How To: Ruled Curtain System

[Scott D Davis]

I've had some people ask "How did you do that?" in response to the ruled curtain system I posted on the Images from Revit 7 thread.

Using the Ruled Curtain System, Example:

1. Draw two walls on Level one. One wall at an angle in plan, and draw the second wall at a different angle in plan. Two walls do not touch.

2. Pick wall 1, and edit the elevation profile. Make the top edge of the wall not parallel with the ground. (Angle the top edge)

3. Pick wall 2, edit profile, make top of wall angle in opposite direction from wall 1.

4. Go to Modeling pull-down, select Ruled Curtain System.

5. Pick the first edge of the system (top angled edge of wall 1) Watch the prompts in the lower left corner of the Revit window for what to pick and when.

6. Pick the second edge of the system (top angled egde of wall 2)

7. You will now see a 'plane' that looks really nothing like what you want.

8. Go to Modeling>Curtain Grids, and start placing grids in both directions on the plane. The grids will snap to mids, quarters, thirds, etc. The more grids you place, the smoother the 'curve' will be.

9. Stand back and admire your totally free form 'tensile structure' ruled curtain system in Revit 6.1....

10. Now, wait for Oct 25, download Revit 7, and see what improvement have been made to make this even better!

[Arnel Aguel]

Nice trick Scott thanks.

I would recommend this to be included in the T&T section.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

I can only add two notes to this tip.

You can also use reference planes to create the tops of the walls. Draw a reference plane on the face of the wall at any angle you want. Attach the top of the wall to the ref plane. Do the same for the other wall and follow the rest of the steps to create your ruled system. The advantage here is that all you have to do is rotate the ref plane and the whole curtain system changes dynamically.

I have used ruled curtain systems for quick and easy sloped skylights/canopies on the outside faces of buildings. If you use the wall approach you must put the walls on a different workset so they don't display. If you erase the wall the ruled system will disappear. You can use walls to set up the curtain system (I happen to think that's the easiest way to draw model line sin 3D space) and just pick the wall to draw the model line in the same plane. Create the ruled curtain system by selecting the model lines.