tutorials building me ten u

8/9/2019 Tutorials Building Me Ten u

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Revit Building 9.1

Metric Tutorials

August 2006


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Copyright© 2006 Autodesk, Inc. All Rights ReservedThis publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.AUTODESK, INC., MAKES NO WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITEDTO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSEREGARDING THESE MATERIALS, AND MAKES SUCH MATERIALS AVAILABLE SOLELY ON AN "AS-IS"BASIS.IN NO EVENT SHALL AUTODESK, INC., BE LIABLE TO ANYONE FOR SPECIAL, COLLATERAL, INCIDENTAL,OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING OUT OF PURCHASE OR USE OFTHESE MATERIALS. THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE LIABILITY TO AUTODESK, INC., REGARDLESS OF THEFORM OF ACTION, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE MATERIALS DESCRIBED HEREIN. Autodesk, Inc., reserves the right to revise and improve its products as it sees fit. This publication describes the state of theproduct at the time of publication, and may not reflect the product at all times in the future.

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Third Party Software Program Credits ACIS Copyright© 1989-2001 Spatial Corp. Portions Copyright© 2002 Autodesk, Inc.Copyright© 1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Flash ® is a registered trademark of Macromedia, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.International CorrectSpell™ Spelling Correction System© 1995 by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, N.V. All rights reserved.InstallShield™ 3.0. Copyright© 1997 InstallShield Software Corporation. All rights reserved.PANTONE® Colors displayed in the software application or in the user documentation may not match PANTONE-identifiedstandards. Consult current PANTONE Color Publications for accurate color.PANTONE® and other Pantone, Inc. trademarks are the property of Pantone, Inc.© Pantone, Inc., 2002Pantone, Inc. is the copyright owner of color data and/or software which are licensed to Autodesk, Inc., to distribute for use

only in combination with certain Autodesk software products. PANTONE Color Data and/or Software shall not be copied ontoanother disk or into memory unless as part of the execution of this Autodesk software product.Portions Copyright© 1991-1996 Arthur D. Applegate. All rights reserved.Portions of this software are based on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.RAL DESIGN© RAL, Sankt Augustin, 2002


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RAL CLASSIC© RAL, Sankt Augustin, 2002Representation of the RAL Colors is done with the approval of RAL Deutsches Institut für Gütesicherung und Kennzeichnunge.V. (RAL German Institute for Quality Assurance and Certification, re. Assoc.), D-53757 Sankt Augustin.Typefaces from the Bitstream® typeface library copyright 1992.

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Contents

Part 1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Using the Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Accessing Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Understanding the Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Navigating the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Performing Common Tasks as You Work in Revit Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Part 2 Developing Your Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 2 Creating a Building Information Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Creating the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Adding Project Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Creating a Column Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Adding Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Adding Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Creating a Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Changing Structural Member Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Adding Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Adding a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Adding a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Creating an Entrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Creating a Drop Ceiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Creating Multi-Level Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Creating a Wall with a Non-Uniform Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Adding Entourage and Site Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Linking a Service Core to the Building Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Modifying a Floor and Adding Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Part 3 Documenting Your Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 3 Creating Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Creating Drawing Sheets in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Creating a Drawing Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Adding a Sheet to the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Modifying the Building Model from a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Creating New Views to Add to Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Using Legends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Creating a Symbol Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Creating a Wall Type Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Using a Legend View to Match Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Using Revision Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Setting Up a Revision Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Sketching Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Tagging Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Working with Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

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Chapter 4 Detailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143Creating a Detail from a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Creating a Callout View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Detailing the View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Adding Detail Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Adding a Vapor Barrier and Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Adding Break Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Adding Text Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Changing Component Order and Visibility Settings in Detail Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Changing Detail Component Order in a Detail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Changing Visibility Settings in a Detail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Creating a Drafted Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Creating a Drafting View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Creating a Detail in the Drafting View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Adding Detail Components and Keynoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Creating a Roof Edge Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Annotating the Detail with Keynotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Importing a Detail into a Drafting View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Creating a Reference Callout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Chapter 5 Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Creating Type and Instance Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Creating a Window Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Defining Schedules and Color Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Creating a Room Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Creating a Room Color Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Working with Room Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Scheduling Rooms from a Program List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Creating a Material Takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Scheduling Uniformat Assembly Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Scheduling Uniformat Assembly Codes and Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Scheduling Shared Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Creating a Multi-Category Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Using Formulas and Filters in Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Creating a Level-Based Door Schedule with a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Creating a Wall Schedule with Filters and a Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Scheduling Project Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Creating a Room Schedule with Project Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Exporting Project Information with ODBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Exporting Schedule Information to Microsoft Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chapter 6 Annotating and Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Setting the Base Elevation of a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Setting the Base Elevation of a House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Creating Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Controlling Witness Line Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Modifying Dimension Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Working with Alignments and Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Creating Automatic Linear Wall Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268Annotating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Creating Angular Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Sequentially Placing and Tagging Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Tagging Doors and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Part 4 Viewing and Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Chapter 7 Viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Viewing a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Exploring the Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

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Annotating the Analytique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Part 5 Importing and Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Chapter 11 Importing SketchUp Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399Importing a SketchUp Model as a Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Creating a Building from Mass Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Part 6 Creating Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Chapter 12 About Families and the Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Using Families and the Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416Introduction to Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Introduction to the Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Chapter 13 Creating Components in the Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Creating a Door Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Drawing the Door Plan View Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Creating the Door Leaf Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Assigning Materials to the Door Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Defining New Door Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Creating a Window Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Specifying the New Window Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Creating the Window Frame Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Creating the Window Sash Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442Creating the Window Glass Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Creating the Window Mullion Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Assigning Materials to the Window Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Defining New Window Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Creating a Furniture Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Specifying the New Rolltop Desk Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Creating the Desktop Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Creating the Desk Drawer Base Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Creating the Rolltop Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Creating the Drawers Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Defining New Furniture Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Creating a Baluster Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Drawing a Baluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498Assigning the New Baluster to a Stair Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Creating Profile Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Drawing a Sweep Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Drawing a Rail Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Drawing a Stair Nosing Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Drawing a Reveal Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Drawing a Host Sweep Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Applying a Sweep Profile to a 2D Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Applying a Host Sweep Profile to Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Creating a Room Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Specifying Room Tag Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Creating an Annotation Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Creating a Custom North Arrow Annotation Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512Adding the New North Arrow to a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

Creating a Titleblock Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Drawing Linework for a Titleblock Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Adding Graphics and Text to a Titleblock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Adding the Titleblock to a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Creating In-Place Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Creating the Dome Roof In-Place Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Creating the Concave Floor In-Place Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Chapter 14 Parametric Component Design Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

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Planning a Parametric Component Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Determining Component Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Selecting the Family Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Creating the Component Skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Adding Reference Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Adding Dimensions and Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Creating New Length Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Flexing the Component Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Adding Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Creating Solid Extrusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Adding Constraints to the Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Creating Additional Solid Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Testing the Family in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Loading a Family into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Testing a Family Instance in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Working with Nested Subcomponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Adding a Nested Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Creating Formula-controlled Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

Arraying Nested Subcomponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Reloading a Family into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

Applying Subcategories, Materials, and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Creating and Applying Subcategories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Creating Material Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Controlling Component Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Assigning Detail Level and View Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Creating Component Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Creating Multiple Component Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Creating Conditional Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

Part 7 Using Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Chapter 15 Curtain Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611Flat Curtain System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

Creating an Entrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

Adding Mullions to the Curtain System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

Curved Curtain System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Adding a Curved Curtain System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623Adding a Custom Curtain Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

Adding Mullions to the Curved Curtain Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628

Additional Curtain Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Sloped Glazings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Storefront System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Curtain System by Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636

Chapter 16 Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641Creating Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

Creating an Extruded Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

Creating a Gable Roof from a Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

Creating a Roof with a Vertical Penetration from a Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

Creating a Hip Roof from a Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

Creating a Shed Roof from a Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Adding Slope Arrows to a Shed Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Aligning Roof Eaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Creating a Mansard Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658

Creating Fascia, Gutters, and Soffits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Creating Roof Fascia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Creating Gutters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661

Creating Soffits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Chapter 17 Area Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

Using Area Analysis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

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Creating Area Schemes and Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

Creating Area Schedules and Color Fill Area Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

Chapter 18 Massing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Using Massing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

Adding Massing Elements to a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

Using Massing Tools to Cut Geometry from the Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681

Using Mass Family Files in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Creating New Mass Family Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Loading and Placing New Mass Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684

Joining Mass Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687Using Mass Elements with Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

Mass Elements in Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

Creating Building Components from Mass Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

Creating Walls by Picking Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

Creating Floors by Picking Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696

Creating Roofs by Picking Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700

Creating Curtain Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702

Editing Elements Created from Massings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

Controlling Mass/Shell Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

Chapter 19 Grouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713Creating Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

Creating a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714Placing a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Modifying a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716

Creating Nested Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Creating a Nested Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Modifying a Nested Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Working with Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Duplicating a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Creating a Detail Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Using Attached Detail Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Saving and Loading Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726

Automatically Creating a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727

Chapter 20 Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729Using Site Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Creating a Toposurface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Adding Property Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

Modifying Contour Visibility and Site Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

Creating Topographic Subregions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

Grading the Toposurface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Adding a Building Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Adding Site Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755

Tagging Site and Parking Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Creating Parking Space Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Chapter 21 Structural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763Adding Structural Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

Importing a DWG for Use as an Underlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764Sketching Structural Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Dimensioning and Modifying Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Adding Structural Columns and Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Adding Structural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Adding Structural Beams and Girders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

Adding Joists and Purlins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

Copying Level 1 Structure to Upper Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

Defining New Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799

Duplicating the Existing Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800

Adding Braces in a Framing Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802

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Creating a Framing Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802

Adding Structural Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Chapter 22 Sharing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810

Using Worksharing in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810

Understanding Worksharing Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810

Enabling Worksharing and Setting Up Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813

Working Individually with Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817

Using Worksets with Multiple Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Borrowing Elements from the Worksets of Other Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825

Chapter 23 Creating Multiple Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831Creating Multiple Design Options in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832

Creating the Structural Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832

Creating the Roof System Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842

Managing Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

Chapter 24 Project Phasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853Using Phasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

Phasing Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

Using Phase-Specific Room Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Chapter 25 Linking Building Models and Sharing Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

Linking Building Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865Linking Building Models from Different Project Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Repositioning Linked Building Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873

Controlling Linked Building Model Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876

Managing Linked Building Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879

Sharing Coordinates Between Building Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

Acquiring and Publishing Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

Relocating a Project with Shared Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882

Scheduling Components of Linked Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885

Working with a Linked Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887

Managing Shared Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

Part 8 Customizing Project Settings and Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891

Chapter 26 Modifying Project and System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893Modifying System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894

Modifying General System Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894

Specifying File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896

Specifying Spelling Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898

Modifying Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

Modifying Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901

Creating and Applying Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901

Creating and Applying Fill Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Controlling Object Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907

Modifying Line Patterns and Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909

Modifying Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913

Specifying Units of Measurement, Temporary Dimensions, and Detail Level Options . . . . . . . . . . . 916

Modifying Project Browser Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917

Creating an Office Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919

Choosing the Base Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919

Modifying Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920

Loading and Modifying Families and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925

Modifying Views and View Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927

Modifying Render Scene Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 930

Modifying Import/Export Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 931

Setting up Shared and Project Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932

Creating Named Print Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934

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2 | Chapter 1 Getting Started


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Using the Tutorials

In this lesson, you learn how to get started with the Revit Building tutorials, including where to locate the trainingfiles specified in the tutorials and how to create a new Revit Building project from a template file.

The Contents tab of the Revit Building Tutorials window displays the available tutorial titles. Expand a title to displaythe titles of the lessons in the tutorial, and expand a lesson title to display a list of exercises in the lesson.

NOTE You may find it helpful to print a tutorial to make it easier to reference the instructions as you work in Revit Building.

The tutorials are also available in PDF format by clicking Help menu

➤

Documents on the Web in Revit Building.

Accessing Training Files

Training files are Revit Building projects, templates, and families that were created specifically for the tutorials. Thetraining files, like the tutorials, are bundled with the product. Training files are provided to help you work through thetutorials. In this exercise, you learn where the training files are located, as well as how to open and save them.

Where are the training files located?

Training files, by default, are located in c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\autodesk\revit building9.1\training. Training files are grouped into three folders within the training folder:

■ Common: generic files often used to teach a concept. These files are not dependent on imperial or metric units.Common file names have a c_ prefix.

■ Imperial: files specifically for users working with imperial units. Imperial file names have an i_ prefix.

■ Metric: files specifically for users working with metric units. Metric file names have an m_ prefix.

NOTE Depending on your installation, your training folder may be in a different location. Contact your CAD manager for

more information.

IMPORTANT Content used in the tutorials, such as templates and families, is located and accessed in the training files

location. Although this content may be installed in other locations on your system, all content used in the tutorials is included

in the training files location to ensure that all audiences access the correct files.

What is a dataset?

A dataset is a Revit Building project that defines a building information model and views of the model that is used tocomplete the steps in a tutorial. Many tutorials include a Dataset section that references the training file to be usedwith the tutorial. In other tutorials, you create a project from a template, rather than opening an existing dataset.

Open a dataset

1 Click File menu ➤ Open.

2 In the left pane of the Open dialog, scroll down, and click the Training Files icon.

3 In the right pane, double-click Common, Imperial, or Metric, depending on the type of dataset.

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Templates are available for specific building types: commercial, construction, and residential. Each templatecontains predefined settings and views appropriate for the corresponding building type. For most tutoriaprojects, you will use the default template, and customize the project as necessary.

11 Select DefaultMetric.rte, and click Open.

12 Click OK.

Understanding the Basics

In this lesson, you learn what Revit Building is and how its parametric change engine benefits you and your work. Youbegin with the fundamental concepts that Revit Building is built upon. You learn the terminology, the hierarchy of elements, how to navigate the user interface, and how to perform some common tasks in the product.

What is Autodesk Revit Building 9.1?

The Revit Building platform for building information modeling is a design and documentation system that supportsthe design, drawings, and schedules required for a building project. Building information modeling (BIM) deliversinformation about project design, scope, quantities, and phases when you need it.

In the Revit Building model, every drawing sheet, 2D and 3D view, and schedule is a presentation of information fromthe same underlying building model database. As you work in drawing and schedule views, Revit Building collectsinformation about the building project and coordinates this information across all other representations of the projectThe Revit Building parametric change engine automatically coordinates changes made anywhere—in model views,

drawing sheets, schedules, sections, and plans.

What is meant by parametric?

The term parametric refers to the relationships among all elements of the model that enable the coordination andchange management that Revit Building provides. These relationships are created either automatically by the softwareor by you as you work. In mathematics and mechanical CAD, the numbers or characteristics that define these kinds ofrelationships are called parameters; hence, the operation of the software is parametric. This concept is important becauseit is this capability that delivers the fundamental coordination and productivity benefits of Revit Building: Changeanything at any time anywhere in the project, and Revit Building coordinates that change through the entire project

The following are examples of these element relationships:

■ The outside of a door frame is a fixed dimension on the hinge side from a perpendicular partition. If you move

the partition, the door retains this relationship to the partition.■ Windows or pilasters are spaced equally across a given elevation. If the length of the elevation is changed, the

relationship of equal spacing is maintained. In this case, the parameter is not a number but a proportionalcharacteristic.

■ The edge of a floor or roof is related to the exterior wall such that when the exterior wall is moved, the floor orroof remains connected. In this case, the parameter is one of association or connection.

How does Autodesk Revit Building 9.1 keep things updated?

A fundamental characteristic of a building information modeling application is the ability to coordinate changes andmaintain consistency at all times. You do not have to intervene to update drawings or links. When you changesomething, Revit Building immediately determines what is affected by the change and reflects that change to anyaffected elements.

Revit Building uses two key concepts that make it especially powerful and easy to use. The first is the capturing of relationships while the designer works. The second is its approach to propagating building changes. The result of theseconcepts is software that works like you do, without requiring entry of data that is unimportant to your design.

Element behavior in a parametric modeler

Revit Building uses five software element classes: host, component, annotation, view, and datum.

■ Hosts include walls, floors, roofs, and ceilings.

■ Components include windows, doors, and furniture.



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Family: Families are classes of elements in a category that group elements with a common set of parameters (properties)identical use, and similar graphical representation. Different elements in a family may have different values for someor all properties, but the set of properties—their names and meaning—is the same. For example, six-panel colonialdoors could be considered one family, although the doors that compose the family come in different sizes and materialsFamilies are either component families or system families:

■ Component family files can be loaded into a project and created from family templates. You can determine theset of properties and the graphical representation of the family.

■ System families include walls, dimensions, ceilings, roofs, floors, and levels, and are not available for loading orcreating as separate files.

■ Revit Building predefines the set of properties and the graphical representation of system families.

■ You can use the predefined types to generate new types that belong to this family within the project. Forexample, the behavior of a wall is predefined in the system; however, you can create different types of wallswith different compositions.

■ System families can be transferred between projects.

Type: Each family can have different types. A type can be a specific size of a family, such as a A0 title block or a 910x 2110 door. A type can also be a style, such as default aligned or default angular style for dimensions. A family canhave several types. For example, a table could come in several different sizes. Each different size would be a new typewithin the same family.

Instance: Instances are the actual items that are placed in the project and have specific locations in the building(model instances) or on a drawing sheet (annotation instances).

Autodesk Revit Building 9.1 terms

Navigating the User Interface

One of the advantages of Revit Building is its ease of use, specifically its clear user interface. The Revit Building windowis arranged to make navigation easy. Even the toolbar buttons are labeled, making it easy to understand what eachbutton represents. Revit Building uses standard Microsoft® Windows® conventions. If you have used any other productthat follows these conventions, learning Revit Building is much easier.



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In the following illustration, the user interface is labeled. In the steps that follow, you navigate and become familiarwith the user interface.

Start a new project

1 On the Standard toolbar, click .

This creates a new project based on the default template.

The Title Bar

2 Place your cursor at the top of the user interface and notice the Title Bar contains the name of the projectand the view that is currently open.

By default, new projects are numbered consecutively until saved with a new name. In addition, the Level1 floor plan view is the default open view.

TIP The view opened and the view names are dependent on the template on which the project is based.

The Menu Bar

3 Click View menu

➤

Zoom.

The Menu Bar across the top of the window includes standard menu names such as File, Edit, and View.To choose commands, place the cursor over the menu name, and click. Then, click the command name

to start the command. Many of the commands also have shortcut keys to speed up the design process.These shortcut keys are listed next to the command on the menu.

TIP For example, the shortcut key for Zoom in Region is ZR.

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While working in the drawing area, you simply type the required keystrokes to run the command. Anothertimesaving tool for selecting commands is to place the cursor in the drawing area and right-click. A contextmenu appears with a list of all available commands. The context menu changes depending on the functionyou are performing and what is currently selected.

The Toolbar

4 On the Window menu, click Toolbar.

There are six toolbars across the top of the window just beneath the Menu Bar. The buttons on the toolbarepresent some of the more common commands. You can control the visibility of the six toolbars and turn

the toolbar text labels on or off within the Window

➤

Toolbar menu. You can use the toolbar grips toresize and move each toolbar.

The Options Bar

5 Click Modelling menu

➤

Wall.

Notice the bar beneath the toolbars contains wall design options. The Options Bar is context-sensitive andvaries depending on the tool or selected component.

6 Click Modelling menu

➤

Door.

Notice the design options available on the Options Bar are now applicable to doors. On the left side of the

Options Bar, notice a door type is specified.

The Type Selector

7 The drop-down list on the left side of the Options Bar is called the Type Selector. Select the drop-down listto view the list of doors.

The Type Selector is a context-sensitive drop-down list. If you select the Door tool, the Type Selector displays

a list of doors available within the project. The list of components in the Type Selector is identical to thecomponents listed in the Families branch of the Project Browser under the respective category.



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8 Click Modelling menu ➤ Wall.

9 In the Type Selector, notice the list of walls that are available.

You use the Type Selector in two ways. First, you can select a component type before you add it to thebuilding model. For example, if you intend to add a door, the door type active in the Type Selector is thedoor type that is added when you insert it into the building model. You can also use the Type Selector tochange a component type after it has been added to the building model. Within the drawing area, you canselect any component and then change the type from the Type Selector.

The Design Bar

10 Click Window menu ➤ Design Bars.

The Show Design Bars dialog is displayed.

The Design Bar is located on the left side of the interface, immediately below the Type Selector. There are10 tabs in the Design Bar, containing buttons grouped by function. You can control which tabs display byselecting them in the Show Design Bars dialog.



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11 Click OK.

Each tab contains frequently used commands that are also available from the menu.

■ Basics tab: includes commands for creating most basic building model components.

■ View tab: commands for creating different views in the project

■ Modelling tab: all the commands to create model elements

■ Drafting tab: commands for both adding annotation symbols and creating the sheet details for theproject construction documents

■ Rendering tab: commands for creating rendered 3D images

■ Site tab: commands for adding site components and producing site plans

■ Massing tab: commands for executing conceptual massing commands

■ Room and Area tab: commands for making room and area schemes and plans

■ Structural tab: commands for adding structural components to your project

■ Construction tab: includes commands for creating construction industry information

To access the commands within a tab, click the tab, and the respective commands are displayed on the

Design Bar.



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TIP You can turn the visibility of each tab on and off by right-clicking on the Design Bar and selecting the tab

from the context menu.

The Project Browser

12 To the right of the Design Bar is the Project Browser. In the Project Browser, select Views (all).

You can use the Project Browser to quickly manage the views, schedules, sheets, reports, families, andgroups of your current project:

■ Right-click in the browser to add, delete, and rename views, families, and groups.

■ The browser is conveniently organized by view type (floor plans, elevations, 3D), family category(doors, walls, windows), and group name. Expand or compress the browser list by clicking the + or -sign next to the name.

■ To open a view, double-click the name.

■ You can also drag and drop from the browser into the drawing area, making it easy to add a family orgroup to the project or add a view to a sheet.

■ The browser is dockable, so you can position it wherever you want by dragging the Project Browsertitle bar to a new location.

13 In the Type Selector, scroll through the sorting options available for the Project Browser.



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14 Click Settings menu

➤

Browser Organization.

You can create and modify Project Browser organization schemes for both views and sheets. After youcreate a browser organization scheme, you can instantly change the sorting within the Project Browser byselecting the scheme in the Type Selector.

15 In the Browser Organization dialog, click Cancel.

The Status Bar

16 On the Basics tab of the Design Bar, click Wall.

The cursor is displayed as a pencil.

17 Place your cursor near the center of the drawing area. Do not click.

In the bottom left corner of the window, notice the Status Bar provides information regarding what youshould do next. In this case, it tells you to "Click to enter wall start point."

TIP The tooltip that displays is identical to the note in the status bar.



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18 On the Design Bar, click Modify.

You can turn the Status Bar visibility on or off from the Window menu. The Status Bar also providesinformation, in conjunction with Tooltips, regarding selected components within a view. When you placethe cursor over a component, it highlights and the status bar displays the component name.

TIP When attempting to select a specific component in a crowded or detailed view, use the Tab key to alternate

between nearby components.

19 Place the cursor over the elevation symbol arrow on the left side of the drawing area.

The elevation symbol consists of two parts, the main symbol and the elevation directional arrows. Makesure you place the cursor over the arrow portion of the symbol. It highlights when the cursor is over it.

In the Status Bar, notice that the name of the preselected component is Views: Elevation: West.

20 Press TAB, and notice that the preselected component switches to the main elevation symbol, Elevations:

Elevation: Elevation 5.

When attempting to select a specific component in a complex or crowded view, you can use the Status Bar

and the Tab key to toggle between components and select the desired component.

Autodesk Revit Building 9.1 Help

21 Click Help menu ➤ Autodesk Revit Help.

Help is available online at all times during a Revit Building session. You can use this tri-pane, HTML helpwindow to search for information and quickly display it to read or print. There are several tools that helpyou find information. You can select a topic on the Contents tab, find a keyword on the Index tab, searchfor all instances of a word or phrase on the Search tab, or save commonly used pages on the Favorites tab.Context-sensitive help is also available to provide instant help on any menu command.

You can access Help in the following ways:

■ Dialog Boxes: Dialog boxes include Help buttons. Click the Help button, and the topic specific to the

dialog box opens. If there is no Help button displayed, press F1 to get help on that dialog box.

■ Windows: From any window, press F1 to get the topic associated with the window.

■ Toolbar: From the Toolbar, click , and then click on a specific menu command or commandbutton for Help. You can also press SHIFT+F1. Be sure to have the Standard toolbar displayed.

■ Tool Tips: To see Tool Tips, rest the cursor over the Toolbar button until the Tool Tip displays.

TIP You can control the level of Tool Tip assistance from the Settings

➤

Options menu.

22 Close the Revit Building Help window.

Performing Common Tasks as You Work in Revit Building

In this exercise, you learn to perform some of the common Revit Building tasks that are included in the tutorials. Afteryou are familiar with how to complete these tasks, it will be easier to work in Revit Building and focus on the uniquetasks for each tutorial.

Use zoom commands to adjust the view

1 In the tutorials, you are instructed to use a zoom command to adjust the viewable area in the window. Forexample, you may be asked to zoom to a specific region of a view or to zoom to fit the entire building orfloor plan in the view. Understanding how to adjust the view will make it easier to work with the buildingmodel in the window.

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There are several ways to access zoom options:

■ View menu commands

■ Zoom command on the View toolbar

■ Shortcut keys

■ Wheel mouse

■ Dynamic View dialog

In the following steps, you open a dataset and practice adjusting the view with the zoom commands.

2 Click File menu ➤ Open.

3 In the left pane of the Open dialog, scroll down, and click the Training Files icon.

4 Double-click the Metricfolder.

5 Select m_Cohouse.rvt, and click Open.

The 3D isometric view displays:

6 Click View menu

➤

Zoom to display the zoom options menu.

The zoom menu lists the zoom options and the shortcut keys for each option.

7 Click Zoom Out (2x).

8 On the View toolbar, click the drop-down menu next to the Zoom command to display the zoom options

NOTE Clicking the Zoom icon itself automatically activates the Zoom In Region command.



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9 Click Zoom To Fit, and the view of the buiding model is sized to fit the available window.

10 Click in the drawing area, and enter the shortcut keys ZR to zoom in on a region.

The cursor becomes a magnifying glass.

11 Click the upper left corner and lower right corner of the region you wish to zoom; this is referred to as acrossing selection.

12 If you use a mouse where the middle button is a wheel, you can roll the wheel to zoom the view dynamically.Use the wheel mouse to zoom out to see the entire building again.

If you do not have a wheel mouse, use a zoom menu command or the Toolbar option to zoom out withinthe view.

NOTE As you zoom in and out within a view, Revit Building uses the largest snap increment that represents less

than 2mm in the drawing area. To modify or add snap increments, click Settings menu

➤

Snaps.

13 Zoom is also available in Dynamic View mode. To display the Dynamic View dialog in a 2D or 3D view,

on the View toolbar, click .

The Dynamic View dialog displays in the lower-left corner of the screen.

14 Use one of the following methods to zoom:

■ In the Dynamic View dialog, click Zoom, and drag the cursor in the drawing area.

■ Without clicking in the dialog, press and hold CTRL, hold the middle mouse button (or left mouse

button on a wheel mouse), and drag the cursor.

■ On a wheel mouse, roll the wheel to zoom the view.

Resize elements using drag controls

15 In the Project Browser, expland Views (all), expand Floor Plans, and double-click 2nd Flr. Cnst.

When drawing or modifying a building model, it is important to understand how to adjust the size of components in the drawing area. Small blue dots, called drag controls, display at the ends of selected linesand walls in a plan view. Similar controls, referred to as shape handles, display along the ends, bottoms,and tops of selected walls in elevation and 3D views.

16 Enter ZR, zoom in on the upper-left corner of the floor plan, and select the wall, as shown:



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Notice the small blue dots that display at both ends of the wall. These are the drag controls.

17 Click and drag the left control, moving the cursor to the left horizontally, to lengthen the wall.

18 Click in the drawing area to deselect the wall.

Move an element

19 Scroll the view down so you can see the couch and table in the floor plan.

20 Select the Craftsman02 table, and on the Edit toolbar, click (Move).

Some commands, such as Move and Copy, require two clicks to complete the command. After selectingthe element to be moved, for example, click to specify the starting position, and click again to specify theending position. In this case, you want to move the table closer to the wall.

21 Click the lower-left endpoint of the table.



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22 Click next to the lower wall, as shown.

The table moves down and the lower-left corner is placed at the move endpoint.

23 Another way to move an element is to select it and drag it to a new location. Select the plant, and drag iton top of the table.

Undo commands

24 On the Standard toolbar, click the drop-down menu next to .

All changes you make to a project are tracked. The Undo command allows you to undo several commandsby clicking the drop-down menu next to the Undo command on the Toolbar. In this example, you decidethat you like the table better where it was placed originally.

25 On the Undo menu, select the second item in the list, Move.

Selecting the second action in the list will undo the last two actions. All commands are canceled up to andincluding the selected command. The table and plant are returned to their original locations.



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NOTE To quickly undo the previous action, on the Standard toolbar, click the Undo command, or press and

hold CTRL and enter Z.

End a command

26 On the Basics tab of the Design Bar, click Lines.

Some commands, such as the Lines command, stay active or current until you choose another commandor end the current command.

27 Click in the drawing area to start the line and click again to end it.

Notice that the Lines command is still active and you could continue to place lines.

28 To end the command, use one of the following methods:

■ Choose another command.

■ On the Design Bar, click Modify.

■ Press ESC twice.

29 Close the file without saving your changes.



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Developing Your Designs

2

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22 | Chapter 2 Developing Your Designs


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Creating a Building Information

Model

In this tutorial, you learn how to design a building information model (BIM) in Autodesk Revit Building.

You create a retail building that contains 5 floors, a curtain wall, a central service core, and a sloped roof

over one corner of the building.

As you develop the building design, you learn how to use parametric design techniques. Parametric

design allows you to incorporate design intent into your model. Dimensions and other positional

constraints define relationships between elements in the model. For example, a wall or a column can be

constrained to grid. If the grid moves, the wall or column will move with it.

When you constrain Revit Building elements to each other, it is good practice to test the constraints, or

“flex the model” by changing parameters. As you complete the exercises in this tutorial, you learn how

to constrain elements and how to test the parametric relationships between them.

Using this Tutorial

In the first 6 exercises of this tutorial, you create a Revit Building project from a template provided with

the software. You set up the project and create the structural frame and foundation of the building. After

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you complete the foundation, datasets are provided with the following exercises. You can continue to

work in your project, or you may use the provided datasets.

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Creating the Project

In this exercise, you create the project that will store the retail building design and different views of the building. Theproject is stored as a single file, with an RVT extension.

To create the project file, you use a template that is provided with the software. The template file has an RTE extensionand provides default project units, views, levels, and settings, but contains no geometry.

Create the project from the default template

1 On the File menu, click New

➤

Project.

2 In the New Project dialog, under Create new, select Project.

3 Under Template file, verify the second option is selected, and click Browse.

By default, the Metric Templates folder, located in c:\documents and settings\all users\applicationdata\autodesk\revit building 9.1, opens. To ensure that all users use the correct template for this tutorial,browse to the training files location.

4 In the left pane of the Choose Template dialog, click Training Files, and browse to Metric\Templates toreview the Revit Building templates.

Revit Building templates are available for specific building types: commercial, construction, and residential.Each template contains predefined settings and views appropriate for the corresponding building type. Forthis project, you will use the default template, and customize the project as necessary.

5 Select DefaultMetric.rte, and click Open.6 Click OK.

The new project opens. In the drawing space in the right pane, notice four elevation markers.

In views that display elevation markers, you design inside the elevation markers. Each marker correspondsto an elevation view in the project: East, North, South, West. You can access these views by clicking theelevation marker arrow, or by opening the view in the Project Browser.

Explore the project with the Project Browser

7 On the left side of the drawing screen, locate the Project Browser.

The Project Browser contains a hierarchical tree structure that you use to navigate the views, sheets,schedules, and families in your project.

8 If necessary, expand Views (all), expand Floor Plans, Ceiling Plans, and Elevations (Building Elevation).

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The views that display under each of these branches of the tree are the default floor plan views, reflectedceiling plan views, and elevation views created in the project by the template. These views are customizable:you can rename them, change their properties, duplicate, and delete them. You can also add views to yourproject as you develop and document the building information model.

NOTE If you create a project without a template, only a single floor plan view and a single ceiling plan view are

created.

9 Under Floor Plans, verify that Level 1 displays as bold.

The bold type indicates that the Level 1 Floor Plan view is the current view, the view you see in the drawingarea. Notice that in the top left corner of your screen, the software title bar contains the name of thesoftware and Project 1- Floor Plan: Level 1 to indicate the Level 1 Floor plan view is current.

10 Under Elevations (Building Elevation), double-click South.

Two level lines, created by the template, display in the south elevation. Level lines are finite horizontalplanes that you use to define the levels (stories) of your building information model. You use levels toposition Revit Building elements in your building model. You can add, delete, and duplicate levels, as welas change their names, heights, and other properties.

11 In the Project Browser, notice the Legends, Schedules\Quantities, Sheets (all), Families, and Groups branchesthat display at the same level as Views (all).

As you design and document your building model, content and building model reports, such as scheduleand legends, will be accessible from the Project Browser.

Save the project

12 Click File menu

➤

Save As.13 In the left pane of the Save As dialog, click to scroll down to the bottom of the list, and click Training Files

14 In the file window, double-click Metric.

This folder contains the Autodesk Revit Building files that you need to complete all of the Autodesk ReviBuilding tutorials.

15 For File name, enter Revit Retail Building.

16 For Save as type, verify Project Files (*.rvt) is selected.

17 Click Save.

As you complete the exercises in this tutorial, you will want to save your work frequently. You can contro

how often the software will prompt you to save your work. Click Settings menu

➤

Options, and on the

General tab, view the Save Reminder Interval.

18 Proceed to the next exercise, “Adding Project Levels” on page 26.

Adding Project Levels

In this exercise, you modify the 2 default project levels and add 5 levels to the project to define the 7 vertical levels othe building model. You change the names of the 2 default levels, as well as the corresponding floor and ceiling planviews to create foundation and entry levels for the building. You also change the elevation of the two levels lines tothe appropriate heights for the first two stories of the building. After you modify the two default levels, you add theremaining 5 levels using different techniques.



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Next, you add a level by drawing it above the 01 Entry Level.

Use the Draw option to add a level

10 Zoom out so you can view both levels in the view.

11 On the left side of the Project Browser, view the Design Bar.

The Design Bar provides tabs that provide quick access to many commands. By default, not all the tabs arevisible. The command that you use to add levels is on the Basics tab, which should display by default. If it does not, place the cursor anywhere on the Design Bar, right-click, and click Basics.

12 On the Basics tab of the Design Bar, click Level.

Notice that the bar above the drawing area changes to display new tools and setting. This is the OptionsBar. The Options Bar displays appropriate options and settings for every command that you select on theDesign Bar.

13 On the Options Bar, verify and Make Plan View are selected.

14 Click Plan View Types, verify Ceiling Plan and Floor Plan are selected, and click OK.When you add the new level, a corresponding ceiling plan and floor plan view will be created.

15 Move the cursor to the left endpoint of the 01 Entry Level line, and then move it up.

As you move the cursor, a temporary dimension displays the height between 01 Entry Level and the cursorposition.

16 Move the cursor until the height reads 3750 mm, and click to specify the start point of the new level line3750 mm above 01Entry Level.

17 Move the cursor horizontally until a dashed green line displays alignment with the two existing levels,click to specify the endpoint of the level line, and press ESC.

18 In the Project Browser, under Floor Plans, right-click Level 3, click Rename, and enter 02 Level.

19 Click OK.

20 Click Yes to rename the corresponding level and view.

Notice that the name of the level line changes to 02 Level in the current view.

21 In the Project Browser, verify that you have created an 02 Level ceiling plan view as well.

Next, you add another level, using a different option.

Use the Pick option to add a level

22 On Design Bar, click Level.

23 On the Options Bar, click , and for Offset, enter 3750 mm.

24 Place your cursor on the 02 Level line, and move it slightly upward.

A dashed green line indicates where the new level will be drawn, 3750 mm above the 02 Level line.



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25 Click to place the level line.

26 Rename the level 03 Level, and rename the corresponding views.

27 Press ESC, or on the Design Bar, click Modify to end the command.

Add the remaining 3 levels

28 Using either the Draw or Pick option, add 3 levels 3750 mm apart above 03 Level.

Name the levels:

■ 04 Level

■ 05 Roof Garden

■ 06 Roof

NOTE Do not use the Copy command to create the levels. If you create a level by copying it, the associated

floor and ceiling plan views are not be created. Copy levels only when you want to use them for reference.

Display a symbol at the left endpoint of the 06 level line

29 Click the 06 Roof Level line, and zoom to the left endpoint of the line.

30 Select the empty blue box on the left to display a level symbol at the left endpoint of the line, as shown.

31 Clear the box to redisplay the level symbol on the right side only.

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Test the level constraints

32 Select and drag the blue circle to the right or left to shorten or lengthen the level lines.

Notice that by moving the top level, all the levels move. The lock icon that displays indicates that thelevels are vertically constrained. If you select a level and click its lock, the levels are no longer constrainedand you can move them independently. Verify that the levels are vertically constrained with locks beforeyou continue on to the next exercise.

33 Proceed to the next exercise, “Creating a Column Grid” on page 30.

Creating a Column Grid

In this exercise, you create a structural grid in the 00 Foundation floor plan view of the building model. When the gridis complete, you place the building columns at the grid line intersections. By using the grid to control placement of columns, you ensure a level of accuracy early in your design.

In the following exercise, you constrain the column heights to the roof level, so that if the roof elevation changes, thecolumn height changes as well. In a later exercise, you change the columns to round hollow steel columns.

Create vertical column grid lines

1 On the Project Browser, under Floor Plans, double-click 00 Foundation.

2 On the Design Bar, click Grid.

3 On the Options Bar, select .

Notice that the status bar prompts you to specify a start point for the grid line.

4 Draw the first vertical grid line:

■ In the lower left corner of the drawing area, specify a start point for the grid line.

■ Move the cursor up, until it is positioned under the top elevation marker, and specify the grid lineendpoint.

The number 1 displays inside the bubble at the endpoint of the completed grid line.



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5 Change the grid bubble number to a letter:

■ On the Design Bar, click Modify, and double-click 1 inside the grid bubble.

■ Enter A, and press ENTER.

You can change what displays in grid bubbles at any point in your project.

Next, use the Pick option to create another vertical grid line by offsetting it a specific distance from theexisting line.

6 Offset a second vertical grid line from the first grid line:

■ On the Design Bar, click Grid.

■ On the Options Bar, click , and for Offset, enter 7500 mm.

■ Move the cursor to the right side of the grid line, and then place the cursor on the grid line to displaythe location of the second grid line.

■ Click to place the grid line.

The first vertical grid bay is created.

7 Add 3 vertical grid lines:

■ On the Options Bar, for Offset, enter 4500 mm.

■ Move the cursor to the right side of grid line B, and click to place the line.

■ Move the cursor to the right side of grid line C, and click to place the line.

■ On the Options Bar, for Offset, enter 7500 mm.

■ Move the cursor to the right side of grid line D, and click to place the line.

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8 Press ESC, or on the Design Bar, click Modify to end the command.

Create horizontal grid lines

9 Draw the first horizontal grid line:

■ On the Design Bar, click Grid.

■ On the Options Bar, click and specify an Offset of 0 mm.

■ On the upper left side of the grid, specify a start point for the grid line just below grid line A.

■ Move the cursor horizontally past the last vertical grid line, and specify the grid line endpoint.

The letter F displays inside the bubble at the endpoint of the completed grid line.

10 Change the grid bubble letter to 1.

11 On the Design Bar, click Grid.

12 Using the Pick option and offsets of 7500 mm and 4500 mm, add horizontal grid lines to complete thegrid, as shown.

Dimension the grid and lock the grid bay spacing

13 On the Design Bar, click Dimension.



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14 O