Easy Revit Cabinet Crown Molding

Placing crown molding at the top of cabinetry is very common in residential design and can be easy to do in Revit.  Ideally, I would like to use a sweep with a crown molding profile, but Revit utilizes sweeps only for walls when not in the family editor.  The trick to making this an easy process for the user is to create a specialty wall that has the desired sweep profile built into it.  This allows you draw the “wall” to follow the front edge of the cabinetry at the desired elevation for the crown molding.

The following image shows the resultant crown molding.

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Revit Section Bubble Placed In Text

I get asked about how to place a detail bubble or a section bubble amongst text notes where the actual leader for the bubble is not desired.  The user still wants to have the information within the bubble to auto-update, so the bubble needs to be an actual callout. This is a very common situation,   The following image is an example of a typical situation.

Revit Section Markers Discipline Visibility

When and how Revit section markers display on plan views can be a bit confusing when you are working with multiple disciplines.  With more disciplines involved with a model, the more noticeable and confusing the issue becomes.  This is due to the fact that section markers are discipline-specific and cannot be displayed on all the different disciplines of plan views.

Revit is designed so that section markers will not show in other discplines’ views and this is based upon the Discipline parameter of a view.  Revit has 6 different Disciplines available for selection for a view.  They are:

• Architectural
• Structural
• Mechanical
• Electrical
• Plumbing
• Coordination

 

My Favorite Revit 2019 New Features

Most Revit users have heard that Autodesk has released the 2019 versions of its various software packages.  Autodesk has included a lot of nice enhancements with this release and delivered on many of the user wish list items.  While there are still many improvements to be made to Revit, I am pleased with enhancements in this release.

Automatic Updating Electrical Symbol Legend in Revit

Electrical symbol legends are a critical part of electrical design documents and everyone wants to have a Symbols List which automatically updates to show the actual electrical symbols that are placed in a project.  That way, the only symbols that are on the list are ones that are actually placed in the model and the list does not include many unused symbols.  It is actually possible to do this.  When an electrical item gets added to the model, the symbol gets added to the symbol list.

Year End BIM Evaluation

It is now the end of another year, with all the experiences of life that comes with that year.  As such, we tend to evaluate the past year and look forward to the challenges and experiences of the new year.  That includes all different aspects of our lives, including the personal and professional sides.  However, in additional to individuals doing this, organizations need to do the same thing.

Since this is an building industry oriented blog, I am going to touch on what I believe to be an important component of AEC firms in the technological age in which we now live.  That is the evaluation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) within your firm.  While there are still many AEC firms that have not moved into the world of BIM, it is becoming more common and more important in the industry.

It is extremely important to evaluate BIM within a firm.  There are costs associated with moving toward BIM integration and it is important to understand whether your firm is getting a return on that investment and how it can be improved.

Masking Regions in Revit Projects

There are times working within Revit that Masking Regions are needed in order to hide/cover model information within a project file.  There can be various reasons for this, so I won’t discuss the “why” you would do it.  You will recognize the need when you confront it.  However, when working with Masking Regions, it is always good to know the guidelines and rules for how they work.

Following is an illustration of a Masking Region covering part of a simple model.

Canadian BIM Conference

Our neighbors in Canada are holding a conference that many will find beneficial.  The Canadian BIM Council (CanBIM) is hosting an event whose goal is to build awareness for standardization and create an atmosphere of understanding and sharing among users, technology and AEC companies, software and developers.  It will be held in Toronto on June 10-11 of 2015.

Autodesk University 2014 Tips

It is almost time for the annual Autodesk University, which is AU 2014 this year.  Since I attended Autodesk University for 17 consecutive years, I thought that I would give some advice to first time attendees.  It seems that there is a large percentage of 1st time attendees each year, so maybe some of them will read this blog and get some tips.

New vs Existing Display in Revit

In the building design process, remodels and additions are more common than just constructing a new building.  Therefore, you will commonly have existing modeled graphical objects shown in the same view as objects that are constructed new during in the project.  When this occurs in an Autodesk Revit project, you have choices on how the new and existing information is graphically represented.

There are two primary methods for showing both existing and new objects in the same view.  Both methods show the same information, but show them different graphically.

Optional Gray Fill in Revit Annotative Families

I was recently working with a client on getting electrical receptacles to show with a solid gray fill to represent when the receptacle is connected to an emergency power circuit.  Since receptacles are shown as annotative symbols in plan views, it created a different situation than can be done in non-annotative families.  In non-annotative families, you can create the solid fill and send it to the back so linework can be seen on top of the fill.  With an annotative family, fill patterns are in masking regions and will cover any linework that might also be in the family.  This meant that a different approach needed to be utilized to get the circular solid gray fill to not cover the symbolic lines going through the electrical receptacle.

This article will look at how to create the fill to display correctly, and also how to make the fill display only when you specify that the receptacle is on an emergency power circuit.

Controlling Revit Wall Component Linework

Architectural drawings have been created throughout the years with the intent of accurately and effectively conveying the design intent to the builder for proper construction of the building.  Utilization of CAD made it easier for the designer to show the various components that made up the wall by showing lines representing the edges of each of the wall components.  When showing the multiple components of a wall, we have traditionally shown the lines representing the two faces of a wall as darker lines than the interior linework of the wall.  When using Revit, this same appearance can be easily accomplished.