Metal Wall Panels

[ihammerhands]

I draw commercial metal buildings mostly and was looking at modeling the metal wall panels. Currently I only use fill patterns and joints in materials. Most of the metal panel posts are about roofs and not walls. Has anyone had any luck with this type of wall? Almost always the panel lines run vertically. Any suggestions?

[Andre Baros]

The curtain wall tool can handle this really well. You can control the joints manually or automatically (ie every 4' etc.) That said, we're doing a building right now with a metal cladding system where we're just using a normal wall with a surface pattern.

[ihammerhands]

Can you explain how to go about using the curtain wall tool to create this type of wall?

[SCShell]

Hi Millard

This is the way I do it; however, only if I need to render it because the wall pattern method works fine for most applications and non-rendered views.
First, draw a curtain wall to the level you need. Then, in elevation view, select your grid pattern and spacing to lay out your vertical ribs.

Select a grid line and hit 'control' to select all grid lines and then add your mullions. (The grid and mullions are in the "modeling" tab. Once placed, select a mullion and right click in order to select "select all instances" (great new 7.0 time saver!) Select properties and Edit/create new/re-name. Modify the mullion to be as wide as needed to match your panel's rib and as deep on one side as needed. (This may take a few trys and switching to "thin lines" may help.) Change the material to match you metal building siding material and color. Then, after that, all of your mullions should change accordingly.

Then, place your cursor on the edge of a mullion and using the 'tab' button, tab through the items until the "curtain panel" appears highlighted and the curtain panel's name is on the bottom. Again, right click to click on "select all instances" and then click 'properties'. Edit/create new/re-name the panel to match your metal building panel siding material and color (to match the mullions).
Voila! You're done.
You may have to play a bit with the mullions to get the right width and location/depth; however, it gets easier! You can also play with the panel's width to help make it read better.

Good luck and I hope this helps.
Bye the way, this method is also commonly referred to as "that metal standing seam roof method" here on AUGI, using the sloped glazing tool.

Steve

[SkiSouth]

The only advantage I can see in modeling the wall panels with ribbing would be to accurately render the project. Beware of the "model everything" monster, although modeling usually also points up holes that might occur in the project documentation. At times modeling can loose you money.

I use two basic wall types on metal buildings. All are based on the skin as the actual wall type, then the girts, and whatever lining is then added as sweeps. I prefer wall types (rather than storefronts or curtain walls) to use the sweeps feature. However, to get the accurate shadows and rib spacing control for a rendering the curtain wall/storefront solution will work. Attached are a couple of images. The girts are sweeps. The nice thing about that is with walls attached to roof the girts repeat as required in the gables.


(Yea! spell checks working!)

[J. Grouchy]

...At times modeling can loose you money...
(Yea! spell checks working!)
Spell check works...but it's "lose", not "loose". Sorry...I can't help myself!

[SkiSouth]

Spell check works...but it's "lose", not "loose". Sorry...I can't help myself!

That's why I live in confusion :wink: