Learn the step-by-step process of creating a custom mullion type in a new family. Discover how to use the correct template and how to draw the lines representing the shape of the mullion, ensuring its proper interaction with the glass and the center reference plane.
Key Insights
- Creating a custom mullion type begins with creating a new family in the file, ensuring to use a template that matches what you're trying to create, such as the Profile Mullion.
- When drawing the mullion, the inside and exterior of it, the center reference plane representing where the glass hits the mullion, and the vertical center of the mullion should be considered. This ensures the correct placement and interaction with other elements.
- After drawing the mullion, it's essential to clean up the drawing by deleting any extra lines and ensuring the mullion is one continuous line. This prevents extra lines from appearing when the extrusion is created and ensures the mullion interacts correctly with the glass and other elements.
Since we're using a custom mullion type, the first thing that we need to do is to create the custom profile. And to do that, we're going to create a new family. So let's go to 'File, ' 'New, ' and 'Family, ' and we'll go into our 'English Imperial' folder.
And we're looking for 'Mullion, ' and it's going to be under Profiles. So you can see here it says 'Profile Mullion.' And so when you look at the different profiles that we have, there's a few that are specific to the type that they're being used.
And so you want to make sure that you always pick the one that you're planning on using. And so later in the lesson, we'll use 'Reveal' because we're going to want to cut elements to illustrate the Control Joints in the brick wall. And if we were to use something other than that, we wouldn't get the cut effect from the profile.
So it's important to use the correct one. Same with the Mullions. This is specific to the mullion type.
So just like when we create families, we want to make sure we're using the appropriate template so that we are indeed creating what we're trying to create. So 'Profile Mullion' is what we're looking for, and I'll click Open. And this is just a matter of drawing some lines that are representative of the shape that we're trying to create.
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As you can see here, we have a few helpers. So this is telling me this is the interior and exterior of the mullion, where the center reference plane is going to represent where the glass is going to hit the mullion. And then vertically, we have the center of the mullion here.
We're going to want to use this as our basis for how we create the mullion. And then we need to make sure that we understand where the glass is going to hit. And that's going to be this location here.
So that's important because we want to make sure we get that correct as well. Now we'll go ahead and draw it. And what we'll do is we'll start off by using the 'Line' tool.
And we're going to create a 3 inch by 12 inch box. And so I'll just use the 'Rectangle' tool. And like some of the ones we did before, I'll just draw it off to the side so that the temporary dimensions don't get in our way.
This, for whatever reason, this template is snapped at a really heavy one inch dimension. So I'm able to draw that out pretty easily. If you didn't get those values, then you're going to want to make sure that you change it to three inches, and one foot or 12 inches here.
And now we can go ahead and grab this whole thing and move it. And I'm going to use this midpoint here, because I'm going to move it so that it hits right on this intersection. Now, we don't want it to sit here in this location, we are going to move it again.
But this gives us a good place to start. So I'm going to move again. And I'll just move up four inches.
Now I have four inches here, and eight inches here. And the next thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to create a taper in this mullion. And to do that, I'm going to zoom in a bit, I can create lines at this location to give me end points.
So they're just going to be construction lines that we'll work with. So I'll just take this guy here and use the 'Copy' command and move it over an inch. And then I'll do the same thing on this side and move it over an inch.
And this time we'll use 'Copy' and move it over one inch. Now we have all the framework that we need to create the taper. And I'll just go back to the 'Create' tab and draw in the lines from the intersection to the endpoint.
And now we just need to clean it up. So these lines only serve the purpose of hitting this one inch point. We'll delete them.
So selecting and hitting the Delete key. And then we're just going to use our 'Trim/Extend to Corner' tool to trim the shape down to what we're going for. And that's what we're looking for here.
This simple profile. So there's only a couple of things that we have to make sure that we adhere to. One of them is that this is just one continuous line all the way around.
We don't want to have this be in broken segments or this one in segments, etc. Because if we do that, then we're going to end up in a situation where we're getting extra lines when this extrusion is created. So a lot of times what I'll see is people will draw this in two pieces.
And when you look at it on the elevation, you'll actually see a third line here instead of just one here and one here. The other one is you want to make sure that you don't have anything off to the side that is made up of line work. Because if you do, it's not going to work and you won't be able to create the extrusion.
So as long as this is a continuous boundary and we don't have any extra lines hanging around, then we should be good to go. So I'm going to go ahead and save as. So I'll do 'File, ' 'Save As, ' 'Family.'
And I'll save this in my 'BIM 201' folder. And this one I'm going to call Tapered Mullion. And this is a profile, so it's not the mullion itself.
So I have to create that when we get back into the project. So I'm going to click 'Save.' And then we're good to go.
