Best Practices: Tapered Walls

Follow these best practices when modeling tapered walls.

Generally, best practices for tapered walls follow the same best practices for other wall types. There are some exceptions and some functions that behave differently, as listed below.

The following functions are not currently supported in a model that contains slanted walls.

• Structural analysis
• Selecting the centerline of a tapered wall (for example, when creating a floor or ceiling).
• The Width parameter of a tapered wall is measured as specified in the type properties of the wall. In the type properties of the wall set the Width Measured At parameter as needed. The 3 possible settings are:
  • Top
  • Base (Base constraint of the wall.)
  • Bottom
• Layer wrapping at wall ends and inserts is not supported.
• Square-off and miter Wall joins are not supported for tapered walls.
• Vertically compound wall layer are not supported. When a variable layer in a wall is set, the tools to Split, Merge, and Assign Layers will be disabled.

The following functions work differently than other wall types.

• Energy analysis gbXML export using room/spaces does not support outward sloping walls.
  Note: An energy analytical model using conceptual massing and building elements does support all sloping walls.
• Positive angles will tilt the face's top edge toward the center of the wall. Negative angles will tilt the face's top edge away from the center of the wall. See Place a Tapered Wall.
• When attaching the top or base of a tapered wall to a roof, ceiling, or floor, the target element must cover the tapered wall entirely as viewed from above.
• If the angles defined in a tapered wall cause the width of the variable layer to go below 0, the wall will not be able to be created and you will receive an error. The angles will need to be changed, and/or the height of the wall will need to be altered.
• When using copy monitor workflows, the variable setting of a wall's layer will not be changed if the variable setting is changed in the linked file after the wall was copy monitored. In this case, the wall type must be changed manually or transfer project standards from the linked file.
• For horizontally split tapered walls, the following functions work differently.
  • Split wall sections don't automatically follow the position of a moved wall section, as with vertical walls.
  • When you are splitting a tapered wall by a horizontal plane, the temporarily-displayed splitting line does not lie on the wall. It will be positioned as if the wall were vertical.
• When you place a wall sweep or wall reveal in a tapered wall, on the Properties palette, for Orientation, select Perpendicular to Face or Parallel to Ground.
• For tapered walls, the Split with Gap tool is disabled for splitting with a vertical plane.
• When creating stacked tapered walls, the constituent walls will have the same angle as the stacked wall. You can't change the slant angle of the constituent walls (other than by changing the slant of the stacked wall).
• Angular dimensions can be used with tapered walls but can't be used to set the slant angle.
• When you are creating a stair run component, it's not possible to pick a tapered wall as a boundary.
• When copying tapered walls with the Create Similar tool, the wall type is inherited, but the Instance Parameters are not inherited.
• When creating an opening in a tapered, curved wall, the resulting opening will not be rectangular due to the wall geometry.
• After placing a door or window that is oriented vertically in a tapered wall, you must manually resolve the resulting gap between the element and the wall.