Precast Panels [Archive]

harrisbrett

2009-07-16, 03:01 PM

Hi,

I'm trying to model an existing building which has precast panels. I attached 2 images below to show. Should i model this in a curtain wall system and make a custom panel for the precast? Another thought I had was drawing the wall as a regular wall with sweeps at the bottom and top for the shape of the panel. Suggestions?

Thanks

ajayholland

2009-07-16, 04:21 PM

The curtain panel idea sounds interesting. I would use families (in-place or generic) before hosted sweeps.

~AJH

mthurnauer

2009-07-16, 08:21 PM

I just finished doing a project with an exterior very similar. I created a custom line based family. In the family, there are parameters for the distance to the bottom of the panel from the host level, distance to the slope, slope height, panel thickness, etc. I think that this is most in keeping with the way in which the construction of the precast is defined.

harrisbrett

2009-07-17, 04:29 PM

Thanks, looks good. I ended up going with a Curtain Panel, works pretty well so far. I only needed one dimension to be parametric so I didn't spend too much time on this as i'm doing a model of an existing building.

mthurnauer

2009-07-17, 08:03 PM

The family I sent was for documenting an existing building as well. You just may want to consider how you build it in relation to what you are going to do to this existing building. If you are adding on to it and are not going to have any impact on this precast, then I think you could do it any way that works, but if you are renovating it and replacing the ribbon windows for example, having the precast independent of the curtainwall would make sense.

twiceroadsfool

2009-07-17, 08:30 PM

Lots of good ideas in this thread.

I would (more than likely) make a parametric Mass Family (Perhaps even line based... I find them very flexible) and i would then use a Basic Wall type applied Wall-by-Face over them, to create the actual wall.

Reason being what mth said: If you have ANY need to demolish, edit, cut in to, place openings in- Those panels... Youre going to want them to behave as walls. Otherwise it gets to be a large pain in the butt...