HOW TO BUILD A CUSTOM TABLE IN REVIT

- FOR BEGINNERS JAMES HAMILTON S3491696 CLASS 2A

STEP 1 OPEN REVIT

Select the Revit icon, left click once and then press enter key to open the
application.

STEP 2 SETUP THE BASICS

Go to the Revit icon in the top left hand corner, left click. A drop down menu will
appear, hover over the side arrow on the New icon and a second drop down
menu will appear. Click Family.

Once you have opened a new family project, this selection screen will appear.
Select a new family and scroll down to Metric Generic Model floor based.rft
This

project space will appear.

STEP 3 REFERENCE PLANES

To create a reference plane type the command RP and draw some basic lines by
left clicking, drag and left click to place the reference plane. Press the escape
(ESC) key to finish the command. Do this so your drawing looks like this.

STEP 4 BEGIN CREATING THE TABLE

i)
Up the top a ribbon of tabs is shown, select the Create tab, select the
extrusion icon and then lastly select the icon that resembles a
rectangle.

ii) Single

pick a corner of your reference plane to an opposite corner.

Pink/Magenta lines should appear during this action.
iii)

Select the green arrow once complete.

iv)

Lock these lines to the reference planes by clicking the blue padlock
icon.

v)

On the left-hand side of the screen, about halfway down you will find a
browser titled Project Browser Family 1. Scroll down to find the
Elevation categories; front, back, left and right.

vi)

Select the Front elevation. Create more reference planes shown

below.

vii)

Lock the table top and base to constrain them to the reference planes.

STEP 5 DIMENSIONS
i) To create dimensions start the dimension command by typing DI
ii) Select one reference plane, the middle reference plane and finally the
opposite reference plane to complete the command.
iii) Hover over the EQ symbol to make the dimensions equal. Do this to the
Floor Plan view, which can be found in Project Browser menu.

iv) Go to the Modify tab at the tab and select Family Types a pop up box
will appear.

v) Select Add on the right hand side and type height. Do this step again for
length and width
vi) Now we want to assign the dimensions we just made a name. Select the
overall dimension and label accordingly.

STEP 6 TABLE LEGS

i) First we will have to setup more reference planes using the RP command
on an elevation view and a ground floor view like so.

ii) The next step is to make an extrusion. Select the extrusion icon to create a
solid shape. This time, we are going to select Line and single pick to
create our unique table base. Click this icon in your toolbar.
iii) Create the base like the image shown below, using the reference planes as
guidelines.

iv) Lock these lines to the reference plane.

STEP 7 VIEW PROJECT IN 3D

To view the project in 3D simply left click the small house icon at the very top of
the window. Or create a quick command; here are the steps on how to.
i)
Select Revit logo on upper left side of the ribbon and go to Options on
the bottom right side of the pop up drop down menu.
ii)

From here, select the tab User Interface and select customise.

iii)

Type 3D view in the search bar and select 3D View Default

iv)

Click on the command name first, and then type the new shortcut
name and click the assign button to finish.

STEP 8 EDGE DETAIL

To create the edge detail, we will need to create a sweep of our table top.
i) Under the Create tab select the Sweep command, and then select
Sweep Sketch.

ii) Next, select the Set Plane icon. A pop up menu will appear titled Work
Plane. Under Specify a new Work Plane a drop down selection menu is
shown. Click and choose table top as your reference plane. Click Ok
iii) Select all 4 edges of the table by selecting the Pick Lines icon, as you do
so a profile will appear cutting the table in half like this. Left click
padlocks to lock them to constraints. Select the green tick once complete.
iv) From the same ribbon, select Edit Profile
v) Now we are going to edit the profile of the edge thickness to make it
customisable.
STEP 9 ASSIGN MATERIALS AND FINISHES
To create visibility graphics for our custom table, click the Family Types icon
under the Modify tab.
i) A pop up menu will appear, select Add under the Properties heading on
the right hand side to create a new parameter.
ii) Type marble and select the type of parameter as a Material from the
Type of Parameter drop down menu.
iii) Select Instance and OK
iv) The new material name will be created, now to add the finish selection.
Double left click on the name to select a mater/finish and apply.
v) Repeat these steps for table edging and leg base powder coat
STEP 10 CREATING CUSTOM SIZES & ADDING FORMULA
Limiting sizes when loading into a project.
i) Create tab, properties palette, family types
ii) Modify to make an instant
iii) Error Check, family type, new parameter, name lengthchek1, make
instant, click OK.
iv) Add formula if(length<500,500,length)
v) Go back to model and change the dimension name to lengthchek1