Creating Timber Sliding Screens

[CBrandCTN]

Hi All, 

I'm wanting to model a timber sliding screen which will be used througout the facade of the building i'm working on. I'm just wondering how best to go about doing this. I was thinking that I should create a door family but I will have to stack these screens together or slide them apart depending on where they are in the building and they will therefore want to be hosted by walls so I'm not sure if this is a problem. Also there are protions where it will be timber cladding and timber screens. So that's going between wall and door families...

At the moment I have modeled extrusions in place to represent this but I'm getting into more detail now and want to represent the sliding screens more acurately (I've uploaded a PDF of the model where the screens located on the building)

The horizontal timber slats will also be of varying widths and thicknesses so it gets a bit tricky. Does anyone have any insight on how to best go about attempting this?

Thanks in advance. 

[L.Maas]

I would advise the following. How do you expect these screens to be made, used and installed in real life. This always a good base for your model.

You talk about two things cladding and sliding screens.

So is the cladding always placed on your wall? Does it then always have the same thickness?

In that case I could see it to be made as part/layer of a wall type.

If you would have much variation in thickness I would start to look at wall or face based family and make the cladding parametric.

The sliding screens will they be part of a wall or more or less loosely connected to the building?

If they are part of a wall a door might be a good option. Otherwise I would opt for another (generic?) family. You can construct this family as detailed as needed even include sliding panels.

It all depends what message you need to convey to your audience and what further information is needed (e.g. scheduling).

[CBrandCTN]

Yes, they are two elements (wall cladding and the sliding timber screens) that need to look the same and have the same horizontal cladding relationship with each other. Therfore I need to model these elements so that they look the same on elevation.

In some instances the screens could be hosted by a wall but in others the screens will be quite a distance from the walls so I think a family that is more loosly connected to the building would be best. Which makes me think that a door family will probably give me issues when I want to move them around.

I've been reasearching and I was thinking I should create wall families for this but I also need to represent the screens in their open and closed state for presentation purposes so I dont think a wall family would work for that.  

So now I'm left thinking I should make a component, although I dont have much experience in this department.

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

Based on the information you wrote I would probably make two separate (generic) families. One for the cladding and one for the sliding screens. With a little bit of effort it could be done in single family.

Look at this autodesk link with information regarding family creation

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/...

It will help you al lot in the future if you gain some experience with family creation

[CBrandCTN]

Great, thanks. 

Checking it out now.