February 19, 2017 | Author: Diego Andres Giraldo | Category: N/A
Building Revit Families Saturday, September 21 9:00 a.m.-‐noon
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
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
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
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.
Safety Shower/Eyewash Combo This was one of the first families that I built with MEP 2009.
Gang Toilet Local School System required “black” toilet seats…
Architects Really Like This Stuff!!!
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.
“Select New Family”
Select “Generic Model.r[”
Main Revit Screen
Views Are Important • All views and elevaBons are used in creaBng all families • Located In Project Browser:
Reference Planes • Families are built from reference planes – Connectors – Extrusions – Sweeps, etc..
• Think…how is this part manufactured?
Basic Plane Setup • Start from the Front View…
Create New Reference Plane • Use the buHon on the ribbon to create a new plane…
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.”
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…
Then click the plane…
• The plane will align with the “Ref. Level” and you will see a “lock”…
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
Let’s set the plane we want to work with…
• Click “Set” on the ribbon…
• The following dialog will appear…
• Choose “Pick a plane”… • Dialog box will disappear and we’re back to the main Revit Screen • Select the plane we just drew…
• 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…
• We’ll then be taken to a new command selecBon on the ribbon…
• Select the “rectangle” in the “Draw box…
• Now, draw a rectangle along the axes as shown…
• Let’s dimension the rectangle, shall we?? • Let’s make the rectangle 3’ x 3’ by selecBng each edge…
• Click on the dimension and you will be able to change it to what you want.
• Hit enter and the dimension will change…
• 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???
• Click on the “Annotate” tab on the ribbon…
• Choose the “Aligned” Dimension OpBon…
• Create an aligned dimension from le[ to right by clicking the le[ edge and the right edge…
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…
Hierarchy… • Make sure the series of dimensions is under the 3’-‐0” dimension as shown…
• Select the le[ edge of the rectangle and you’ll noBce the dimensions will be enabled to be edited…
• Click on the dimension in the series and change it to 1’-‐6”…
• Repeat the previous step, except click on the right edge to change the dimension…
• Now, repeat for the top and boHom edges and we will have a square that’s centered on the x and y axes…
• 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…
• When we are done adding these constraints, let’s set an extrusion height by changing “Extrusion End” to 3’-‐0” in the ProperBes Browser…
• Now click the green “Check” symbol in the ribbon…
• This will finalize all basic criteria and create the extrusion…
• Let’s look at our extrusion in 3D by selecBng “View 1” under 3D Views in the Project Browser...
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…
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.
• Now we want to align these to the right and le[ edges as we did previously…
• 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…
• 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…
• Now draw a circle with a 2” radius centered along the y-‐axis…
• Using the technique we learned before, set the height criteria for the circle at 2’-‐1”
More Constraints… • Set the length of the extrusion to: Extrusion End: -‐0’-‐4” and Extrusion Start at 0’-‐ 0” • Click the Green Check mark and return to the front view…
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”…
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…
Remain in 3D View… • Select “Face” In the ribbon…
• 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...
• Enter the following property informaBon…
• Follow the same procedure and create another connector for the Inlet. • For the inlet connector, enter the following property informaBon…
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
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.
Visibility… • Click on the inlet extrusion we made previously and in the ProperBes Browser, under “Visibility/Graphics Overrides, select “Edit”…
• 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.
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…
• 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.
Parameters • Family Types tool allows total control over all constraints…
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…
• 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.?
Wrap Up QuesBons? Comments? Please email me with quesBons. Contact info: Brandon Henson, PE
[email protected]
