Revit 2011 Creates Sections

Selecting the Section function on the View tab creates sections. By default, there are three types
of sections: Building, Wall, and Callout.

This allows them to be grouped with better
clarity in the Project Browser, but there are also other important properties.

Unlike elevations, the cut plane of a section must correspond with the line of the section.

shows the Instance Properties of a Building section. The far and side cut planes of a
section can also be controlled. This goes for both Building and Wall sections.

Neither Building nor Wall sections may be created in a nonperpendicular orientation with regard to project levels. But after you create them, they can be rotated in elevation. But this would lead to confusion in your project because once rotated, the section wouldn’t be available in plan. This is where the Detail section is such a great help. A Detail section that’s created in plan can not only be seen in corresponding views, but it will also presume different graphic conventions.
For example, take a look at the two Detail sections in

that are to the right of the Building section. When you create a Detail section, it will look like Detail Section 1. But when you view it in referring views, it will look like Detail Section 2. The other thing that you should note is the color of callout and selection heads in

These “blue” icons act as hyperlinks to the other views in your project. The great thing about them is they are automatically coordinated numerically when you place the views on your document set.

If we go to the view of the Building section, we see that the Detail sections are graphically the opposite of what you’ve seen in plan view

Revit 2011 Creates Elevations

Selecting the Elevation function on the View tab creates elevations. You’ll also notice that as you place an elevation tag, they automatically orient to walls

If there’s no host element nearby to reference, they’ll automatically orient to the west.

Selecting the center of the tag will allow you to create additional elevation (more typically done for interior elevations) by selecting the unchecked boxes that surround the elevation tag

 If you select the nose of the elevation tag, you’ll see a blue line that defines the beginning of the cut plane for the elevation as well as a dashed line that defines the side and rear extents.

 This allows you to control the analytic extents of the elevation without moving the
graphic tag, which is useful if you want the tag in a particular location but you want the actual
elevation to start apart from the tag’s location.

Finally, there are three types of elevations in Revit: exterior, interior, and framing. Their differences are more than graphic. Exterior elevations by default don’t have an active crop boundary,
only a starting cut plane. Interior elevations have their crop boundary on by default and attempt
to find boundaries of host elements, like walls, floors, and ceilings. Framing elevations become
active in the presence of grids, and their cut plane corresponds to their grid.

Revit 2011 Creating and Duplicating Views:Plan

It’s important that you understand how to create different view types and how to control their
extents after they’re created.

Plans
When you create a corresponding level in elevation, you typically create plan views for your project.

shows all of the level instance properties.

If you have a level without a corresponding view, you can also use the Plan Views function, as shown in

to create a plan view.

Next to the Plan Views option is the Duplicate View option, which allows you to duplicate the active view

You can also right-click a view name in the Project Brower and access the same option to duplicate the view

The vertical (in plan) and horizontal (in elevation) extents can also be controlled from View Properties. The View Range settings, as shown in

define the vertical range of the view.

Checking the Crop Region Visible option can turn on the horizontal extents of a view. The shape may only be rectilinear

Although you can control the visibility of the crop region from this same dialog box, we recommend that you keep it turned on since you can control the visibility when you print

Revit 2011 Type and InstanCe Parameters

Everything in Revit has parameters, which are simply the information or data about something. The kind of information that you can assign to something is extensive.

There are two kinds of parameters: type and instance. It’s important that you understand the
difference between the two kinds of parameters. Type parameters control information about every
element of the same type. So for example, if you change the Material type of a piece of furniture,
the material for all the furniture of that type will change. Instance parameters control only the
instances that you have selected. So if the material of the piece of furniture that you’ve selected is
an instance parameter, you’ll only be editing the selected elements.
Both instance and type parameters can be constantly exposed and docked in the Properties
dialog box. Simply selecting something will initially display the instance parameters.

shows the instance parameters of a wall that control the relative height, constraints, and structural usage.


By clicking the Edit Type button, you expose the type parameters.

These parameters control values such as the structure, graphics, and assembly code.

Views
Views are used to see the project. As you can see in the Revit organization chart there are both 2D and 3D views. Two-dimensional views are analytically oriented to specific coordinates, like plan, elevation, section, and so on. We’ve also grouped schedules under 2D areas of views. Views also have type and instance parameters (relative to each kind of view). Three-dimensional views are either orthographic or perspective in nature. Understanding how to create and modify the properties of a view is important. First of all,
every view has some kind of visibility parameters specific to that view (even schedules) that
control what you want to be seen.

shows the visibility parameters for an elevation. We’ll discuss the other View Properties when we describe the UI later in this chapter.

Revit 2011 Analytic and Graphic Datum Extents

We need to mention two important notes about the control and visibility of levels and grids.
First, you can control both the graphic and analytic ends of levels and grids. If you control the
analytic end of the grid, you’re controlling the extents of the datum across the entire project and
all views, and the 3D option will be visible as you pull the datum, as shown in

seen above Level 2.


If you only want to move the graphic extents of your datum, first click the 3D icon. Now you
can graphically modify the datum but not the analytic extents

Second, datum can only be visible in a view that is being crossed by its analytical extents.
Here’s the difference. The elevation in shows lowering the ends of the grid above
Level 2. This might be done to make an elevation graphically “cleaner” at a large scale.
In

the analytic (3D) extents of the grid don’t cross the levels. As a result, the grids
would not be visible in those views.

But in Figure 2.8, the analytic extents cross both Level 1 and Level 2 datum. But the graphic
(2D) extents are above Level 2. This means that the grid datum would still be visible in both
levels.

When you move datum in Revit, one way or another content is going to respond. If you
move a level, walls and furniture are going to move accordingly. If you move a grid, structural
elements are going to relocate. And if you move references, the elements associated with them
update. As a matter of fact, you’ll often pin datum or lock dimensions in order to restrict movement
of datum after your project is starting to develop.
In turn, content can have a relationship to other content. For example, content can be hosted
or associated with other content. Walls host doors and windows. A wall can be “attached” to a
roof above it (or a floor or even another wall below it). Tops and bottoms of walls can even be
attached to the top or bottom of other walls. But did you know that walls can maintain relationships
inside other walls?
Here’s a simple exercise to understand these relationships between content:
1. First, create a simple wall. Now let’s edit the profile of the middle segment. Select the wall
and click Edit Profile. Now you can’t edit the middle wall’s profile as shown in

until you select the Edit Profile option. Once you’re in Edit Profile mode, simply delete all
the boundary lines and then redraw them as shown.

2. Now finish Edit Profile mode. Then in a plan view, draw another wall directly on top of
the one that you just created. Go ahead and use a different type that’s wider than the first
wall you used. Initially the walls will overlap and you’ll get a warning, which is fine and
can be ignored.

In this case, the view is also set to Wireframe so you can see
the edited wall’s profile that’s being enveloped by the second wall.

3. Now here comes the fun part. Using your Cut Geometry tool, cut the enveloped wall
from the enveloping wall.

shows the result.


4. This builds a relationship between the wall that’s being cut and the wall that’s cutting.
This relationship will be maintained even if you change the inner wall’s profile or type.
Go ahead and change the wall to a Storefront Wall type. Now edit the elevation profile
and finish the sketch. The relationships are immediately updated

So, objects in Revit are able to maintain relationships between other objects. But here’s the
thing—you may not always have associate geometry (like walls, floors, and roofs) to relate to
other geometry. This is why datum is so important.
If you’ve been using Revit for a reasonable amount of time, it seems obvious that levels and
grids would control content, but reference planes aren’t often appreciated. Here’s a simple exercise
to demonstrate this special kind of relationship between reference planes and walls:
1. Go to a plan view and create a series of concentric walls, as shown in

2. Now go to the front elevation view, as shown in

If you move Level 1, you’ll
notice that the walls all move with it. You don’t have ti select the walls; it’s in the properties
of the walls to maintain a relationship to the Level 1 datum. You could make the top
of the walls maintain this same kind of relationship to Level 2.
3. You can also create a relationship to the Revit planes. To do this, simply select all the
walls (just hover your mouse over one wall and then click and release the tab button to
select the chain of walls) and then click the Attach Top/Base button. By default, Attach
Wall  Top is the default selection, so make sure that Attach Wall  Base is selected
when attaching the base of walls to the lower reference plane.

shows the results in the elevation view, once you’ve attached the top and bottom
of the walls to the upper and lower reference planes.
The incredible thing is that moving and rotating the attached reference planes can modify
the attached relationships. This is shown in a perspective view of the walls in

There are situations where you need a particular relationship to be maintained without
attached relationships to geometry but the top or bottom condition isn’t a straight line. What to
do? Well, here’s another solution:
1. First, copy all the walls from the previous exercise over to the side, as shown in

2. Now select all the walls and attach their Top Constrain to Level 2, as shown in

What do you do you do when you want a curved or nonlinear attachment and there’s no
geometry to attach to? You model an in-place void of the same category:
1. First, select Component  Model In Place, select the category of Walls, and name the family
Top of Wall Void. Now return to your Level 1 view and create a reference plan, as
shown in

Go ahead and name the reference plan Top of Wall Void.

2. Return to your South elevation and you’ll start to model the void that carves the top of
the walls.
3. When you start to create the revolve, you’ll need to set the reference plane as shown in

This will control the work plane with respect to the center of the series of
tangent walls.

4. Now create the void revolve, as shown in

To maintain relationships to Level 2,
align and lock the top line to Level 2, and then dimension either side of the revolve sketch
and lock those dimensions as well. This will force the void to move up with Level 2. Since
the walls are also constrained to Level 2, they will move up as well.

5. Go ahead and finish the sketch. Now you can use your Cut tool to remove the top of the
walls from the in-place void

When you finish the in-place family, the walls will look similar to

If you move

Overall, it’s the role of datum, levels, grids, and reference planes to create your project’s key
relationships.
Level 2 up or down, the void and walls will maintain relationships to their datum.

Content
Content is all about repetition that you put in your Revit project to design, develop, and document
your project. Content can often maintain relationships with other content, but more importantly,
content maintains relationships to your project datum. As you can see from the Revit organization
chart shown earlier, content includes system families, component families, and
spaces.
System families (also called host families) are project content that is part of the Revit project
environment. These families are not created in the Family Editor—they’re already in your project
environment. If you need another type, you’ll duplicate an existing type from within the
project. Content can be 2D or 3D. Walls, Floors, Roofs, Ceilings, Stairs, and Railings are common
3D system families. Text, Dimensions, Revision Bubbles, and Insulation are commonly used 2D
system families.
Component families are created in the Family Editor and are also 2D or 3D content. This means
that you’ll have to create and load these kinds of families or files outside the Revit project environment.
When you start to create a component family, you’ll initially be given the dialog box in

This is Revit prompting you to select the right family template. And by selecting the
right family template, you’ll be certain that the component that you’re creating is going to behave,
view, schedule, and (if necessary) export properly.
The next category of content is spaces, such as rooms, areas, and volumes. Obviously this isn’t
the same thing as geometry. But they’re also an important part of your project and maintain
relationships to datum (as well as some system families). Like some system families, they’re also
phase, design option, and workset aware and can be scheduled.

Revit 2011 Creating and dupliCating leVels

Creating a new level may or may not create a corresponding plan view (controlled by the Make Plan View option). Sketching a level defaults to creating a plan view. But copying an existing level will default to not creating a plan view, which is useful for creating relationships to content where no plan view is needed (for example, if you want to control multiple window elevations). The graphic indication of a level, which doesn’t have a corresponding view, will be that the head of the level is black rather than blue.If you want to convert a datum level that doesn’t have a view to one that does, simply select the Plan View option in the Create panel on the View tab. This will open the dialog box

You’ll be able to select among all the non-view levels in your project and convert them to view corresponding levels.



You can also use this option to create duplicate views of existing levels. Simply uncheck the option at the bottom of the dialog box

and you’ll see all the levels in your project.

Revit 2011 Project Organization

If you are coming from 2D CAD background, you are already familiar with a lot of terms and
concepts that don’t have exact corollaries in Revit. You’re probably used to thinking in terms of
what needs to be drawn and coordinated: plans, sections, elevations, details, schedules, and so
on. You’re also used to keeping that information in a lot of separate files that have to be linked
together in order to reference other parts of the building. And you’re used to being allowed to
have only one person in one file at a time (which can be particularly frustrating from a workflow
standpoint). And finally, maintaining all your project settings and management is a struggle
across so many disconnected files.
Revit contains all of these kinds of things. But at a high level Revit is about the four key
components of a holistic and successful design process: relationships, repetition, representations,
and restrictions. These concepts are respectively managed in Revit by data, content,
views, and project management. And they are managed from within a single, bidirectional
database.

what we like to think of as a Revit organization chart, which should give
you a visual description of these four top-level categories and the kinds of things these categories
contain. In the following sections, we’ll discuss each of these categories and describe their
particular role in your Revit project environment.
Datum
Datum consists of references, grids, and levels.

The reason that datum is all about
the relationships of your Revit project is because they establish and control your content (the
building, stuff that goes in a building, and the stuff you need to document your building).
Reference planes can be created in any 2D view from the Home tab, but once created they
may be visible in 3D. After you add reference planes to your project, they can be set and seen
from the Work Plane panel. This will allow you to work with respect to the desired work plane.
Like reference planes, grid lines can also be added to any 2D view. Keep in mind that grids
may only be perpendicular to levels. Furthermore, grids are only visible in views that are
aligned with the grid. So if the grid is in a North/South orientation, you’ll only be able to see it
in plan and from the North/South–oriented views.
Levels may be seen and created only in views that are parallel to the analytic ground plane in
Revit. So you can’t create levels in plan and they can’t be diagonal to the ground plane. To create
any datum in Revit, simply select the desired type and then pick two points to define the start
and end location.

Revit 2011 Principles of Revit

After one decade in the AEC space, Revit continues to be unique in its holistic “whole-building
BIM” approach to design integration. Sure, there are other BIM-ish tools that allow you to design
in 3D. And 10 years ago, 3D might have been a differentiator, but today 3D is a commodity!
Whole-building BIM is the ability to design, manage, and document your project information
from within a single file, something that no other BIM tool will allow you to do. In a non-Revit
workflow, you’d have to design your project across multiple files—not just across disciplines but
within the same discipline! Imagine the dysfunctional workflow of having separate files for the
building shell, roof, and each interior level for a modest 50-story building. That means you’ll be
managing at least 50 files just for the architecture. Count on another 50 files for the MEP and structural
design, and now your team has to juggle more than 150 separate files that have to be manually
linked together. Then you would have to export your files to separate sheets and views for
documentation.
So, now your building has been smashed up into 2D information. And when you have changes,
expect to go back to the model and repeat the process, because you can’t risk making changes in
2D when they’re not bidirectionally associative. No thanks!
How would you complete the same project in Revit? Well, worst case is that you’re probably
looking at three files for the same building (architecture, structure, and MEP), because design
is a team sport, and you’re not all in the same office or geography. So, everyone does their work
and links each other’s projects. Three files!
And as for documentation, it’s all in the same file as the respective project. No exporting
required. It’s a completely bidirectional, multiuser working environment, so if you’re trying to
compare Revit to what you’re used to in other 2D CAD or 3D BIM tools, stop now.
As for the UI, well, there have been some much needed changes in Revit Architecture 2011.
Last year’s introduction of the Ribbon introduced us all to what one well-respected Revit
expert succinctly referred to as “drunken leprechaun mode” because the tools were not only
highly contextual, but they kept moving around in subjective ways. We’re glad to tell you the
Ribbon UI has evolved into what we like to call “sober leprechaun mode”! Yes, the UI is still
contextual because the now-sober leprechaun keeps contextually hiding commands and panels
the moment you put them down. But at least he’s learned to put the commands and panels
in the same place the moment you start to do something else. And we think this is a terrific
improvement.
In this chapter, you’ll learn to:
Understand Revit
•u project organization
•u Understand Revit interface organization