About Working With Nested Grids in Curtain Walls

Each curtain wall grid is one-dimensional with either a horizontal or vertical division. By nesting grids in the curtain wall style, you can create a variety of patterns from simple to complex.

Example of nested grids

Simple Primary Grids

When you nest grids, you start with one primary grid. Each cell in the primary grid can then be filled with another grid. For example, if your primary grid is horizontal and has three cells, you can nest a vertical grid in each horizontal cell to create a simple two-dimensional (2D) grid. This is the nesting configuration for the Standard curtain wall style.

Specifying cell division definitions 1

The previous illustration shows all cells in the grid with the same cell assignment—a vertical division. However, each cell in a grid is independent and can have a separate assignment. For example, the following illustration shows a three cell horizontal grid with different assignments in each cell. The bottom cell contains another horizontal division, the middle cell contains vertical divisions of varying width, and the top cell contains a vertical divisions of a fixed width.

Specifying cell division definitions 2

Multiple Nested Grids

You can continue to nest grids to create multiple levels. For example, the following illustrations show the Standard curtain wall style, which is a simple two-dimensional (2D) grid, with one horizontal cell and three vertical cells. Another grid is nested in the first cell of the secondary grid. This creates a tertiary grid. The final illustration shows the nested grids assigned to all cells.

Specifying a sequence of nested grids

Defining Nested Grids

You can define nested grids by using the Design Rules tab of the Curtain Wall Style Properties dialog box. The tree in the left pane lists the grids. There is always one primary grid. The primary grid can have one or more secondary grids. Each secondary grid can have one or more tertiary grids, and so on.

Tip: To quickly create nested grids in all cells, change the default cell assignment to Nested Grid. If you want multiple levels of nesting, be sure to change the default cell assignment for each grid.

Each grid has its own cell assignments. You assign cells to contain another grid, a panel infill, or an object such as a door or window.

Primary grid and cell assignments

Secondary grid and cell assignments