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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Revit Tutorial - Create "Butt Glazing" in a Curtain Wall / Storefront

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Javier emailed and asked a very good question:

"Hi Jeff, I was wondering if you have a tutorial where explain how create a exterior glazing wall where the mullions are behind the glazing?"

First, thanks for the question, Javier.  This is a condition commonly known as "butt glazing".  Typically, the glazing sits in front of the mullions and it joined with silicon sealant like the detail below:
A Typical "Butt Glazing" Detail

When I create butt glazing in Revit I find it unnecessary to model this silicon joint.  I simply but the glass together and use the default mullion and curtain panel families.  Keep reading for a quick video illustrating the way I usually create a vertical butt glazed mullion in Revit that looks something like this...

Revit Vertical Butt Glazing - 3D View

Revit Butt Glazing - Plan View


Create "Butt Glazing" Tutorial




Click here to view the video via Screencast...



Also, you may find this video by Paul Aubin of particular interest as well.  Paul explains how you can make a butt glazed corner.  You'll want to check out for the simple tip of "edit in place" curtain panels!











Posted by at Thursday, September 18, 2014

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Jason's avatar

Jason · 546 weeks ago

Thanks for the tips on Butt Glazing. What happens when you need to place a door panel within the curtain wall? I tried testing out a few scenarios, and it seems like the door panel always flips relative to the placement line of the curtain wall. Normally I like creating my curtain walls so that the reference line of the wall is at the "shoulder" of the mullion - i.e. the leading edge of the back section of the mullion. This way, if there's a cap, or the depth changes, the set out location of my curtain wall doesn't change. The problem is that when I try to place a door panel, and I have some that swing in / some out, because of their offsets, I can never get their placement to work. One way is to remove the flip control in the curtain panel door family, but then I have to create 2 versions of each door panel, one for inswinging and outswinging. To avoid this, I realized that the placement line of the curtain wall needs to be at the centreline of what should represent the back section of the mullion, so that the doors will flip correctly relative to that reference line when placed and given the correct offset to match the mullion depth. So, in your example for the butt glazed mullion - the placement line of the curtain wall should be aligned to the centre of the vertical butt glazed mullion. This gets tricky when there are multiple mullion depths and if they change, you need to keep track of where the placement line is relative to where you actually want to set the location of the curtain wall. Do you have a preference on the placement line reference of curtain walls? I wish we could have a few more location options like we do for basic walls.
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David's avatar

David · 539 weeks ago

Hi Jeff,
I've been in a situation where I need to "fillet" curtain wall panels to certain angles. I had to control them through the family editing with conditional formula where a corner mullion appears according to the instance angle (typed in like 30, 45, 60 deg). I Cannot use a model in place since I'm talking about hundreds of corners (it's a huge building)
Do you have a similar case or an easier option?
Thanks
David
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Kaan Sinan Sarıtaş's avatar

Kaan Sinan Sarıtaş · 486 weeks ago

Thank you Revit King:)

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