How to Make a Curtain Wall in Revit (Step-by-Step, With Custom Panels)

To make a curtain wall in Revit, select the Wall tool (WA), choose a curtain wall type from the Type Selector, and draw it in plan like any other wall. Revit fills it with glazed panels automatically; you then add curtain grids to divide it and mullions to frame the divisions. That’s the whole system in one sentence — but the details are where curtain walls either click or become the most frustrating tool in Revit.

This guide walks through the full workflow: placing the wall, controlling grids, adding mullions, swapping in custom panel families, inserting a door, embedding the curtain wall in a solid wall, and fixing the errors that stop most beginners cold.

Curtain Wall Anatomy: Grids, Mullions, and Panels

Every Revit curtain wall is built from three elements. Curtain grids are the invisible division lines that slice the wall into rectangles. Panels are the infills that occupy each rectangle — glass, solid, spandrel, or a custom family. Mullions are the frame members that sit on the grid lines. Change the grids and everything else follows: panels resize, mullions extend or trim automatically.

Revit ships with three curtain wall types, and choosing the right starting point saves you half the work:

• Curtain Wall — a blank slate: one single panel, no grids, no mullions. Full manual control.
• Exterior Glazing — automatic grid layout, no mullions. Good middle ground.
• Storefront — automatic grids and mullions, preconfigured for typical ground-floor glazing.

Step 1: Place the Curtain Wall With the Wall Tool

There is no separate “curtain wall tool” in Revit — a curtain wall is a wall type:

1. Go to the Architecture tab and click Wall (or type WA).
2. In the Type Selector, scroll past the basic walls to the Curtain Wall section and pick one of the three types.
3. Set the Base Constraint and Top Constraint in the Properties palette — curtain walls respect levels exactly like basic walls.
4. Draw the wall in plan view and press Esc to finish.

Switch to a 3D or elevation view. If you picked the plain Curtain Wall type, you’ll see one large glass panel — that’s correct. The divisions come next.

Step 2: Add and Edit Curtain Grids

Curtain grids define the panel layout, and you can place them manually or let the type generate them:

1. Go to Architecture tab > Build panel > Curtain Grid.
2. Hover over an edge of the curtain wall: a horizontal edge previews a vertical grid, a vertical edge previews a horizontal one.
3. On the Modify ribbon, choose the placement mode: All Segments (grid runs across the full wall), One Segment (divides a single panel only), or All Except Picked (place, then click segments to remove).
4. Click to place. Repeat until the layout is done.

The #1 beginner frustration: “my grids won’t move.” If you started from Exterior Glazing or Storefront, the grids were generated by a type-driven layout (Fixed Distance, Fixed Number, or Maximum Spacing) and are pinned by the type — dragging them does nothing. Two fixes: either edit the layout rules globally via Edit Type > Vertical/Horizontal Grid > Layout and Spacing, or select the individual grid, unpin it (the pin icon, or keyboard shortcut UP), and drag it freely. Unpinned grids stop obeying the type — which is exactly what you want for door openings and irregular layouts.

Step 3: Add Mullions

With the grids in place, framing them takes seconds:

1. Go to Architecture tab > Build panel > Mullion.
2. Pick a placement mode on the ribbon: Grid Line (the entire line), Grid Line Segment (one segment between intersections), or All Grid Lines (the whole wall in one click).
3. Click the grid lines — mullions appear, and panels trim back automatically to make room.

Mullion types control the section: duplicate a type, change its profile, and adjust Width on side 1 / side 2 for asymmetric frames. Revit includes rectangular, circular, and corner mullions (L, V, quad, and trapezoid shapes for wall corners), but the stock profiles are generic — for thermally broken sections and manufacturer-style frames, you can load mullion profile families and assign them through the type properties, no remodeling needed.

One property worth knowing early: each mullion intersection has a join condition that decides which member runs continuous and which one breaks. Select a mullion and use Make Continuous / Break at Join on the ribbon when corners look wrong.

Step 4: Swap Panels for Custom Panel Families

By default, curtain wall cells are filled with system panels — simple glazed or solid infills with material and thickness parameters. The real power move is replacing them with custom curtain panel families: spandrels, louvers, double-glazed buildups, solid inserts, or anything else built as a curtain panel.

1. Hover over the panel and press Tab until the panel highlights (the Tab key cycles through wall > grid > mullion > panel — the status bar tells you what’s selected).
2. Click to select it, then click the pin icon to unpin it.
3. Open the Type Selector and pick any loaded curtain panel family. The panel swaps in and stretches to fill its cell.

Custom panels must be loaded into the project first — the process is the standard one we cover in how to load a Revit family. If you don’t want to model your own, our curtain wall families include ready-made panels with frames, spandrels, and louvers.

How to Add a Door to a Curtain Wall

This is the question that stops everyone, and the answer is a concept, not a trick: a curtain wall door is not a regular door family. Regular doors need a basic wall to host them and will refuse to cut a curtain wall. Instead, a curtain wall door is a curtain panel family that behaves and schedules as a door.

1. Load a curtain wall door family into the project — Revit ships with Curtain Wall Sgl Glass, Curtain Wall Dbl Glass, and Curtain Wall-Store Front-Dbl, and you’ll find more styles among our curtain wall door families.
2. Adjust the curtain grids so one cell matches your intended door size — the door will adopt the exact dimensions of the cell it occupies.
3. Tab to the panel in that cell, select it, unpin it.
4. In the Type Selector, choose the curtain wall door family. The panel becomes a functioning door.

Because the family’s category is Doors, it appears in door schedules, takes door tags, and counts toward egress like any hosted door — while resizing with the curtain wall like a panel. If a mullion crosses the bottom of the door cell, delete that mullion segment so the threshold is clear.

How to Embed a Curtain Wall in a Solid Wall

Storefronts and ribbon glazing usually sit inside a basic wall rather than replacing it. Revit handles this with embedding:

1. Select your curtain wall type, open Edit Type, and check Automatically Embed.
2. Draw the curtain wall directly on top of (or slightly overlapping) the basic wall in plan.
3. The curtain wall cuts its own opening and behaves like an oversized window — the host wall wraps around it.

The Storefront type ships with Automatically Embed already enabled, which is why storefronts “just work.” One caution: an embedded curtain wall moves with edits to its host in ways that can surprise you — pin the curtain wall once it’s positioned if the design is final.

Curved Curtain Walls (Quick Overview)

Curtain walls follow curved paths: pick the arc or spline options in the Draw panel when placing the wall. The nuance is that panels stay flat — a curved curtain wall is really a series of faceted segments between grid lines, so tighter vertical grid spacing means a smoother curve. True curved (bent-glass) panels require custom panel families or a curtain system on a mass surface, which is a topic for its own guide.

Troubleshooting Curtain Walls

I can’t select or change a panel

You’re selecting the whole wall. Hover and press Tab repeatedly — Revit cycles wall > grid > mullion > panel; watch the status bar at the bottom-left. And remember panels are pinned by default: unpin before swapping types.

Curtain grids won’t move or delete

They’re driven by the type’s layout (Fixed Distance / Fixed Number). Either change the layout to None in Edit Type and place grids manually, or unpin the specific grids you need to move. Type-driven grids also reset when the wall length changes — manual grids don’t.

Mullions overlap or look wrong at corners

Two causes: the join condition at the intersection (select the mullion and toggle Make Continuous / Break at Join), or a missing corner mullion — regular mullions don’t miter around wall corners; the L, V, quad, and trapezoid corner types do.

The curtain wall won’t embed in my wall

Check that Automatically Embed is enabled in the curtain wall’s type properties, and that the two walls actually overlap in plan — parallel-but-separate walls don’t trigger the cut. If both check out, slightly move the curtain wall to force Revit to re-evaluate the geometry.

My door schedule doesn’t show the curtain wall door

The panel you swapped in is a generic curtain panel, not a curtain wall door family (category: Doors). Only door-category panels schedule as doors. Swap in a proper curtain wall door and it appears immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Build Better Facades

That’s the complete workflow for how to make a curtain wall in Revit: place with the Wall tool, divide with grids, frame with mullions, and customize with panel families. The system rewards understanding over clicking — once the grid/panel/mullion logic clicks, every facade is the same five steps. Skip the modeling where you can: our curtain wall family library has the panels, profiles, and doors ready to load, and if you’re new to loading content, start with our family loading guide.