Make door and window families aware of thickness of a wall with joined layers.

[gccdesign]

With Revit 2026 it's gotten a bit easier to create a wall that is made of multiple walls that are joined together.

You can make a wall that is itself made of multiple layers, but as an example, the finishes of the wall do not necessarily have the same outline as the core of the wall.

If you make say the exterior finish a separate wall, then lock & join the two, it solves this very well.

But - it breaks the ability of a door or window to recognize the the combined wall thickness. So door or window frames, casing placement, etc. do not locate properly. Also flipping the door or window no longer works.

The "Opening Cut" works on the entire joined wall. So something recognizes the total wall thickness. But that is all.

There is a work around where you can build the door or window family so that you can manually set the wall thickness. But that isn't as convenient as placing a door or window on a single wall. Also flipping still doesn't work.

So my request is that it's made possible to make a door or window family recognize the total thickness of a wall made of multiple joined walls so that it can stretch the jamb elements and also flip properly. Maybe make it so that it can "host" to the multiple joined element.

[Anonymous]

Hi All, 

First post and one that needs sorting by Autodesk!

Much of our work involves splitting our external wall into an external and internal leaf (See image 1) We use the internal leaf for flexibility when presented with boxing out or columns; it works very well. This method then requires us to join the two leaves together in order for the window/external door to cut through both walls.

Our Issue:

When the walls have been joined, the window family’s internal ref plane only recognises the host (external leaf) wall instead of recognising the internal finish face of the internal leaf wall. 

The Impact: 

1) Our 'Internal Sill Overhang' parameter has to match the internal leaf build-up i.e. 130mm, instead of 0mm. This means we can't use Global Parameters for the 'internal sill overhang' due to the different wall build-up sizes. (See image 2 - 'A' shows the 'Internal Sill Overhang' with a value of 50mm and 'B' shows the internal line of the external wall. If this was a complete wall build-up, the Internal Sill Overhang would operate as designed.  

2) The 'Wall Closure' ref plane within the window family for the plasterboard doesn't work as it is only hosted to the external leaf despite the walls being joined. 

Any further suggestions are always welcome. 

Thanks, 

Joe

[Ric_Weber]

Sometimes we need the jamb (HM jamb primarily) to not be the entire thickness of the wall unit, and thus we need to build this manual override into the families anyhow.  Thus, this idea would be a mute point for those families. However for other families where this is not the case, it would be great if this were to happen!  

[Mike.FORM]

In our door families (wrap frame only) we have a parameter that allows us to input a joined walls thickness which then widens the throat thickness of the wrap frame.

However, it would be nice to have this automatically detected when 2 walls are joined, or have a checkbox option to turn on joined wall thickness.

[PatrickGSR94]

A check box on the door's Instance parameters to Include Joined Wall Thickness somehow, would be a welcome addition.

[erikhianke]

Dear Autodesk Team,

I would like to propose an improvement for Revit 2027, based on my experience with Revit 2026. Currently, when adding doors or windows to individually modeled walls, the opening correctly cuts not only the host wall but also adjacent joined layers, such as plaster or finishing layers.

However, when the door or window family includes elements such as casings, trims, or detailed surrounds, these components stop at the face of the host wall (for example, the masonry layer). As a result, the finishing elements end up positioned inside the adjacent plaster layer, since the door or window does not extend to the finished external face of the wall assembly.

This behavior creates representation conflicts and does not reflect real-world construction logic. For a company of Autodesk’s scale and technical leadership, this limitation is unacceptable and should not persist in such a mature BIM platform.

My suggestion for Revit 2027 is that doors and windows dynamically extend to the outermost face of any joined adjacent wall layers. In other words, when additional wall layers are joined to the host wall, door and window elements—along with their finishes, such as casings—should adapt and grow to reach the final finished face of the wall.

This improvement would significantly enhance model accuracy, reduce element conflicts, and improve overall workflow optimization, especially in projects that rely on precise constructive representation.

I sincerely hope that Revit 2027 meets these expectations, particularly regarding element interaction, wall joins, and the faithful representation of real construction systems.

Sincerely,

Erik Hianke

[Ric_Weber]

My hope is that this roadmap item takes care of this: https://portal.productboard.com/aec-bid/13-architecture-revit-discipline-specific-roadmap/c/826-crea...

@kimberly_fuhrman-jones This idea along with this idea: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/wall-joins-and-window-interaction/idi-p/7344671 should be merged into this idea: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/make-door-and-window-families-aware-of-thickness-of-a-wal...

[erikhianke]

@Ric_Weber, this feature, and others, are being worked on, based on what I understand from the Product Board?

[Ric_Weber]

@erikhianke, I would love to get that feedback if that new feature they have in the preview will accomplish this item.  I'd suggest voting for it out on the roadmap along with comments to let them know that we want this.  I did already twice.  

[EBlackburnDMS7X]

Revit has new workflows for multi-walls where co-planar walls automatically join. I think this is a good idea and more aligned with how buildings are constructed (core walls and finish walls on interior and exterior). One problem is that openings hosted in one of the walls do not have the ability to move within the cut hole beyond the host to lie at the right depth. I'd like to see flexibility to adjust anywhere within the joined hole and not just in one segment.

[PatrickGSR94]

@Ric_Weber @erikhianke that feature you linked from the Product Board website was already implemented in 2026, with the ability to place walls by room, and have them automatically aligned and locked to the room's main walls.  I don't think anything has changed with doors as of yet, though.

[Ric_Weber]

@PatrickGSR94, you are correct.  The doors (or anything inserted into joined or hosted walls) still cannot recognize the total thickness of the wall assembly and thus do as we want.  So this idea carries on sadly...   😞