Title Details

About the Authors
Ryan Duell is a principal quality assurance analyst for Autodesk Revit and previously worked at an architectural firm in Boston on projects ranging from single-family residences to large commercial jobs. He also teaches Revit at the Boston Architectural College.
Tobias Hathorn is a licensed architect and user experience designer for FormIt. He has honed his knowledge and experience with Revit—especially the Graphics and Rendering features—over the past 7 years in the quality assurance and product design groups.
Tessa Reist Hathorn is a licensed architect practicing in the Boulder, Colorado area and has worked on everything from residences to the Kansas City Performing Arts Center.

Introduction xxi

Chapter 1 Introducing the Autodesk Revit Architecture Interface 1

Understanding the User Interface 2

Exercise 1 1: Use the Properties Palette to See Dynamic Updates of Properties 3

Exercise 1 2: Explore the Content of Your Project with the Project Browser 4

Exercise 1 3: Use the View Control Bar to See Frequently Used View Properties 6

Exercise 1 4: Navigate with the ViewCube 8

Creating a Simple Layout 9

Exercise 1 5: Create a Floor 9

Exercise 1 6: Create Walls 11

Exercise 1 7: Create Levels 12

Exercise 1 8: Change Wall Type 14

Exercise 1 9: Place Interior Walls 16

Exercise 1 10: Place Doors and Windows 18

Exercise 1 11: Space Elements Equally 20

Now You Know 23

Chapter 2 Walls and Curtain Walls 25

Understanding Wall Types and Parameters 25

Basic Walls 26

Stacked Walls 28

Curtain Wall Types 29

Hosting Elements in Walls 29

Creating Wall Configurations 30

Exercise 2 1: Create Wall Configurations 31

Exercise 2 2: Host a Door in a Wall 33

Modifying Wall Parameters 34

Exercise 2 3: Modify Wall Parameters 34

Editing and Resetting Wall Profiles 36

Exercise 2 4: Edit and Reset the Wall Profile 37

Exercise 2 5: Attach and Detach the Top/Base 38

Cutting Openings 40

Exercise 2 6: Cut Openings in a Curved Wall 40

Splitting Walls 41

Swapping Walls 41

Creating Curtain Walls 42

Exercise 2 7: Create and Customize a Curtain Wall 42

Exercise 2 8: Modify Curtain Wall Type Properties 46

Editing Wall Profiles 49

Embedding Curtain Walls 50

Exercise 2 9: Embed and Edit Curtain Wall Profile 50

Curtain Panels 52

Adding and Removing Grids and Mullions 52

Exercise 2 10: Add and Remove Curtain Grids and Mullions 52

Exercise 2 11: Customize Curtain Panels 54

Now You Know 56

Chapter 3 Floors, Roofs, and Ceilings 57

Creating Floors 57

Exercise 3 1: Create a Floor by Sketch and Pick Walls 58

Exercise 3 2: Edit the Floor Boundary 60

Exercise 3 3: Create Sloped Floors 61

Exercise 3 4: Create an Opening with the Opening by Face Tool 65

Exercise 3 5: Create an Opening with the Shaft Opening Tool 66

Creating Roofs 69

Exercise 3 6: Create a Roof by Footprint 70

Exercise 3 7: Create a Roof by Extrusion 72

Exercise 3 8: Create Slope Arrows 74

Exercise 3 9: Create Multiple Roof Slopes 76

Adding Ceilings 78

Exercise 3 10: Add Automatic and Sketch Ceilings 79

Exercise 3 11: Create a Bulkhead 83

Exercise 3 12: Add Lights and Rotate the Grid 85

Exercise 3 13: Slope the Ceiling 86

Now You Know 87

Chapter 4 Stairs, Ramps, and Railings 89

Creating a Generic Railing 89

Exercise 4 1: Create a Generic Railing 90

Creating Stair Configurations 93

Exercise 4 2: Create a Stair by Component 94

Exercise 4 3: Create a Stair by Sketch 98

Exercise 4 4: Customize and Create a Component Stair Landing 100

Exercise 4 5: Create a Multistory Stair 103

Exercise 4 6: Host a Railing to a Stair 106

Exercise 4 7: Edit Railing Top Rail and Slope 109

Designing Ramps 112

Exercise 4 8: Create a Ramp and Edit the Boundary 112

Now You Know 116

Chapter 5 Adding Families 117

Understanding the Model Hierarchy 117

Exercise 5 1: Creating a Model Hierarchy 118

Working with System Families 121

Loading System Families 121

Exercise 5 2: Transfer Project Standards 122

Exercise 5 3: Place System Families 123

Working with Component Families 124

Exercise 5 4: Create a New Family and Load It into a Project 125

Employing Hosted Families 127

Exercise 5 5: Work with Hosted Families 129

Exercise 5 6: Place Face-Based Families 130

Working with In-Place Component Families 133

Exercise 5 7: Modify an In-Place Family 133

Finding Content 134

Now You Know 136

Chapter 6 Modifying Families 137

Modifying 3D Families 137

Exercise 6 1: View Scale and Detail Level 138

Exercise 6 2: Assign Visibility to Detail Levels 142

Family Categories 146

Exercise 6 3: Edit the Family Category 147

Exercise 6 4: Update a Family Insertion Point 149

Exercise 6 5: Modify Hosted Components 153

Modifying 2D Families 159

Exercise 6 6: Edit a Tag Family 159

Exercise 6 7: Edit a Profile Family 161

Exercise 6 8: Update Detail Components 164

Repeating Details 167

Exercise 6 9: Modify the Title Blocks 169

Family Tips and Best Practices 172

Now You Know 174

Chapter 7 Schematic Design 175

Importing a 2D Image 176

Exercise 7 1: Import and Scale a 2D Image 176

Designing with a 3D Sketch 178

Exercise 7 2: Link a 3D Sketch 178

Exercise 7 3: Add a New Level 180

Exercise 7 4: Calculate Mass Floor Area 182

Exercise 7 5: Reload a Linked Sketch 183

Creating Revit Elements from a Mass 184

Exercise 7 6: Create Floors from a Mass 184

Exercise 7 7: Create Walls from a Mass 184

Exercise 7 8: Create a Curtain System 186

Exercise 7 9: Create a Roof from a Mass 187

Now You Know 188

Chapter 8 Rooms and Color Fill Plans 189

Defining Rooms in Spaces 189

Room Tags 190

Room Boundaries 191

Room Separation Lines 192

Deleting Rooms 192

Exercise 8 1: Add Rooms and Room Tags 192

Exercise 8 2: Modify a Room Boundary 196

Exercise 8 3: Delete a Room Object 198

Generating Color Fill Room Plans 200

Exercise 8 4: Add and Modify a Color Scheme 200

Exercise 8 5: Add Tags and Color Fills in Section 203

Now You Know 205

Chapter 9 Materials, Visualization, Rendering 207

Materials 207

Exercise 9 1: Define a Material 208

Exercise 9 2: Assign a Material 210

Graphic Display Options 211

Exercise 9 3: Presentation Elevation View 212

Exercise 9 4: Presentation 3D View 214

Exercise 9 5: 3D Exploded View 216

Rendering 217

Exercise 9 6: Render a View 217

Exercise 9 7: Interactive Rendering 220

Exercise 9 8: Cloud Rendering 221

Now You Know 222

Chapter 10 Worksharing 223

Configuring Worksharing 223

Exercise 10 1: Enable Worksharing 224

Exercise 10 2: Create the Local File and Worksets 227

Exercise 10 3: Assign Elements to Worksets and Control Visibility 229

Saving to the Central Model 232

Exercise 10 4: Open and Close Worksets 234

Worksharing Display Modes 236

Editing Requests 238

Worksharing Best Practices 240

Now You Know 241

Chapter 11 Details and Annotations 243

Creating Details 243

Detail Line 244

Region 245

Component 245

Arranging Elements in the View 246

Repeating Detail Component 246

Insulation 248

Detail Groups 248

Linework 250

Exercise 11 1: Enhance a Detail with Regions 251

Exercise 11 2: Add Detail Components and Detail Lines 254

Exercise 11 3: Create a Repeating Detail Component 257

Annotating Your Details 259

Dimensions 259

Tags 259

Text 260

Exercise 11 4: Add Dimensions to Your Detail 260

Exercise 11 5: Add Tags and Text to Your Detail 264

Creating Legends 268

Exercise 11 6: Create a Legend 268

Now You Know 270

Chapter 12 Drawing Sets 271

Schedules 271

Understanding Schedules 272

Exercise 12 1: Create a Window Schedule 272

Exercise 12 2: Create a Room Schedule 276

Exercise 12 3: Create a Sheet List 280

Placing Views on Sheets 282

Exercise 12 4: Arrange Plan Views on a Sheet 283

Exercise 12 5: Adjust Crop Regions 288

Exercise 12 6: Add Schedules to Sheets 290

Printing Documents 291

Exercise 12 7: Explore the Print Dialog Box 291

Now You Know 295

Chapter 13 Workflow and Site Modeling 297

Understanding a BIM Workflow 297

Staffing a BIM Project 300

Project Roles Using Revit Architecture 300

Architect 301

Modeler 302

Drafter 302

Adding Team Members to Fight Fires 303

Modeling a Site 304

Toposurface 305

Building Pad 306

Exercise 13 1: Model a Toposurface 307

Exercise 13 2: Create a Building Pad 309

Performing Quality Control on Your Model: Keeping an Eye on File Size 310

Purging Unused Families and Groups 311

Managing Links and Images 312

Cutting Down on the Number of Views 312

Dealing with Warnings 313

Now You Know 315

Chapter 14 Repeating Objects, Best Practices, and Quick Tips 317

Repeating Objects 317

Optimize Performance 320

Figuring Out How Much RAM Your Project Will Need 320

Reducing File Size 321

Utilize Best Practices 322

Use Quick Tips and Shortcuts 325

Locate Additional Resources 330

Now You Know 331

Appendix 333

Index 343