Making sense of Revit 2010 Interface

To those who are used to the old interface of Revit 2009 and below, it is a hassle to look for all the commands which have been staying in the same place for past couple of years. Until Revit 2010 comes along that is. So to make sense of where is where, I am comparing the interface between the old and new Revit, hopefully pointing the way for those who are completely lost (like me).

The old Revit have both pull down menus and design bar menus to choose the commands from. The new Revit no longer had that luxury. It had only one way to access the command and that is via the ribbon interface which Autodesk claims to have re-written so that the Revit can be better prepared for future improvement and more stable blah blah blah.

This provides a road map to map the old design bar to the new ribbon tab.

Basic Bar	Home Tab
Wall, Door, Window	Build Panel
Component	Build Panel->Component Drop Down>Place a Component
Room	Room & Area Panel>Room Drop Down>Room
Roof>Roof by Footprint; Roof by Extrusion; Roof by Face; Roof Soffit	Build Panel>Roof Drop Down
Floor	Build Panel>Floor Drop Down>Floor
Grid	Datum Panel>Grid
Lines	Model Panel>Model Line
Ref Plane	Work Plane Panel>Ref Plane Drop Down>Draw Reference Plane
Dimension	Annotate Tab>Dimension Panel
Section	View Tab>Create Panel>Section
Level	Datum Panel>Level
Text	Annotate Tab>Text Panel>Text

Creating a sweep that wraps around the wall end

One of my customer was trying to create a wall sweep that swept around the wall end like below:



















He had tried both the wall sweeps both in the wall sectional view and wall sweeps as host sweep, but the results he get was like below:
















After some trial end error, I realised that the best way to achieve the right results is through using wall sweep as host sweep.

1. First add wall sweep as host sweep onto the wall on both exterior and interior sides as shown above.

2. Pick on the wall sweep on one side to display the options.















3. Pick on the highlighted end region to turn the end 90 degrees.














4. Pick on the end again to display the grip.













5. Grab the grip and drag the end towards the center of wall end.











6. Do likewise for the sweep on interior side. Then use Join Geometry to join them together.














7. Repeat the same procedure for the other wall sweeps and you get the fantastic results as shown below.



















8. To get the exterior finish to wrap round the wall end, you must make sure that Wall Structure must be set so that the Wrapping at Ends is set to Exterior.












Some people may ask me why don't I just use the wall sweep in the wall sectional view. It is simple. You can do the same procedure with the wall sweep added in wall sectional properties. However, you cannot use Join Geometry onto the returned wall sweeps.

A faster way to add parameter to family

Now, when one created a new Generic Model family, there is no parameter other than the Identity Data. So one tend to add paramater all over again. It will be good that we can use some parameter already created in other family template so to save our time.

To achieve this, first you change the Family Category and Parameters from Generic Model to say for example: Doors.



























You notice that now you have additional Dimensions and Constraints parameters.


















Now draw a solid, dimension and assign the existing Width and Height parameter to it. Then change the Family Category and Parameters from Doors to Generic Model again.















You will notice that now you have only the parameters that you have assigned to your model. All other unused parameter are now discarded.

Creating Feature Wall in Revit

This is a follow up article on Revit Nested Families by DesignReForm.net posted on 26 Oct 2008. I notice that there are some comments that the video tutorial is a bit difficult to follow. So I have summarised it to be the following. I find that it useful to create feature wall in a landscaped garden hence the title.

1. Create a new Generic Model family and maybe named it "Box".

2. Goto Front view and draw 4 reference planes as shown. Notice that I did not use the existing Ref Level for the bottom reference plane. I also did not create an Equal Constraint for the left and right side.

3. Draw a Solid Form using Solid Extrusion. Lock the 4 edges to the Reference Planes.

4. Goto Floor Plan - Ref level and draw a Reference Plane above the Centre Ref Plane. Drag the edge of the box and lock it to the Reference Plane drawn.

5. Dimension the Reference Planes in Floor Plan view and add "Depth" parameter to it. Make it an Instance parameter.

6. In Front Elevation view dimension the Reference Planes as shown. Add "Width" and "Height" Instance parameter accordingly.

7. Save the family and named it "Box".

8. Create a new Curtain Panel family. In Floor Plan view place the created "Box" as shown. Note that the "Box" should face towards Exterior.

9. Drag the left and right sides of the placed "Box" and lock them to the respective Reference Planes.

10. Goto Elevation - Exterior view and drag the bottom Reference Plane away from the Ref Level as shown. Then drag the top and bottom sides of the "Box" and lock them to the respective Reference Planes.

11. Save the curtain panel family and named it "Box Panel".


12. Create a new project. Draw a curtain wall and add curtain grids as shown. I have used Single Segment Curtain Grids to draw the Curtain Grids.

13. Load the new curtain panel "Box Panel" into the new project. Named the project "Feature Wall'

14. Use Filter Selection and select all the curtain panels. Replace all the curtain panels with "Box Panel". Now, the wall looks interesting but we want to make an uneven feature wall. We can use some formula to make this happen.


15. Go back to the "Box" Generic Model. Add a formula on the "Depth" parameter. In this case, I want the depth to be driven by the "Width" and "Height" parameter. The formula I use:
(Width * Height) / 5000.

16. Load the new "Box" into the curtain panel family "Box Panel". Override all the existing parameters. Then load the modified "Box Panel" into the "Feature Wall" project. Override all the existing parameter as well.

17. The new "Feature Wall" is created. You may try to explore with a different formula to drive the Depth value to achieve different results.

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.