Tapered Slab Edges

Hello again ! What I want to share how to take a regular slab in Revit Architecture and taper any or all of its edges. In order to do this we need we will use "The Floor Slab Edge" tool found under "Host Sweep" in the Modeling tool drawer and click on the edges on the floor slab we want to alter. However before we begin we need to configure the "Edge" and this is the tricky part.

First let's build a profile which will give us the shape of the taper. Lets go to and on the dialog box, let's select the appropriate templeter which is Porfile.rtf and click open.

What we have now in front is a drawing area in which we are going to draw our 2D profile. Since this profile will be swept around the edges of the floor slab, we need to draw a section of the taper we want to occur.

Use the Line tool to draw the shape and you can use refereance planes if you wanted to make the profile parametric. By the way come to one of our cusomized training to learn how to build parametric components.

Now just save the profile and load it into your current project or into the project were the floor slab you wish you modify exist or will be created. Now we can go into and redefine the existing slab edge to use the profile we just created.

Once the element properties dialog appear, we need to either rename the current Slab Edge definiton or create a new one by using the Element properties dialog and into Type porperties.

At this point as you can see in the above screen shot, all you need to do is load the profile we made, click OK to exit all the dialogs and beging to click on the edges of your Floor object.

e-mail me or call me here at the office if you have any questions.

Bug Alert - Unspecified error when saving groups.

Happy new year everyone !
I would like to share something with you that was recently brought to my attention by Autodesk Support. There seems to be a bug within Revit which during the month of January 2008 will not allow you to save groups, instead during this process you will receive an error: “Unspecified error”.


However, once we move into February and through the rest of 2008 this issue will no longer affect us.



The way to work around it however, is to change the month (date) within Windows to a month other than January 2008. Your choice could be a month in the past or in the future; however keep in mind that if you have any outlook reminders these will be affected and they flash on your screen - so be careful!!! Once you are finished saving your groups you can reset your date settings.

A Window Wall System - Scratching the Surface

Recently I came across an implementation task to provide a process to build a Window Wall System is Revit, once again I'm sure many of your will benefit from this post so read ahead. What I have to start off is an elevation of two bays that are 20'-00" in span. So let's beginning breaking this down.



What I am showing you in this elevation is the complete system in addition to two very important datums objects; reference planes. To successfully assemble this system we will create two reference planes at predetermined heights based on our system design which we will use to anchor the bottom of our beam and windows too.

So to start I'm going to assume that we have columns evenly spaces every 20'-00" and that we have the first run of window already installed on the bottom level. So on elevation if our modules are 7'-6" high, I am going to create two reference planes. One of them will sit right on top of the already in place windows (7'-6") and will make sure that I name it so that I can use it as a drawing plane in the future. To do so, I will select the reference plane, pull up its Element Properties and insert a distinctive name (in this case MID BEAM - WWS) into the instance parameter Name.



Once the plane in named it should like this when selected. Keep in mind the name will once show when the Ref. Plane is selected. Let's repeat the process now for a second Ref. Plane, We will use this plane to draw our second row of windows resting on the beam, therefore I will create this Ref. Plane 10" from the previous one which is the height of my beam. I will call this Ref. Plane TOB - WWS.



One this is all in place we can now go to a floor plan, I chose Level 1. Since we already have the bottom window section and the default view range has a cut plane of 4'-00", we will now move the cut place so that we can see above the beam we are about place and the windows for the upper windows. To do this we will pull up the view property window and click on VIEW RANGE.

Since we want to move the cut plane up and in a way eliminate what is bellow us we will make the following changes to the Primary Range: I have changed the Cut plane from 4' to 8' (remember the the bottom of the beam is at 7'-6") - I also mentioned I was not interested in seeing the objects close the ground so I change the Bottom Offset to 6' from its default of 0'-00" This means you have a view of Level 1 between 6' and 8'.



This more or less how your view should look:



At this point we need to select the first Ref. Plane we created to that we can lay our beam on top of it. In order to to that we need to click the Plane button located on the upper tool bar, this button will then bring up a context dialog for us to choose the Ref. Plane.





Make sure you select the Name option and from the pull down you select MID BEAM - WWS which is the name of our first Ref. Plane. From this point on any object inserted into the view will be aligned on top of this Ref. Plane. From the Structural tool panel we are going to plane a Beam between the columns, what is most important about this part of the exercise is to set the beam properties for Z Direction Justification to Bottom. You can do this before or after you place the beam. Other parameters to look at include Start and End Justification, set these to zero.

Now that we have the beam in place as show above, we can select the second Ref. Place by clicking on the Plane button on the top most tool bar and going through the same procedure. However this time when you extend the drop down menu make sure you select the Ref. Plane TOB - WWS and use this plane to insert the second row of windows.

Keeping File Size to a Minimum !!

I wanted to share something I recently learned. Revit files automatically get compressed when the SAVE AS option is used to save your project rather than just the conventional SAVE. This is how is works, take for intance the following file ROOF FRAMING_MODEL.rvt its normal size is 5,080 K. However if I use the SAVE AS function and give this file a new name such as ROOF FRAMING_MODEL_SAVE AS.rvt you will notice that the file size decreased to 4,440K. This is almost 15% smaller. At this point you can then delete you original file and replace it with the new one.

Original File:



Save As File:

What is a Drafting View?

I recently received an e-mail in which a user wanted to know what was the usage for a Revit drafting View. So make things easy I have clipped my reply bellow..

A Drafting View:

"...It is a view that can be used for any purpose such as detailing. It does NOT have any relationship to a specific portion of the model, unless you link using a CALLOUT.In this view you can draw 2D objects, insert detailing components which are 2D;Basically anything that is found under the DRAFTING toolbar. You can also use a drafting view to import an existing AUTOCAD drawings such as DOOR JAMB detail for example, and make it part of your Revit document..."

By the way, the Drafting View Command is found under the VIEW tab.

Autocad Architecture Resources

Today I watched a webcast by Amy Fietkau on Autocad Architecture 2008. I must say that it was very informative. She mentioned a link which i wanted to share with you.
www.autodesk.com/experience-autocadarchitecture

This is the link to an autodesk resource page, great resource I must add for Autocad Architecture 2008 users. So if you are an Autocad Architecture user, take advantage of this resource!

How do I change the riser height and thread depth?

Hello again,


The stair object in the default revit template "default.rtf" has typical measurements for risers and threads of 7" - 11" respectively. Today I received a very common request to go over how to make changes to those default settings.


The way we are going to change the stair dimensions is by going into its type settings dialog. These are the steps to get to it. First we are going to select the stair type and bring up the object properties by clicking on the property button on the Revit options bar.



This will bring the object properties dialog; we need to get into the "Type" properties. For this we will click "edit/new". At this point we "Duplicate" the existing type or "Rename" and proceed with the changes we want to make. I have highlighted the areas of interest.

I hope this helps you !