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504 | ChaPTER 12 Creating Walls and Curtain Walls

So how do you adjust the location line of a curtain wall? This is accomplished by modifying
the offsets in the mullions and panels you assign to a curtain wall or system. We’ll cover this
process in the section “Customizing Curtain Wall Types” later in this chapter.
Curtain Grids These are used to lay out a grid, defining the physical divisions of the curtain
wall. You can lay out grids freely as a combination of horizontal and vertical segments, or they
can be predefined in a curtain wall’s type properties in regular spacing intervals. Figure 12.35
shows a freely designed layout of curtain grids and expressive curtain panels in between.

Figure 12.35
Curtain wall
with regular
orthogonal grids
and expressive
curtain panels

Mullions These represent the structural profiles on a glass façade, and they follow the cur-
tain grid geometry. Mullions can be vertical or horizontal and can be customized to any shape
based on a mullion profile family. Offsets specified in a mullion’s type properties affect how
the mullion is placed relative to the curtain wall’s location line.
Curtain Panels These fill in the space between the curtain grids. Offsets in a curtain panel’s
type properties determine how the panel is placed relative to the curtain wall’s location line.
Curtain panels are always one of the following:
Empty Panels No panel is placed between the grids.

Glazed Panels These can be made out of different types of glass that can have any color
or transparency.

Solid Panels Panels can be created with custom geometry in the Family Editor and can
include anything from doors and spandrels to shadow boxes and solar fins.

Wall Types as Infill When you have a panel selected, you can also choose a basic wall type
from the Type Selector to fill the space between the curtain grids. All wall types in the project
will be available for your selection. An example of this application would be interior office
partitions in which the lower portion is a standard wall and glass panels fill the upper portion.

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