Locating 2D details in Revit Structure

Sometimes it can be a real challenge trying to find 2D details within the Revit Structure library. A few years back I noticed that there is a 2D DWF file located in the root of the Detail Components folder. This has 30 drawing sheets with all the graphic 2D details and the folder locations. If you have your own libraries of 2D details it is a good idea to add these to the DWF file. Below you can see a screen shot of the DWF page showing fastners.

 

The DWF can be located in Windows 7 here:

 C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RST 2012\Libraries\UK

LawrenceH

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Excitech’s Revit 2012 Toolkit now available

Many of you may already have used the Excitech toolkit for pile schedules and scheduling coordinates of complex 3D structural objects. The Revit 2012 version is now available here:

http://www.excitech.co.uk/products/revit_toolkit/excitech_revit_toolkit.asp

If you have not used the toolkit, here is a brief summery of features.

The FREE Excitech Revit Coordinate Scheduling application is a powerful tool for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP that will enable users to automatically acquire precise X, Y and Z coordinates from certain Revit objects.

This allows users to more rapidly produce schedules of, for example, piling and services; as well as to publish coordinates for complex geometry across 3D space

 

LawrenceH

Cutting Structural Objects with a Void Family

Unattached voids in families (i.e. voids that don’t cut anything in the family) can now be used to cut objects in the project where the family is loaded. The objects that can be cut are: Walls, Floors, Roofs, Ceilings, and family instances of these categories: Structural Framing, Structural Column, Structural Foundation, and Generic Model. The main advantage is that you can parametrically control the cut size and features. In the below example I can control the Length, Width, Depth and chamfer size.

No in-place families have been created in the above model and one void family has been used to cut the Structural Wall, Strip Footing and the pad foundation. This is a much faster workflow when you need to cut multiple objects.

See my quick tutorial on YouTube for more information.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RevitStructureBlog?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/vmSz5TVwX3U

Hope this is useful,

LawrenceH

Exporting Revit to other CAD Products

Revit, for some time has had the ability to export both 2D and 3D models to other CAD packages such as AutoCAD and Bentley MicroStation. The major issue when exporting the CAD information was that Revit would only use the primary category and ignored the sub categories when mapping to layers.

(Old Export Layers Dialog box from Revit Structure 2010)

Revit Structure 2012 now provides some great enhancements to this area. The major new feature is the ability to add modifiers to the layer names. See the below image.

For example, you can now configure Revit Structure 2012 Floor to output objects on the following layer. Notice that you can use modifiers on the layer names.

In the above example, I have used a simple material modifier to separate steel and column framing. You will have to freeze layers in AutoCAD to control the visibility as many structural items such as steel beams are output as blocks rather than simple line work.

This is definitely a major step forward and will help anyone who has to deliver a Revit model in DWG or DGN format.

LawrenceH