Divided surface grid alignment

[damon.sidel]

I'm creating a tower massing and am having a problem getting the surface to divide the way I want. I really wish the grid positioning and alignment was better. This form is just an extrusion. I'd like there to be an even number of diamonds (rotated rectangular grid pattern) in the sloped portion, but as you can see, since the extents of the grid is just a bounding rectangle and don't seem to have any control over where it starts and stops. The red rectangle is what I'd ideally like as the grid alignment, so it is bounded on both sides of the sloped part. Then the pattern can extend beyond that to fill in any gaps. Thoughts or ideas?

[cliff collins]

Try turning of UV Grid, draw Lines or Ref. Planes in an elevation, then use them as Intersects to create your pattern.

cheers

[damon.sidel]

So I tried turning the grid. Problem is, Revit tolerances are not high enough. The angle of the slope is based on the width and height of each triangle (bay width and floor-to-floor dimension). Therefore, the angle is not an even number, it is something like 13.74992 degrees.... and on and on. Measured, Revit thinks it is 13.750 degrees. When I try to rotate the horizontal grid to match, there is just enough discrepancy between the measured angle and the actual angle that nothing quite lines up.

I thought about the reference planes option, but that defeats the purpose of such a systematic curtain wall... I couldn't use a pattern-based panel, right?

What I'm working on now is a different approach: massing a much larger rectangular mass, slicing it up with voids to get the form I want, then deleting the panels that overhang. It sort of works, but if I change the mass, I often have to re-delete panels.

I really wish there was a way to manually align and rotate the grid, like you can a model pattern on a floor for instance.

[cliff collins]

Maybe I'm not following, but---

If you use "Intersects" instead of UV mapping, you can draw the lines exactly how you wish and they will "project" onto the surface.

[damon.sidel]

True, but can I then I have to insert each individual panel as an adaptive component, right? I have well over 300 panels. I don't want to click 300*4 times.

Can I use a pattern-based panel system on a mass that has been intersected? If so, I'll give that a try.

Update: I can't seem to get the intersect tool to work very well. I get a warning "Not all intersecting references (levels, reference planes or lines) could be used to intersect the surface." Then when I try to load my pattern-based component, it breaks. Thoughts?

[cliff collins]

Hmm,

I have not tried this for a while. Perhaps the Workplane must be set parallel to the face of the model you are wishing to "project" them onto when drawing the Intersects?

I believe that you can Divide the surface once you use the Intersects--it just replaces the UV defaults with your "custom" lines.

I do not think you must use AC's for every panel? Perhaps only at the edges where it does not clean up?

cheers

[damon.sidel]

Thank you again, Cliff for all your help.

I'm working with my alternate idea: a large, rectangular mass, cropped with voids, then apply a rhomboid pattern. For some reason, the first time I did it, when I applied the pattern it extended to the whole rectangular surface ignoring the voids. The second time I did it, it cropped the pattern correctly.

Now I'm tweaking a pattern-based panel component. My goal is to have only one component and for the edge conditions have Yes/No options that will turn on additional mullions or whatnot. That's going to take awhile, but I think it will be well worth it.