Free Video Tutorials for Revit Architecture 2011

Philipp Mueller, an Autodesk Student Expert at the Technical University Graz in Austria and some of his friends, have put together a series of free Revit Architecture 2011 Video Tutorials in English, organized in 3 sections. These have been published on the Autodesk Education Youtube Channel. Thanks for sharing!

Getting Started Video Tutorials for Revit Architecture 2011

This tutorial is conceived to allow an easy start with Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 and to get an extensive overview of the power of building information modeling.

• Step00/14 Introduction (2:13)
• Step01/14 User Interface (4:07)
• Step02/14 Grid & Levels (6:50)
• Step03/14 Wall, Columns, Floor Modifications (6:06)
• Step04/14 Split Element, Match Properties, Attach Elements to Top (3:47)
• Step05/14 Interiors Walls, Trim / Extend Elements, Doors (5:42)
• Step06/14 Windows, Stairs, Shaft Opening (5:14)
• Step07/14 Railing, Modification of Curtain Walls (5:29)
• Step08/14 Import Site, Building Pad, Place Site Components (5:17)
• Step09/14 Groups, Rooms & Rooms Tag, Color Scheme (7:05)
• Step10/14 Dimensions (6:32)
• Step11/14 Wall Constuction & Wall Wrapping, Schedules & Tag Elements, Section (5:45)
• Step12/14 View Template, View Properties, Sheets (5:50)
• Step13/14 Freeform (6:13)
• Step14/14 Sun Path, Camera & Navigation Wheel, Render Properties (6:39)

Download Datasets & Handout

http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=revit2011_english

Advanced Detailing Tutorial for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011

This tutorial is dedicated to the detail planning. In the next 12 steps you will learn how to draw details and create detail components.

• Step 00/12 - Introduction (0:48)
• Step 01/12 - Project settings (5:11)
• Step 02/12 - Override graphics in view, link a Revit project, import a dwg (3:39)
• Step 03/12 - Bearing structure (5:23)
• Step 04/12 - Roof and roof joins (7:12)
• Step 05/12 - Renovation plan (6:21)
• Step 06/12 - Wall sweep and reveal, create in‐place component (5:59)
• Step 07/12 - Sloped insulation, multi layered wall and wall joins (5:02)
• Step 08/12 - Lines, create line type, callout (4:40)
• Step 09/12 - Masking region, filled region, repeating detail component, detail component (5:03)
• Step 10/12 - Cut profile, tag material, element keynote (4:47)
• Step 11/12 - Linework, view range, plane region (4:50)
• Step 12/12 - Title block, legend component, print and export (4:42)

Download Datasets & Handout

http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=revit2011_english

Professional Mass Modeling & Render Video Tutorials for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011

In this Tutorial you will learn a variety of methods to sketch easy and complicated freeforms with Autodesk Revit Architecture. To be able to present effectively architectural drafts, we will also show several ways to visualize your architectural design.

• Step 00/12 – Introduction (1:21)
• Step 01/12 – Extrusion – Work Plane – Void (5:16)
• Step 02/12 – Conceptual Mass – Blend Mass – Edit Mass Profiles (5:31)
• Step 03/12 – Reference Lines – Freeform Surface – Revolve Mass (6:37)
• Step 04/12 - Swept Blend Mass – Dissolve Mass – Spline Through Points (5:02)
• Step 05/12 – Divide Surface – Surface Patterns – Adaptive Elements (4:30)
• Step 06/12 – Panel by Pattern (Part 1) Type – Parameter (6:40)
• Step 07/12 – Curtain Panel by Pattern (Part 2) Instance – Parameter (5:38)
• Step 08/12 – Autodesk Mass Floors – Floor Area and Volume Calculations – Place Floor, Wall, Curtain System and Roof by Face (6:00)
• Step 09/12 – Walkthrough (7:03)
• Step 10/12 – Render Materials – Exterior Daylight Render – Background Image (6:49)
• Step 11/12 – Night Render – Adjust Exposure – Render without Textures (7.26)
• Step 12/12 – Graphics Display Options – Shadow Settings – Interior Daylight Render (4:59)

Download Datasets & Handout

http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=revit2011_english

Free Video Tutorials for Revit Architecture 2011

Help me please!

This is the feeling every new user experiences when getting into Revit (or any other app. for that matter). Revit comes with a decent set of datasets and tutorials which have been improving over the years. However when we open the Tutorials  section from the Help menu/button, we are presented with a page that tells us how we download the content. It’s not very helpful if you’re asked to do a bunch of stuff before you get help now, is it?

Your office might have taken care of this for you by downloading the content on the network, fixing your Training Files paths, etc. How nice of them! But that’s not always the case with everyone or you might be the BIM Manager taking care of this. It’s relatively easy to download and unzip everything to the correct folder. However in Vista 64 (this could also apply to Vista 32, not sure), the tutorial chm files might not work correctly unless you click a hidden button. This is what I got when I installed mine for the first time:

So with AUGI to the rescue in this post, William explains how to fix the issue by right-clicking the chm file and clicking the Unblock button. Sweet!

Training content for Revit Architecture can be downloaded from here. And for the benefit of our Engineering colleagues, here are the links for Revit Structure and Revit MEP.

Help me please!

Conditional formatting

So Steve stole the thunder this week and you already know how to do conditional formatting in Revit schedules. That Steve is one quick guy but after all, his readership eclipses my little corner here! Jokes apart, we were talking about how I stumbled across this hidden tool when trying to activate the Manage tab with shortcuts in Revit 2010. Now I just hope Autodesk doesn’t close the loop-hole. And guys, if you’re listening, please just add a button as we can use this tool in Architecture! EDIT: As of Revit 2010 SP3, this functionality is officially available. Thanks for listening!

The main shortfall I noticed is the fact that you cannot do conditional formats based on other parameters. That would be high on my list of enhancements for this tool. To get around this bump, one has to leverage the power of calculated parameters in schedules to perform the number crunching. A simple Yes/No parameter could be used to raise a flag and your condition would just look for the value and format the cell accordingly.

We can actually add multiple conditions to test for, but it is very limiting because it assumes an “AND” operator between them. What if I want an “OR” (which is what one needs when testing to see if a parameter falls between certain values and criteria….they can’t all apply at the same time! An “AND” operator expects all conditions to be satisfied and would thus force the overall condition to fail). It also took me a while to figure out how to add or remove conditions from the list. By the way, why does this dialog use the label “Field” when referring to a parameter? Seems to lack consistency with Revit’s terminology.

So I’ll stop rambling now and discuss how I plan on using this new find. The first two things that spring to mind are to check for human errors (egress calculations) and for room area comparisons between actual and target area.

Checking Occupancy

Unfortunately Revit cannot do calculated parameters in tags (my jaws are hurting repeating this one!) and so we have to resort to a “stone age” method: use a calculated parameter in the schedule and then manually type a copy of the result into a shared parameter that is added to both the schedule and the room tag so you can display the information in plan. PS: You cannot use the built-in Occupancy parameter because it is Text….DUH!

Yes, yes I know, the API can be used to copy values for you probably, but WHY do I need to resort to this for something that is a required task on every job by every firm? I’m getting side-tracked again….

So at least now we can use conditional formatting to help us identify values that don’t match the calculated values, which would happen when room sizes change. Here’s an example calculated parameter:

In the schedule Formatting tab, select the parameter you want to add the condition to and type Alt+N to reveal the hidden gem:

Here’s an example of what the schedule would look like when values don’t match up.

Note: You can check the option Hidden field in the Formatting tab to hide the calculated parameter used for the condition and it will still work just fine.

Some observations: Null values are ignored in calculated parameters (see the yellow cells above) and in conditional formatting. My condition “Flag = No” is not being met because the value is null, yet Revit is not coloring my cells. This needs fixed!

Room Area

For this scenario, I want to ensure that Actual Area:

1. Is never below the Target Area
2. Is never more than 5% of the Target Area
3. Never varies by more than 100 SF from the Target Area

So the formula for parameter Flag would be something like this:

or(not(abs(Area - Program Area) < 100 SF), % Area Variance < 0, not(% Area Variance < 0.05))

where Area is the Actual Area, Program Area is the Target Area, & % Area Variance is (Area - Program Area) / Program Area.

Here’s what the resulting schedule would look like:

In the above example I added a conditional format (in orange) to highlight cases when the % Area Variance was below 5%, but the area difference was 100 SF or more.

Some observations: It would be really valuable if we could specify the boolean between multiple conditions instead of having Revit assume an “AND” operator. And we should be able to specify different colors for the various conditions instead of just one!

If that were the case, one would be able to highlight rooms with areas above the target with one color, and others below the target with another color. Finally, I also noticed that for Yes/No parameters, the Conditional Formatting dialog would let me change the value of my parameter Flag to “Yes”, but it would revert it back to “No” when I clicked out of the dialog or clicked on something else. Not sure why.

All in all this tool is of great value and I’m sure lots of you will find various ways to use it. Let me know how you intend to implement it!

Conditional formatting

Text Notes

So in Jumpy Text, we looked at a technique that we can employ to alleviate the well known deficiencies of text in Revit. Now you know how to use Key Schedules for this purpose, but I wanted to take this a little step further after a great tip I learned from a discussion with my good friend Daniel Hurtubise of RevitIt.

I mentioned the problem of the schedule title being the same as the name of the key schedule in the Project Browser (PB). So if you prefix the names to group them nicely in the PB, you’ll have a problem with your title. To get around this, we can disable the title and group the headings. Then we can type in our new “title” in this new space, independently of the name!

The problem though is that for notes on documents, we don’t need the headings, so this solution wouldn’t be very clean as we don’t want to see the parameter names and if we turn them off, so does the new group “title”. However Revit lets us edit these names and to my surprise (and here comes my little contribution), it lets us make them blank! So by unchecking the option Blank row before data, we can still end up with a separate title, a blank row and our text notes indented with a number for each paragraph, as you can see below (click to see larger animation). This is without a doubt a better solution than typing text for the title. Enjoy!

Text Notes

Jumpy Text

This is one of the most annoying behaviors in Revit. I can’t believe that we’ll have to deal with it for at least another year. Pretty sad.

We need text, don’t we? Unfortunately creating project notes in Revit is a frustrating endeavor. Text re-formats itself depending on the zoom factor, which is totally insane if you ask me. Take a look at this animated gif.

So how do we deal with this issue? You could link in a dwg that contains your text, but this can potentially result in more headaches as mtext boxes are sometimes ignored by Revit. And honestly, I want to stop using DWG files altogether. Another huge limitation is the inability to indent text so you can number each paragraph and be able to adjust the column width of your text without resulting in a formatting do-over.

Back at AU2007, I learned a tip which I’ll be employing from now on. I feel really dirty using it, but there’s no other solution I can think of. I’m not sure where it originated but I learned about it through a hallway chat with the “Rock-n-Roll Architect”, aka Steven Shell. If you know who contributed it, please post a comment. Here it goes…

Create a Key Schedule for a category that you never use. No, the Roads category is not available ;) In this example I chose the Sprinklers category but you’re free to pick anything you want.

Notice the Name field. That’s the name of your key schedule in the project browser, and will also be your Title when you drag this onto a sheet. It’s not necessary to change it in this dialog since you can rename it later in the Project Browser. I named my example “GENERAL NOTES”. Next, type in a Key name and click OK, which leads us to the Fields tab.

Add a new parameter to house your text notes; I used “MyText”. In the Sorting/Grouping tab, sorting will be set by default to the Key Name, which is exactly what we want. This will contain the numbering of each paragraph. To finish up, set your appearance preferences. In my case, I wanted a wide outline and turned off the option to Show Headers as we don’t really need them. Once you click OK, you’ll be in schedule editing mode which will just show the title (If you choose to not have a title, you’ll get a blank page). The next step is to add rows to your key schedule. Let’s use Revit’s new interface to illustrate (click animated gif for larger view).

Now you just drag this onto a sheet and make final adjustments there. This should eliminate the problem of Jumpy Text. A couple of issues that you’ll face are the fact that you don’t have Project Browser sorting/grouping capabilities and that you cannot use the same schedule name twice, so you’ll have to get creative. One option is to have these key schedules named with a prefix so they’ll be grouped together in the Project Browser and separate from “real” key schedules (ex: txt_Roof General Notes). Then you would turn off the Title and just type in text directly on your sheet as seen below.

PS: Autodesk, PLEASE, this needs fixed. Seriously.

Jumpy Text

Beams with sloped edges

Steven Debooy, a fellow blog reader, recently asked me if it was possible to add a parameterized void at the end of a beam to cut it at a slope. That question prompted me to write this post about how one can achieve that result.

a) Adding a void to the beam is a possible solution. I posted a family in the Structural AUGI forums in 2007. Feel free to reverse engineer it and find out how it works. My example has 2 voids instead: one handles positive angles and the other handles negative angles. The user inputs an angle in one parameter, and 2 calculated parameters evaluate that input and return the correct result.

b) In the 2009 Revit family of products, one can use the Opening by Face tool to achieve the same result. Using this tool to cut the end of a beam, one will get a warning stating that "Opening partially cuts its host". It's not a serious warning (I guess), but it is meant to inform the user that something could potentially be wrong, as usually an opening is meant to have beam material surrounding the entire sketch perimeter! This is the best option if you want to create custom shaped cuts on the fly.

c) This method makes me mad. Why? Because it's only available in Revit Structure (come on people!). NOTE: As of the Subscription Advantage Pack, this functionality is also available in RAC2010. Thanks Factory!  Aaaanyway, You can sketch a reference plane and then use the Cut Geometry tool to trim the beam against the reference plane (actually you can also trim against a grid). Non-linear cuts are not possible with this technique.

Beams with sloped edges

An Elevator family from Italy!

What's different about an elevator family that originates outside the US? It might be called a "lift"instead, or "Ascensore" (as Italians call it), but other than that, the clear conclusion we can all draw is that our European counterparts know how to use Revit really well too ;)

My good Italian Revit buddy Diego Minato, aka "DR. GJIOM" of the blog RevitLandia and moderator on revitforum.com, recently shared a tutorial on an elevator family he created and trusted me to translate it in English. It served to brush up my Italian (technical computer jargon in Italian is quite new to me!) and had fun doing it. He is kindly letting me post it here and hopes you find it informative, useful and educational. Per conto di tutti i Revitisti in questa parte del mondo...grazie Diego!

You can download the family by registering for free and then following this link. If you have trouble, post a comment at the end of this article. Browse through the download section and you'll find some very interesting families and videos about them too.

1. Description

This is not just a simple family but a complete elevator system for 4 levels.
Not only can one vary the height of each level independently, but also the cabin and guide rail heights.
The system is made up of the cabin, the doors at each level and the guide rails.
The geometry is quite simple/generic, but can be easily modified to suit your needs...the scope is purely for architectural planning.
The door opening was also parameterized...which obviously only opens at the level where the cabin is.
1.1 Using the family
Place the family in the plan view associated to the lowest level.
If necessary, create new types (by duplicating existing types and modifying as required) so you can adjust the various parameterized dimensions that control the cabin and other accessories.
1.1.1 In a plan view, adjust the guide rail locations by moving the grip handles that appear when the family is selected, or go to the properties window and modify the appropriate instance parameters.1.1.2 In a section view, measure the distances for the base & top guide rail extensions and each level’s elevation with respect to the hosting level; then input them in the properties dialog as shown below.

1.1.3 Input the level at which you want the cabin to stop and the percentage “closure” of the doors (a value of 100 means the doors are 100% closed).

2. Adding one or more levels
Duplicate the family file and rename…I suggest adding the number of desired levels to the family filename.

2.1 Open the new family in Revit.
2.2 On the Family design bar, click Family Types.
Increment the parameter “Numero Piani” (number of levels) to the desired quantity of levels. In this example we will use 5, which will be one additional level to the number of levels in the original family. 2.3 Add Parameter button...
Define a new parameter and call it “Quota Livello 5” (Elevation Level 5) of type “Length” and group it under “Construction” as an “Instance” parameter. Click OK. Repeat the same procedure to add more parameters with the same settings and appropriate names when you want to add more levels to the family.
Once created, assign a provisional elevation value to the parameter/s. The actual elevations will be defined in the Family Types dialog once the family is loaded and inserted into the project environment.

2.4 Quota fermata (Stop height)
Select the first part of the formula for parameter “Quota fermata ascensore” (Elevator stop height) up to and including the comma before the first nested “IF” statement and copy to clipboard (Ctrl-C).

Place the cursor at the beginning of the formula and paste (Ctrl-V). Modify the pasted part with the name and value of the highest level (5) and the parameter name that contains the new level height. Place the cursor at the end of the formula and close with an additional parenthesis (curved bracket).
The resulting expression should look similar to the following: if(Fermata_Eff = 5, Quota Livello 5, if(Fermata_Eff = 4, Quota Livello 4, if(Fermata_Eff = 3, Quota Livello 3, if(Fermata_Eff = 2, Quota Livello 2, Quota Livello 1)))), where “Fermata_Eff” is a calculated parameter with built-in error checking.
This procedure has to be repeated if you add more than one level to the family.
Finally, close out of the Family Types dialog.
2.5 Adding doors
In a 3D view, select one of the doors and copy to clipboard (Ctrl-C).
From the Menu bar > Edit > Paste Aligned > Same Place.
A pop-up will warn you that there are identical instances in the same place. Ignore it.
With the same selection active (don’t click on other objects), click on the properties button; otherwise, right click > Element Properties.
If you inadvertently lose your selection…click on the element you just copied from and one of the two instances will be selected...
In the Element Properties dialog, click the little gray button to the right of the parameter “QuotaLivelloPorte” and select the parameter that reports the height of the new stop. Ok, Ok. 2.6 Testing/Flexing
From the Design Bar > Family Types…set the door aperture to 50 and vary the elevator stop level (Fermata al livello) by clicking on the little arrow buttons (integer parameter). Click Apply after each modification to verify that the cabin stops at the appropriate level and that the doors open and close correctly.
Save and load the family into your project. As mentioned in section 1.1 and subsequently explained, make further modifications to the family to suit your precise needs.

3. Removing one or more levels
Duplicate the family file and rename…I suggest adding the number of desired levels to the family filename.
3.1 Open the new family in Revit.
3.2 On the Family design bar, click Family Types
Decrease the parameter “Numero Piani” (number of levels) to the desired quantity of levels. In this example we will use 3, which will be one level less than the number of levels in the original family.
3.3 Remove Parameter button...
Click on the parameter that defines the level you want to remove; in this example “Quota Livello 4 (Height of Level 4) and then click on the “Remove” button.
If you have additional stops you want to remove, repeat the procedure for the other level parameters “Quota livello ...” to remove them.
3.4 Quota fermata (Stop height)
Select the first part of the formula for the parameter “Quota fermata ascensore” (Elevator stop height), up to and including the comma before the first nested “IF” statement and delete.
Also delete the last parenthesis at the end of the formula (curved bracket).
3.5 Removing doors
In a 3D view, select the door that pertains to the highest level (or those that pertain to the levels you want to remove from the top) and delete.
3.6 Testing/Flexing
Similar to section 2.5...
Save and load the family into your project. As mentioned in section 1.1 and subsequently explained, make further modifications to the family to suit your precise needs.

 

EDIT: Updated links 05/19/2010

An Elevator family from Italy!