Curtain System Conundrum

[Rustle]

I'm having trouble getting curtain grids to follow the shape of my wall. The wall tapers in as it goes up so the grids should fan out but all I can seem to get is parallel grids.

See attached images. Good is what I'm looking for. Bad is not. I was able to do it once but I can't seem to recreate it. They where both created by applying a curtain system to a mass.

I know it has to do with the blue outline that appears when you click the Curtain Grid Layout icon that appears when you select a curtain wall. As you can see in the Good image the vertical blue outline follows the shape of the trapezoidal wall whereas the Bad image shows a rectangle.

How do I edit this.

[cliff collins]

see attached.......



cheers

[t1.shep]

I didn't look at cliff's file, but I'm pretty sure in order to get angled mullions in a curtain wall, you need to set the mullion angle in the curtain wall type. In the instance properties of the curtain wally type, there is a parameter for both the vertical and horizontal grid patterns for "Angle" If you know what the angle of your wall taper is, then you set that angle for this parameter.
Now, if you have a variety of angles in your curtain wall, it get's a little more complicated as you need to replace the panels that have different angles with a new curtain wall that has a different angle set.
I'm not sure if the newer curtain wall functions change this...I haven't played with them yet...

[Rustle]

All good suggestions but I need something a little more complex. What I'm looking for is a fan shape so each vertical mullion has a different angle.

[t1.shep]

All good suggestions but I need something a little more complex. What I'm looking for is a fan shape so each vertical mullion has a different angle.

Ya. That's more complicated...You can almost do it the second way I described, but I couldn't quite get it to work. See attached file. You can get the angles that you want, but there is still a panel joint that shows up that you can't get to disappear.
I think that the new curtain wall tools should allow this? I'd like to see someone figure it out...

[bregnier]

AFAIK the lines will be a perpendicular grid as long as the surface is planar. However, if the face is even a tiny bit out of plane (warped), than the angles will interpolate. IF you were flexible with the shape of the wall you could try pulling one of the corners of the mass a tiny bit out of plane with the rest. It will look approximately the same and you'll get the effect you're looking for.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Bregnier is right. Even if the one corner of the underlying mass is moved as little as 1mm the curtain system will 'warp' correctly.
Prior to 2010 you could create a curtain system by 'lines' that would do what you are looking to accomplish but that option is no longer available. You could create the mass and face using the pre 2010 tools and then open the file in 2010. This will still behave as a curtain system and you'll be able to add mullions but you won't be able to edit its shape in 2010. You might want to keep it is 2009 until the design is settled and then load into 2010.