Openings in Walls. - Revit 2010

It’s quite surprising the amount of different ways you can put an opening in a wall, and they all have slightly different properties in regard to how they behave and how surrounding elements behave. This is my finding with Revit ARCH 2010 original release. Most opening now seems to behave well, but great care need to be taken on openings where copy / monitoring is planned.

Let’s look at all the opening tools and see how they behave differently.

Wall Opening Tool within a project file.

Can only be rectangular in shape.
Can put an opening in a Curtain Wall.
Can only cut one wall at a time.
Is not room bounding if the opening is at the computed height
Height is level based. – Move the level the opening will move.
Stretching the wall boundary inside the opening is acceptable.
Can only be a perpendicular opening to the wall.
Copy / Monitors correctly but needs to be created in file the wall was originally created.

Opening using the Profile Tool

Can be any shape.
Can put an opening in Curtain Walls.
Can only cut one wall at a time.
Is not room bounding if the opening is at the computed height
Height is wall base offset based. – Move the wall base and the opening will move.
Stretching the wall boundary inside the opening will cause the wall to be invalided and it will be deleted.
Can only be a perpendicular opening to the wall.
Copy / Monitors correctly – both ways

Opening using an In-place family opening tool.
Can be any shape
Cannot put an opening in Curtain Walls
Can only cut one wall at a time.
Is room bounding
Height is level based. – Move the level the opening will move.
Stretching the wall boundary inside the opening is acceptable.
Can only be a perpendicular opening to the wall.
Copy / Monitors but needs to be created in file the wall was originally created in. In the copy file it simplifies the shape into a rectangle.

Opening using an In-place family void and cut geometry tool.

Can be any shape
Cannot put openings in Curtain Walls
Can cut multiple walls
Is room bounding
Height is level based. – Move the level the opening will move.
Stretching the wall boundary inside the opening is acceptable.
Can be any shape or direction. Does not need to cut the entire wall.
Copy / Monitors but needs to be created in file the wall was originally created in. In the copy file it simplifies the shape into a rectangle and only cuts the first wall. Shapes that should be partly be cutting the wall will fully cut it.

Opening using an external rfa family file which is wall hosting using the family opening tool.

Can be any shape
Cannot put an opening in a Curtain Wall
Can only cut one wall at a time
Is room bounding
Height is level based. – Move the level the opening will move.
Stretching the wall boundary inside the opening is acceptable.
Can only be a perpendicular opening to the wall.
Copy / Monitors correctly but needs to be created in file the wall was originally created in. In the copy file it simplifies the shape into a rectangle.

Opening using an external rfa family file which is wall hosting using the void and cut geometry tool.
Can be any shape
Cannot put an opening in a Curtain Wall
Can only cut one wall at a time
Is room bounding
Height is level based. – Move the level the opening will move.
Stretching the wall boundary inside the opening is acceptable.
Can be any shape or direction. Does not need to cut entire wall.
Copy / Monitors but needs to be created in file the wall was originally created in. In the copy it file simplifies the shape into a rectangle. Shapes that should be partly cutting the wall will be fully cut it.

Flip Control tool missing in Revit 2010 Detail Component Families

I just saw this thread on AUGI. I think at this stage it’s just funny the amount of bugs that have been found in the Revit 2010 UI (User Interface). If you read the thread you will see the flip control arrow tools have been left out of the ribbon on the Detain Component Family editor.

The work around is to go to a previous detail component family with the desired flip arrows and copy and paste them into your new family.

Revit 2010 Massing & Join-Geometry

I’m not sure how many readers have been playing around the massing in Revit 2010. One of the big items to be aware of at the moment is; when you join geometry within the mass, you lose some of the mass element editing tools. After you join geometry you cannot use the “Add Edge” or “Add Profile” tool on the element. In order to add an edge or profile, you need to first un-join the two elements. You can then add an edge or profile. When you are finished you can then join the objects together again.

I have a support request sent off to Autodesk on this one. If this is intended functionality it’s not documented very well.

Callout – Reference other view:– Crop View

One of our Sydney Users made me aware of this little Revit funny. It is in regard to using the Callout view tool in “Reference other view” mode. If the view you are trying to reference to, does not have its “Crop View” enabled on, it will not appear in the view list.

It does not affect Section or Elevation tag cross referencing, however if you are creating a Callout in the elevation or section the above applies.

This applies to Revit 2009 and 2010. I’m not sure if this is intentional, but it is a bit stressful for users trying to figure out why they cannot reference a particular view.

Openings and coordination review

I was really surprised to hear getting two errors for openings in a coordination review is Revit correct behaviour.

Let’s say you have a floor or wall copy / monitored from a linked file. An opening has been added to the element in the linked file. When you open your (host) project Revit asks you to do a coordination review.
This is the first coordination message you get.

You select “Copy new elements” and then click Apply. You will now get this error message:

The only option you have is to select “OK”
You are then presented with the following coordination message:

The most sensible option is “Ignore new element”. You then press “Apply ” and “OK” and now finally all the coordination messages about that opening are gone.

I really don’t understand why we get this double coordination messages. If anyone does, please post below.

Revit 2010 new features review

I can't believe I've missed these Revit 2010 reviews on Youtube and this great blog.
If there is a blog and or videos that will make you think twice about implementing Revit 2010, well you can find it here. It is easy to understand why some AUGI members now have "How did Autodesk manage to get Revit 2010 so wrong" as their signature.

Brian

2010 Help shortfall.

There is a great little help tool in Revit 2009 called “What’s this?”. The toolbar icon in 2009 was always available even if you were in the middle of a command.

In general the help in 2010 is quite good. If you hover over a command icon, Revit will give you some good help tips and by pressing F1 you will get full help on that specific command. However this method of help does not work when you are in the middle of a command on tools in the options bar. In Revit 2009 you could just use the “What’s this?” tool to get good help on items in the options bar.

The “What’s this?” icon is not on the 2010 dashboard, however if you use the old short cut, “Shift + F1” it works and you can get help on commands in the options bar.

This is another UI shortfall with 2010. How many beginners are going to know the old shortcut.

Spot Slope.

I was very excited when I saw the new “Spot Slope” tool in Revit 2010. However I became disappointed very quickly. I’m not sure why Autodesk cannot create software which caters for a large amount of the countries they sell in.

Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia and I’m sure other countries use the Ratio system for Ramps of 1 (rise) : Horizontal Distance Travelled.
Example; in Australia the maximum rise for a disabled compliant ramp is 1:14. The spot slope tool seems to cater for all kind of different slope formula except this system of 1 : Distance.

Considering ensuring ramps are compliant is such a major concern for Architects, it seems to be quite clear, Autodesk need to work on their software product development research.

Come on guys, let’s get the simple things right.