Sloped and Tapered Retaining Wall on Sloped RAFT with Varying Wall Thickness

[Mohamedhamdyacc0]

Hello,

I am working on modeling a retaining wall, and I encountered a challenge while attempting to create a sloped and tapered wall with varying thickness. The approach I’ve taken is to use the "Model In-Place" tool, specifically using the "Blend" option to define the profiles for both the base and the top of the wall. To set the working plane, I chose the sloped raft.

However, I am facing an issue where the extrusion is not coming out in the vertical direction (Global Z direction), but rather in the perpendicular direction relative to the working plane (Local Z direction).

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or know a solution to force the extrusion to follow the Global Z direction? Alternatively, if there’s a more efficient way to achieve the same result, I’d appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you for your help!

[nozci]

Instead using top and bottom, using start and end sections might be better.

[RDAOU]

@Mohamedhamdyacc0 

If you were using adaptive components, the answer would be yes, in adaptive components you can define which normal the placement point should use. But since you are using an in-place component, the direction/orientation of the normal is inherited from the host or work plane. For instance,

• If you are using the face of another component as a work plane (like a slab edge) you would be bound by the Normal of that face (cannot change it)
• If you are using a sweep, you would reverse the direction of the path
• if you are using a reference plane as the work plane, grabbing it from one end (right) and sliding it all the way through to the other end (left) would reverse its polarity and subsequently its normal

        

When modeled as a loadable family, you would basically add flip controls then you do not have to worry much about the normal of the host. Unfortunately when using model in place, flip controls are not an option

I'm a bit confused, though. At one point, you mention blends  but then you state that you are facing issues with extrusions. Extrusions Start/End Direction is determined by on the work plane's normal,  whereas in blends (start/end profiles, each on two different work planes) the  host's normal is not as relevant. Which one are you using exactly? A section with a trapezoidal shape similar to what you show in the images does require a blend.

[Mohamedhamdyacc0]

Thank you @nozci ... I tried this before , and the wall ended up being normal to the sloped raft plane, not aligned with the global Z direction. I realized that in "Model in Place," all profiles are normal to the path. However, I found a way to adjust the wall the way I wanted by using a void extrusion.
**Also, in my case, the sweep is not the best option because it would require more effort. The shape of the wall looks like this, which means I would have to create three separate sweeps

[Mohamedhamdyacc0]

Thank you, @RDAOU, for your detailed explanation — it helped a lot!

I now understand that adaptive components provide more flexibility with normals, but since I’m using an in-place component, it’s tied to the host’s normal or work plane, as you mentioned. That clears up a lot of confusion for me. However, I found a way to adjust the wall as I wanted by using a void extrusion and playing with the top profile of the blend and the second end height, and it worked! 🙂