precast wall panels

[abarrette]

Doors and windows wll only host in a single wall. You have to manipulate the curtain grids to create a panel of the shape/size of your door/window. All in all not a horrible thing if oyu don't have too many opening spanning joints. Locked Dimensions and alignments allow you to manipulate the Door/Window and bring it's associated Curtain Grids along for the ride.

Aaron Barrette

[barathd]

Aaron:

Good suggestion - works not too bad. I am using this for a pre-engineered building. The problem is with the overhead doors. Your method is excellent for small repeating doors and windows. However I haven't been able to get it to cope with large overhead doors say 16' x 18'

Thanks for the suggestion.

[abarrette]

Something along these lines?



Or is it something more complex than that?

Aaron Barrette

[barathd]

Aaron:

Thats it - would you mind posting the file. I'm note quite sure how you got it to cut the door. I take it the panels are multiples of the panel width.

Thanks again.

Regards

Dick Barath

[johk]

mccurdyks,
Sorry for not getting back earlier.
What I meant (should have explained myself a bit better) is that we number all our precast panels with a unique number p1,p2 etc. Are there any way to "Autonumber" the panels or any member for that matter?
For example if there are 10 panels then they would be tagged (numbered) from p1 - p10.

Cheers

Jonas

[Revitator]

Jonas

No, there doesn't seem to be a way to autonumber curtain wall panels directly. You could autonumber them with the API (search the API forum for 'number'). You would need to work out a way of programmatically sorting the panels into a sensible order, and then (I'm assuming) you could assign a number to each panel's Mark parameter.

Regarding panel thickness, as long as you make your custom panel's thickness parameter as a shared parameter, you should be able to create a tag that will report it. The system panels' thickness parameters don't seem to be schedulable or taggable.

[abarrette]

BarathD -

Sorry for the late reply. Here is a file with the steps I went through to get the overhead door in place. Basically I build the size of the opening as a separate panel first so that the door only needs to host in a single wall. rather than trying to get it to host across three separate walls. I alluded to this in my earlier post but wasn't very clear about it.

HTH

[barathd]

Aaron:

Thanks for the file. Unfortunately confirms my suspisions. I don't have the opportunity to alter panel sizes as you have done. I am using prototypical 36" wide (no matter what) metal sandwich panels. The workaround (if you can call it that) I have come up with is to use a larger multiple for the panel and then divide it with linework - not really worth it.

Did one very silly project not too long ago with precast concrete where the new openings lapped joints. As structural engineers our job was to strenghten this mess out - if openings had been able to bridge multiple panels this method would have been a God send since we had to see the existing and new panels openings simultaneously.

Thanks

Regards

DB

[sbrown]

Why not just used the curtain grid tool (place a horizontal at the head of the door and remove the vertical segments from it) to define a space the size of the door filled with a wall that is made of the door frame material and thickness, then place the door in it.

[phyllisr]

...use a "curtain wall" that is predefined....

Since Scott offered the curtain wall solution first, I will direct my word of caution to his response.

We thought this was a totally great method and were happily marching down this path even with the effort it took to place doors or windows "off module." Looked great in 3D, easier than sweeps, conveyed the idea really well, scheduled as a wall... What more could we want?

Until we started a phased project where the precast was an existing wall. We expected to infill existing doors, add a new ones, and add windows. For those of you considering this method, do some testing before you try it in a phased project. Try and add a few grid lines for openings in new construction or remove a few mullions and panels you expect to demolish. Not only was it impossible to "see" the new and existing as noted in one of the responses, nothing scheduled correctly, individaul parts and pieces coudl not have a phase separate from the wall and more.

We had such a mess that we ended up redrawing the whole exterior with a model pattern.