44831.book Page 309 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM Chapter 11 Extended Modeling Techniques In the previous chapters we covered basic modeling techniques for constructing a simple building We skipped over many additional features to give you a handle on essential workflow, the user interface, and making modifications to the model In this chapter we’ll cover more-advanced features that are available anytime you’re modeling in Revit As you’ll see, with a little refinement and creativity, you can make a wide range of building components with the standard tools In this chapter, you will learn how to the following: ◆ Take advantage of advanced wall features ◆ Work with advanced roofs and slab editing ◆ Work with railings Basic Walls: Advanced Modeling Techniques Walls are made from layers of materials that represent the construction assemblies used to build real walls In Revit, these layers can be assigned functions, allowing them to join and react to other, similar layers in the model when walls, floors, and roofs meet The wall core is one of these special layers, and understanding it will help you when designing your walls Wall Core Revit has a unique ability to identify a wall core that is much more than a layer of material The core influences the behavior of the wall and how the wall interacts with other elements in the model Every wall type in Revit has a core material with a boundary on either side of it You can dimension to these core boundaries, designating the location of structural wall components rather than finish materials The core boundary can also be used when drawing host elements (walls, floors, ceilings, roofs) For example, you can constrain a floor sketch to the structural stud layer of walls by using the wall-core boundary to create the sketch If walls change size or are swapped, the floor sketch maintains its relationship to the core boundary and will auto-adjust to the new wall To access and edit wall-core boundaries and material layers, select a wall and choose Element Properties Edit/New In the Type Properties dialog, select Structure as the parameter to edit This will open a new Edit Assembly dialog From here you can define materials, move layers in and out of the core boundary, and assign functions to each layer (see Figure 11.1) Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 310 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 310 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.1 Edit Assembly dialog of a wall type is where the construction layers of a wall are defined To get a feel for how core layers are used in relation to a floor, start a new session of Revit and follow these steps: Open a new project, and draw a simple floor plan using walls Select a multilayered wall type in order to understand the value of the exercise—the Brick on CMU wall type works well Draw at least four connected walls that represent a simple floor plan Use the View Control bar to switch to fine or medium detail view so you can see the wall layers (In coarse views, wall layers are never displayed.) From the modeling Design bar, select the Floor tool, keep the default Pick Walls option, and in the Options bar, check the “Extend into wall (to core)” option Position your cursor over an edge of the wall (do not click the mouse button yet), press Tab to highlight all the walls, and then click to select and zoom in A sketch line indicating the shape of the floor will be created This sketch line indicates the position of the floor relative to the wall—it’s drawn at the exterior edge of the wall core Make sure you’ve selected all walls as a reference to create the floor and click Finish Sketch Create a section through the wall and open the section view Again, make sure your view is set to medium or fine You’ll see the edge of the floor and how it aligns with the wall construction Figure 11.2 shows the sketch in plan and how the floor looks when finished in section Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 311 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM BASIC WALLS: ADVANCED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.2 The floor sketch in plan view and in section Core Layer If you change the wall type, or move it, the floor will update to match Layer Join Cleanup Having clean and legible drawings is important when representing construction design intent To this end, Revit provides a wall-layer priority system that intelligently manages the cleanup of internal wall layers Revit provides six functions (levels of priority), with Structure having the highest priority (Figure 11.3) Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 311 44831.book Page 312 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 312 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.3 Wall layers and function When you create a new wall type and begin adding layers to the wall, you need to assign a material, thickness, and priority to the layers When you’re assigning a priority, think about the function of the layer in the wall—is it finish? Substrate? Structure? This decision will help clean up your walls down the road Editing Wall Joins If you encounter situations in which the automated wall cleanup doesn’t correspond to your expectations, Revit will let you cycle through a range of possible layer configurations using the Edit Wall Joins tool, located in the Options bar With the Edit Wall Joins tool, you can edit wall-join configurations The default wall join is set to butt join Activate the Edit Wall Joins tool, and place your cursor over a wall join (This can be a corner where two walls meet.) The Options bar shows some alternative configuration options: Miter and Square A Miter join is shown in Figure 11.4 Figure 11.4 Mitered wall join Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 313 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM BASIC WALLS: ADVANCED MODELING TECHNIQUES Disjoining Walls In some cases, you will want to override the intelligent wall cleanup that Revit provides For example, a nonrated partition should not interrupt the gypsum board in a fire-rated wall The Disallow Join option will allow you create this condition To access this command, right-click the blue control dot at the end of any wall and select Disallow Join from the context menu Doing so breaks the auto-join cleanup Figure 11.5 shows the default cleanup (left) and the same join after disallowing the join and adjusting the wall end (right) Figure 11.5 The Disallow Join option provides extra flexibility Stacked Walls Walls in a building, especially exterior walls, are often composed of different wall types that stack one on top of another over the height of the faỗade At the very least, most walls sit on top of a foundation wall If the foundation wall moves and you expect walls on top of the foundation to also move, a stacked wall might be a good way to go Stacked walls allow you to create a single wall entity composed of different wall types vertically stacked The wall types used in a stacked wall need to be existing types already defined in your project To understand how stacked walls work and how to modify one, follow these steps: Open a new session of Revit, and make sure three levels are defined (if you don’t have three levels defined, switch to an elevation view, add a third level, and then go back to your floor plan view) Pick the Wall tool and select Stacked Wall: Exterior - Brick Over CMU w Metal Stud (located at the bottom of the list in the Type Selector) In the element properties, click the Edit/New button and then duplicate the wall type to create a new stacked wall Edit the structure parameter and click the Preview button to see the wall in section (Figure 11.6) When you’re editing the Stacked wall type, you’ll notice that the UI is slightly different than when you’re working with a basic wall Rather than editing individual wall layers, in this dialog you are editing stack predefined wall types Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 313 44831.book Page 314 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 314 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.6 Sectional preview of stacked wall type Click the Insert button to add a new wall A new row appears in the list and allows you to define a new wall Select the Generic wall type from the Name list, and set the Height value With a new row selected, click the Variable button This will allow the wall to vary in height to adjust with level heights Go back to your plan view and draw the new wall, setting its top constraint to Level Cut a section through the model and change the heights of Level and Level to see the effect this has on the wall (Make sure the level of detail is set to medium/fine so you can see the wall layers.) You’ll see that changing Level does not change the bottom walls because they are fixed in height However, changing the height of Level will change the height of the variable wall (Figure 11.7) Figure 11.7 The middle section of this stacked wall varies on a per instance basis Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 315 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM BASIC WALLS: ADVANCED MODELING TECHNIQUES Adding Wall Articulation Walls are often complex and articulated in their composition Cornices, reveals, corrugated metal finish, and other projections are used all the time Some wall finishes have more than one material on them and they can be flush or of different thickness Revit can accommodate any of these types of design articulation Some examples of compound walls are shown in Figure 11.8 Figure 11.8 Compound vertical walls: (A) brick wall with horizontal sweeps, reveals and a top finish; (B) compound wall with aluminum corrugated finish, trapezeshaped; (C) compound wall with aluminum corrugated finish curved; (D) compound wall with slanting wall finish A C B D From the Edit Assembly dialog of any Basic Wall Type, you can enable a preview of the wall This preview allows you to view the wall in either plan or section When the section preview is active, additional tools also become active and allow you to place geometric sweep/reveal components on the wall (Figure 11.9) Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 315 44831.book Page 316 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 316 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.9 With section view active, tools for modifying the vertical structure become active Example: Assigning Two Different Materials on the Final Finish of a Wall Let’s start with a case where you need to create a wall that has two different material finishes that are flush aligned (Figure 11.10) Figure 11.10 Exterior wall layer built of two different materials in the height Select a multilayered wall as a base and duplicate it to create a new wall type In the Wall Edit Assembly dialog, switch the view to show a section view of the wall In this exercise, the exterior wall layer is plaster, but what we need is the lower inches (1.20m) to be brick and to keep the walls flush with one another Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 317 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM BASIC WALLS: ADVANCED MODELING TECHNIQUES Place your cursor at the beginning of the exterior finish layer This will highlight the wall component in the section preview Select the Split Region tool and split the layer at 4˝ (1.20m) height (Figure 11.11) Figure 11.11 Split Region applied to the exterior component The moment you split the layer, you will notice that the Finish layer reports a reports a thickness of 0.00, meaning that it is variable You will now need to add one additional layer To so, use the Insert button and add that component right after the first exterior finish Change its function to Finish 1, its material to Brick, and its thickness to zero Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 317 44831.book Page 318 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 318 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Place the cursor at the front of the row of the new material and select it This will highlight the material and show a thin red line in the section view (Figure 11.12) Figure 11.12 Highlight the split section of the wall to assign a new layer (material) to it After having added that layer, click the Assign Layer button and pick the portion of the wall that you wish to assign the zero thickness layer to (in this example, the lower portion) The result will be that the picked portion of the wall will have the new layer assigned and your wall exterior face will show two different materials While working on a complex compound wall, you might have a situation where you need to merge horizontal or vertical wall layers that already exist in the wall For that, use the Merge button and pick on the line between two layers Once the cursor is over a line between two layers, an arrow indicating which layer will override the other one during the merging will show up, as shown in Figure 11.13 Figure 11.13 (A) Merge layers vertically; (B) merge layers horizontally A B Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 379 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES Figure 11.59 Various post types created using Baluster-Post.rte Rails These are horizontal elements that connect posts (should there be any) The geometry of the rails is defined by profile families that you create in the Family Editor using the Profile Rail family template Here are some examples of typical rail profiles Rails can appear attached to a wall as a handrail, as shown in Figure 11.60 In this case, no posts are used and the wall mount brackets are custom-designed balusters The rail is following the stair and is given an appropriate offset from the wall Figure 11.60 Handrail seemingly attached to wall Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 379 44831.book Page 380 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 380 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Railing Construction The order and combination of these subelements of the railing element can create unlimited variations of railings In the type properties of the railing, under the Rail Structure and Baluster placement options (Figure 11.61), you can set any combination Figure 11.61 Type properties of a railing element with embedded editors for rail and baluster placement Setting Up Rail Structure Choosing Rail Structure Edit Rails displays the dialog shown in Figure 11.62, where you define the number, shape, and position of the rails in your railing Figure 11.63 shows a railing with two rails: one set to 6˝ (15cm) height and the upper one set at 4´ (120cm) Both of them use the profile Rectangular Handrail The 1˝ (2.5cm) offset pushes the rail away from the sketch line, as you can see in the front elevation Figure 11.62 The Edit Rails dialog Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 381 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES Figure 11.63 (Left) Elevation of a railing with two rails (lower and upper); (right) the rails are placed with an offset to the mid-axis of the rail sketch line (balusters have no offset) To define posts and baluster patterns, click the Edit button for Baluster Placement in the type properties of the railing You’ll see the window shown in Figure 11.64 Options in the Posts Group Depending on their position in the railing, posts can be start , corner, or end posts You can choose to have different families for the three types and thus select a different baluster-post family for all three, or you can keep it simple and use the same family You also don’t have to have them all—you can set None for the post placement for any of them (for example, you can have start and end and no corner) Figure 11.65 shows various possibilities for the placement of posts Figure 11.64 The Edit Baluster Placement dialog Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 381 44831.book Page 382 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 382 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.65 (Left) Railing with start, corner, and end posts using the same post family (Right) Railing with corner post set to None and different post families used for start and end posts You can define corner posts to be dependent on the angle of the railing or to only appear under certain conditions, or you can not use them at all The option Angles Greater Than allows for visibility control dependent on the set angle This means that if the individual segments of sketch lines of a railing turn into angles greater than 70 degrees (for example), a corner post will be placed If smaller, none will be placed (Figure 11.66) Figure 11.66 When the sketch lines of a railing meet at an angle greater than the angle defined for corner posts, a corner post will be placed As mentioned, railings and their subelements can be hosted only on floors, levels, and stairs So their placement is usually defined as an offset from the host In the Edit Baluster Placement dialog, you will find that you can also define the position of a rail as an offset from another rail that exists in the structure That is what the Top parameter means—here you can either select the host of the entire railing or choose from a list of existing rails in the railing as a top reference The top offset can be a positive or negative value Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 383 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES The Space parameter defines the distance of the post center line to the railing viewed in a longitudinal direction, as shown in Figure 11.67 This value can be positive or negative Figure 11.67 Space parameters define the longitudinal position of the rail Designing the Main Pattern The Main Pattern section of the Edit Baluster Placement window is where you define the pattern of the railing between the posts to generate a complex railing, such as Figure 11.68 The options (Figure 11.9) are similar to those just discussed for the rails Figure 11.68 Baluster main pattern Figure 11.69 The Main Pattern options Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 383 44831.book Page 384 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 384 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Note that all parameters that define position (such as Dist from Previous or Offset) are calculated from the midpoints of the baluster families The Dist from Previous setting allows placement of balusters at a specific set distance from one another You will have to know the actual dimensions of your different balusters prior to defining this (Figure 11.70) Figure 11.70 The baluster position is always measured to the mid-axis for all positioning parameters A B As you can imagine, the railing length will not always fit an even number of panels or balusters based on the pattern length How we deal with that? Revit provides four different justifications for the pattern fit: Beginning, End, Center, and Spread Pattern To Fit Their names explain the usage, but Figure 11.71 shows the different justifications and their implications on a design The justification you select will obviously depend on your design, but you may also be using prefab standard railing patterns that come only in certain dimensions Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 385 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES Figure 11.71 Pattern options Center Start End Spread To Fit Balusters per Tread Revit allows you to set specific number of balusters per tread on stairs If you want to control the number fo the balusters per tread, you will check the first option: Use Baluster Per Tread On Stairs This will make the next option active and you can then type in the number of balusters you wish to have per tread You will also be able to change the baluster family by clicking the Baluster Family option to display a list of all loaded baluster families available in the project Figure 11.72 shows a railing with a two balusters/tread setting, a one baluster/tread, and then one with a changed baluster family (when the Use Baluster Per Tread On Stairs option is not activated, the effect is to change the baluster family) Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 385 44831.book Page 386 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 386 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.72 Spiral stairs with different settings: (A) two balusters per tread; (B) one baluster per tread; (C) Use Baluster Per Tread On Stairs is not activated, so the railing will follow the main pattern A B C Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 387 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES As you will notice, the moment you use the Use Baluster Per Tread On Stairs option, the Baluster Family selection overrides the one set in the Main Pattern section Additional Controls Landings can be difficult to work with when designing railings Revit has a set of additional tools and type parameters to control them (Figure 11.73) Figure 11.73 Landing parameters: Use Landing Height Adjustment By default, each railing in Revit will follow the stair flight and the landing and will create the most logical solution Often, however, the height of the railing on a landing is not calculated according to your design intent With the Use Landing Height Adjustment parameter, you will be able to change the railing at the landing to a specific height Landings can also generate unresolved situations where segments of the railings meet By default, the joins at the angles are unresolved and the segments are not connected You can fix that by adding vertical/horizontal segments and refine it further by setting the rail connections to Trim or Weld (see Figure 11.74) All these settings are also part of the type properties dialog for the railing Figure 11.74 Angled joins: (A) no connector; (B) add vertical/horizontal segments; (C) with Rail parameter set to Trim/Weld A A A B A C The Tangent Joins tool does a similar job but affects connections of different segments of the railing that are on a continuous tangent The options are located in the type properties of a rail The effects can be seen in Figure 11.75 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 387 44831.book Page 388 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 388 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.75 Mid-landing railing segments cleanup: (A) No Connector; (B) Add Vertical Segments; (C) Extend Rails to Meet A B C Finally, there are a few more adjustment tools needed to refine the railing and bring it closer to your design goals These last tools are available in sketch mode of the railing tool only Edit Joins Use this tool to clean up segment joints while in the railing sketch Once you’re in a sketch mode, this option appears in the sketch Design bar Click the Edit Joins button, hover the mouse pointer over the sketch line joins, and then click the join (Figure 11.76) to activate options in the Options bar These provide the same controls you saw in the previous example Figure 11.76 Edit joins by clicking on the end join of sketch lines In sketch mode, after you select one of the railing sketch lines, the following Options bar tools appear Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 389 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES What these tools will let you is manipulate the sketch lines in order to adjust the slope of the railing or correct the height connection The Slope tool will offer you three possibilities: By Host Follows the slope of the host, which is what you would most probably need in the majority of the cases Flat This option keeps the railing flat, regardless the slope of the host Slope This option defines a completely custom-chosen slope to your railing that ensures uninterrupted connection between adjacent segments Similar to what we have shown about the height adjustement on the landing, there is an additional adjustment of the height of a railing useful for controling the extension of a railing This is also available when in sketch mode only and offers two options: By Type The railing height for the selected segment depends on the properties of the railing type Custom The railing height for the selected segment can be forced to a different custom value Figure 11.77 demonstrates both situtations Figure 11.77 Railing height adjusted By Type or forced to a new height value (custom) Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 389 44831.book Page 390 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 390 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Adding a Rail onto a Wall Adding a rail to stairs is easy, but adding a rail on top of a wall is more difficult Shown here is a railing design consisting of a base wall and a railing element on top of it This is a common type of railing in institutional buildings or outdoor stairs, so let’s see how it is made The challenge we face is that a wall is not considered a host for a railing element, so we have to find a workaround for how to place a railing that will follow the stair angle and is based on the wall Start by creating a stair without any railings (or delete the default railings later) and create a wall next to it with an edited elevation profile You then create a very thin floor on top of the wall that will play the role of hosting for the railing: Create a floor type that is very thin Switch to elevation view Using the Dimension tool, measure the height of the top of the wall at the beginning and end of the stair You will need these values when you slope the floor to match the stair Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 391 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM RAILINGS AND FENCES Define the floor shape by switching to plan view and drawing a floor Use the Pick method and pick the four lines representing the top of the wall While still in floor sketch mode, click on the Slope Arrow tool and set the properties as shown: For Specify, choose Height At Tail For Height offset at Tail, set the value of the lower height of the wall to 3´-0˝ (97cm) For Height offset at Head, set the higher value of 12´-0˝ (405cm) Draw the slope arrow in the middle of the floor starting at the beginning of the stair and finishing toward the end of the stair By doing this, you have added a sloping to the floor that matches the sloping of the wall Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 391 44831.book Page 392 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM 392 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Select the Railing tool, click on Set Host, pick the floor, and draw the railing in the middle of the floor This workaround proves to be quite practical when dealing with railings in big auditoriums Auditoriums are rarely done using huge stairs but rather stairs divided into many floors, and a railing can only have one host, so it won’t be possible to host the railing on many floors at the same time Using this workaround, you will be able to create a railing that runs through many auditorium levels and is still hosted Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 393 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM THE BOTTOM LINE The Bottom Line Revit provides extensive tools for modeling basic elements such as walls, roofs, and railings, allowing for tremendous flexibility 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 faỗade Using Revit, how would you build this into a wall element? 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? 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 you go about building the railing in Revit? Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 393 ... Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 311 44831.book Page 312 Friday, October 12, 2007 12: 31 AM 312 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Figure 11.3 Wall layers and function... October 12, 2007 12: 31 AM 354 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 355 Friday, October 12, 2007 12: 31... October 12, 2007 12: 31 AM 356 CHAPTER 11 EXTENDED MODELING TECHNIQUES Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 44831.book Page 357 Friday, October 12, 2007 12: 31