Appendix A The Bottom Line Each of The Bottom Line sections in the chapters suggest exercises to deepen skills and understanding. Sometimes there is only one possible solution, but often you are encouraged to use your skills and creativity to create something that builds on what you know and lets you explore one of many possible solutions. Chapter 1: Understanding BIM: From the Basics to Advanced Realities The advantages of Building Information Modeling The traditional architectural design tools you’ve mastered are probably serving you well. New software and a new conceptual model of the building process will inevitably involve some adjustments, so they need to provide significant benefits. Master It What are some of the advantages of using BIM over traditional CAD tools? Solution BIM is a model-based tool that keeps your documents coordinated in a single file. As a modeling tool, representational drawings such as plan and section are by-products of modeling, not separately managed drawing files. BIM is also well suited for making early design decision and iterating in the design, because you can run analysis early and frequently. What to expect from Building Information Modeling A BIM project is based on a single, centralized database of information. You need to anticipate how that change can affect work- flows based on more independent functions. Master It How can the work process be affected by the adoption of BIM? Solution BIM changes the way projects are managed and worked on. You’ll find that teams must communicate on a regular basis when working on a shared BIM model. This encourages members of the team to take active responsibility for their parts of the model and understand the impact that design changes have on other parts of the model. Using BIM also means you have to shed some old habits and expectations and be willing to change the way you think about producing construction documents. Moving from a drafting-centric work- flow to a model-based workflow can be jolting at first, but once you take the plunge, you’re unlikely to look back. Chapter 2: Revit Fundamentals Work with and understand Revit parametric elements Although you can find references to objects, families, instances, and components, in the end everything is an element. Master It What are Revit elements, and how are they managed graphically? 44831.book Page 647 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 648 APPENDIX A THE BOTTOM LINE Solution Anything you can select in the view is a Revit element. By using a fixed category structure, Revit lets you quickly identify elements, control their visibility and graphics, and generate reports based on this information. The data is highly structured, but you have tre- mendous liberty when it comes to the representation of that data. Use the Revit user interface As in any software application, you need to know where all the major components are and what tasks they support. Master It How do you change the graphics of a category for all views? What if you need to change the graphics for only one view? Solution Use the Object Styles dialog to set up and edit the graphics for all elements in the model. This establishes a default behavior for all views. To change the graphics on a per-view basis, use the Visibility/Graphic Overrides dialog, which you can access from the context menu when elements are selected or by pressing the VG keyboard shortcut. The sooner you embrace this concept and start exploring the opportunities it presents, the better. If you can’t get your drawing to look just right, chances are you haven’t dug deep enough. Use the Project Browser This UI component provides access to all elements in your model. Get used to using it to locate views, families, groups, and links. Master it Knowing how to navigate views in Revit is essential to completing work. What are some of the ways to open views in Revit? Solution You can open views from the Project Browser by double-clicking any view. In addition, you can double-click view tag symbols directly (level heads, section heads, eleva- tion tags, and callout bubbles) to open the view. Navigate views and view properties Views are also elements. Just like the walls, floors, and roofs you add to the model, you’ll also add views. They have properties you should become familiar with. Master it You need to change the scale of a plan view from 1 ⁄ 8 ˝ to 1 ⁄ 4 ˝. How do you do this with Revit? Solution Using either the View Properties option on the view’s context menu or the view controls at bottom of the view, change the scale. The annotations and hatch patterns will update automatically. You can change the scale of any view at any time. Chapter 3: Know Your Editing Tools Selecting, changing, and replacing elements Learning the basic mechanics of the interface is crucial to just about everything you’ll do in Revit. Master It Selecting elements in the model happens all the time. What are some of the affor- dances that the Revit UI provides when you select elements? Solution Any time an element is selected, you’ll notice that a few things change in the UI. First, the element changes color, indicating that it’s selected. Second, if you select a model element, you get temporary dimensions to help you position the element. Third, icons appear for graphic controls such as drag grips, check boxes, and flip arrows. And finally, the Options bar updates with element-specific tools. All these features help keep the UI out of your way until you need it. 44831.book Page 648 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 4: SETTING UP YOUR TEMPLATES AND OFFICE STANDARDS 649 Editing elements interactively The architectural process inevitably involves revision, so be sure you know how to make changes on the fly. Master It You need to make some major changes to a floor plan, moving the bathroom 20´ down a corridor. How might you do this with Revit? Solution Box-select all the walls, fixtures, and doors that are part of the bathroom. Use the Filter tool to make sure you have the right categories selected. Then, select the Move tool in the toolbar. Click anywhere in the model, and move the mouse in the direction you need to move the bathroom. Type 20´ . The whole set of elements then moves 20´. Using other tools Revit provides a wide range of tools for making changes in a project. Master It In a section view, you notice that the walls and floors aren’t cleaning up neatly— you’re seeing lines overlap. What tool could you use to try to clean that up? Solution For quick join cleanups, use the Join Geometry tool. Activate the tool, and then select the elements you want to join. With each click of the mouse, you see the overlapping lines disappear, and your drawings start to clean up immediately. Chapter 4: Setting up Your Templates and Office Standards Create your own template with custom annotations and settings Creating a template that incorporates your firm’s styles and preferences is an essential first step in putting Revit to work. Master It Your firm has some deeply established graphic conventions that were defined in AutoCAD. How would you go about matching these graphics and setting up a Revit template? Solution Using object styles to customize how elements appear in both projection and cut, you can get model and annotation categories to match the line weight, color, and pattern of those used in AutoCAD. Create custom annotation families in the Family Editor Styles for annotations, dimensions, and text are all governed by office standards, and the Family Editor is your tool for setting up those standards in Revit. Master It You need to create dimensions, text, and annotations that match your office standards. How do you do this with Revit? Solution Make new types of system families for text and dimensions. With these families, you can control font, color, and size. For tags, open an existing tag and customize its graphics to suit your needs. Be sure to add parametric labels to make your tags smart and associative. This will save you huge amounts of time later! Create custom title blocks in the Family Editor Title blocks are another important element of office standards that you can configure in the Family Editor. Master It Most offices have several title blocks with lots of information embedded in them. How would you add multiple title blocks to your project template file? Solution Make your own title blocks as parametric families, and then load them into the template using the Load From Library option. With smart labels, you need to define these only once in the Family Editor; they will adapt to whatever project you load the title block into. 44831.book Page 649 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 650 APPENDIX A THE BOTTOM LINE Chapter 5: Customizing System Families and Project Settings in Your Template Creating new types in the Family Editor for common building components such as walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, and stairs Incorporating common building components in your project template is fundamental to using Revit effectively. Master It How do you add/remove wall, floor, and roof types to your template? Solution Start with an existing template, and draw all the walls, floors, and roofs you’re likely to need in your own projects. Then, purge unused wall, floor, and roof types from the file using the File/Purge tool. That way, all unused types will be removed from the template. If you need to add additional types, duplicate a type, name it, and make changes as needed. When you’re done save your file as a new Revit template (RTE file). Creating a type catalog to organize types for accessibility Revit’s type catalogs are an important tool for keeping the types you create accessible in a project. Master It What are type catalogs used for? Solution A type catalog is a tool that lets you easily and quickly create many types of a family that have different dimensions and sizes. The type catalog is a text file connected with a Revit family. This text file can store many definitions of family types. It is imperative that the type catalog has the same name and is located in the same folder as the family for which it defines additional types, otherwise there will be no association between them and the type catalog will fail. When you load a family with an associated type catalog, you can selectively load types from the catalog. Creating view templates for specific requirements View templates allow you to tailor views according to the requirements of a project. Master It How would you set up a new view template for plan views where the surface pattern of floors is turned off? Solution You can turn off categories and patterns and override the graphics for any view, and store these settings in a view template so they can be applied to many views. First, choose Settings  View Templates. Duplicate an existing plan-view template type, and give it unique name. Next, click the Visibility/Graphic Overrides button, which takes you the Visibility/ Graphic Overrides dialog. Scroll down to the Floors category, and click the Surface Pattern Override button. Deselect the Visible option, and click OK twice to get back to the View Templates dialog. You can now apply this view template to your plan views by right-clicking the view name in the Project Browser and using the Apply View Template feature. Chapter 6: Modeling Principles in Revit Using Revit’s essential form making tools (Extrusion, Sweep, Revolve, and Blend) These four tools are at the root of practically all form modeling. 44831.book Page 650 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 6: MODELING PRINCIPLES IN REVIT 651 Master it Having learned the basics of Revit’s form making tools, imagine how you would build this faucet designed by Philippe Starck. Solution: Start a new Generic Model family. In the family, use Revolves, Sweeps, and Blends to create the faucet. In this example you would model the base as a Revolve, the spout a sweep, and the toggle switch as a blend. Master it: In some cases, a form is made of multiple sketch lines to generate its form. What form making tools in Revit use more than one set of 2D sketches to generate the form? Solution: Sweeps have a Profile sketch and a Path sketch. Revolves have a Profile sketch and an Axis line. Blends have two sketches: one for the Base and one for the Top. The Underlying Concept of Sketch Based Design Master it: Revit uses a 2D sketch based approach to modeling. What modeling elements in Revit use this 2D sketch principle to generate their form? Solution: Every model element in Revit has at least one 2D sketch in it. Even walls, while not made initially using a sketch mode, have a sketch that can be edited. All 3D content is composed of combinations of forms that all derive from 2D sketches. How Work Planes, Datums, and Reference Planes are used in modeling Master it: In order to sketch a form, the form must reside on a Work Plane. How do you define and visualize the Work Plane in Revit? Solution: To see the active Work Plane in a view, press the Work Plane visibility toggle in the Options bar. Right next to that button is the Work Plane tool, that will allow you to change the Work Plane by choosing an exiting Level, or picking on an existing model face. Combining Solids and Voids to create complex and intriguing forms Master it: To make more complex forms, the use of both solids and voids can be used. Think of a case where the using Voids as a subtractive element makes sense. Solution: If create an extrusion in plan form, and then need to edit it in elevation, a Void is a perfect match. With the Void, you will be able to carve the top of the extrusion to give it a more unique shape. 44831.book Page 651 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 652 APPENDIX A THE BOTTOM LINE Chapter 7: Concept Massing Studies Understanding massing workflows supported by Revit Using generic forms, you can create early conceptual models and then use the mass to create the walls, floors, and roofs. Master It You need to explore a design idea early on, in 3D, using abstract forms. How would you do this with Revit? Solution One way to start work on a project is with an early conceptual sketch and mass- ing study. Revit tools allow you to create massing studies and work through iterations to arrive at the design solution you need. You can import a hand sketch or a DWG and model from it or start from zero using the modeling tools. Once you’ve created some forms, you can make views, do shadow studies, and calculate area and volumes. Creating massing elements in the project environment and Family Editor In the project environment, you can make massing forms at any time. For generic forms that might appear in multiple projects, consider using the Family Editor and create Mass Families. Master It You’ve imported a 2D site plan, and now you need to start building up a mass- ing study model in the project. How would you approach this with Revit? Solution Start the Massing tool on the Massing Design bar, Create Mass and use the extru- sion tool while picking the existing 2D shapes of the imported site plan as a base reference. Create a new massing form to begin experimenting with your design, and see how it impacts the surrounding context. Understanding how massing can be used downstream as the design progresses Making a mass is one thing, but leveraging that mass for quantity take-offs can further aid and inform the design process. Master It Once you’ve settled on a basic massing study, what information can you derive from it? How can this be represented? Solution Using levels, the mass can be sliced into floors to perform area calculations. These can then be used to track progress of the design against the design requirements. You can also attach walls, floors, and roof to the mass, which can in turn be scheduled very early in the process. Chapter 8: From Conceptual Mass to a Real Building Leverage a massing study for program validation and early feasibility studies You can use massing studies to validate a design against the program requirements. Master It Conceptual modeling is used early in the design process to explore building shape and program. How do you approach schematic design using Revit and perform fea- sibility studies? Solution Revit lets you import a site DWG file and begin building a 3D massing study of the surroundings using the linework coming from the CAD import. Then, using the massing 44831.book Page 652 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 8: FROM CONCEPTUAL MASS TO A REAL BUILDING 653 tools, you can model your conceptual composition. Using the design options, you can make a few different proposals. With mass and floor schedules, you can measure what you’ve done and test-proof the fit to the local regulations as well as the program. Convert a mass into a building using the Building Maker tools Moving from massing to actual building components is easily done with Revit. Master It You’ve got the basic massing nailed down, and now you need to study more details such as wall and window fenestrations. How do you approach this with Revit? Solution Once a final design is selected, you can use the Building Maker concept to quickly turn the mass model into a BIM model that contains walls, floors, roofs, and other architectural elements. In the early stage of this conversion, you can keep the dependency with the mass model so that if you decide to make changes you can use the Remake func- tionality to update the converted building accordingly. The idea is simple—you move from mass to a final building seamlessly, without data loss. Import files from other sources when working on massing You can make your own con- ceptual massing forms using standard Revit form-making tools or by importing geometry from other applications. Master It How can you reuse conceptual models created in other modeling applications and turn them into a measurable and documentable building in Revit? Solution The concept of Building Maker allows you to import models from SketchUp, Rhino, 3ds Max, and Inventor. You import early concept studies into a mass element and then apply real components (walls, roofs, floors, and so on) to its faces: 44831.book Page 653 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 654 APPENDIX A THE BOTTOM LINE Chapter 9: Working with Design Options Understanding how design options work in Revit Design options provide a means to main- tain two or more alternative designs for the same project or component. Master It What are design options in Revit? Solution Design options allow you to explore alternatives to your current design direc- tion. By creating option sets from the Design Options dialog, you can make an unlimited number of variations to your design theme. These can be controlled with the Visibility/ Graphic Overrides dialog, which lets you see the options in any number of view types: plans, elevations, sections, perspectives, schedules, and so on. Creating new design options Learning to add new options to a set is crucial to getting the most out of this tool. Master It Your client has asked you to explore an 8´ × 8´ seating arrangement option in their office space. It’s currently designed for 8´ × 10´ and 6´ × 8´ options. Add a new design option to explore the new scheme. Solution You’ve already created a design option for each of the two schemes (8´ × 10´ and 6´ × 8´) using the Design Options toolbar. Both of these options are currently children of the same option set. You need to add a new option. Select one of the two, and copy the option. Now, choose Edit Option, and arrange the existing furniture into the new configuration without fear of losing the other two design schemes. Once this is done, duplicate one of the furniture plans, and you can show the new option by changing the Visibility/Graphics Overrides parameter. Presenting multiple design options Presenting multiple options makes it possible for your client and other project stakeholders to explore the alternatives. Master It You need to show a client five different design solutions for the new main entrance to the project you’re working on. Solution Use design options. Add all the host elements, including walls, floors, and roofs, that relate to the area of interest to five separate design options in an option set. Remember to add only elements that will affect the entrance. Edit each design option by adding new ele- ments or editing the elements you copied into the design option. Make 3D and plan views showing the entrance, and duplicate each view five times. Set the visibility of each view to show the desired design option, and put the views on sheets for your presentation. Showing quantities and cost schedules for multiple options Making quantitative differ- ences visible is an essential part of presenting multiple alternatives. Master It You need to look at some seating layout options for an auditorium space based on different-sized seating and show the seating counts. Solution Using design options and a Revit Auditorium Seat family, you can create two design options for the layout: one for seating 20˝ wide and one for seating 24˝ wide. Once these are laid out in their respective design options, you can create a schedule to count the seating based on size. By creating a seating schedule and then duplicating it, you can change 44831.book Page 654 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 10: CREATING CUSTOM 3D CONTENT 655 the Visibility/Graphics Overrides parameter of the second schedule to count the second design option. In the following views, the two schemes have 276 and 234 seats, respectively. Consolidating your options and settling on a final solution The end result of exploring multiple options is to choose one alternative and implement that choice. Master It You’ve explored a number of design options for an entry scheme. Your client has selected one, and you need to incorporate it into the rest of the model and remove the unwanted alternates. Solution In the Design Options dialog, select the desired option, and click Make Primary. Doing so pushes that option into all your views in the project as the default option. Now, select the option set and click the Accept Primary button. Each of your other unwanted options is eliminated, and your primary option is incorporated into the design. Chapter 10: Creating Custom 3D Content Understanding the different types of model families you can make When you’re making a new family, consider how it will be used in the model, and choose an appropriate template. Master It You found a ceiling-mounted lighting fixture that you want to use in your exist- ing project, but you can’t find a Revit family for it in any libraries or online communities. How would you start? 44831.book Page 655 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 656 APPENDIX A THE BOTTOM LINE Solution Knowing that you need to build a lighting fixture from scratch, begin by opening the Lighting Fixture ceiling based.rft template file. This will ensure that the family is hosted by ceilings and will thus move and stay connected with the ceiling in which the light is placed. Look carefully at how the fixture is built, and consider what Revit form-making tools are best suited for building it. Proceed to build the family, and assign it materials and any dimensional parameters using reference planes and labeled dimensions. When you think you’re done, save the file with a unique name, load it into your project, and place it. Remem- ber, if you need to make edits, the process is simple: Select the family, and then click the Edit Family button on the Options bar. You’ll be taken directly into the Family Editor, where you can tweak the design. Clicking the Load Into Project button reloads the family into your project and updates all instances of the type with your changes. Leveraging nested families for flexibility and efficiency The ability to nest families in other families lets you create content that’s easier to manage and improves your workflow. Master It Building components are often composed of a series of subcomponents that form an overall assembly. Think of some common examples and what strategies you could use to build such content in Revit. Solution Consider an office workstation. Typically, a workstation is made of modular components: the desk surface, vertical partitions, file cabinets, bookshelves, and a chair. You could load these elements into a project and manually manage all the parts, maybe even using groups to do so. A more efficient and easier-to-manage method is to nest various parts into one family. Starting with a blank Furniture Systems family template, you could load the desk, partitions, cabinets, and chair into one family. By making each nested family a shared family, you can tag and schedule all the elements. Building relationships between parameters with formulas Create smart connections between geometry and dimensions to create efficient and parametric content. Master It You can use dimensional relationships to tie the size of one object to the size of another. How do you do this in the context of a family? Solution Using the Family Types dialog, you can add new parameters and then create for- mulas that tie the value of one or more parameters to any other parameter. Using a conven- tional mathematical formula, you can create families that are extremely flexible and dynamic. Chapter 11: Extended Modeling Techniques Take advantage of advanced wall features Many design situations require more than just the basic wall features; learn to use the more advanced Revit tools. Master It A design calls for a horizontal soldier course in a brick wall every 12´ on the façade. Using Revit, how would you build this into a wall element? Solution Create a new wall type and add integrated wall sweeps into the wall definition. Each wall sweep can have a material assigned to it, so you just need to define the correct size and materials to the sweep to get it to look correct. Place several instances at 12´ intervals. You can change the preview sample size of the wall to be any height in order to add addi- tional sweeps above the default 20´. 44831.book Page 656 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]... Design to Detailed Documentation Create drafting views Not every drawing or view in Revit is created with model elements Some of the views on sheets will be made solely with 2D drafting views Knowing how to create and use these views is critical to any documentation package Master It Keeping views hyperlinked together is a key benefit to using Revit How do you draw simple, 2D details in Revit but still... note a project Revit supplies you with three ways to annotate your model and the project Knowing when to use each and planning for them early in the documentation phase saves time and frustration Master It It is important to understand the relationships between elements and materials in Revit early How does this help streamline the process of keynoting your project when you reach the documentation phase?... project in Revit, discuss the keynoting strategy used within your office and see how easily that transitions into Revit Set up your keynotes and schedules for those notes long before you need to document the project This will ensure that when the time comes to begin laying out your sheets, you can do it with a minimum amount of disruption to your workflow If this is not your first project in Revit, begin... room elements is only part of the documentation and design process Knowing how to schedule that information allows you to communicate effectively with owners and contractors Master It Tags are used to report information about an element How do tags work in Revit so that they always report accurate and consistent information about the elements they tag? Solution Elements defined in Revit such as walls,... displayed in any view by modifying the view detail in each view Export details for use in other Revit projects There are times when details are common between projects Knowing how to use details from other Revit projects will cut down on your documentation time Master It Use details you created in your other Revit projects Solution After finishing the detail or project, choose File Save to Library Save... more than one person at a time is critical in any office environment Master It How do you work in a single Revit file on a project team with more than one member in the file at a time? Solution Worksharing allows for multiple users in a Revit environment Understanding and using worksharing is a vital part of any large-scale project where you will have more than one person doing the drawing Worksharing... Work with advanced roofs and slab editing Roofs are another seemingly simple element that present architectural challenges, and Revit has tools for them Master It You are working on a flat roof retail project, but of course the roof is not really flat and will need to drain Using Revit roof tools, how would you go about modeling this? Solution Create your roof flat initially, and then select it Use the... Work with railings Railings are another bread-and-butter architectural element whose design can be streamlined with Revit Master It You’ve found some nice-looking railing panels and balusters while scouring the Web for interesting rail designs How do you go about building the railing in Revit? Solution Start by figuring out what is baluster and what is rail For the rails, you’ll need to make custom profile... break the system down into Revit- centric constructs: extrusions, blends, revolves, and sweeps One you have the baluster made, load it into your project, make a new railing type, set up the baluster spacing, and establish the rail pattern Chapter 12: Presenting Your Design Using shadows for analytical and presentation purposes Presenting your design to stakeholders is a critical part of your workflow and... Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 661 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM CHAPTER 17: MOVING FROM DESIGN TO DETAILED DOCUMENTATION that a change to one instance will propagate to all other instances in the model At the same time, Revit recognizes that some group instances might need to be slightly different from the rest and that it needs to be flexible enough to support . to any documentation package. Master It Keeping views hyperlinked together is a key benefit to using Revit. How do you draw simple, 2D details in Revit. other Revit projects There are times when details are common between projects. Knowing how to use details from other Revit projects will cut down on your documentation