Building Revit Families Saturday, September 21 9:00 a.m.- noon

Transcription

1 Building Revit Families Saturday, September 21 9:00 a.m.- noon

2 Part 1: IntroducBon Brandon Henson, PE ASPE, CharloHe Chapter member UNC CharloHe, BSME Licensed Professional Engineer in NC Worked with Revit MEP since release 08

3 What Are Revit Families? Similar to MV Parts in AutoCAD MEP Used as symbology and for specificabon informabon Can define worst case size criteria for equipment Can be used for standard symbols

4 Why Build Your Own? In early releases of the so[ware, there were not a lot of manufacturers offering families Out of the box Revit symbols don t match company standards Gives the designer more control over constraints- design for ulbmate worst case

5 How Much Detail Can You Put In? How much do you want??? Warning!!! Building Revit Families can take a lot of Bme!! They require planning, before drawing.

6 Safety Shower/Eyewash Combo This was one of the first families that I built with MEP 2009.

7 Gang Toilet Local School System required black toilet seats Architects Really Like This Stuff!!!

8 Part 2: Basic Plumbing Family We will now do a step by step walkthrough for how to create a basic, usable family. For simplicity, we will build a Lint Interceptor.

9 Select New Family

10 Select Generic Model.r[

11 Main Revit Screen

12 Views Are Important All views and elevabons are used in creabng all families Located In Project Browser:

13 Reference Planes Families are built from reference planes Connectors Extrusions Sweeps, etc.. Think how is this part manufactured?

14 Basic Plane Setup Start from the Front View

15 Create New Reference Plane Use the buhon on the ribbon to create a new plane

16 Draw a plane parallel to the Ref. Level Line Draw it further out than the Ref Level As Red Green says, I ll be referring back to that later.

17 Use the Align Command Under the Modify/Reference Planes on the ribbon, select align Select the line, face, object, etc. that you want to align the plane with first. In this case, select Ref. Level first

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19 Then click the plane The plane will align with the Ref. Level and you will see a lock

20 We ll leave the lock, unlocked for now Locking is for parameters which we will cover later Let s make an extrusion Select the Create tab along the ribbon

21 Let s set the plane we want to work with Click Set on the ribbon The following dialog will appear

22 Choose Pick a plane Dialog box will disappear and we re back to the main Revit Screen Select the plane we just drew

23 We ll Select Floor Plan: Ref. Level This takes us back to the overhead view and will allow us to draw the top outline of our extrusion shape Let s draw something simple Start by clicking Extrusion in the ribbon

24 We ll then be taken to a new command selecbon on the ribbon Select the rectangle in the Draw box

25 Now, draw a rectangle along the axes as shown

26 Let s dimension the rectangle, shall we?? Let s make the rectangle 3 x 3 by selecbng each edge

27 Click on the dimension and you will be able to change it to what you want.

28 Hit enter and the dimension will change

29 Follow this step again for the other side Now we have a 3 x 3 rectangle, but how do we align it so that the axes are centered???

30 Click on the Annotate tab on the ribbon Choose the Aligned Dimension OpBon

31 Create an aligned dimension from le[ to right by clicking the le[ edge and the right edge

32 Adding Constraints This will set the overall dimensional criteria Let s add some constraints This will enable us to add more parameters later Select Aligned dimension under the Annotate tab again and select the le[ edge of the rectangle, y- axis line and the right edge

33 Hierarchy Make sure the series of dimensions is under the 3-0 dimension as shown

34 Select the le[ edge of the rectangle and you ll nobce the dimensions will be enabled to be edited

35 Click on the dimension in the series and change it to 1-6

36 Repeat the previous step, except click on the right edge to change the dimension

37 Now, repeat for the top and bohom edges and we will have a square that s centered on the x and y axes

38 Click on the upper series of dimensions and you ll nobce an EQ that is crossed out. Click the EQ and this will lock the dimensions so that they are always equal distance from the center axis, i.e. a constraint

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40 When we are done adding these constraints, let s set an extrusion height by changing Extrusion End to 3-0 in the ProperBes Browser

41 Now click the green Check symbol in the ribbon This will finalize all basic criteria and create the extrusion

42 Let s look at our extrusion in 3D by selecbng View 1 under 3D Views in the Project Browser...

43 Basic Lint Interceptor We re going to use the cube we just created to build on for our family object which when finished can be used for every project that you have We re going to talk more about planes, parameters and extrusions

44 Let s add more planes Go back to the Floor Plan View and as we did previously, create new reference planes on the le[ and right sides of our cube.

45 Now we want to align these to the right and le[ edges as we did previously

46 Now, return to the Front View under ElevaBons in the Project Browser and click create Extrusion Set the le[ work plane as we did previously and choose ElevaBon: Le[ in the Pop Up

47 This will set the view to the le[ side. Choose the Circle under the Draw menu on the ribbon Now draw a circle with a 2 radius centered along the y- axis

48 Now draw a circle with a 2 radius centered along the y- axis

49 Using the technique we learned before, set the height criteria for the circle at 2-1

50 More Constraints Set the length of the extrusion to: Extrusion End: and Extrusion Start at 0-0 Click the Green Check mark and return to the front view

51 Inlet and Outlet Now, as we just did, create another extrusion with the same constraints, except create it on the right side and set the height to 0-8

52 Connectors Connectors will allow you to draw pipe from our family and can be set up for any system we have; waste, water, gas, etc On the ribbon, go to Create, and Pipe Connector

53 Remain in 3D View Select Face In the ribbon

54 Now select the outer face of the Outlet and a connector will appear Click on the connector and the ProperBes Browser will appear with informabon on the connector...

55 Enter the following property informabon

56 Follow the same procedure and create another connector for the Inlet. For the inlet connector, enter the following property informabon

57 Now you see me, now you don t Let s make sure that the family can be seen in 3D View within your project, but only a symbol shown in floor plan view Click on the cube extrusion, and uncheck the Visible selecbon

58 Let s make it symbolic Go to the Ref. level, and under the create tab, select Model Line Draw the model lines along all four edges of the cube extrusion.

59 Visibility Click on the inlet extrusion we made previously and in the ProperBes Browser, under Visibility/Graphics Overrides, select Edit

60 Uncheck the Coarse, and Medium opbons under Detail Levels This allows the inlet to be visible only under fine detail level in your project. As most of the Bme when you re working in 3D, you ll be using fine detail, and in plan view, you ll more than likely be using Medium or Coarse detail level.

61 Almost there Repeat this step for the cube and outlet extrusions. Let s make sure the family will be able to be placed in your project model Go to Family Categories and Parameters under the ProperBes tab on the ribbon

62 Once there, you ll nobce Generic Models is highlighted. Let s make this a plumbing fixture by selecbng Plumbing Fixture. I know this isn t a fixture but Revit doesn t have Plumbing SpecialBes as a category Making this a fixture will allow us to drop it into a project and move forward.

63 Parameters Family Types tool allows total control over all constraints

64 Further We can build several different families within one file by creabng New Family Types. The dimensions we created earlier can become parameters by naming them in the family editor

65 This will show up in the Family Types Menu, in this case, Length, Height and Depth have been assigned 3-0 in the 100 Gallon Family type. Any number of constraints can be added which will control all aspects of your family. Remember when I said, these require planning before drawing.?

66 Wrap Up QuesBons? Comments? Please me with quesbons. Contact info: Brandon Henson, PE