Curtain Wall Tool-The Details

[rgarand]

Hello all,

I have managed to work out a simple storefront entryway with the curtain wall tool, although it would of been quicker to build it with slabs/walls...anyway.

See the attached image showing some small gaps left behind. I deleted a vertical frame near the top of the door, the frame stops half way down from where is should be. I tried to vertically stretch this so that it aligns with the horiz. frame piece but was unsuccessful. Any thoughts on how to make this look right.

Also the door sill has a similar problem. When I changed the panel to a door the bottom frame stayed...I tried to delete this piece of frame and it would not disappear. I chose to make it invisible, but now I have the problem you can see in the image.

Any help will be appreciated.

TIA

[__archiben]

rgarand wrote:
Any help will be appreciated.

the curtain wall tool quite frankly baffles me, but have you tried switching your boundary frames to "Inside Grid". might not make the hole at the top disappear, but it might resolve the threshold issue?

~/archiben

[Link]

Maybe try downloading the library update from your Help menu? According to the release notes it looks like these errors ~may~ have been addressed.

Cheers,
Link.

[Laszlo Nagy]

rgarand wrote:
Hello all,

I have managed to work out a simple storefront entryway with the curtain wall tool, although it would of been quicker to build it with slabs/walls...anyway.

See the attached image showing some small gaps left behind. I deleted a vertical frame near the top of the door, the frame stops half way down from where is should be. I tried to vertically stretch this so that it aligns with the horiz. frame piece but was unsuccessful. Any thoughts on how to make this look right.

Also the door sill has a similar problem. When I changed the panel to a door the bottom frame stayed...I tried to delete this piece of frame and it would not disappear. I chose to make it invisible, but now I have the problem you can see in the image.

Any help will be appreciated.

TIA

I think this problem comes from the Frame Intersection Priority numbers.
You have a T-joint and 3 Frames. The T-joint is defined by the Scheme.
First, the Frame with the highest Frame Intersection Priority number will be extended till the T-joint intersection point. Then the next one with the highest Frame Intersection Priority number and so one.
If a vertical and a horizontal have the same Frame Intersection Priority number, they will form an L-joint.
If you have a horizontal and a vertical coming into the same joint then the one with the highest Frame Intersection Priority number will not be extended till the intersection point but will be shortened so that it extends only to the side of the perpendicular Frame.

In your case I am guessing the vertical Frame's Frame Intersection Priority number is the highest of the three, This is why the two horizontal ones to not extend till the intersection point.

You can do what Ben suggested because then the Scheme grid will be at the outside of the Boundary Frames so the vertical Frame will extend to their outside which give a good result.

Or you can decrease the Frame Intersection Priority number of the vertical Frame.

There are a lot of possibilities to achieve the desired result.

[Laszlo Nagy]

rgarand wrote:
Any help will be appreciated.

TIA

Another thing:
Do I see it correctly that there is a gap below the Door?
I guess you set the Boundary Frame below the Door to invisible. That is what usually gives this result.
There is a way to extend the Door all the way down:
In the Curtain Wall System Settings Dialog, choose Curtain Wall System on the left vertical panel, and in the Member Placement panel, choose the Inside Grid radio button.
Then select the Frames below the Door and set their thickness to zero.
Also, in the Frame Type and Geometry Panel, set the value of the "d" parameter to zero so that the Door can extend till the Schemed Grid axis and not stop 20-30 mm sooner.
That will do the trick.

Edit: based on Djordje's question in the next post, one addition: this is needed only when there is a Boundary Frame below the Door. Normally, in a general panel no such tricks are needed.

[Djordje]

Hm ... can the frame just below the door not be deleted and that's it?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Boundary Frames cannot be deleted.

[rgarand]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Laszlo's info worked out well.

I was able to lower the door threshold by defining the bottom boundary frame with a height and a width of 0. Then I set the priorities, as described, for the other pieces of framework and all seemed to work out just fine. See the attached image of the result.

The curtain wall tool is very complex. Thanks to Laszlo for a bit of insight and direction.

[Laszlo Nagy]

You are welcome.
Yes, it is a complex tool, but that also means a lot of possibilities once you know how to use it.

[Anonymous]

I can't change the height of the curtain wall... isn't it editable??
Thanks