curtain walls in chief?

[Glenn Woodward]

Yusuf,

I think I have come up with an easier way to do the curtain wall.
The attached picture shows the curtain wall drawn with 1 wall type.

It is basically a 2 layered wall with the framing (thin) on the outside and a layer of glass on the inside.
The horizontal is actually the wall blocking which can be copied and dragged up and down the wall.
The verticals are the framing members.
It is VERY easy to change the spacing of both the horizontal and vertical grids.

It would probably need a bit more work so that works with a full model with floors and enclosing walls.

I may make this a project to work through and sort out the problems I know would occur.
A curtain wall is asked for often , so it would be a useful method if it works.

Let me know if you are interested and I can fill you in on any bits you may need.

[Joe Carrick]

Glenn,

That's really cool!

I'm surprised you figured this out. I need to experiment with it to see if there are any negatives but it seems like it should work.

[Glenn Woodward]

Joe,

I know there will be problems with floor generation because the main layer (framing layer) is on the outside of the wall, but the upper floor platform would need to be built to the inside of the curtain wall (if you don't want an exposed floor edge.
But, yeah, if you are happy with an exposed upper floor edge, it will work great.

I still need to play a bit more.

It's a 2 layer wall with an internal glass layer and an external framing main layer.

I made the framing or main layer on the outside 10mm (1/2") thick and black (to get the joints) .
I created an aluminium framing material and made the Spacing OC: 1200mm (4' 0") and 10mm thick - just to have a default.
When you build the framing, you can spec the Bridging as In Line. This builds a horizontal framing member across the center of the curtain wall.
This can be copied and drag as needed - this is very quick and easy, so you can create horizontal joints in abot 1 second.
There are couple of ways that you can change the spacing of the vertical joints:
Just edit, drag or copy them in a 3D view, same as the horizontals - they are just framing members.
When you build the wall framing, you can specify Stud Thickness and Stud Spacing.
You can change spacing in the framing material definition.
Once you have built the framing (or glass joints), you can go to the Structure tab of the wall's dbx and Retain Wall Framing.

It would be great if we could assign a framing layer to other than the main wall layer.

I am going to have a play with combining this method with a double wall and see what I can get to work, but it would be good to get it all working with 1 wall.

My thinking behind this is that a curtain wall really isn't windows in a wall - it's really a wall of glass with some framing, so it should be drawn like a wall.

[yusuf]

Glenn that is very nice approach i really appreciate that. some times i work on commercial buildings which requires this type of windows, i have just created some window symbols to represent it as shown in the pictures above, they pretty good but the problem i am facing is the resize and mulling(blocking) options.Hopefully joe will also experiment it and come up with sound results.
Thanks

[Joe Carrick]

In the past, I've always used a Panel Railing Wall but generally for situations where it's more like a "StoreFront Window Wall" than a "Curtain Wall". The Panel contains the horizontal members and the glass while the Newels are the vertical members. The only thing I don't really like about Glenn's method is that it requires that the window wall is "Framed".

The Panel Railing Wall will work for just about any height but you have to define the panel correctly to get the horizontal mullions at the right heights and sizes. If placed outside of an invisible wall it could be stacked as needed.

ps: There are other threads on the "StoreFront Window" concept.