Revit for Residential Design

1. Revit for Residential Design Solomon Smith residentialBIM@gmail.com WilWiens wil@summitbim.com residentialBIM.com

2. Background Solomon has over 20 years of experience in residential architectural design and over a decade of BIM experience using Revit, Solomon is committed to help others get the most from architectural technology. Solomon led pencil-to-CAD and now CAD to BIM transitions at various residential design firms world wide as an independent BIM consultant. Wil has 14 years of experience with residential and institutional architectural firms in the Caribbean, the U.S. and Canada, and is currently a BIM Implementation and Project Management specialist with Summit BIM, assisting design teams, contractors and building owners alike get the most from BIM processes and tools.

3. First Residential Revit Produced Project

4. First Residential Revit Produced Project

5. And a few more since then…

6. … and just a few more.

7. How much time? About an hour !? Principles, Proofs-Of-Concept • Template Customization • Family Customization • Working with Roofs – multiple slopes, multiple heights • Design Options Even more next year… hopefully

8. Template Customization • Template Customization is where you will see huge gains in productivity • It’s what determines how your “Information” looks and behaves • If you have a process, organizational or graphic company standard – put it in the template • An opportunity to review “standards” (requirements or preferences) • Keep tweaking it – keep versions (wiki, Template Version Project Parameter) Aaron Maller Template Guide: • Blog Post: malleristicrevitation.blogspot.com/2011/03/creating-revit-template.html

9. Template Customization Areas to focus on in Template Customization: • Line Styles, Object Styles – match company standards • Annotations: • Fonts: • Converted AutoCAD SHX to TrueType – tcfonts.com • Made ALL-CAPS version of fonts • Tags – went through all Tags in Annotations folder with Autodesk Revit Content, customized with font style, size, etc. • If it can be tagged or keynoted, don’t use dumb text. Include customized tags and keynote text file in the template, then let Revit deal with annotating automatically upon component insertion. • Dimension Styles: standard dims, rounded dims • Text Styles: transparent, opaque • Preload only typical, generic components; Think broad strokes: leave unique or more specific items in libraries.

10. Template Customization Areas to focus on in Template Customization(cont’d): • View Templates: • Cabinet Elevations – turn off visibility of unnecessary items, scale, line weights • Electrical Floor Plans – turn off unnecessary annotations, Electrical Fixtures on • Roof Plans – turn off surface patterns, increase line weights • Sections – increase line weights for cut styles, modify cut patterns • Site Plan – scale, turn off most annotations • Schedules: • Door Schedule • Window Schedule • Area Schedule

11. Template Customization Areas to focus on in Template Customization (cont’d): • Area Schedule Customization within Template • Create Area Plan, place ‘empty’ areas, select and modify properties: • Name, comments, Area Type, etc. • Create 2 Schedules, one to work in “Working”, one to place on sheet “Display”

12. Template Customization Area Schedule Customization within Template (cont’d): Schedule in Template

13. Template Customization Area Schedule Customization within Template (cont’d): Once Areas are specified, inserting into the Project Notice “Area in Schedule” – manual entry Total Living Area – “Not Placed” Columns displayed: Name, Area in Schedule

14. Template Customization Area Schedule Customization within Template (cont’d): Resulting Schedule placed on the Sheet:

15. Family Customization • (1) Visibility Settings (2) Nested Families (3) Parameters • Visibility Settings: Adjust the way the Family displays in Plan View: • i.e. With Window open in Family Editor, select all model elements and turn off Plan Visibility

16. Family Customization • Visibility Settings (cont’d): • Add Symbolic Lines in Plan: • Comparison of OOTB vs. Customized

17. Family Customization • Nested Families • i.e. The same Window Family showing various Types, each with different Window Casing (Trim Package)

18. Family Customization • Nested Families (cont’d): • Create Generic Family with properties: • Parameters for Width, Height, Sill Height, etc. (all Parameters that would adjust as the windows adjust) • Work Plane-Based • Always Vertical • Shared (allows you to insert nested families directly in Project)

19. Family Customization • Nested Families (cont’d): • Insert Generic Family into Window Family and link parameters from Generic Family with parameters in Window Family

20. Family Customization • Nested Families (cont’d): • Lock the Generic Family into place.

21. Family Customization • Nested Families (cont’d): • Select Generic Model, then add Label for “Family type: Generic Models” parameter

22. Family Customization

23. Family Customization Parameters • A few Shared Parameters added to all window families in library: • Inset Depth – to adjust the distance from the exterior surface of the wall to the actual window insert (think of the difference in window placement between stud wall + masonry veneer & siding wall) • Opening Info in Tag – to display text about window in tag

24. Family Customization Parameters (cont’d): • In order to get a tag that shows Opening size with FeetinchesFeetinches, (for example – 2’-6” x 5’-0” would be displayed 2650 ) make some new parameters with the following formulae in the Window Family: • Tag Width Feet : (Width / 1') - 0.5 • Tag Width Inches : ((Width / 1') * 12) - (Tag Width Feet * 12) • Tag Height Feet : (Height / 1') - 0.5 • Tag Height Inches : ((Height / 1') * 12) - (Tag Height Feet * 12) • Tag HeadHeight Feet : (Head Height in Tag / 1') - 0.5 • Tag HeadHeight Inches : ((Head Height in Tag / 1') * 12) - (Tag HeadHeight Feet * 12)

25. Family Customization Parameters (cont’d): • Head Height in Tag – to display Head Height in tag (manual entry) because Head Height can’t be tagged • Issue with using “Head Height in Tag” method – it requires supervision. Create a window schedule to display the difference between the Head Height in Tag and the actual Head Height

26. Working with Roofs The Roof Tool isn’t great. BUT I haven’t found a traditional roof that can’t be done with Revit: • Adjust slopes of individual Roof Planes • Separating Roofs with different Plate Heights

27. Working with Roofs • Adjusting Slopes of individual Roof Plane (Roofs with multiple slopes): • Rafter or Truss • Edit Footprint Roof Sketch • Adjust Slope of individual Roof Planes to desired Slope • Align Eaves… or else – “Can’t make footprint roof”

28. Working with Roofs

29. Working with Roofs • Adjusting Slope of individual Roof Planes to match Height of Ridge • “Slope Calculator” tool download from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/368374/slope%20calculator.rfa • Determine which Roof Plane determines the Height – “Defining Slope” and “Defining Length” • Determine which Roof Plane needs to be adjusted “Matching Length” • Slope Calculator gives result for “Matching Slope” • Be consistent with “Rafter or Truss” setting

30. Working with Roofs • Working with Multiple Plate Heights: • Trimming Multiple Roofs allows for flexibility • Join Geometry of Roofs • Draw Detail Lines on subsequent join line (for later reference in Roof Sketch) • Trim Detail Lines as required • Edit Roof Sketches, using Detail Lines as guides, select “Non-Slope Defining” lines

31. Working with Roofs

32. Working with Roofs • Almost any Roof can be created using these principles: • Adjusting Slopes of individual Roof Planes • Creating Multiple Roofs for Multiple Plate Heights / Trimming Roofs

33. Design Options • Proof-of-Concept: Multiple Street Elevations • Create the Design Option: • Click Design Options on the Manage Tab • Create a new “Option Set”, rename to Street Elevation. Create a new “Option” and rename the options to Elevation A and Elevation B, respectively

34. Design Options • Proof-of-Concept: Multiple Street Elevations • If model geometry is existing already, select elements that will be unique to Elevation A (including their hosts – i.e., windows and the walls that host them, roofs, etc.) and click on the “Add to Set” button on the Design Options toolbar. • Activate Elevation A Option, then select all items. Switch to Plan view and Copy to Clipboard. Then activate Elevation B option, switch to Plan view and Paste Aligned to Same Place. With Elevation B active, make the specific changes as necessary.

35. Design Options • Proof-of-Concept: Multiple Street Elevations • Create views to display specific Design Options, regardless of which is active. Duplicate View (with Detailing) • In the Properties Palette, change the option “Visible In Option” to the desired Design Option for the view. • Note that in Elevation views, there will not be a “Visible In Option” parameter. In that case, you’ll need to select Visibility/ Graphics Overrides from the Properties Palette, then select the tab for Design Options, then select the appropriate Design Option.

36. Design Options • Proof-of-Concept: Multiple Street Elevations – Result

37. Design Options • Or, something a little more complicated:

38. residentialBIM.com Solomon Smith WilWiens