Month: July 2011

Setting Correct Structural Levels

 This may be a simple post and many of you may already be aware of the following but I am going to post it anyway! When modelling in Revit you will have a tendency to start at Level 0 but will later receive the correct or revised levels and need to change the levels. There is a simple way of achieving this rather than trying to move the entire structure, you can simply change the elevation base to shared.

In the above image you can see that the base level is set to 0.00m. To change this to the new required level, click the Manage ribbon and choose Coordinates – Specify Coordinates at Point. Click the Level you want to specify and then you can enter the correct level.

Nothing will change until you change the type properties of the Level and any Spot Levels you have on the model. Select a level and then choose type properties. You will need to change the Elevation Base from Project to Shared. This will then update all the levels within your project. You will need to also do this for your spot levels.

Hope this helps,

LawrenceH

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Revit Structure 2012 to AutoCAD Structural Detailing Tutorial

 

As promised I am going to take you through the process of connecting a steel model created within Revit Structure 2012 to AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2012 (ASD) and generate some fabrication details that we can link back into Revit Structure utilising a drafting view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R0ithtV8eM

 

ASD is a very comprehensive application that can generate fabrication drawings for steel detailers and also generate drawings and schedules for reinforced concrete. In this tutorial we will focus in on the steel fabrication. This can be really useful for providing typical connection details within your Revit Structure projects and is certainly quicker than creating the various 2D details within Revit, especially when more than one view is required.

I wanted to keep the tutorial fairly ‘snappy’ ,being restricted to just 15 minutes in YouTube, so have limited this to the basics but as with any complex design tool, templates rule! You will need to invest some time to get a good set of templates together for ASD and get the various dimension and annotation settings configured. This can be a very daunting task, see a typical dialog box below! mmm

However, once this is done, the production of fabrication drawings and CNC code becomes very quick and easy. Also it is worth noting that ASD contains quite a few links to ROBOT Structural analysis. Note that this will also import an engineer’s model from ROBOT which can be quite handy.

I hope that this has given you a basic introduction to the features and techniques needed to transfer models from Revit Structure to ASD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R0ithtV8eM

LawrenceH

Revit Structure to ASD Steel Detailing

 With the new extension tools you can now pass your steel frame directly from Revit Structure to Autodesk structural detailing providing you have the extensions installed. This is a great way of providing typical connection details both in 2D and 3D within Revit Structure. You first create the steel frame in Revit Structure and then pass this to ASD (AutoCAD Structural Detailing) via the extensions link.

If anyone is interested in a full tutorial on the workflow in Revit Structure and ASD then let me know and I will produce a YouTube tutorial on this subject?

This will then pass the steelwork to ASD, you can either directly launch ASD or create a DWG file to load later if ASD is not installed on your machine. It is then a simple case of creating the various steel connections via the numerous macros that exist within ASD. Each connection is broken down into component parts and will require positioning ( unique part numbers). This is done by selecting all the parts and selecting Auto Positioning. You can then create automatic drawings from the parts and ASD then creates separate sheets with all the required fabrication drawings. These can then be directly linked in to Revit Structure via a drafting view. This is a great way of providing structural connections to prospective fabricators without having to draft them manually.

If anyone is interested in a full tutorial on the workflow in Revit Structure and ASD then let me know and I will produce a YouTube tutorial on this subject?

Hope this helps,

LawrenceH

eTransmit for Revit Structure 2012

eTransmit has been around for the past 10 years in AutoCAD and it is now available for Revit 2012 on Autodesk Labs as a technology preview:

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/revit_etransmit/

With eTransmit for Revit, you can:

  • Copy and detach a Revit model and associated files to a single folder for internet transmission. This removes the typical error messages when you copy central files using the operating system.
  • Locate dependent files automatically and include them in the transmittal folder, reducing the possibility of error. All dependent files are automatically converted to use relative paths to ensure that the dependent files can be located by the model.
  • Choose to include related dependent files such as linked Revit models, CAD files, DWF markups, decal images, and external keynote files. You can transmit any Revit (.rvt) model that has been upgraded to Revit Release 2012.
  • Transmit models that are using file-based worksharing or server-based worksharing. eTransmit for Revit will also work with non-workshared Revit models.

Common uses for eTransmit

  • Internal archiving
  • Sending deliverables to clients
  • Model exchange between consultants/partners
  • Model cleanup
  • Sharing models between disciplines