Augi World - July/August 2008 - (Page 16) REVIT 2D or Not 2D? This is a tough question to say the least, isn’t it? On one hand you sometimes just don’t have the time to create that family, or the accurate solid form for the 3D model, and on the other hand we are using BIM, darn it! We are using Autodesk Revit because we want accurate schedules, material takeoffs and yes, a spanking nice 3D model that we can spin around and eventually tack to the fabric faced corkboard in our cubes, just above the picture of “the boy” and below the Far Side cartoon. And, sure, you can derive the famous “PROs and CONs” list (which I thought you didn’t have time for), but PROs and CONs aside, it is ultimately better to model anything you can. Right? To be honest, if you are drafting lines in plan and then inserting detail components in section… guess what? You might want to consider going back to AutoCAD. Sounds harsh, I know, but hear me out. L angle (as illustrated). To be honest, I see nothing but line work here! In this specific situation I did need a simple 3D representation of the angle for a rendering. You can make these families with some 3D elements included or you can proceed with no 3D extrusions at all. To begin, start a new family by going to File>New>Family… then select the Generic Model line based.rft template file. The first thing you want to do is to qualify this family as a specific element for scheduling and for how it will be added in the model. Go to Settings>Family Category and Parameters. Since my family is associated with structural framing, I select the Structural Framing Family Category. You are then given choices on the behavior of the family once it is placed into the model at the bottom of the dialog. You can make sure the material is steel and that it is shared (to allowing scheduling). In the family editor, make sure you are in a plan view. The idea here is to create reference planes in which to provide functionality to the model. The key thing to remember is that you do not need to constrain 3D items to these reference planes. You can constrain symbolic lines and model lines just the same. You can have a fully functioning family with as many symbolic lines as you wish. You can add reference planes and label them as normal. Now you can simply draw the symbolic lines just as you would in Figure 1 But it takes too much time, and my file size is getting huge! This Is usually the first complaint I hear. But suppose we can have our cake and eat it, too? (I have always hated that analogy, but it seems to fit here.) Suppose we can actually create a 3D family, but in most views it is just simply line work? That might be a nice compromise… easy to swallow, and lightweight, too. Kind of a “Weight Watchers” for Revit! For example, say you wanted to add uplift joist bridging to a model. Boy, oh boy, it is sure easy to just sketch 2D lines in plan for something like this, isn’t it? But what about scheduling those items and the section? This is the perfect situation for the kind of family we are talking about here. Also, the nice thing about taking this approach is the fact that you can make these types of families as intricate or as simple as you wish. Again, the example for this article is joist bridging. I could have gone nuts with all kinds of parameters making it do all sorts of crazy things (of course, on the rare occasion where I have time on my hands, I do just that), but this job was going out the Figure 2 door, so I added what I needed. In plan I needed line work representation (as illustrated), and in section I needed the actual Figure 3 16 w w w. A U G I . c o m http://www.augi.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.