Curved Storefront

[carpalmer]

Working on a long gently curving building with a continuous storefront / curtain wall.

Need to make model and I'm looking for an effective way of "building" it without having to go panel by panel, slightly rotating each to match the building's curve.

Is there a better way?

Somehow applying a storefront to the building's curve?

I could even consider mapping an image to the building's curved volume (even though this would not reflect a realistic 3d look).

Need your clever input!

[Kristen]

Would the curved window wall tool work for your project? It is the bottom tool in the wall palette.

[grant_PD]

have you tried also the duplicate along path tool? you can string flat panels along a curve. With a bit of trial and error, you can get them to space and rotate each one just as you need them.

[islandmon]

All curves have radius and XYZ centers. You can then use the centers to accurately duplicate array & rotate the duplicate panels curve by curve. For a perfect match up the curves must be tangential.

[carpalmer]

thanks, curved window wall works well!

[mike m oz]

The Curved Window Wall Tool has a couple of inadequacies.

- You can't space the vertical mullions equally by selecting the required number of segments. Instead you have to resort to doing the maths yourself and tweak it until it looks right.

- it does not produce a true curved window wall. The horizontal members are actually faceted at 10 deg increments. If the angle is not an exact multiple of 10 deg the facets will not be equal. The glass on the other hand will be faceted according to the 2D resolution set in VW preferences. It will approximately follow the vertical mullions, but it will not have a consistant relationship to the horizontal members.

On large curves the result is quite crude and the discrepancy between the glass and the mullions will be very noticeable. Try a curved wall with 15 m (50') radius and a sweep of 55 deg. The faceting issues and glass relationship discrepancy will be very apparent in a 3D view. Try changing from Top / Plan View to Top View, and then to an isometric view. The result is awful.

If you want to model large radius curved window walls you will have to do it manually.