ATP176

Understanding Revit Architecture

(Beginning)
Segment 3

Date: April 23, 2007

Instructor: Eric Wing
Level: Beginning
Category: Autodesk Revit
Web: www.AUGI.com

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Normally, I would have some goofy little intro, but we have to jam SO much in here it’s not even funny. Well,
maybe a little funny.

Open the file AUGI-Revit.rvt, and lets get cracking.

Roofs
In the project browser, go to Floor Plans > Roof
In the design toolbar, go to Basics > Roof > Roof by Footprint

On the options toolbar, uncheck defines slope

Make sure the overhang is 0’ 0”

Mouse over one of the walls
Tab
Once all of the walls are selected, pick. (You may have to pick the radial wall separately).

Click Finish Roof.

Go to the 3D view
Check out the roof.

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 Stairs
Stairs are those things that let people walk up and down between floors in a building or house. (This is an
engineer talking about stairs. An architect has a different description I’m sure).

Open the file AUGI-Revit.rvt

In the project browser, go to the second floor and zoom in on the radial entry area.
In the design toolbar, go to the Modeling tab, and select stairs

Pick a point on the second floor slab edge

Move to the right. The stairs will faintly count down.
Once you get to 13 risers created, 13 remaining, pick that point.

Move your cursor straight up from that point. You will see a green alignment line.

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 Pick a point about 5 feet away from the first set of stairs.
Return back to the second floor landing, and pick a point past the slab edge.

Click on the boundary button

Sketch a radial landing for the stairs
Be sure that the green lines form a continuous boundary. Trim and delete any straggling lines. Similar
to AutoCAD.

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 Click the properties button
Change the base level to Entry Level
Change the top level to level 1
Change the multi level level to level 4 (that’s a lot of levels)!
Click OK

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 Click the Railings type button
Select Guardrail Pipe
Click OK
Click Finish Sketch
Go to 3D and check it out.

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 Railings
Railings are those things that keep you from falling off of... stuff. As you can plainly see, we could use a few.

Go to the Level 1 floor plan

It is possible that the UP and DOWN text is in the way. If so, select the stairs and pick the round blue
grips on the text. You can then move the text out of the way

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 Select the railing on the stairs. Right click and select Create Similar.

The thing about railings is this. You can only draw one at a time. That’s it. In this instance we will need
three separate railings per floor.
On the options toolbar, select pick. Set an offset for 4”
Pick the slab edge as shown below.
You can drag the line into the interior partition by grip-editing it.
Draw another line back from the inside edge of the stair railing. Again, see the graphic below.
Click finish sketch

This is going to take a few passes. Be patient. Remember this is not AutoCAD.

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 Do the same procedure for the middle and the other side
of the balcony.

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 On Level 1, select the three railings. Note that Revit requires you to hold down the Ctrl key when
selecting multiple items (Believe me, this really throws me off when I’m back in AutoCAD.
Copy them to the clipboard.
Go to Edit > Paste Aligned

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 From there, got to Level 2, 3 and 4

Open the Level 4 floor plan and delete the middle railing
Select the bottom railing and click the edit button.

Extend the railing to meet the stairs going down.

Click Finish sketch.
Go to 3D and check it out.

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Reuse of any or all material contained within this document for commercial purposes,
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Dimensioning
Dimensions in Revit cannot be typed over. YES! What a horrible thing that was…in AutoCAD when you came to
the realization that a dimension was typed. Ohhhhh the tension. You can, however, use dimensions in Revit to
physically control and lock geometry.

Go to the Entry Level floor plan

Delete the dimensions from segment two.
On the Basics tab on the design toolbar, click dimension.
On the options toolbar, Pick Entire Walls, then select the options button

In the Auto Dimension Options, select Openings, and Centers

Pick the bottom wall, and place the dimension string.

With the command still running, click the Options button again.
Uncheck openings
Select the same wall.
Similar to AutoCAD, if you select a dimension you can grip edit it to move text into a more readable
position.

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 Zoom in on an interior door and partition
Dimension from the center of the doors and wall in the steps shown below.
Note:
You can hover over a door while in the dimension command, and get a
centerline. Use this for this example.

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 Once the dimensions are in place, little padlocks will appear. Click on both of them.
Delete the dimensions.
A warning appears telling you that you are removing a dimension but it is still locked to that wall.

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Move the wall. The doors will come along for the ride.
I don’t think I need to dwell on how much of an advantage this can be.

Array
Revit array rocks the Kasbah! Not only is it extremely easy, but you can modify the count and increment at any
time

Switch to the Entry Level floor plan, and place a Double-Glass 2: 72” x 82” door 4’-6” from the interior
partition as shown below.

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 Select the door and start the array command

In the options toolbar, give it a number of 4, move it to last, and constrain it.

Click the points shown to the right

You have the choice now to specify how many doors you want.
Hit Escape a few times.
Select the top door
Pick Activate dimensions from the options toolbar

Modify the blue dimension to 4’-6”

Click the little dimension Icon

Hit escape
Select the dimension again

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 Lock it

Delete it.

Repeat the same steps for the bottom door.

Select any one of the doors
Change the blue number to 5
Go to the Drafting tab on the design toolbar.
Select Tag all not Tagged.
Click door tags
Click OK
The doors are now tagged and love is in the air.

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 Select one of the doors. Notice it is a group (We will get into groups next month)

Click Edit Group

Select the door and change it to Double-Glass 2: 72” x 84”

Click finish Group
The doors are now all bigger!
Check out the back in 3D

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This concludes the beginning portion of the Revit series. We have two more classes scheduled. Please, if you
haven’t already, sign up for two more months of fun. We have tons of stuff to cover.

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prohibited.
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