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476 | ChaPTER 12 Creating Walls and Curtain Walls

Creating Basic Wall Types
Walls and curtain walls are system families, which means they exist in a project but cannot be
saved as individual families outside of the project file (as RFA files). Other system families
include floors, ceilings, roofs, stairs, railings, and mullions. There are only three ways to create
or add new system families to your project:

◆ Duplicate a type from one that already exists and modify its properties.
◆ Copy and paste them in as objects from one project to another or group them from one
project to another.
◆ Use the Transfer Project Standards tool.
In Chapter 4, “Configuring Templates and Standards,” we discussed different strategies for
managing standard content through the use of templates. If you have a series of standard wall
types you use on every project, you have the option of either storing them in your main project
template using the subtractive method or storing them in separate container project folders in
an additive method. If you need to make new, custom types that are not part of your template,
you can create new wall types on the fly at any stage of a project by duplicating existing types,
adding or removing wall layers, and adjusting the parameters to meet your requirements.
Regardless of which method you employ to manage templates and standard system families, we
will show you how to create and customize your own wall types in the following sections.
Within a project file, you can access and edit a wall type in one of two ways:
Certification ◆ In the Project Browser, scroll down to the Families category, locate any wall type,
Objective right-click it, and select Properties, or simply double-click the wall type name.

◆ Select a wall in the model or start the Wall command, open the Properties palette, and click
Edit Type.
The Type Properties dialog box will appear (Figure 12.1). If you don’t see the graphic preview
to the left, click the Preview button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Figure 12.1
The type
Properties
dialog box for
a wall

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