Material Surface Patterns

[edenvaughn]

I have a curtain wall under a barrel vault with vertical mullions spaced evenly (see attached pdf). We have given the panels a grid surface pattern and would like these grid lines to align across the whole curtain wall.

The pattern in each panel is aligned to the center of that panel. Since each panel has a different height the patterns are not aligned.

The question: Is there a way to align a surface/material pattern to another object?

I have unpinned everything, tried moving and aligning, nothing budges. We are including 3D views in our drawings so I would like a fix besides using a filled region.

Thanks for any help.

[Andre Carvalho]

Couldn't you align the pattern to the base of the panel?

Another option that may work, but I have never tried is to create a dimension from the reference plane to the pattern and add a parameter to it. After the panel is loaded, you could try changing the distance of this parameter to control the pattern position within the panel.

Andre Carvalho

[edenvaughn]

"Align" and "Move" haven't worked. I can select the pattern line but it will not adjust anything.

[mrice.47661]

I'm going to tack on a post here if only to vent a little ... because this issue is quite frustrating, and I'm suspecting the original poster never got a sufficient answer, based on some other posts I've been reading on the subject.

I have an instance where I HAVE to use a system panel family in lieu of a custom curtain panel family since I have some odd angled model geometry in my curtainwall system. Putting that frustration aside, I went through the trouble of creating a custom model hatch pattern to apply to my glass panels to represent a neat faded frit we're designing on the glass. However after going through all that trouble I come to find I can't move/align/etc the model pattern on the surface of the panel ... like we can on just about EVERY OTHER SURFACE.

So sure, I could try and create a custom hatch pattern with a different origin so that each pattern that auto-centers on the panels ends up aligning with the adjacent panel's pattern ... but I probably have over 60 different/unique panels with geometry that isn't so easily calculated. It doesn't seem practical or rational that I should have to go down that very unpleasant road.

So what is it Autodesk about curtainwall panels that makes them unique animals from every other type of object? We can give them instance parameters ( ... well, if I could use a custom curtainwall panel family I could :/ ... ) why can't you allow us to give them instance based material control?

If there's any thoughts/commiserations out there on this subject, I'd appreciate hearing any of them.

[sbrown]

Can you swap the panel out with a Wall type set to the thickness of the panel you want with the material on it you want and see if you can adjust it then?

[mrice.47661]

Thanks! ... that does seem to work for the vertical odd shaped panels, since they're allowed to be swapped out with walls. That's a huge help as it will work out on about 90% of the building.

For the outward tilting odd shaped panels that I initially generated from a mass, I don't get the option to swap them out with walls. I suppose I can go back into the mass, work on dividing up the faces to match my mullion pattern, and then re-apply the wall with pattern to those surfaces. That'll be a bit laborious, but not outside the realm of possibility.

I'd still like an Autodesk answer for why curtain panels can't have controllable patterns ... but at least this keeps me going.

[mrice.47661]

The saga continues ... I'm attaching a sample file of the elements I've been working with in case anyone feels adventurous and wants to investigate/help.

While changing the vertical curtainwall panels to glass wall infills is possible, it has had a few problems associated with it. First, the wall panels (and custom curtain wall panel families) do not trim to the mullions in the curtainwall cleanly, as the system panels do - so you can potentially have little overlaps or gaps at each of the mullions. My situation is made worse by the fact that we have butt jointed SSG mullions where this is occuring, so a system mullion trims the wall short at the mullion, and a custom profile mullion to achieve the same thing does not allow me to offset the wall panel so that it falls where it needs to in relationship to the mullion. (The panel creation fails if you try to offset a non-rectilinear panel in the direction the glass needs to be.)

The approach seems so agonizingly close to working ... but every time I find a solution to one problem, it seems to create a problem in another area. The only thing that actually works at the moment is to replace all of the panels with empty panels, then model a new 1" wall that extends over the entirety of the curtainwall frame. Then, I just have to filter the plan for wall types accordingly - and (worst of all) draw model lines in for each & every glass joint line on the plane of the wall. I suppose I could lock those to the actual curtain grid lines - but still seems a pain.

[ron.sanpedro]

I have a curtain wall under a barrel vault with vertical mullions spaced evenly (see attached pdf). We have given the panels a grid surface pattern and would like these grid lines to align across the whole curtain wall.

The pattern in each panel is aligned to the center of that panel. Since each panel has a different height the patterns are not aligned.

The question: Is there a way to align a surface/material pattern to another object?

I have unpinned everything, tried moving and aligning, nothing budges. We are including 3D views in our drawings so I would like a fix besides using a filled region.

Thanks for any help.

Check to be sure the pattern is in fact a Model pattern, not a Drafting pattern. The former can be moved and rotated, the latter cannot. Probably NOT this, as you likely would have noticed other problems as well, but I have seen a few situations where it was the problem.

Best,
Gordon

[Andre Carvalho]

Check to be sure the pattern is in fact a Model pattern, not a Drafting pattern. The former can be moved and rotated, the latter cannot. Probably NOT this, as you likely would have noticed other problems as well, but I have seen a few situations where it was the problem.

Best,
Gordon

Their problem is related to the fact that to be able to get the panel's shape they want without creating a very complex custom panel (or several custom panels) they have to use system panels. Model patterns on system panels are independently (like is each one was an independent in place family) and therefore have to be manually moved/aligned by editing one by one...

Andre Carvalho