Terracotta Rainscreen wall with steel: guidance please

[Damo]

Here’s a situation that I hope someone will be able to help me with.

I’m doing a scheme with terracotta rainscreens and expressed steel horizontal and vertical channels.

Horizontal channels (say 200 high x 70 deep) I could do as a wall ‘Modify Vertical Structure - Sweeps’

However, there will also be vertical steel channels (same profile) in the same plane. The horizontal steels and verticals will meet at a square connector (ie: no profile will be continuous).

And then the infill wall between the steel will be terracotta rainscreens and steel windows.

Any pointers as to how I would set this up?

[Paul P.]

Damo, have you considered using Host Sweep/Wall Sweep in the modelling design bar, then you should be able create the profile you want any apply a material to it and add these to your existing wall to create to effect your after.

Regard's, Paul.

[PeterJ]

To me this sounds like it is essentially a curtain wall so why not use the curtain wall tool and model your channels as mullions. The mullions should be pretty easy to produce based on simple profiles, your junction details might require a little more thought though.

[Damo]

Thanks Paul & Peter,

Paul: I have been using the Host Sweep >> Wall Sweep and Wall Reveal to do the channels. This has worked out a lot better than modifying the wall vertical structure, as I had originally intended to do.

Peter: The Curtain wall sounded easier but would have taken me a lot of time to individually edit each opening, and then scheduling the windows would have been another issue. I managed to get a window from RUGI that I adapted in the family editor which worked well. I’ll now place a line drawing of the Rainscreen onto the wall face based on a ‘Metric Generic Model wall based’ template (Thanks to CADline, my Revit supplier, for help with this when I got stuck)

[Andre Baros]

Can you post that online when your done? Sounds interesting.

[PeterJ]

Let's see the rft file, pleae Damo

[Damo]

Let's see the rft file, pleae Damo

Sure, once I get a little problem sorted out.

[mmasondesign]

I'm struggling with a problem almost exactly like the situation posed by Damo some six years ago.

I'm trying to recreate an exterior wall that uses expressed mullions as part of a terracotta rainscreen.

I've tried using wall sweeps. It works but is a massive pain, so I'm trying to use a curtain wall. The problem with the curtain wall is that
a) the wall types placed into the curtain wall panels are not continuous (broken at mullions)
b) if a basic wall is simply placed behind the curtain wall, the windows placed in the curtain wall do not pierce the interior basic wall.

Ideally what I'm looking for is way to host a curtain wall onto a basic wall. That way, when windows are placed into the curtain wall they pierce the interior basic wall as well.

If it matters, I'm using Revit Arch2011.

I'll take any help I can get, thanks.

[d.stairmand]

Mason
Try using the Curtain Wall, with it being Modelled up back in the centre of the interior Walls. Then Make up a specific Glass Panel, with Offset's out from the Default Centre of the Wall, out to the Face of the Wall you want. Like wise offset the Mullions in a Similar fashion.

The end product should have a Curtain Wall, Drawn along a line, with the Resultant Curtain Panels & Mullions being Drawn Offset from this Line.

[Andre Baros]

If I understand your situation correctly, and I'm assuming that it's a lot like the photo you placed, than I think this will work...
1. Only use a single curtain wall for the whole assembly.
2. Into that curtain wall you will generally place two types of panels.
Panel A will be a window panel, Panel B will be a rain-screen panel. Depending on your specific situation you may find it adequate to simply use a generic wall for the rain-screen portions and simply define all the layers of the wall to include the airspace, terra cotta, returns, etc.
3. Your level of tollerance for ugly mullion connections will determine how detailed you ultimately get. If you can be very detailed with your mullions but accept that the intersections my not look 100% correct in elevation than you may need to model custom curtain panels with the mullions embedded. If you can put brains before looks you can use generic walls and simple mullions and handle the rest we details. At the end of the day, you may have to model fancy panels any way for coordination.