Autodesk Revit Architecture 2014 Essentials

Ryan Duell is a senior quality assurance analyst for Revit. He also contributes to the Revit Clinic blog (revitclinic.typepad.com), presents at Autodesk University, and is a former BIM manager. Tobias Hathorn is a licensed architect and user experience designer for Revit and also lectures at Autodesk University. He previously worked at BNIM architects on a million–square–foot IRS paper processing center using Revit. Tessa Reist Hathorn is a licensed architect at Austin Architects (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and has worked on everything from private residences to the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. All three authors teach Revit at the Boston Architectural College.

Foreword xv
Introduction xxi


Chapter 1 Introducing the Autodesk Revit Architecture Interface 1


Understanding the Interface 2


Properties Palette 2


Project Browser 4


Status Bar 5


View Control Bar 5


ViewCube 5


Options Bar 6


Understanding the Interface Workflow 6


Creating a Simple Layout 7


Using Filter, Mirror, and Trim/Extend 8


Adjusting Datums 11


Changing Element Types 13


Using Common Modifying Tools 16


Using Dimensions for Modifying Designs 16


Aligning Elements 20


Rotating, Grouping, and Arraying 23


Aligned Copying and Group Editing 27


The Essentials and Beyond 30


Chapter 2 Walls and Cur tain Walls 31


Understanding Wall Types and Parameters 31


Basic Walls 32


Stacked Walls 34


Curtain Wall Types 35


Creating Numerous Wall Configurations 36


Sketching Walls 37


Picking Walls 39


Hosting Elements in Walls 40


Modifying Walls 41


Instance Parameters 43


Editing Profiles 44


Attaching and Detaching the Top and Base 45


Resetting Profi les 47


Cutting Openings 48


Splitting Walls 49


Swapping Walls 50


Creating Curtain Walls 51


Curtain Grids 52


Adding Mullions 53


Embedding Curtain Walls 55


Modifying Curtain Walls 56


Editing the Elevation Profile 56


Adding and Modifying Grids and Mullions 57


Unpinning and Toggling Mullions 58


Modifying Curtain–Grid Segments 60


Modifying Curtain Panels 61


Going Beyond the Basics 62


The Essentials and Beyond 64


Chapter 3 Floors, Roofs, and Ceilings 67


Creating Floors 67


Sketching 67


Editing the Boundary 68


Creating Sloped Arrows and Floors 70


Creating Sloped Floors via Shape Editing 72


Creating Openings by Sketching 74


Creating Openings with Shafts 76


Picking Walls 80


Laying Out Roofs 81


Picking Walls 81


Creating Slope Arrows 82


Creating Extruded Roofs 86


Adding Ceilings 89


Creating Automatic Ceilings 90


Sketching Ceilings 91


Dealing with Bulkhead Conditions 94


Adding Lights and Rotating the Grid 96


Changing the Ceiling 97


Sloping the Ceiling 97


The Essentials and Beyond 98


Chapter 4 Stairs, Ramps, and Railings 99


Creating Stair Configurations 99


Creating the Generic Railing 100


Creating Your Design Stair 103


Creating a Straight–Run Stair 104


Creating a Straight–Run Stair with Landing 107


Creating Multistory Runs 110


Setting the Host Function for Railings 112


Designing Ramps 114


Creating a Straight–Run Ramp 115


Editing Boundary Conditions 116


Building Railings for Level and Sloped Conditions 118


Using the Set Host Function 120


Editing the Top Rail 121


From Basics to Creative Art 121


The Essentials and Beyond 123


Chapter 5 Adding Families 125


Understanding the Model Hierarchy 125


Assigning Families to Categories 127


Working with System Families 130


Loading System Families 130


Placing System Families 131


Working with Component Families 132


Loading Component Families 133


Using Hosted Families 134


Using Face–Based Families 138


Using In–Place Component Families 139


Finding Content 139


The Essentials and Beyond 141


Chapter 6 Modifying Families 143


Editing View Display and Detail Level 143


View Scale and Detail Level 145


Level of Detail 148


Changing the Family Category 151


Editing the Family Category 152


Editing the Insertion Point 153


Modifying Family Geometry 158


Editing the Family 158


Editing Profiles 159


Detail Components 163


Repeating Details 167


Title Blocks 168


Hosted Components 172


Family Tips and Best Practices 177


The Essentials and Beyond 179


Chapter 7 Schematic Design 181


Working from a Sketch 181


Importing Background Images 183


Accurately Scaling Images 184


Using Reference Planes and Levels 186


Creating and Placing Groups 190


Modeling In–Place Masses 193


Modeling the Base Mass 193


Modeling the Middle Mass 195


Modeling the Upper Mass 197


Working in 3D 198


Creating Mass Floors 202


Scheduling Mass Floors 203


Updating the Massing Study 206


The Essentials and Beyond 208


Chapter 8 Rooms and Color–Fill Plans 209


Defining Rooms in Spaces 209


Room Tags 210


Room Boundaries 213


Room Separation Lines 215


Deleting Rooms 217


Generating Color–Fill Room Plans 219


Adding a Color Legend 219


Modifying Color Schemes 221


Adding Tags and Fill Colors in Section 222


The Essentials and Beyond 225


Chapter 9 Materials, Rendering, and Visualization 227


Using Materials 228


Editing Material Properties of Walls 228


Using Graphic Display Options 231


Presentation Elevation Drawing 231


Presentation 3D Isometric Drawing 235


3D Exploded View 237


Rendering Graphics 238


The Essentials and Beyond 241


Chapter 10 Worksharing 243


Enabling Worksharing 244


Preparing the Central File 244


Creating Central and Local Files 246


Creating the Central File 246


Creating the Local File 247


Adding Worksets 248


Workset Visibility 250


Assigning Elements to Worksets 250


Saving to the Central File 253


Creating New Elements 255


Opening and Closing Worksets 259


Worksharing Display Modes 260


Editing Requests 263


Worksharing Best Practices 264


The Essentials and Beyond 265


Chapter 11 Details and Annotations 267


Creating Details 267


Detail Line 268


Region 269


Component 269


Creating a Detail 270


Insulation 280


Detail Groups 280


Linework 281


Annotating Your Details 282


Dimensions 283


Tags 288


Text 291


Using Legends 292


The Essentials and Beyond 294


Chapter 12 Creating Drawing Sets 297


Creating Schedules 297


Understanding Schedules 298


Making Schedules 305


Creating a Window Schedule 305


Creating a Room Schedule 307


Creating a Sheet List 309


Placing Views on Sheets 313


Adding Floor Plans to the Sheet 313


Adding the Schedules 319


Printing Documents 321


Exploring the Print Dialog Box 321


Exploring the Print Settings 322


Exploring the Print Range 325


The Essentials and Beyond 327


Chapter 13 Workflow and Site Modeling 329


Understanding a BIM Workflow 329


Staffing a BIM Project 332


Project Roles Using Revit Architecture 332


Adding Team Members to Fight Fires 336


Modeling a Site 337


Using a Toposurface 338


Creating a Building Pad 340


Performing Quality Control on Your Model 342


Keeping an Eye on File Size 342


Dealing with Warnings 345


The Essentials and Beyond 347


Chapter 14 Repeating Objects, Best Practices, and Quick Tips 349


Repeating Objects 349


Optimizing Performance 352


Utilizing Best Practices 355


Using Quick Tips and Shortcuts 359


Finding Additional Resources 365


The Essentials and Beyond 366


Appendix: Autodesk Revit Architecture 2014 Certification 367


Index 377