Keep those patterns in check !

Hi again,

Well I hope you had a great weekend ! I wanted to start this week with something I though would be very useful during the creation of a template or the production of Construction documentsin regards to graphics. Before release 9.0 we were unable to control the direction or "alignment" of hatch pattens within a wall object, If the pattern looked good on a vertical wall in plan, then it did not look well in a horizontal wall; it just did not align to the boundaries of the wall.

Well to alleviate this, the great development team incorporated a new dialog box to the pattern properties that allow you to specify the method of alignment. Your choices are "Orient to view" - which is the Revit default which does not produce acceptable graphics; "Keep readable" - Which depending on the pattern you will want to use to force the pattern to stay aligned with the horizontal plane of your screen; and last "Align with element" - this option will produce the desired graphical condition for a pattern that is being used within a wall. - Oh I almost forgot, to access this dialog you must go into Settings>Fill Patterns then select the pattern you want to modify form the dialog box and click on the "settings" button on the upper right side. If you did everything correctly you will see the Modify Pattern Properties panel bellow. - Have a great week !

Revit Boom !

So you thought you were alone? read this short article from Cadalyst and see where we are heading. Autodesk reported 100% increase in Revit seats based on numbers from last year. This is very exciting news !

Hand Railings Explained ! - Finally

Hello again !

Well we all know that usually the railings that are in the default template are not always the ones we need, nor they look the way we want them to look. So I've put together a short explanation to help you around the cumbersome task of modifiying a railing type.

In order to change a railing type we need to access its type parameters, we can either do this while we are in sketch mode drawing our railing (under "railing propeties") or we can select the object properties once the railing has been created and go from there.

Once I acces the element properties and the go into the "Type Properties", you will notice that there are two buttons that will call separate dialog boxes for "Rail Structure" and "Baluster Placement". The Railing Structure Dialog blox allows you to specify a profile family to be extruted along the horizontal length of the railing. What is neat about this dialog is that it allows you to insert as many "railing" components as you need using different profiles and different elevations.

So once you have the horizontal members the way you want them, then you can exit this dialog box and go onto the next one which is the "Baluster Placement". In the Baluster Placement dialog, you will find a similar aproach to describe the vertical members, begining and ending post. However, rather than using extruded profiles, this dialog actually uses 3D geometry famlies categorized as "baluster" (these are built or modeled using the Baluster.rtf family template.) Therefore keep in mind that you need to load the appropriate familes you need for your railing before you enter this dialog box (oops!)

On the upper portion under the heading of "Main Pattern" you can load many different common balusters that will appear within a period of repetition and space them accordingly. The bottom part labeled "Posts" Allows you to select different post for Starting, Corner, and Ending conditions. This gives you great flexibily to use different post for corners and ends.

By using different starting and ending posts you can also recreate stair railing used for ADA with different extensions at the start and end. :) Until next time.
CR.

We are almost up ! - Why, When, How?

So here I am!

I want to take this brief moment to thank you for coming to my blog. In case you are wondering what this is all about, let me tell you. I have created this blog to share tips and tricks I have learned or picked up along as well as to show you certain hidden functions of Revit Architecture and thus helping you make the most out of your Reviting !

I plan to keep this blog alive by updating it once a month at least with formal tips, links and resources you can use to better your workflow! In return however I would appreciate you feedback on my postings and of course know that as always you can contact me via e-mail or at my office Digital Drafting Systems. I hope to hear from you.

Your Revit-geek friend,

CR