111 — Panel Joint (Expansion Gap)¶
The Expansion Gap is the space left between this panel and the one beside it. Each vertical edge carries its own value, and the two can differ.
This is not an annotation. The site drawing reads these numbers when it attaches panels to a wall line, so the gap on one panel decides where the next panel lands — and the one after that. A wrong gap does not draw a wrong line on this sheet; it shifts a wall.
Note
A browser version covers part of this lesson. Open it here — it lists exactly which steps it does not cover, so you know what to come back to AutoCAD for.
Where it lives¶
Expansion Gap is on Main Panel Details itself, and only there. There is no Joint command on the ConstructiVision menu, so this feature has no Route B — see lesson 101 for what that distinction means.
Two boxes, one per edge, in the Expansion Gap group: Left and Right.
What real projects use¶
Measured across all 146 panels in both sample projects:
gap (left, right) |
panels |
|---|---|
3/8” and 3/8” |
36 |
1/4” and 1/4” |
34 |
none at all |
17 |
3/4” and 3/8” |
8 |
3/8” and 3/4” |
8 |
1/4” and none |
8 |
1/2” and 1/4” |
7 |
3/4” and 3/4” |
5 |
3/8” is the most common single value. Start there unless the job says otherwise.
Asymmetry is ordinary¶
Look again at rows four through seven: 31 of the 146 panels carry a different gap on each edge. That is the whole reason there are two fields rather than one.
A wider gap on one side usually means that edge meets something the wall has to move against — a building expansion joint, or a change in the structure behind it. The narrow side is a routine panel-to-panel joint.
So when you work this dialog, ask about each edge separately. Typing the same number twice out of habit is the easy mistake, and it is the one that quietly moves a wall.
Zero is an answer¶
Seventeen sample panels carry no gap at all, where panels are cast tight against each other. Leave the field empty only when you mean zero — not when you have not decided.
Working it¶
Set the panel width first, so you can see what the gaps sit between.
Left edge, then right edge, deciding each on its own.
OK redraws the panel and stores both values on it. The title block’s Exp. Gap line shows them: with 3/8” left and 3/4” right it reads
Exp. Gap L=3/8" R=3/4".
Watch the lesson¶
The video sets an unequal pair on AAA039, 3/8” left and 3/4” right, clicks OK, reads the title block, and reopens Main Panel Details to show both values kept on their own edges.
Note
What the recording shows and what it does not. An unequal pair is read back after OK, so the recording would show a value that was not kept, both edges collapsing to one value, or left and right swapped. It does not show the gap spacing panels on a wall line: that is a site question, answered by attaching panels and measuring between them (lesson 10).