6. Curtain panels pattern-based. Designing curved architectural elements using Revit, Part 6.

Curtain panel pattern-based

I will come back to this post some day and add pictures and clear explanations. For now, look up curtain panel pattern-based on the Buildz site and other sites.

The Curtain panel pattern-based works with the Divided surfaces to place similar panels all over a curved surface. If you have tried out the previous Parts of this tutorial, simple panels should not cause difficulty. You can draw a panel in the Curtain panel pattern-based family. You can draw a panel in a Generic model adaptive and insert it into the Curtain panel pattern-based family.

It is worthwhile to note that triangles rule. All of the patterns triangulate the surface. If you want a flat shape in a hexagon, or an octagon, or a quadrilateral, you can draw one in an adaptive component. Offset point from each adaptive point in the curtain panel pattern-based and add your adaptive panel to the reference points. When you add them to the divided surface, the points will displace and allow the flat surface to be placed. You will need a mullion or sealant to seal the cracks.

The Buildz site has lots of advice for using Curtain panel pattern-based.

Placing a divided surface into a Curtain panel pattern-based allows one to next another Curtain panel pattern-based. This can automatically adjust the size of panels based on the curvature of the surface. See
http://buildz.blogspot.com/2009/07/limiting-panel-size.html

Cutting holes in panels is explained in

http://buildz.blogspot.com/2011/03/cutting-holes-in-panels.html

My earlier post gives a very elaborate example of shaping panels:

http://texasarchitecture.blogspot.com/2012/07/bim-triangular-panel-with-filleted-hole.html

Another bizarre and beautiful one that I designed for a student makes a flower shape that covers the surface in hundreds of similar but unique flowers:

http://texasarchitecture.blogspot.com/2012/07/bim-flower.html

Measuring curvature is a practical task that enables a real designer to see how much tolerance is needed in the joint system or wheterh the curves can be adjusted slightly to make the surface more buildable. Buildz explains how to do this in:

http://buildz.blogspot.com/2011/03/surface-analysis.html

I was inspired to implement a similar method, explained in:

http://texasarchitecture.blogspot.com/2013/09/visualizing-panel-curvature.html