Using CW as windows - Crazy?

[crullier]

I just wanted to get some feedback from the community on the item mention above.
Many times during SD I man not know who the window manufacturer will be and I am typically after a specific look. I have found that using a CW (even with some custom mullion profiles) allow me to work much faster and efficiently and gives me great flexibility. I am even able to group the "Window" to keep it from being change by a team mater accidentally.

I have not tried this workflow in a real environment yet so I would like to know if anyone use this workflow? Or am I just lazy ?

I can create the glass as a CW Window and use the proper window tag in my floor plans for tagging.
So far I see not negatives. Windows schedules are usually graphical elevations (not tables).

Truth is, many times I do not have time to create a window family and sometimes manufacturer created content is not the best and does not represent properly in our documents. (that is a topic for another day)

I appreciate any feedback !

[CAtDiva]

I do this sometimes depending on the situation, but I've had trouble with them being interferred with by nearby walls on a recent project. I think there's a high likelihood those CW windows will be switched to "windows" so they stop changing lengths on me (it's an existing building, so the size is very much set). Generally I've found if they're punched windows it's worth a few quick moments in the family editor.

[Duncan Lithgow]

There are a few problems which become more and more important as the project progresses.

* Curtain Walls are Wall, not Windows. Really when you make a Curtain Wall as a Window you actually get an extra Wall with a Curtain Wall Panel switched to the Window category. Walls don't behave the same way as Windows and can't be on the same schedule, here I'm assuming that there would typically be some normal Windows in most buildings
* Because they're Walls their dimensions can easily change and become inconsistent, they react with other walls. I currently have a Curtain Wall which deletes a nearby Window hosted in a different Wall on a different level!
* Flexibility has advantages and costs. They can really be quite useful in early design stages, but becomes a liability.
* Once created, a good Window family is more consistent in it's behaviour and documentation.

But in the end it depends on the project. One one large project I was in I argued (and lost) that the long bands of windows should be modelled as Curtain Walls. Each window section (is 'pane' just the glass?) could be one of
* opens to the left
* opens to the right
* fixed
* fixed and filled in from behind
* matt glass

Creating all these options in a set of two, three and four section window families was a royal pain in the arse (my esteemed job was to create them). I still maintain it would have been easier and therefore less prone to mistakes, if the whole thing had been bands of curtain wall with a variety of CW Panel windows. It didn't make things easier that it was my first struggle with nested families. The way Revit handles switching between nested families doesn't make things any easier.

I hope there was something thought provoking there.

[crullier]

Duncan, I you group the CW then it wont be changed. I guess what I am gathering is that as "everything revit" it depends very much on the project.

[david_peterson]

What ever you do, don't pin the panels. If you pin the panels and need to un-pin them at a later date, they will set back to the default and you'll loose any custom panels you've added to the wall.
Not sure why this happens but we just experienced this on a project.
Hope this helps.

[crullier]

Actually, if you un-pin them, move them and then pin them, they will go back to the spacing defines in the type properties.
Manually added mullions wont. That has been the case for years and it causes some confusion.