Embellishing a North Curtain Wall with Annotative Elements: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a Pattern for Curtain Grid and Mullion Layout on a North Curtain Wall

Explore the process of enhancing a blank north curtain wall using curtain grid and mullion layout in architectural design. Understand the importance of maintaining correct dimensions and using appropriate materials to ensure a seamless layout across the grids.

Key Insights

  • The article begins with an examination of the north curtain wall, highlighting the use of a curtain grid and mullion layout to enhance a previously blank wall.
  • The right length is crucial to maintaining a consistent pattern across the grid lines. Unexpected changes in the dimensions could affect the overall curtain wall layout.
  • Selection of appropriate materials plays a significant role. The author exemplifies this by changing a wall type from an eight inch generic to a 12 inch concrete, showing how the correct material and thickness contribute to achieving the desired window length.

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Before we get into the annotative elements, we want to go ahead and actually take a look at this north curtain wall, and how we're going to embellish that with our curtain grid and mullion layout. So I'm going to go to my north elevation here, and when we look at it, it's just a big blank wall. And so when we want to go in and add to this, it's helpful to kind of develop a pattern that we'll do between these grid lines, because we have the same relationship across here.

So I can create a pattern that works at each one of these, and we can copy it throughout. And so before we do that, we want to make sure we have the right length in place. And when I look at this here, I can see that we added just generic walls for these two.

And the reason this is important is because if I change these walls, then what will happen is it'll change the dimension of this overall curtain wall here. And that could change how our layout works out. So the first thing we'll do is we'll actually pick these two, and I want to make sure that they're both set to Finish Face: Exterior, and that exterior is in the right location.

And so when I pick on it, you can see that that is the case here. And then I'm going to change this wall type from the 8-inch generic, and we'll make a new one, but it's going to be a 12-inch. So I'll change it to a 12-inch generic for right now.

And then I can go to Edit Type and Duplicate, and I can make it 12-inch concrete. So I'll just change this from generic to concrete, 12-inch, and then I'll change my material and thickness. Make sure that's 12 inches there.

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And then I'll set this to cast-in-place concrete and hit OK until we get out of the dialog boxes.

And now you can see we've got the right material set here. The window length is exactly what we want. And now we're ready to go in and add the curtain grids and then copy it from grid to grid to grid.

photo of Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson

Revit Instructor

Bachelor of Architecture, Registered Architect

Mike is recognized by Autodesk as one of North America’s leading Revit Certified Instructors. He has significant experience integrating Revit, 3ds Max, and Rhino and uses Revit Architecture on medium and large-scale bio and nano-tech projects. Mike has been an integral member of the VDCI team for over 15 years, offering his hard-charging, “get it done right” approach and close attention to detail. In his spare time, Mike enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife, children, and dog.

  • Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI GOLD – 1 of 20 Awarded Globally)
  • Autodesk Certified AutoCAD Professional
  • Autodesk Certified Revit Professional
  • Revit
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