Sometimes the most obvious answer evades you, this is probably one of those times. Loading families into your drawings can be one of the most time consuming aspects of completing your project. Well, this little tidbit jumped up and bit me today.
You can drag and drop families into Revit from windows explorer. Yes, i know, Im an idiot, but just in case your an idiot like me, now you know.
There are some limitations it seems. It will only pull the one type into your project, and it seems to be a some sort of default type, because it is random to each family. Im sure some more experimentation will reveal some more answers, but that's where Im at with it.
So now you know and as GI Joe taught us "Knowing is Half the Battle"
Sounds like some "contractors" I've worked with. "I built it in two weeks and I never bothered to look at the structural engineering drawings!"
I thought it looked like a pretty good design though, he had the kickers. Although the railing was a bit on the weak side, it didn't appear to meet the 42" min requirement. I will say the (4)10d nails that attached the railing should be adequate, unless you need them to resist pullout to save your life because you are hanging by the railing........I digress
I could not get cntrl+enter to work for keynotes, but the last two do work. Thank you, finally got this one. Should go a long way to improve the look of our notes
Tekla has introduced a Revit to Tekla link free of charge
Haven't been able to try it out yet, but Im pretty sure this is light years ahead of what I was trying to do last year, although that was CIS/2 format.
There is a webinar on the topic, the first 15 mins are useful for Revit users, the rest, although it appears very good, is strictly for the Tekla user.
Coming from a strictly 2D drawing platform has taken me some time to understand how to understand and control the 3D model. Being able to under stand reference planes and In-Place Models is the key to being able to customize and create custom model elements and can often be more effective and faster when completed in the model rather than with detail components. So there's why....Here's how
Ive drawn a concrete wall and slab. Im going to add a grade beam with a brick ledge and add some features to the wall. Can you schedule this items as well.......I haven't figured out how yet
So we get started with the grade beam. First off we need to see the grade beam in section in order to draw it most effectively so we will create a section cut. (You want to place this cut close to the center of one of the lines you will pick for the path of the sweep, I'll show you why shortly).
From MODEL->IN-PLACE we choose "Structural Foundations" option so that it should show in a schedule. Name it "12x24 GB" or whatever naming system you use.
Since we are going to pull the grade beam around the edge of the slab we will use a SWEEP. Choose the lines which will determine the path of the sweep. Think about this as the path not the location of the model, since you can draw your element 100' away if you would like. Notice the red dot at the middle of the first line you chose for your sweep path. Right where we cut our section. Had that dot not been in our view range of the section we could have drawn it, but not seen what we were drawing. That is why I discussed the placement of the section. You can do it without the section, but this is the best and most efficient way for me.
Now we are going to EDIT PROFILE. It will ask you what plan,section, elevation you will use to draft the profile of the sweep. We will use our section and beginning drawing the outline of the grade beam with a 8"x5" brick ledge.
After we have drawn the profile we will pick the material for the sweep. This will matter for not only appearance, but possibly for schedules and joining of elements.
We will FINISH the sweep and FINISH the model.......and we have a grade beam with our brick ledge around the perimeter of the building.
And there you go. Well, Im cashed. Im old and tired. So I'll do the rest of it later.....
Ouch...2 1/2 month lag between posts. I have a TON of content for new posts, now to find the time. Legends: An overview Good Article from Revit Zone about what else but......Legends
I did a project last year with hollowcore and had a difficult time customizing the hollowcore slabs. I got it to work, but it was too hard and it had its limitations, and ultimately was not a 100% correct model.
First, understand that hollowcore slabs are considered beams, not slab elements (rightfully so). Cutting a shaft or other floor modifications will not work.
In Revit Structure 2012, Either I missed it before or it's new, but there it is, plain as day @: HOME tab/OPENING panel/BY FACE button. Right next to shaft opening.
After (or before) you open the command, go to a plan view showing your hollow core slabs
Select the top face of the hollowcore slab
Create openings as you would in a floor boundary command. You may modify the end of slabs as reqd or cut a hole in the middle of the slabs.
Finish and your done. Unless Im missing something, the only drawback or feature that is lacking is being able to apply this across multiple panels. As shown below, the opening must be done in two steps, then you still have to put holes in you topping slab if you have one. It's understandable that it is not included in revit, but as a beam system this would be a nice option.
Modifying each individual plank is time consuming. Honestly, on a large project especially, Im not sure the effort is worth the reward. You can create the edges fairly quickly with linework.
You can create the same quality drawings while retaining most all of the benefits of revit, with minimal linework. I doubt the schedules are affected by the modifications.
The picture above shows two elements which meet what I consider to be 100% BIM.
The beam bearing detail at the top features the wall notch with the bearing plate
The lower detail is the previously discussed hollowcore and topping notch out
I believe the rebar and the steel detailing would fall outside this description. What do you think?
