Chunky or slim — adjustable frames for windows, doors and curtain walls

Frames set the character

A slim aluminium window and a chunky timber one can sit in the same opening and read as completely different buildings. Frame thickness is one of the highest-impact details in a façade — so it shouldn't be a fixed 30 mm you can't touch.

Every window, door and curtain wall in zdraw now has an adjustable Frame (mm) control, from a slim 10 mm up to a beefy 200 mm.

Windows — every style

Select a window and you'll find Frame (mm) in the inspector, alongside height and sill. Drag it (or type a value) and the outer frame — top and bottom rails, left and right stiles — thickens or thins. It applies to every window style: Sliding, Sash, Fixed and Empty. Curtain walls have their own control (below).

Only the outer frame scales

This is the important bit. When you fatten a frame, only the outer border grows. The inner sash bars — the glazing bars that divide the panes — stay at their default size. Push a window to a 200 mm frame and you get a bold outer border around delicate inner bars, which is how real chunky-framed windows actually look. If everything scaled together you'd just get a clumsy, over-thick grid.

The glass area shrinks to fit the thicker frame, exactly as it would in a real opening — the frame is capped so it can never swallow the pane.

Doors — jambs and head

Doors get the same Frame (mm) control, right under Height. It sets the thickness of the two side jambs and the head rail — think slim architrave versus a deep, substantial surround. Works across every door style, and on sliding doors the inner sash bars stay constant just like windows, so only the outer frame reads heavier.

Curtain walls — three independent thicknesses

Curtain walls are where this really pays off, because they have three distinct elements:

side jambs). Adjustable up to 200 mm.

constant thickness so resizing the outer frame never bloats the inner grid.

• Frame — the outer perimeter (top and bottom rails plus the two
• Mullions — the vertical dividers between panels. These stay a
• Muntins — the bars inside each panel, on their own control.

So you can wrap a heavy structural frame around a fine, delicate glazing grid — a very common commercial-glazing look — without the inner bars ballooning.

Recipe — steel-look glazing

1. A Fixed or Curtain Wall window. 2. Frame 60–80 mm, colour a near-black #1a1a1a. 3. Curtain wall: leave mullions and muntins thin. 4. A pale interior behind it.

That's the black steel-frame look in about four moves.

Saved with your project

Frame thickness lives on the fixture, so it saves and reloads with your .zdraw file — no re-tweaking after every open. Open the tutorial for the full fixtures walkthrough.