Office Hour Session - Curtain Walls in Revit (Tips and Tricks) + 30% Off Ends Today!

On this episode of the Office Hour Sessions I used a question from one of our members, Jerry, to give a little overview of the curtain wall tool in Revit.  As Jerry says in the session, "wow, curtain walls in Revit are pretty powerful " !  Haha!

Click here to view the "curtain wall tips and tricks" session now...

Final day to Save 30% !!

Every other week I hold a private call with members of the BIM After Dark Community.  I thought it would be valuable to highlight some of the conversations here on the channel.

If you think you could benefit from an Office Hour like this one be sure to checkout the BIM After Dark Community today and save 30% off your membership before time runs out... 

What's Included?

- Self-paced Revit courses (all four! and any new courses to be added in the future) with sample files, live chat, and community support.

- Access sample files from your favorite "Revit Kid" tutorial posts.

- Exclusive access to online "office hours" with Jeff and guests.

- Connect with other Revit users to share ideas, best practices, and ask/answer burning questions as a community.

We've all spent years struggling with Revit alone.  Why not start struggling with Revit, together?

Click here to join right now and save 30% today...  (Remember, this discount ends tonight at midnight). 

Behind the Scenes "BAD" Office Hour (Topics: Revit Curtain Walls & Placeholder Links)

 

Over the last few days I have received some emails asking about what an "Office Hour" within the BIM After Dark Community actually is...

Instead of simply responding to a bunch of emails, I thought I would make a video!

In this video I take you behind the scenes of an actual "BIM After Dark Community" office hour. I hold these private office hours about every other week for members of the community.

The topic of this sample office hour is Revit Curtain Wall Systems (a couple specific questions from member, Jerry) and placeholder links in Revit (a great tip and discussion for anyone dealing with links!).

So, this video can serve as an example of an Office Hour, but also give you some valuable tips and tricks... Win win!

Click here (or the image above) to view the office hour sample...

Want to see more Office Hour examples...?  

Check out this episode of BIM After Dark Live (Top 5 Ways to Use Design Options in Revit) where I hosted a Community Office Hour WITH a YouTube lice audience... 

Curtain Wall Corners in Revit (Quick Tip Edition)

 

In this short video I walk through some options for modeling curtain wall corner in Revit. We talk about butt-glazing corners, standard corners, and more... Enjoy!

Rainscreen in Revit

 

In this short video (extracted from a longer episode of BIM After Dark Live) I demonstrate different ways to utilize the curtain wall tool to your advantage.  I talk about creating rain screens, wood slat walls, and more...

When you begin to think about the curtain wall tool as simply a grid system used for hosting solids and voids it opens up a whole new world!

Continue reading to watch the video...

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

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

Revit Tip - Curtain Wall Grids Appear After Wall Re-Sizing

I have had numerous posts about curtain walls throughout this blog  so I figured I would add another little tip.  This is just one that can remove much of the annoyances I am sure you have run into in the past.

First, I highly suggest using a curtain wall type that does not have any grid lines predefined right from the start.  I can almost guarantee that you will be unpinning and manipulating at least one grid line in each of your curtain walls.  Once you do that, adn you start changing the length or height of the curtain wall... Good luck to you...  Grids will start appearing out of no where, panels will get replaced, doors will disappear, and fluffy kittens will die...

Before we kill anymore fluffy kittens follow these steps for curtain walls that were drawn with a pre-defined grid system and giving you a headache now:

1. Select all the internal grids of the curtain wall.
2. Unpin them.
3. Select the curtain wall..
4. Change the wall to a wall type without any defined grid pattern.

Now take a deep breath and smile.

Curtain Wall Corners

Just a thought.... What if the mullions at curtain wall corners automatically cleaned up to the corner mullion type...

This....

Not this...

Am I just dreaming??

Revit Tutorial - Rotate Curtain Wall Grids (Angled Grids)

A fellow classmate of mine, not mentioning any names ::cough cough:: Chris Szylobryt  ::cough cough::  forced me to remember how a curtain wall grid can be manipulated, rotated, and customized...  Well, thanks to Chris forcing me to post a video so he can finish his project tonight you all get to learn how!!

Topics Covered:

• Creating a curtain wall and grid system.
• Modifying the curtain grid.
• Rotating the curtain grids to create a diamond panel.

Click here to see the video via YouTube...

Click here to see the video via Screencast...

Thanks Chris!

Revit Tutorial - Curtain Wall Door (If/Then Statement)

Hunter emailed me the other day with some interesting family creation questions. Through emails we worked through an issue he was having with an “if/then” statement. I cannot take a ton of credit for the solution because Hunter discovered it on his own… But, I guess I sort of pointed him in the right direction and gave him some ideas of resources to search. Well, I asked Hunter to make a quick write up of the issue and solution. Below is his write up.


Revit Tutorial – IF/THEN Statement

I was working on an aluminum door for a project and I wanted the visibility of the center mullion to be controllable. I also wanted the center mullion size to be controlled by an instance parameter. I had first thought of just using a graphic yes/no parameter to change the visibility. But then thought what would happen if someone typed 0” for the center mullion size. The center mullion is created with an extrusion and if you use “0” as a dimension for an extrusion the family stops working and there are errors to check through.

Now came the tough part; I could turn off the visibility of the center mullion by using the formula {center horiz mullion > 0”} (when the center horizontal mullion is less than 0” turn it off) simple enough, but the 0” was causing the family to break.

So, I created 3 parameters;

• -“center horiz mullion” and set it to 6” as the default.

• -I created a graphic yes/no parameter for the center mullion and assigned “mullion” to it.

• -I then dimensioned the reference planes for the center mullion and assigned the “formula” parameter to them.

I had to find a way to use 0” but not break the family. Solution: an IF statement. IF(center horiz mullion < 0' 0 1/2", 0' 0 1/2", center horiz mullion). IF this, do this, else do that. IF the center horizontal mullion is less than 0’ 0 1/2" make it 0’ 0 1/2" and if it’s not less than 0’ 0 1/2" make it what the user wants it to be. FYI – I used 0’ 0 1/2" because if you try and use 0.01” the family breaks because the extrusion can’t be smaller than a particular size, I don’t know what that is but 0’ 0 1/2" works.

Remember parameter names are case sensitive. Do not use numbers for parameter names. Avoid using a dash or a hyphen, Revit may think you are trying to subtract.

Thank you to Hunter for the great email conversation and post. Look forward to exploring more family creation with you. This has inspired me to continue with my family creation tutorial series… Stay tuned..


Contact him at: HunterVanLeeuwen@dsraenvision.ca

Tutorial - Curtain Wall Tips (Revit Clinic)

I simply love when The Revit Clinic releases there 5 or 10 Revit tips....

5 Curtain Wall Tips

Included below are 5 tips to keep in mind when working with curtain walls…

1. Curtain Grid Type Association

Highlighting a curtain grid and selecting Unpin will automatically change the Type Association setting to Independent. You can save a few clicks using the Unpin tool instead.

2. Curtain Walls in Legend Views

Curtain walls do not display in Legend views. While you can drag them onto a Legend view, they will be invisible. This is because the majority of the curtain wall components [such as mullions, panels and construction settings] are driven by Type Properties which are not accessible for this object type in legend views.

3. Curtain Grid Lines Constrained to Project Grid Lines

By default you cannot align & constrain a curtain wall grid line to a project grid line. However once the curtain wall grid line is set independent under the type properties or by unpinning it, you can use the align & constrain padlock to associate a project gridline to a curtain grid:

Video Example

Continue to post for more tips and videos...

Tutorial - Curtain System by Lines (Revit Rocks)

Another cool tutorial from Daryl over at Revit Rocks:

Here's the new way to create a 'Curtain System by Lines'.

In previous versions of REVIT there was a simple straight forward way to create the curtain system as illustrated above by using a tool called 'Curtain System By Lines'.

The first thing we noticed in RAC 2010 is that tool is gone without at trace. Not only is it gone but if you go to the help menu to the 'Where is my Command' tool and search for it you will discover that it does NOT tell you where that command went to. It has been erased from the face of REVIT without any direction as to the 'NEW' way to do it . . . . . . that is until now of course : )

1. Create a new In-Place Mass Form by picking existing geometry or linework.

2. Turn the linework into a 'Form' and finish the mass.

3. Use the Curtain System by Face tool.

4. Add the Curtain Grids.

5. Add the Mullions.

Click here to continue to post and video...

Tutorial - Curtain Wall Doors

This is a quick and easy tutorial.  Here is the question I was asked (this is only one of the people who asked it... I have had many questions about this exact same question):

"Can you show me how to insert a glazed door into a curtain wall /store front?

I normally do this in ADT using 'door and window assembly' procedure."

It is very easy to insert a door in a curtain wall... I sat there tinkering with it for a long time getting very frustrated back when I learned this.  Thankfully I had someone who showed me.  So now I would like to show you all.

Tutorial - Inserting a Door in a Revit Curtain Wall