Curtain Wall Panels Alternating Flip Orientation?

[chriskline2007]

This is a new one to me....after reading several posts about the best methodology for creating precast wall panels, I decided to use a curtainwall sytem.

Individual panels have been replaced with a wall type I created, a 10" thick insulated precast wall, consisting of (exterior side) 4" concrete, 3" insulation and (core boundary) 3" concrete. Perhaps this is not entirely correct construction makeup on a technical level, but I don't think that's really part of this problem. Mullions are set to "none". This seems to produce lines on the wall surface in elevations, 3D views, and in plan view showing panel joints, which is what I wanted.

I drew the curtainwalls in plan, and set the curtainwall type up to have a vertical grid pattern of 4'-0". I used the flip arrows to position the 4" thick portion of the wall panel to the exterior side. So far, so good. I then wanted to position horizontal mullions in an irregular pattern, so I manually added them to each wall using the curtain grid tool, and adjusted the spacing.

The problem is that each wall "panel" is flipped, in alternating horizontal rows, when viewed in section. How can I fix this? Also, is there an easy way to not show the joints all the way through the wall in section view? These would actually be reveal lines on the exterior surface, not joints all the way through the wall. Or is there a better way to build this wall?

By the way, I'm using Revit Architecture 2010.

[sthedens]

The problem is that each wall "panel" is flipped, in alternating horizontal rows, when viewed in section.

Hmmm. Cool effect, though not what you wanted.

What if you didn't place any horizontal mullions and used a Host Sweep - Wall Reveal? I'm not sure you can do this to a curtain wall.

The curtain wall utility is great to use, but every time I try to use it for a non-curtain wall situation, it always bites me in the end.

[Alfredo Medina]

Two other solutions might be:

1) A line based family with a simple array of panels. Probably one per row, that you can copy in the model, one on top of each other. Not difficult to create.

2) A more complex, parametric family with arrays in two directions, vertical and horizontal. It would take some time and formulas to create it, but it might end up being the ultimate solution. Once the family is loaded, you could specify overall height, overall width, number and/or size of panels along the length, and number and/or size of panels along the height.

In both cases, the issues with the joints and the orientation of the panels in plan and section should be solved, since the panels will be modeled exactly as they are.

[chriskline2007]

Great suggestions- thank you. After some more investigation, I think it is just a symptom of this particular instance of the curtainwall. I viewed other wall sections using this same curtainwall, grid pattern and all, and the panels are all oriented the same direction. It's puzzling.

As for the horizontal joints in section view that I don't want to display all the way through the wall, I'll just mask them with the linework tool using invisible lines. Using a wall reveal rather than horizontal mullions is another alternative that would work nicely. Using a reveal requires you to select each panel where the reveal would exist, but that goes pretty quickly.

For the purpose of this project, it doesn't make sense to spend time creating a custom parametric family, but it's an interesting idea.