Modelling Membranes in Revit: The Facade of King Fahd Library in Riyadh

Photo Source ArchDaily

This tutorial was inspired by one of the most important buildings in Saudi Arabia.The cladding system is made up of rhomboid textile awnings, marked by its play with revealing and concealing. Inserted white membranes, supported by a three-dimensional, tensile-stressed steel cable structure, act as sunshades and interpret the Arabian tent structure tradition in a modern, technological way. (See below image)

Photo Source ArchDaily

01. In the Applications menu, go to New > Family, select "Curtain Panel Pattern Based" and click Ok. Select the blue grid in the background, and click on the Type Selector and change the grid type to "Rhomboid".

Save As the family and proceed. Select the blue grid again, in the properties menu, change the Horizontal Spacing to 3000 and the Vertical Spacing to 4000. (See below image)

02. Place a single reference point on the xy-plane of the adaptive points no. 1, 2 and 3. Select the three points highlighted below with red circles; change the Offset of the three points to 2500 so that they all elevate at the same height.

03. Select the two new points together. (For multiple selections, click on the new points one after the other while holding down the Ctrl button).

In the Properties Menu, click the small button to the right of "Offset" (See below red arrow).

The "Associate Family Parameter" will open. Click on "Add Parameter", make a new Type Parameter, call it "PANEL DEPTH" and click ok to close the windows.This parameter will be used control the simultaneous vertical movement of the selected points, and will dictate the depth of the panel.

04. Create three new reference lines as highlighted in the below image. Each Reference line connects an adaptive point with the reference point above it leaving out adaptive point number 4.

05. Create two new reference lines through the three reference points created earlier. (See below image)

06. Create two new mid points on the new reference lines from the previous step. To confirm the centralization of the points, the Normalized Curve Parameter should read 0.5 (See below image).

07. Create two new mid points on the reference lines between adaptive points no. 1, 4 and 3.

To confirm the centralization of the points, the Normalized Curve Parameter should read 0.5 (See below image).

08. Go to the midpoint hosted on the reference line between adaptive points no. 3 and 4. Place a point on the vertical plane (highlighted below in yellow) of the midpoint. Ignore the error that appears by clicking "Ok". Select the point and drag it inwards (follow the red vector below).

Select the new point and repeat the procedure in step 2.6 above but the name the Instance Parameter "AUTO_RADIUS".

09. Multiple select adaptive points no. 4 and 3 in addition to the new point from the previous step then click "Spline Through Points". This will create an arch between the selected points. In the Properties Menu, check "Is Reference Line". (See below image)

10. Repeat steps 2.11 to 2.14 so that your geometry resembles the below image.

11. Next we need to create a Reporting Parameter. In order to do so, type "DI" to activate the Aligned Dimension command, click on "Set" to assign a work-plane and click on the vertical plane of Adaptive point no. 2. (See below sketch)

12. To apply the dimension, click the two reference planes of Adaptive Points no. 2 and 4 highlighted below in blue one after the other. (See below image)

13. Select the dimension, click the "Label" drop down and select "<Add parameter>", name the new Instance Parameter "Panel Height" and check "Reporting Parameter" then click "Ok". (See below image)

14. In the next step, we will create the central part of the panel that will host fabric connection. (See below image)

Photo Source ArchDaily

15. Draw a reference line between adaptive points no. 2 and 4. (See below image)

16. Isolate the central line witn the adaptive points bounding it from either side. (See below image)

17. Now host 4 no. ref. points with Normalized Curve Parameters as indicated in the below image.

18. Now we will host a point on top of each normalized point from the previous step except the point marked in blue.
Move the points slightly upwards.

Note: The points should be hosted on the xy-plane (marked in yellow) of the normalized points. (See below image)

19. Open up the Family Types Editor where you will see all the parameters that you have created.

20. Under the Formula section, replicate the below data in order to achieve parametric control.

21. Create a "Spline Through Points" starting from Adaptive point no. 4 as displayed below.

22. Orbit your geometry so that Adaptive point no. 2 is situated to the left of the background.

Isolate Adaptive points nos. 2, 3 and 4 in addition to all lines and points connecting these three points. Then add hosted points with Normalized Curve Parameters as represented in the below image.