When I was asked to come up with a solution to a shading device for a building looking something like the one below.

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I considered three options:

• Curtain Panel Wall (Using Custom Panels)
• Adaptive Components
• Generic Families

For expediency, I decided on the Curtain Panel Wall. The brief stated that the panels must have holes that can be individually resized so that a silhouette may be described by a pattern (a tree).

I calculated the with of the panels so that all the panels are of the same size.  It took some doing and I used Excel to help me.

I finally settled at 1140mm panel width for this design. As sheets are usually 1200mm or so, this should generate negligible waste.

Next, I created a custom Curtain Panel family. This is dealt with in a subsequent blog (Holey Façade – Creating Custom Curtain Wall Panel). It is then designated as the preferred panel in the type properties. While there is a lot of geometry within the panels that are geometrically driven, using the correct length for the wall does not result in an error. This is because the panel geometry only generates after the wall is drawn to a specific length.

Below you can see the panel getting generated exactly to the correct width, 1140mm, as dictated by the number of panels that must fit the total length of the wall.

This may be done in various ways, in this case, fixed distance.

If you need help creating curtain panels or curtain wall panels that represent a building façade, please contact micrographics so we may be of assistance.