The disadvantage is that curved surface modeling increases the surface area and building space of the roof, and the structural treatment, supporting structure and construction are complicated. Reticulated shells can be divided into single-layer and double-layer structures. The span of single-layer reticulated shell should not exceed 40 meters.

The common types of reticulated shells are cylindrical reticulated shells, spherical reticulated shells and hyperbolic parabolic reticulated shells.

1. Cylindrical reticulated shell: a reticulated structure with a cylindrical surface, which has both the mechanical characteristics of a bar system and a shell structure, has curvature in only one direction and often covers a rectangular plane. Single-layer reticulated shells can be divided into four types according to the arrangement: one-way diagonal orthogonal orthographic grid, cross diagonal orthogonal orthographic grid, conjoined grid and three-dimensional grid. Double grids can refer to the type of plane grid structure to arrange different grids. The ratio of shell height to wavelength is generally between 1/6 and 1/8. The thickness of double-layer reticulated shell should be 1/20 ~ 1/30 of wavelength.

2. Spherical reticulated shell: used to cover long-span roofs. Common grid forms are: ribbed grid, Schwayder ribbed grid, rectangular grid, short-range linear grid and three-dimensional grid. By cutting the shell surface, spherical reticulated shells can be used for the roofs of polygonal, rectangular and triangular planar buildings.

3. Hyperbolic parabolic reticulated shell: It is formed by the parallel movement of two fixed lines (straight lines or curves) inclined in space at both ends of a straight line. Single-layer reticulated shells usually use straight beams, while double-layer reticulated shells use straight trusses and hyperbolic parabolic reticulated shells with orthogonal directions. This kind of reticulated shell is mostly used in asymmetric building plane, and the building is novel and light.