Insert Window in Mass

[Anonymous]

Hi all. Which is the easiest way to insert a window in a mass?

Thank you.

[ToanDN]

You need to create walls or curtain walls from the mass first.

[Anonymous]

Or...use a curtail wall

Or build an unhosted window.

[Anonymous]

how can we build an unhosted window?

Thanks

[J450NP13]

Create a new family and model it.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

You can get by with unhosted windows but be aware that if you later turn you mass to a building shell, you will have to insert them again.  Unless you intend to stay with the mass forever, I would go with a more established route:

- Build a mass

- Create building shell (walls, curtain walls, roofs) and floors based on the mass faces

- Insert fenestrations (doors, windows, openings) to the building shell

It is more sustainable in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Hi Toan,

If I change parameter of th edoor Wall Closure to Neitehr instead of by host, does this make it UNHOSTED?

Thanks

[ToanDN]

I don't understand this question.  Where do you change it?

[Anonymous]

Toadn,

I have changed material of the Mass from default to brick and I cannot insert a window.

What I am doing wrong then?

Thanks

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

The out-of-the-box Windows are designed to be hosted by Walls (just like the real world).  They cannot be inserted into a Mass.  As previously mentioned, you can do one of two things:

1.  Generate Walls from the Mass by using the Pick Faces tool when adding a Wall, and picking faces of the Mass.  You then can add a hosted Window family to the Wall(s) generated from the Mass.  (If you later edit the Mass, the Wall(s) will adjust to the revised Mass face.)

2.  Create a Window family that is not hosted to a Wall.  This would be a lot of work, and, if you later want the Windows to be hosted by a Wall, you will have to add new, Wall-hosted Windows, as @ToanDN noted.

[chrisplyler]

It makes the door CLOSURE plane unhosted, but not the door family as a whole.

[Keith_Wilkinson · Accepted solution]

You need to assign a wall by face to a face of you mass. Go to Architecture > Wall > Wall by Face. It won't work if you just assign a material to your mass, it's not the same thing. 

[dbroad]

There seems to be some confusion about what you might be trying to accomplish.  If it is a sculptural building, then using the wall from face option is the way to go.  If you want a sculpted or battered wall, then model the wall as a component in the project.  It won't be mass but will act like a wall and have the form you want.  See image.