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Curtain wall / window wall mullions


HOUCAD

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Well, the window wall is 40 feet high divided into 10' and 5' high sections that match precast panels on either side. It fills a 3 story hole in the wall. The biggest piece of material will only be 10' but I should be able to make it one element. The existing panel joints and mullions do not join at the floor levels. I could do it in 2 pieces if I have to but I was just wondering why you are limited to 4 panes of glass with the window wall tool.

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Given the limitations of the existing tool you will probably be better off modelling this manually, and then creating a hybrid symbol of it.

- Create three new Classes: WW Framing, WW Glazing amd WW 2D so you can control their appearance.

- Switch to the WW Framing Class and in an elevation view draw the framing.

- Switch to the WW Glazing Class and use the 2D Reshape tool in 'Paintbucket mode to create the glass.

- Select all of the glass polygons and convert them to 3D Polygons.

- Select all of the framing and then extrude this by the required depth.

- Switch to Top/Plan View. Select the 'glass and move it so it is in the required plan position relative to the framing.

- Switch to the WW 2D Class and draw the required 2D 'Plan' appearance directly over the top of the 3D parts.

- Select all of the parts (both 2D and 3D) and Create a Symbol of it.

Not as convenient as a PIO would be but it can be done fairly quickly. The only issue is if you need to make changes. Then you will have to repeat the process and make a new hybrid symbo.l

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I wound up creating it in several sections and joining them together because of the way the glass is divided. This tool just can't do what I wanted.

Now the next question is about the glazing. There are 3 glazing options but 2 show no glass and one makes the glazing and mullions all gray. The same thing with the windows. Do I have to have the renderworks package to make glass look something like glass?

Right now my model is all monotone in openGL. Can I at least make the glass a different color for some contrast?

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David, you do need Renderworks to get 'glass' that looks like glass - ie having transparency and reflectivity. Without it you are limited to having either a solid colour for the glass or nothing. You control the appearance of the glass by setting the fill of the Style-Glazing x Class. Use the Container Class at the top of the OIP to control the appearance of the framing.

There is a problem with the latter though - whatever colour fill you use for the framing will become the 2D fill in Top/Plan view. That along with the other problems that this object has make it not very useful, which is why I suggested making your own window wall manually. The advantage of doing that is you can include doors and the like in the 'window wall'.

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Ahh thanks! I didn't notice that it created classes for the glazing styles. With window objects it is a little different but I guess I set the glazing component style and it makes a style# class?

This will work great for what I need right now. I am trying to get the bosses to buy renderworks for me but this works for a basic model.

Thanks.

Edited by HOUCAD
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