So far, you have used the Autodesk® Revit® Architecture software to create walls, doors, roofs, and floors; to define space; and to bring your architectural ideas into three-dimensional form. In each of these cases, the geometry is typically modeled based on a design intent, meaning that your goal hasn’t been to model everything but rather to model enough to demonstrate what the building will look like. To this end, it becomes necessary to embellish parts of the model or specific views with detailed information to help clarify what you’ve drawn. This embellishment takes the shape of 2D detail elements in Revit Architecture that you will use to augment views and add extra information.
In this chapter, you will learn to:
Even when you’re creating details, Revit Architecture provides a variety of parametric tools that allow you to take advantage of working in building information modeling (BIM). You can use these tools to create strictly 2D geometry or to augment details created from 3D plans, sections, or callouts. To become truly efficient at using Revit Architecture to create the drawings necessary to both design and document your project, you must become acquainted with these tools.
These view-based tools are located on the Detail panel of the Annotate tab (Figure 11.1). This small but very potent toolbox is what you will need to familiarize yourself with in order to create a majority of the 2D linework and components that will become the details in your project. To better understand how these tools are used, let’s quickly step through some of them. You’re going to use the Detail Line, Region, Component, and Detail Group tools, because they will make up your most widely used toolkit for creating 2D details in Revit Architecture.
The Detail Line tool is the first tool located on the Detail panel of the Annotate tab. This tool is the closest thing you’ll find to traditional drafting in the Revit Architecture software. It lets you create view-specific linework using different lineweights and tones, draw different line shapes, and use many of the same manipulation commands you would find in a CAD program, such as offset, copy, move, and so on.
Using the Detail Line tool is fairly easy. Selecting the tool changes your ribbon tab to look like Figure 11.2. This tab has several panels that allow you to add and manipulate linework.
This tab primarily contains three panels: Modify, Draw, and Line Style. You’ve seen the Modify panel before. It contains the host of tools you’ve used so far for walls, doors, and other elements. Here you can copy, offset, move, and perform other tasks. The Draw panel lets you create new content and define shapes, and the Line Style drop-down allows you to choose the line style you’d like to use.
The next tool on the Detail panel of the Annotate tab is the Region tool. Regions are areas of any shape or size that you can fill with a pattern. This pattern (much like a hatch in AutoCAD) dynamically resizes with the region boundary. Regions layer just like detail lines do and can be placed on top of, or behind, other 2D linework and components. Regions also have opacity and can be completely opaque (covering what they are placed on) or transparent (letting elements show through).
There are two types of regions: filled regions and masking regions.
Filled Regions Filled regions allow you to choose from a variety of hatch patterns to fill the region. They are commonly used in details to show things such as rigid insulation, concrete, plywood, and other material types defined by a specific pattern.
Masking Regions Masking regions, on the other hand, come in only one flavor. They are white boxes with or without discernible border lines. Masking regions are typically used to hide, or mask, from a view certain content that you don’t want shown or printed.
The Component drop-down menu lets you insert a wide array of component types into your model. These are 2D detail components, or collections of detail components in the case of a repeating detail. Detail components are schedulable, taggable, keynotable 2D families that allow an additional level of standardization in your model.
Detail components are 2D families that can be made into parametric content. In other words, a full range of shapes can be available in a single detail component. Because they are families, they can also be stored in your office library and shared easily across projects.
To add a detail component to your drawing, follow these steps:
If you don’t see a detail component you want to insert in the Type Selector, try this:
Knowing how to change arrangement is an important part of detailing so you don’t have to draw everything in exact sequence. Arrangement allows you to change the position of an element, such as a line or a detail component, relative to another element. Much like layers in Adobe Photoshop or arrangement in Microsoft PowerPoint, Revit Architecture allows you to place some elements visually in front of or behind others. Once an element or group of elements is selected and the Modify menu appears, on the far right you’ll see the Arrange panel.
From here, you can choose among four options of arrangement:
Bring Forward and Send Backward are available selections using the drop-down arrows next to Bring to Front and Send to Back, respectively. Using these tools will help you get your layers in the proper order.
Repeating elements are common in architectural projects. Masonry, metal decking, and wall studs are some common elements that repeat at a regular interval. The Revit Architecture tool you use to create and manage these types of elements is called the repeating detail component, and it’s located in the Component flyout on the Annotate tab.
This tool lets you place a detail component in a linear configuration in which the detail component repeats at a set interval; you draw a line that then becomes your repeating component. The default Revit Architecture repeating detail is common brick repeating in section. Creating elements like this not only lets you later tag and keynote the materials but also allows you some easy flexibility over arraying these elements manually.
Before you create a repeating detail component, let’s examine one such component’s properties. Select Repeating Detail Component and choose Edit Type from the Properties palette to open the Type Properties dialog box shown in Figure 11.3.
Here’s a brief description of what each of these settings does:
Detail This setting lets you select the detail component to be repeated.
Layout This option offers four modes:
Inside This option adjusts the start point and end point of the detail components that make up the repeating detail. Deselecting this option puts only full components between start and end points rather than partial components. As an example, if you have a run of brick, selecting the Inside check box will make a partial brick at the end of the run. If you want to see only full bricks (none that would be cut), deselect the option.
The best way to think of the Insulation tool is as a premade repeating detail. You’ll find this tool on the Detail panel of the Annotate tab.
Selecting this tool allows you to draw a line of batt insulation, much like a repeating detail. You can modify the width of the inserted insulation from the Options Bar (Figure 11.4). The insulation is inserted using the centerline of the line of batt, and you can shorten, lengthen, or modify the width either before or after inserting it into your view.
Detail groups are similar to blocks in AutoCAD and are a quick alternative to creating detail component families. Like modeled groups, these are a collection of graphics though contain detail lines, detail components, or any collection of 2D elements. While you will probably want to use a detail component to create something like blocking, if you plan to have the same blocking and flashing conditions in multiple locations, you can then group the flashing and blocking together and quickly replicate these pieces in other details. Like blocks in AutoCAD, manipulating one of the detail groups changes all of them consistently throughout the model.
There are two ways to make a detail group. Probably the most common is to create the detail elements you’d like to group and then select all of them. When you do, the Modify context tab appears:
The other way to create a detail group is as follows:
You can place any group you’ve already made using the Place Detail Group button on the Annotate tab’s Detail Group flyout. Groups insert like families, and you can choose the group you’d like to insert from the Type Selector on the Properties palette.
Although not part of the Annotate tab, the Linework tool is an important feature in creating good lineweights for your details. Revit Architecture does a lot to help manage your views and lineweights automatically, but it doesn’t cover all the requirements all the time. Sometimes the default Revit Architecture lines are heavier or thinner than you desire for your details. This is where the Linework tool comes in handy; it allows you to modify existing lines in a view-specific context.
To use the Linework tool, follow these steps:
The lines you pick can be almost anything: cut lines of model elements, families, components, and so on. Selecting the line or boundary of an element changes the line style from whatever it was to whatever you have chosen from the Type Selector. Figure 11.6 shows a before and after of the sill detail with the linework touched up.
You can also choose to visually remove lines using this tool. Doing so leaves the line in the view or as a part of the 3D element but makes it effectively invisible for the sake of the view. Do this by selecting the <Invisible Lines> line type. This is a good alternative to covering unwanted linework with a masking region.
Enhancing your model with 2D linework and components is an efficient way to add more information to specific views without modeling everything. It is not necessary to model flashing, blocking, or other elements shown only in large-scale format detail drawings. Using detail lines, regions, and detail components, you can enhance your views to show additional design intent.
From the book’s web page (www.sybex.com/go/revit2015essentials), download the c11-ex11.1start.rvt
file and open the view Exterior Detl, Typ, which you’ll find in the Sections (Building Section) node of the Project Browser. In the following exercise, you will create a detail and enhance the detail using filled and masking regions to accurately represent built conditions within a typical window detail:
Upon completion, your detail should resemble the c11-ex11.1end.rvt
file, available in the download for this chapter. Save this detail; you’ll return to it again in the next exercise.
The next step is to add some detail components for blocking and trim. From the Chapter 11 downloadable files, open the c11-ex11.2start.rvt
file, or continue with your opened file if you’ve completed the previous exercise. Choose Application New Family, and choose Detail Item.rft
. When you’re creating detail components, as with any other family, you’ll start with two reference planes crossing in the center of the family. This crossing point is the default insertion point of the family.
The first family, Blocking, is straightforward. You’ll use Masking Region instead of the Lines tool so you have a clean, white box that you can use to layer over and mask other elements you might not want to see.
c11-ex11.2start.rvt
.Compare your finished detail with the c11-ex11.2end.rvt
file, available in the download from the book’s web page. You’ll return to this detail again for the next exercise.
In the following exercise, you will create a custom repeating detail for the sill detail you’ve been working on. The exterior of the building is terracotta brick and will have visible joint work every 8″ (200 mm). From the Chapter 11 downloadable files, open the c11-ex11.3start.rvt
file, or continue with your opened file if you’ve completed the previous exercise. Follow these steps:
Detail Item.rft
from the list.Although this detail needs annotations before you can think about placing it onto a sheet, you can begin to see how you have used the 3D geometry of the model and were able to quickly add embellishment to it in order to create a working project detail. Compare your finished detail with the c11-ex11.3end.rvt
file, available in the download from the book’s web page. You’ll return to this detail again for the next exercise.
Notes are a critical part of communicating design and construction intent to o wners and builders. No drawing set is complete without descriptions of materials and notes about the design. Now that you’ve created a detail, you need to add the final touches of annotations to communicate size, location, and materiality. The tools you will use for annotations are found on the same Annotate tab that you used to create details. These are the Dimension, Text, and Tag panels shown in Figure 11.19.
The Dimension panel is the first panel located on the Annotate tab. Revit Architecture provides you with a variety of options for dimensioning the distance between two objects, including Aligned, Linear, Angular, Radial, Diameter, and Arc Length dimensioning tools. The dimension tool you will use the most often is Aligned, located on the left side of the Dimension panel shown in Figure 11.19. It can also be found on the Quick Access toolbar . Using the Aligned dimension tool is quite simple. Click once on the first reference object to start the dimension string, and click again on the second reference object to finish the dimension.
Tags are 2D view-specific elements that attach to modeled or detail elements to report information based on that element’s type or instance properties. Any modeled or detail element can be tagged; however, they are most commonly used to identify your basic building blocks—doors, windows, wall types, and rooms. You can add tags to your project by navigating to the Tag panel located on the Annotate tab. When you select the Tag by Category tool and then select an object in your model, Revit Architecture will automatically assign the correct tag type to the associated material. From there, you can enter the appropriate information within the tag object.
Not all elements in Revit Architecture have materiality to them, and sometimes tags are not the best way to convey information. In these cases, you can use text. The Text tool is located on the Text panel of the Annotate tab.
When you’re using text in your model, it’s important to remember that text is not linked to any element or material; it’s 2D view-specific information. If you label something with text or use text to call out notes, the text doesn’t dynamically update as elements change in the model.
In your detail, you have added aspects to the window family to reflect some of the details needed for construction. Now, with much of the linework and elements in the view, you need to annotate and add dimensions. From the Chapter 11 downloadable files, open the c11-ex11.4start.rvt
file, or continue with your opened file if you’ve completed the previous exercise.
With all the dimensions on the detail, it should look like Figure 11.27. Compare your finished detail with the c11-ex11.4end.rvt
file, available in the download from the book’s web page. You’ll return to this detail again for the next exercise.
From the Chapter 11 downloadable files, open the c11-ex11.5start.rvt
file, or continue with your opened file if you’ve completed the previous exercise.
Now that you have embellished and dimensioned the detail, it’s time to add some annotations in the form of tags and text. In this exercise, you’ll tag the window as well as some of the materials in the detail to help identify these items to the contractor. Also, the shims you placed as part of the window family do not have a way to tag a material and need to be called out using text. Follow these steps:
Compare your finished detail with the c11-ex11.5end.rvt
file, available in the download from the book’s web page.
Legends are unique views in Revit Architecture because you can place them on more than one sheet, which is not typical for most view types. These can be great tools for things such as general notes, key plans, or any other view type you want to be consistent across several sheets. It’s important to note that anything you place inside a legend view—doors, walls, windows, and so on—will not appear or be counted in any schedules. Legend elements live outside of any quantities present in the model.
The Legend tool is located on the View tab. You can create two types of legends from this menu: a legend, which is a graphic display, or a keynote legend, which is a text-based schedule. Both legend types can be placed on multiple sheets, but for the following exercise, you’ll focus on the legend.
The simplest type of legend would include notes such as general plan or demolition comments that would appear in each of your floor plans. More complex legends include modeled elements, such as walls.
You can add modeled elements to the legend view by expanding the Families tree in the Project Browser and navigating to the chosen family. Once a modeled element is added to a legend, you’ll notice three sections on the Modify | Legend Components settings in the Options Bar. This menu is consistent for any of the family types you insert.
Family This drop-down menu allows you to select different family types and operates just like the Type Selector does for other elements in the model.
View The View option lets you change the type of view from Plan to Section.
Host Length This option changes the overall length (or, in the case of sections, height) of the element selected.
As part of the sample workflow, you may want to present some of the wall types as part of your presentation package to demonstrate the Sound Transmission Class (STC) of the walls and the overall wall assembly. Because these wall types will appear on all the sheets where you use them in the plan, you’ll make them using a legend.
From the Chapter 11 downloadable files, open the c11-ex11.6start.rvt
file, or continue with your opened file if you’ve completed the previous exercise.
Compare your finished legend with the c11-ex11.6end.rvt
file, available in the files you downloaded from the book’s web page.
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