Custom Opening Size?

[jessica.146534]

Here's what I'm trying to do, I hope this makes sense...

I'm working on a historic building. When they built old buildings, the openings for the windows are not uniformly straight at the jambs and head - they are wider on the interior and narrower on the exterior. This was done so the windows would be installed from the inside and the narrower exterior opening served as a "stop." So in plan, the opening kinda looks like a really wide "T" shape. See the sketch I attached of a typical window.

Is there a way to model this - either with openings or with an opening family? I really don't want to have to draw 2 walls (one interior and one exterior) and put separate openings in each - that seems like it's just asking for problems.

[tomnewsom]

Here's what I'm trying to do, I hope this makes sense...

I'm working on a historic building. When they built old buildings, the openings for the windows are not uniformly straight at the jambs and head - they are wider on the interior and narrower on the exterior. This was done so the windows would be installed from the inside and the narrower exterior opening served as a "stop." So in plan, the opening kinda looks like a really wide "T" shape. See the sketch I attached of a typical window.

Is there a way to model this - either with openings or with an opening family? I really don't want to have to draw 2 walls (one interior and one exterior) and put separate openings in each - that seems like it's just asking for problems.
In the window family, instead of having an Opening object cutting the wall (which is limited to being edited in elevation only), delete it and use Voids as required to create the correct opening shape (I would use an extrusion, one hosted on the exterior and on on the interior, with their heights locked to a ref plane locked at the appropriate dimension from the exterior or interior face)

This technique is required for any window that does not cut a perfectly perpendicular hole through the wall eg. angled reveals (yes I know I have some bad wall layer cleanup going on here!):

[jessica.146534]

Tom,
I don't use the normal window families since I work with existing buildings - I have an "opening" family that it wall-hosted and then the "windows" are just generic models inserted into the opening (this way I can demo the existing and the wall doesn't self heal - kinda like the way a real building behaves).

So how would I go about what you're saying in just a standard wall-hosted family? I tried using just voids but they don't actually cut the wall.

[chris.macko]

Once you have the void modelled you have to use the cut tool (under modify) to tell it to cut the wall. By default they just cut other geometry.

[jessica.146534]

Awesome! That's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

[richardarchitect]

In the window family, instead of having an Opening object cutting the wall (which is limited to being edited in elevation only), delete it and use Voids as required to create the correct opening shape (I would use an extrusion, one hosted on the exterior and on on the interior, with their heights locked to a ref plane locked at the appropriate dimension from the exterior or interior face)

This technique is required for any window that does not cut a perfectly perpendicular hole through the wall eg. angled reveals (yes I know I have some bad wall layer cleanup going on here!):

There's a great discussion/tutorial regarding this subject in the Autodesk revit families guide under complex window family. It also discusses how to wrap the interior and exterior finishes.