Deleting Curtainwall Grids

[dbaldacchino]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to remove an entire grid line after it's been inserted in a curtain wall. I've tried joining all the segments but as I reach the last one, I get a warning that "Curtain grid lines must have at least one segment". I can ignore the warning, but this doesn't seem right to me and I don't want to re-create the curtain wall. Am I missing something? Thanks!

[aaronrumple]

Just tab to select the grid line and hit Delete....

[dbaldacchino]

I've tried that....doesn't work :banghead:

I've tried right clicking after selecting the gridline and there's no delete option either. Even going to the Edit drop-down reveals no Delete option.

[aaronrumple]

Then you are using a curtain wall with automatic grid spacing. The automatically generated grid lines are pinned. You'll need to first convert the curtain wall to another non-rule based type. I keep a curtain wall in my project called In-Place which has no spacing rules. (Like Curtain Wall 1) When you convert it to a non-rule based type you'll get a message that grids will be non-associated. Just click ok on that to preserve your design. Then you'll be able to delete grids.

[dbaldacchino]

Ahaaa! That works. Wish it was documented in the help. I don't understand why you cannot delete a grid line if it's unpinned from the spacing defined in the type.

There are a few things I'm disliking about curtain walls. But before I say what, I'd like to say that I absolutely love the interface. It's efficient, easy to make modifications in any view....I have a lot of great things to say about them.

My biggest pet-peeve is the accidental destruction that can happen when a user selects a curtain wall that has been manually defined or altered from a type-driven one and replaces it's type with another type-driven curtain wall. I'm contemplating eliminating type-driven curtain walls with defined spacing from the template because of this (just define the mulls, but no spacing). It's nice in SD or DD to have a few types defined with spacings so you can easily sketch and build up your documents with acceptable configurations which the designer/project Architect can then tweak, but the above can be really destructive. How are you and others handling this?

Aaron, thanks a ton for your help!

EDIT: Another thing I would like to have is the ability to place a wall tag in elevation views. That way, I can easily set up frame views, tag the curtainwall, and the type would show up (you'd have to configure a tag with a label connected to the Type Mark). I don't think this is currently possible.

[iandunn]

nice... just the fix i was looking for.
thanks,

[david.fannon]

I'm contemplating eliminating type-driven curtain walls with defined spacing from the template because of this (just define the mulls, but no spacing). It's nice in SD or DD to have a few types defined with spacings so you can easily sketch and build up your documents with acceptable configurations which the designer/project Architect can then tweak, but the above can be really destructive. How are you and others handling this?
That's exactly what I've done. We did have some type-driven spacings for the early stages (as you note) which made the initial run through a breeze. Since we've moved into CD's I've been industriously replacing them with "tweaked" in place ones that specify only the mullions and panels.

In terms of preventing problems, the best thing I've found is just good education and project management so that people understand the risks of changing and/or live in fear of screwing them up.

The other approach we sometimes take when less experienced folks need to be in the model is that I will check out and hold some worksets of "finished" (for now) elements so that nobody messes with the objects on them.

[dbaldacchino]

Thanks David. I've done the exact same things with "finished" elements that were time consuming to produce (and would have been equally time consuming to fix, so I "permanently" checked them out). It worked great. Then when changes needed to be done to them, I opened a new session of Revit, changed my username and worked in the appropriate local file (sometimes directly in the central, but it's not advisable since if someone STC's while you're editing, you won't be able to merge your changes).

[sultarc]

I would like to see an entire class on curtainwall manipulation. Its always been difficult to me. I believe that the one that are not rulled are not able to be inserted into walls. Thats why I use the ruled type. At least it hasn't worked for me. And how about when you have a wall under the curtain wall? Like a kneewall in a shopping center? If you use the special door insert it doesn't schedule then. And I haven't been able to change the swing.

[aaronrumple]

I would like to see an entire class on curtainwall manipulation. Its always been difficult to me. I believe that the one that are not rulled are not able to be inserted into walls. Thats why I use the ruled type. At least it hasn't worked for me. And how about when you have a wall under the curtain wall? Like a kneewall in a shopping center? If you use the special door insert it doesn't schedule then. And I haven't been able to change the swing.
Eh? A non-rulled curtain wall can be inserted into a wall as a storefront. Just select "Automatically Embed" in the type definition. Or use cut geometry if you just want to embed one or two walls...

Do a seach for curtain wall doors. You'll find many of us have demonstrated solutions for storefront doors which schedule along with other doors.

[sultarc]

Now,

I knew there must be a simple explanation. I just need someone handy to tell me these things. I get stuck sometimes on the most mundane issues, like a mental block. Thats why we have AU, for idiots such as myself and other smarter people. Old dog, new tricks syndrome, I guess.

[arcanewindow]

Hi, did you ever solve this ?
I am stuck. Let me tell you where I am stuck.

1- I have a lightly arced store-front curtain wall with vertical gridlines every 100 cm and no horizontal division . With a height 310 cm.

2- I need to place an entrance in the middle.(this is a shop) a 2-meter-width double glass door with a height of 230cm

3- So I select the most middle two panels (so it makes 2 meter of width) and add a single horizontal division segment at height 230cm. First problem appears here, it adds a horizontal gridline to the entire curtain wall. I just want it on two panels. dont know why it does it. I painfully remove other segments along the curtain wall.

4- I select the vertical gridline that gets in the middle of the door and try to remove segments so I can replace the panel family to door. When I remove all of the segments of vertical grid it says, "Curtain grid lines must have at least one segment " .

please help.

[arcanewindow]

Alright so I got sort of an answer from another resource and leaving it here for future reference since I asked it.

this is for anyone who tried to delete a gridline and revit did nothing, then deleted all its segments and now having the "Curtain grid lines must have at least one segment " error which is an ambiguous way of saying, autodesk has left the building and you are on your own . This is one of those situations where it is long to write down but actually it is short to do.

in the curtain wall family type settings, revit software developers decided so that if your gridline layout is assigned a rule (fixed distance/number or maximum distance etc.) you are free to delete some segments on a gridline but not all segments. so you can get confused as a beginner and lose a lot of time. and you are definitely not free to delete gridlines by selecting them and pressing delete conflicting these rules.
If you insist on it, by deleting all segments, revit will bloat your file with warning/error notes.

The only way to be completely free to delete any and every gridline and segment is by setting that rule to "none".

in my specific case, my fixed distance between vertical gridlines was 100 cm. So if you want to embed a 200cm wide double glass door to that arced facade like me, without painfully calculating 100cm gaps on an arc and drawing every grid line yourself,
just make the curtain wall with rules and then edit type and make grid line layout rule to none, which leaves all the generated grid lines free to delete and edit , and then delete the vertical grid line that is in the way of the door. like I said , short to do, long to tell .

same with the horizontal grid lines.

the downside is, when you edit the type like that, it changes for all the places you used that family.
So for example if you have more arced curtain walls with double doors to draw, you cant change the rule back to fixed distance from none, it destroys the door you just made.

So if you have multiple different arced storefronts with a door on all of them, you need to make each one of them a different family, which destroys your CAD tidiness. and is uncalled for.
I actually decided to first make all the arced curtain walls without doors until no curtain walls left to draw, then change layout rule to none so none of my partition of grid lines is affected. and then I will embed the doors.

It is just one of many lazy UX designs in autodesk universe which you have to you to develop a work around for.

if only they made it so that you are free to delete all segments, like you are free to delete some segments.