Fence As Curtain Wall... I Give Up

[AFatRat]

I am trying to create fence as a curtain wall so it will be easy to place gates and adjust heights for our stadium/athletic complex sites. I have made it two different ways and neither one is working exactly as I had hoped.

First, I made it directly in the curtain panel family template. The problem with this is that I have an upper and lower picket array that adjusts the number of pickets according to the length of the panel. Since the panel isn't nested, I can't associate the panel length to a length parameter, thus driving the arrays. I also can't seem to keep the nested picket families aligned with their reference planes with no offset. In project, they seem to adjust just fine but if I change the heights of the horizontal reference planes, then edit the family, the pickets are offset from their reference planes, and I have to hit apply for it to recognize the zero "PicketOffset".

I also made the panel as a generic model, then nested it into the curtain panel family template. This automates the picket arrays according to the length of the panel, however the heights of the pickets in project don't adjust at all and I have to open the generic model, hit apply, load it back into the curtain panel, and then the project for it to adjust correctly.

The screencast below shows all the problems I'm having. Any suggestions to fix this behavior or a better way to make this fence would be greatly appreciated.

[ToanDN]

If you can lose the post caps then the solution is utterly simple, using system mullions for everything, no custom panels.

[barthbradley]

I think I got it fixed. Open attached and see if you can break it.  

BTW: nice job.

[AFatRat]

How's that? I don't really need the post caps and I actually tried to do it without making a custom panel but couldn't figure out how to have it auto generate the layout. Wouldn't I have to have two walls on top of each other to accommodate the two different picket spacings? Also, how would I have the bottom rail above the bottom of the post and the top rail below the top? Or do you mean to manually lay out the curtain grids? I'm trying to be able to just place the wall and have the fence show. Thanks for your help.

[AFatRat]

Nice. It was actually keeping itself together until I made the panel height shorter. I couldn't really tell what you did though other than making a couple more types in the curtain panel. So, what's the secret? I think you may have been on to something.  Thanks for your help

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

The secret is in the constraining. Edit Array Group for the first element and note the Ref. Plane that the element is hosted and constrained to. I changed it.  Then, after closing out of Edit Mode, I aligned and lock the last element in the Array  (via Tab-Select) to the host Ref. Plane.  

Regarding the TYPES I created, I did that for my validation.  But, you are going to have to create TYPES yourself in the Project if you intend to have different panel configuration.  

..okay, so I see the issue with Panel Height.  Those smaller rails are not constrained properly. Easy fix.  Give me minute.

...see attached. 

[AFatRat]

Very good! I actually had to recreate what you did in RVT18 but I got it figured out. I ended up naming the reference planes the two arrays were hosted to. Then I aligned and locked the first and last picket in each array to their respective reference plane outside of the edit mode. Now everything works perfectly. Arrays always fight me but you showed me the light. Thanks again for your help.

[AFatRat]

So I have one last hiccup in creating this curtain wall fence. I thought I had everything working perfectly but then I noticed the double gate I made isn't coming in centered in the panel. I had to make the geometry in the nested gate longer on one side to accommodate the missing post but all the reference planes are the same and I just can't figure out why I can't get it centered. At this point, I think I've just been looking at this thing for too long so if anyone could help me out with this, I'd really appreciate it.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

Because the center ref plane in the family is not on the origin if the family. Open a door family, draw a symnolic line on the center ref plane, copy clip, paste aligned onto you family you will see. Just move everything to match the correct center ref plane.

[AFatRat]

Son of a... I wonder how that happened. You're the man. I really appreciate it.

[ToanDN]

It's not your fault. The curtain wall door family template is messed up that way.