Revit Modeling: Basic Elements - Advanced Concepts

Wall

For basic Wall concepts, refer to Basic Elements: Wall.

Wall Profile

Example of an edited Wall profile in Elevation and 3D

You can change the profile of walls. This is typically done in Elevations, although it can also be done in 3D; the latter is usually less precise.

Go to an Elevation or Section view and select the wall you want to change. In the Modify | Walls tab, click (Edit Profile). Use the tools in the Draw panel and Modify panel to change the profile of your wall. You can even make opening in the wall this way. When finished, click (Finish Edit Mode). The example at the right shows some of the possibilities.

Wall in wall using Cut

wall in wall

You can use cut to make a opening in a wall that is connected to the profile of another wall. When you change the profile or position of the insert wall, the opening in the wall is updated automatically.

Steps:

Draw the wall you want to cut out of the other wall over of that host wall (it isn't a real host). A warning will pop that highlighted walls overlap, ignore this.
Go to a 3d or elevation view and click (Cut) in the Modify Tab. First click on the host and then on the wall you want to cut out.

You can also use this method to create curtain walls that are cut out of regular walls as an alternative to windows. Edit the type properties of the curtain wall and check 'embedded'; that way the curtain wall will be automatically cut out of the hosted wall.

Type Properties: Wall Structure

Structure/compound

revit wall structure

Walls are normally built up out of different layers. In the type properties under structure you can set the material, thickness and function of these layers. Revit can automatically hatch (pattern) layers based on the material if you set the view to fine (using the view control bar).

When walls and floors are joined, certain rules for joining apply that define how the different layers meet and intersect. Structure layers have the highest priority (1), finish has the lowest priority (5). The priority is the number that is found between square brackets [ ]. Revit connects layers with the highest priority first before connecting layers with a lower priority. The core layers passes through everything, even if there are layers in the core with a lower priority than the layers outside the core.

Structure [1]: Layer that supports the remainder of the wall, floor, or roof.
Substrate [2]: Material, such as plywood or gypsum board, which acts as a foundation for another material.
Thermal/Air Layer [3]: Provides insulation and prevents air penetration.
Membrane Layer: A membrane that commonly prevents water vapor penetration. The membrane layer should have zero thickness.
Finish 1 [4]: Finish 1 is typically the exterior layer.
Finish 2 [5]: Finish 2 is typically for the interior layer.

Wrapping at inserts

wrap at inserts

If you set wrapping at inserts to exterior, interior of both, the layers which are set on wrap and are outside of the core boundary will wrap at inserts up to the the wall closure line (in the properties of the reference line) which is a reference line that is specified in the inserted family. In this picture the wall is wrapped at exterior

wrapping at ends

wrap at inserts

The wall will wrap as in the above explanation but now it will not wrap to a closure line but it will wrap to the interior/exterior finish layer. The layers above the core in the structure are considered as exterior and the materials under the core are considered as interior. In this picture the wall is wrapped at exterior end.

Stacked walls

Stacked walls are walls that are built out of 2 or more sub-walls stacked on top of each other. The sub-walls can have other wall thickness at different heights. All the sub-walls in a stacked wall are attached and their geometry is joined. Only wall types in the Basic Wall system family can function as stacked wall.

Steps to define a stacked wall

wall in wall

Open the wall Type Properties. Of the selected wall, make sure that this wall is a stacked wall family.
In wall properties click on preview to see how the wall is built.
Click the Edit button after 'Structure' to edit the wall structure. Here you can specify the heights of the different walls and specify a horizontal offset. With insert you add an extra part. The top part always has a variable height that depends on the other sub-wall heights and the sample wall total height.
The type specifies the wall type for each sub-wall. You can make these types the usual way (duplicate existing wall types). To use a type for one part of the sub-wall, hoover over the wall and press Tab until the desired part highlights. Select this wall and click the added type properties to change the type of this wall.

Sweep

Introduction

With a wall sweep you can add a baseboard, crown molding, or other type of decorative horizontal or vertical projection to a wall. This wall sweep can create in a 3d or elevation view

Adding wall sweep

You can add wall sweeps on two manners both methods will be explain in this topic.

revit wall sweep

Click on wall, go to properties and click on structure, in the structure menu click on sweep. Here you can add sweeps to this wall type (so every were you will place this wall there will be a sweep. You will need to load a profile, this is a profile family where in you sketched the profile. When the profile is loaded you can add sweeps to the wall. For this sweeps you can give some properties like offset, height (distance) etc. You also can add materials to this sweep as if you do it to walls.
Click in the architectural ribbon on wall à wall sweep. Now you can place sweeps to walls on a visual way. In the type properties of this sweep you can edit the profile, material and setback.

To include more walls to the sweep you select the desired sweep and push Add/Remove Walls. Standard the sweep stands on horizontal but if you click on wall sweep you also can set the placement on vertical. For every placement of the sweep you have to restart sweep.

To change the sweep just select the sweep you want to change and select in the properties a different type.

Reveal

Reveal in a Revit Wall

Introduction

With the reveal tool you can add horizontal or vertical cutouts to a wall. This reveal can create in elevation or 3d view.

Adding a wall reveal

Making a reveal in a wall follows the same steps for a sweep.

Slanted walls

revit wall slanted

Introduction:

To create a slanted wall, you'll first need to model a Mass.

Creating and modifying mass:

Refer to Massing in Revit Architecture for steps to create a Mass. The faces of this mass can then be used to create a Wall by Face.

Make the other walls join this slanted wall

First you draw the normal walls (this also worked for curtain walls, etc) for your building. If you want to join these walls with the slanted wall you first click on that wall and push the button edit profile you will see these lines which you can modify an adopt to the edges you want. Then push finish. Now you can join these walls and make a continuous wall.

The pick wall on face function also works for more complex geometry.

revit wall slanted

Room bounding property

A lot of elements are room bounding. This room bounding element are use to make rooms and compute area and volume.

Creating rooms

With the following steps you can create rooms and tag them

Steps:

revit roombounding

make sure you have a closed boundary of room bounding elements, which can be walls or room separation lines.
Click on room in the architecture ribbon, it’s possible that revit asked you to load room tags, click yes and load m_room_tag.rfa. Than place this tag into the room and name it. In the type properties of the tag you can let the tag show the area and volume etc.

Floor

For basic Wall concepts, refer to Basic Elements: Floor.

Span direction

For some floor types it is important that you set the span direction, like concrete hollow-core slab floor.

steps

span direction

Select the floor you want to make.
Click on the edit boundary button in de ribbon.
When you are in an elevation view, a popup will come, select the corresponding view and click open.
Click on the span direction icon.
Click on draw instead of pick lines.
Draw the span as desired.
Click on finish if you have made all your changes.
If there are any walls on the level below this floor a popup will come and ask if you want that this walls are attached to the floor.

Connection with Walls

There are 3 basic principles to construct a wall-floor connection.

The wall stands on the floor
The floor in between the walls.
The floor is on the center line of the wall.

Make sure by option 2 and 3 you join the wall to the floor, to get the wall layers attached. Refer to Revit Types for information on how to create a layered wall structure and how layers will join.

Roof

For basic Roof concepts, refer to Basic Elements: Roof.

Modifying Roof Sub Elements

Example of a (initial) flat roof that was modified into shape by using Shape Editing

For flat roofs, you can subdivide the roof and manipulate the elevation of each corner point. Select an existing roof and use the Shape Editing panel in the contextual Modify Tab.

Use the Add Split Line and Add Point buttons to create the shape editing points (handles) you need to get the desired shape. When you have the required points, click Modify Sub Elements to enter editing mode. Select points and set the elevation in the Option Bar, drag the points or use the up/down arrows displayed near a selected point.

Varying Roof Thickness

If you want to create a sloped roof that is only has a sloped top side but has a flat bottom side, you can also use Shape Editing. Change the Type Properties of the Roof. In the Structure of the roof you can change the thickness of a layer to Variable. This will cause the sloping to occur for that layer thickness only: the underside of the roof will remain flat. This is useful for flat roofs that have a slight slope for draining water.

Curtain Wall

For basic Curtain Wall concepts, refer to Basic Elements: Curtain Wall.

Curtain System

A Curtain System is used to create a curtain wall-like structure onto geometry that isn't a Wall. This can be use to create free-form curtain systems. To clarify: the Revit Wall component category is limited to vertical, straight or single curved walls. So this can be used for slanted walls or double curved walls. You can use Mass modeling to create free-form geometry of which the faces can be used to create Curtain Systems.

Use the Curtain Grid tool and the Mullion to detail your Curtain System. See Curtain grid above.