Another Complex Curtain Wall in Revit

Recently I have been following David Light's blog. He is having this complex curtain wall that he briefly describe on how he do it. The following is a more detail version of it.

1. Create a new generic family. In this case, I am assuming my curtain panel to be 1000mm x 1000mm. Go to front view and create all the necessary reference planes as shown. Then use Spline to draw the path. Add the control points as necessary. The extra control points will make the curvature end at the top end bottom in a tangential manner.















2. Draw the profile as shown at the end of the path.









3. Goto Solid Form and choose Solid Sweep. Pick the path as shown.













4. Drag the Profile location to the end of the path.













5. Pick on Profile and choose the profile as shown.













6. Choose Finish Sweep and mirror the created sweep.



















7. Saved the generic model and loaded into a new curtain panel family. Placed the generic sweep with Left Reference as origin. This is so that the cutain panel will be placed properly.















8. Create a new curtain wall with the grid spacing of 1000mm x 1000mm. Replaced all the curtain panel with the new custom panel.

Making a 3D Roadway in Revit

I was asked by some one to help create a roadway in Revit. As the roadway is not straight but comes with circular curves, he cannot use Ramp to create it. The best way to achive this is using the Slab tool.

1. Draw the Roadway with Slab command as shown.

2. Use Polar Arrayed Lines to sub-divide the circular curve area.



















3. Pick on the Roadway created and choose the Sub-Element - Add New Points tool.












4. Add nw points to the edges as shown.












5. Modify the elevation of each points. Create a section through each edge lines will facilitate the proper changing of elevation.














6. With each points properly elevated, you will get a nice roadway as shown.

Generative design by Revit

To the contrary then most people believe, Revit Architecture can actually do complex shape as the Revit core engine can actually handles complex geometries. It is only that the current geometric tools are currently a bit limiting even though Revit Architecture 2009 Swept Blend function proves a great improvement.

The left is one of the illustration courtesy of Craig Barbier.

How to do Timber Lattice in Revit

I was looking around for a way to create lattice look fence and come across this article in HOK CAD Solutions. So this save my time in writing a new one about it. Enjoy!

Darryn B, LON asks: I need to create a timber lattice structure, such as the attached pictures, as a wall and possibly as a slab too. I was wondering if anyone knew of or has done anything like this before?


William LC responds: Here’s a couple of examples on the approach I would take for a Timber Lattice Material.
As you can see I’ve played with Transparency and Bump, for a straight and a 45º option. You can use it in a Wall or in a Curtain Wall setting (my recommendation), be careful to modify the Mullions accordingly too.
In my test the Lattice is roughly 8 cm wood x 12 void, but that can be customized through the Maps and Map Alignment. Notice the material has a 50% Transparency and a Surface Pattern, for Revit shaded or Hidden views.

Custom Family Template

There are quite a number of standard family template for us to create families of different categories. However, are you able to create your own family template? The answer is - it is possible.

1. You may copy an existing family template say Generic Model. Rename it Custom Template.

2. Now this is the trick. Rename the template from .RFT to .RFA. This will allow you to edit the template file.

3. Customize your template file as required. Saved it and rename it back to .RFT.

4. Now when you create a new family, there will be a new template call Custom Template.

Creating Axonometric Sectional View

Most of us uses Section Box to create a 3D sectional view. However, sometimes we may want to create an axonometric sectional view from a sectional view. Using Section Box is not so accurate. For this, we may use the 3D Views command to achieve this.

1. Use Duplicate View to duplicate the default 3D view. Rename it Axo View.

2. In the floor plan, draw a Sectional Line using Section. You may rename it Axo Section.

3. Double click on the Axo View to activate it. Pick on the empty area. This is important so that you can change the View Orientation.

4. Goto View pull down menu, pick on Orient and then To Other View....


















Select the view Section: Axo Section.


















Now the view is oriented to Section View.







5. Use Orient then Southeast View to see the Axonometric Sectional View.

Sculpture like curtain wall

I was checking out the blog by David Light. He and a couple of other bloggers are pushing the limits of Revit curtain wall panel. So I was trying to follow what he has done with the curtain wall panel to create some custom curtain wall which is sculpture like.

The following picture is the results of such experimenting:












If any of the readers is interested to know how this is being done. Please check out the blog by David Light or email me for further information. Basically I am just creating two Generic Models and load them into a custom curtain wall panel.