Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Wall tile areas

aspect

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Anyone know if there is any way to calcluate wall tile areas automatically/through schedules, area plans, etc? As far as I can tell you can only create area calculations of horizontal surfaces (i.e. plan views - so fine for floor tiles). It would be great to be able to open up an elevation and/or section and select the appropriate wall or draw around the tiled area (in the case the tiles are on only partial parts of the wall/surface) and then get an area from Revit. Seems a basic thing to ask for, but seems not to be possible.?

Any ideas besides measuring the areas and getting the old calculator out?

Cheers.

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WWHub

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We see a lot of posts like this where the user seems to be looking hard for an ah-ha - gottcha.

Draw a wall - click on it and look at element properties.  There is your area - volumn - length.  No need to do a perimeter.

Ah , but you only want to tile part of the wall height.   We like to use 1/4" veneer walls for our tile areas placed in front of the base wall and joined to it.

BTW - Those numbers can be scheduled under schedules/quantities.

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aspect

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thanks WWHub, but the first work-around is not really all that flexible. Main problems are that walls often tend to extend through multiple rooms/areas, so tiling on a wall in a bathroom which is situated to a bedroom for example cant be worked out using the rather generalized values given in element properties.

The 1/4" wall idea kind of works, but there are several important additional things you need to do to make this method work properly:

1. You have to enable worksets. Why? Because as far as I know this is the only way you can turn off the visability of a group of items easily (without having to go to each item, click it and over ride the visibilty settings). The reason you have to turn off the 1/4" wall is that you cannot dimension to the wall frame once you join the geometry together. Dimensions for buildings are usually to wall frame, not linings so this is very important. With worksets enabled you can create a set called "tiled walls" and make sure your tiled elements are in this set - then simply go to view properties and turn them off. You can now dimension to the wall frame again.

2. You will also need (in my opinion) to go through all your plan views at scales more than 1:50 and turn off this workset - if you dont, when you print those drawings the 1/4" thick tiled walls will show up as big fat black lines instead of just a simple thin-lined wall.

3. Make sure your tiled wall is profiled correctly. For example if you have a standard straight wall in a bathroom, and then you put a bath up against that wall, you need to then make sure your tile wall (the 1/4" thick one) is profiled around that bath - otherwise your area figures will be wrong.

4. and the final slightly more tricky situation to overcome - casework(cabinets) and fittings and fixtures (WC's, taps, spouts, shelves, etc). By using the 1/4" wall add-on method, these elements will generally appear with a gap in drawings of scales 1:50 or more. This is because at smaller scales like 1:25 or less (which we use for detail drawings of wetareas, etc you want the fixture to appear as if it is touching the wall (also important for 3D views and renderings). So now you have a fixture or cabinet touching a 1/4" wall which in larger scales has had its visability turned off - a gap appears. Maybe not such a bit issue, but annoying all the same.

Happy Reviting...

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tim123

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WWHub

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aspect,  Other considerations:

• Using worksets is not a bad thing.
• I don't need to turn off the 1/4" wall to dimension.... since you have to, we know you don't know how to use the tab key.  A great tool if you learn to use it.
• Have you heard of view templates?  Read you HELP on these and you might find out how to contol your small scale views better... and you can make sure your output is correct everytime you print. View templates are not just for creating a view or for using once.
• How can these walls screw up your area figures?  Do you know how to set walls not to be room bounding?  In addition, the tub should either go against the stud or last layer of gyp for fire rated walls and the tile is inside of that.
• I never tile behind cabinets - do you?... My cabinets are attached to the base wall - not the tile so I do not have your 1/4" gap problems.

tim123 is very correct.  You can also split the wall face and that will schedule and take off.  I used to do that until I found a better way. 

1. I have a group of 4 walls in the shape of a small square.  Can this group "BR Tile 1". 
2. The walls in this group are 1/4" stacked walls ... wainscot over main tile over base.  Al pre-set up in a demostration project I can copy / click from.
3. The tile pattern has already been corrected for alignment in the group (even diagional field areas if I have them.)
4. After I have placed all items in my toilet room, I plop this group in the middle of the room and un-group it.
5. Now I simply align the four walls and the box expands to tile my four walls.

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aspect

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Cheers WWHub for the additional advice - a couple of questions for you however:

 - I use view templates but as far as I know you cannot control workset visability when setting up a template. The only options I get are 'Model Categories' 'Annotation Categories' Imported Categories' and 'Filters'. Im assuming you know a trick that I dont? (BTW - I never said worksets are bad, I use them even for the smallest, non-shared project)

 -  you must also have a special trick when it comes to using the TAB key, as when I join 2 walls properly the only things that are available to dimension to are the 2 outmost sides and the 2 joined wall centrelines - the 'connected' sides of the wall are not available.( I assumed you meant use the 'join geometry' function - which makes sense because if you just place the 1/4" wall up against the 'stud' wall, windows, doors, etc wont be cut through both, as they can only cut 1 host at a time).

Like the grouped 4 wall idea - will definitely give it a go.

Thanks

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tim123

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aspect

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Cheers Tim,

I thought I was going crazy given WWHub's comments, but glad to see that might not be true. You are right, if you temporarily hide the 1/4" wall, you can dimension to the stud wall.

Could you give me the basics on scheduling split faces / or post a link to a tutorial, etc (Ive had a look through help and a bit on Google, but cant find anything).

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tim123

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