visualize and set UV seam position;
• Remove excess points;
• Add inset points ready for SubD smoothing;
• Centre and flatten profiles.

Discover more about profile rebuilding »

Effortlessly create stairs using the twelve pre-made styles and eight staircase layouts. This tool provides you with more than 25 tweak-able attributes, as well as, UV and part-name generation.

You can use it to create,

• Wooden staircases with tread and riser boards;
• Concrete precast and slab staircases;
• Entrance and garden steps.

Discover more about building stairs »

Creates fixed-light windows in the shape of selected polygons and auto-magically aligns them; upto 30 at once. Ideal for many projects, from contemporary arch-viz to sci-fi.

You can use it for,

• Contemporary, asymmetric, fixed-light windows.;
• Arched, round, triangular and rounded-corner windows;
• Sci-fi windows.

Read about this tool's easy workflow »

A highly tweak-able plugin that reproduces a wide range of window designs. Ideal for arch-viz, interior visualisations and set extensions.

You can use it for,

• Outward opening casements;
• European-style inward opening casements;
• French-style casements;
• Fixed Lights (individual and banks/grids);
• Medium-sized, straight curtain walls;

More windows than most. How to use multi-window »

Generates floating-style shelf arrangements, with UVs, using aesthetically pleasing mathematical scales.

You can use it for,

• Shelves for holding books and other small objects.
• Making visually interesting shelf arrangements; e.g. with box shelves.

Generates picture frames, with or without glass, in various shapes, along with UVs and polygon-part names.

You can use it for,

• Pictures, paintings or mirrors to enchance interior visuals.
• A glass-fronted box to hold plants or curios.
• A starting point for creating more complex picture frame designs.

A super handy tool that enables you to interactively scale geometry, in one or mesh item layers, based on a single known length or by a multiplication factor or by bounds. In addition, choose to centre the geometry around the world origin and/or rest it on the ZX ground plane.

You can use it for,

• Scaling geometry (e.g. polylines from imported architectural drawings) to a precise size based on a single known length;
• Scaling any geometry in one or more mesh layers to a given size, along one or more dimensions;
• Resting one or more mesh layers on the ground plane, either individually or grouped;
• Centering one or more mesh layers around the world origin, either individually or grouped.

Moves all the geometry within a mesh item (at the component level; no item transforms) from a source point to a target point or the world origin. Allows per-axis alignment using novel tool handles and supports modo's 'select through' workflow.

You can use it for,

• Precise alignment of polyline drawings (e.g. plans, elevations) to one another;
• Anytime you wish to align one mesh to another along one or more of the major axes.

Selects all geometry that matches the height of a pre-selected vertex, edge or polygon. In addition, this command enables the selection of geometry within a range of heights, as well as, selecting all geometry above or below the height of a selected vertex, edge or polygon.

You can use it for,

• Easy selection of geometry based on height or level above the ground; e.g. selection prior to using move or extrude on walls, floors and window openings;
• Checking elements of your model to ensure they are positioned at the same height; e.g. walls, floors and window reveals.

Selects all polygons whose normal matches that of a previously selected polygon, and permits refinement of the selection based on a variety of filters; e.g. you can limit selection to polygons in the same plane as the target polygon.

You can use it for,

• Easy selection of walls or other polygon surfaces based on matching normals;
• Creating a polygon selection prior to applying materials, projecting UVs and more.

Align a selection of points to the last selected point, along one or more axes, with a given amount of offset. This tool supports multiple mesh item/layer selections and is designed for use with modo's fast 'Select Through' workflow; Hence, you can change your point selection on the fly and align different pieces of geometry whilst this tool remains active.

You can use it for,

• Moving the end of a wall to a target position;
• Moving the end of a piece of steelwork or trim to a target position.

Generates 2D arch and half-arch shapes (polylines or polygons) that can be extruded or swept (path or radial) to create 3D geometry, or used as a cookie cutter.

You can use it for,

• Arch shape path for sweeping geometry to create 3D arches; e.g. using Arch-E’s Poly Sweep tool.
• Template to drive boolean tools for cutting arch shapes into existing geometry (cookie cutter).
• Starting point for creating moulding profiles (e,g. cyma recta).
• As a polyline profile for use with modo’s built-in Radial Sweep tool to create 3D arch-derived shapes.

Generates material masks (group and material) for each of the polygon part-names within your scene, whilst avoiding duplication of pre-existing part-type masks.

You can use it for,

• Automagically creating part-type material masks in a single click.
• Create materials for all the parts produced by the Door Template tool, for example, in a single click.

An experimental tool that takes the hard work out of dividing up polygons when forming a panel-door. This interactive tool creates a contiguous 2D mesh of polygons ready for extrusion and bevelling in modo..

You can use it for,

• Creating a panel-door layout ready for extrusion and bevelling.
• Can be used as a starting point for many door layouts; e.g. you can simply merge various groups of polygons prior to extrusion.

A highly adjustable tool for creating double-hung window designs for use with your buildings and interior scenes. Ideal for arch-viz, interior visualisations and set extensions.

You can use it for,

• Contemporary double-hung windows (Alu/uPVC-style);
• Historical box sash designs.

A specialist tool for creating horizontal sliding windows and doors with a ton of tweak-able attributes.

You can use it for,

• Traditional, wooden-style sliding windows;
• Contemporary (Alu) sliding windows and doors.

Generates material masks specifcailly for each of the polygon part names created by the window maker plugins. This spares you from having to creating the masks and materials by hand. Furthermore, once these have been created, modo will apply use these materials whilst the window generator tools are active.

You can use it for,

• Automatically generating material groups/masks for each part (polygon part name) of the window.
• Enables modo to show materials whilst MultiWindow, Box Sash and Horizontal Sliders tools are active.

This command will add, orientate and position a new locator at the point where the two selected edges meet. It is highly specialised towards this single task and will only correctly orientate the locator when the correct edges are chosen.

You can use it for,

• Creating locators at the corner of a window or door reveal.
• Aligning windows to window openings.

A set of window furniture mesh presets for use with modo; These are sub-d (designed for sub-division smoothing) models.

You can use them for,

• Adding extra layer of detail and realism to windows.
• Use as base to create your own handle or vent variations.