Glass Partitions: Best method?

[Anonymous]

For us the curtain wall tool does not seem well suited to making glass partitions. This is exactly the kind of thing we regularly model on projects;

http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/public/assets/press/2012/01/1325685759_komfort-storagewall.jpg

Often there is a slight variation in that we sometimes have no frames around the door.
My first beef is that there doesn't seem to be a way of getting rid of the boundary frame where we have a door. Our work around is typically to make the 'scheme' a funny shape so that it is below floor level for that particular panel. (See attached Fig.1). Is there a proper way to do this?

Also, if you need a funny size panel at the end of a run, it is fiddly. Instead of having just a scheme which has one panel size you need a run of 15 identical panels then a funny size one at the end? Seems illogical.

I'm hoping someone is going to tell me we should be using another tool for this instead! Or that we're not using this one quite right.

Many thanks.

p.s. any tips or crit you have for the render itself is always welcome.

[Dennis Lee]

That is a nice rendering! Lightworks? I like the way the lights and the carpet look in the rendering. Those are the hardest for me to make it look realistic.

Which objects did you use for the downlights and the fluorescent lights?

[Anonymous]

Thanks vrey much.

It is lightworks yes. Almost every material we have made by taking a stock material, duplicating it, and tweaking it and adding our own jpegs.

The carpet is a real easy one, we grab the jpeg from the manufactures wbesite like so http://www.millikencarpetportfolioonline.com/SmpStdUK/FCSOUKIm.nsf/images/SE27.jpg/$file/SE27.jpg
Then duplicate one of the stock carpet materials and change the jpeg.

The rectangle lights are 'fluorescent ceiling 01 15', 'style 4' and set to 1200mmx300mm. Then for the glass bit of the lamp duplicate the stock material 'glass-lamp' and change the surface colour and emission colour to white and grey respectively. This helps to diffuse the light source and give more of a glow to the fitting.

The circle lights are just recessed spots set very thin (20mm).

My best tip (if you have lots of white walls) is to create your own 'white' material. We don't use 'paint-01' - to painful to try and light nicely.
Take 'ceiling-tile 60x60' material and duplicate, remove the .png of the ceiling tile and change the vectorial hatching to something sensible and thats it. The Exposure to light settings on the ceiling tile are much easier to work with than most of the other materials you would typically use for a wall. Don't forget to match lightwork and internal engine settings, i used to forget to do this all the time!

Anyway, i've strayed way off topic - no ideas on the glass partitions? 🙂

[Anonymous]

Dan,
Currently I work for an interior design company, and obviously we deal with a lot of glass partitions. Unfortunately , I'm not sure of a quicker way in doing this. As you have mentioned I found the curtain wall tool flexibility to be inadequate, especially when it comes to door frames / architraves and junctions between glass and partitions.
I currently have set up some standard glazed partition objects to fit various floor to ceiling heights (2400mm, 2700mm & 3000mm). With these heights I have set up 2 glazed partition objects. First being a 300mm glazed partition end, with top, bottom and side aluminium track (u shape for single polar). The other object being a 900mm glazed partition module with alu track top and bottom. This object can then be increased in width to suit overall partition opening widths.
NOTE: Remember to indent the glazing panel 5mm from the alu track on both objects. This will allow the appearance of glazed panels (10mm gap) with a single alu polar track top and bottom.
I have also created door frames / architraves to fit / align with the polar floor & ceiling tracks. This can be achieved from getting cad details from manufacturers. Finally we create custom door leafs and door objects to enhance the visuals.
I have also create glazed partition objects for 2 polar systems.
You can go on and on and on......
Sorry this doesn't help much but I thought be good to let you know .
Hillsee.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply, it is very helpful to know that we are not missing an easier way of doing things. We did wonder if there was an add-on from a third party that might be of use but i haven't found anything as yet.
we too get pretty good results from custom frames, handles and leafs.
The curtain wall tool was a great inclusion so I hope that as it evolves it will become more substantial and easier to manipulate. Until then!