Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Seeking Advice:Creating Arched Opening with Tapered Columns

AndyNH

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Hello all,

I am close to deciding on committing to Revit Architecture 2011 for a current project.  So far, the project is being developed in ARRIS and SketchUp. My major knowledge gaps right now are: stepped footings, dormers,  corner boards, and this... a wall with several arched openings which will be placed under a deck/porch (see attachment).

I am seeking advice on the best way to create in Revit.

I was not able to bring the SketchUp file into Revit (error msg) although I was successful in bringing a SU exported DWG in as a family.  Now what to do with it?  Would it be simpler to draw this from scratch in Revit?  If so, please describe the process or the key techniques for me to research and learn (via Revit City and other helpful sites)

Best regards,

Andy in NH

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Mr Spot

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Hi Andy,

Importing the skp or dwg file into Revit isn't really going to give you anything editable in Revit.  More of a guide to trace from unless you are using sketchup for massing only in which case you can place walls, floors and roofs by face that can host to the skp or dwg geometry...

 IFC would be the only transfer method where you could end up with actual editable Revit elements, but I wouldn't go that route either as its very messy.

The cleanest way would be to draw again from scratch in Revit.  For the arched openings and due to the flared openings I would create a custom column family for the flared sections that extend up to the base of where the arch begins.  Then I would run a basic wall from this point up to the top.  You could create a door family to cut the opening shape, but in this instance I would edit the profile of the wall and draw in the openings manually.

Unless you think the radius of the arched openings will change?  In which case I would create a wall based opening family to cut the arch to shape and make it parametric.  That way if it changed, I could just edit the family (or adjust the parameters) and they would change everywhere.  Using the former method I'd have to manually go through and re-edit the profiles of the walls one by one.

There are numerous other methods to achieve this including in-place wall families, compound walls with embedded wall sweeps, but I think the above should be the most efficient, flexible and easiest to achieve.

See how you go and if you have any problems post them here.  I'd be happy to supply a quick mock up revit project to demonstate if you need as it would only take 10 minutes to mock up something parametric.  BTW, as someone new to Revit this could potentially take much longer...

HTH. 

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Regards,

Chris.

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AndyNH

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Thank you Chris,

You probably saved me hours of grief!  Your explanation makes sense I'm glad I asked before going down the wrong path.  It was exciting to see the SU content in my Revit model...but like you pointed out there's not a whole lot of flexibility.  I'll give it a try and see what I can do.

 Best regards,

Andy

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AndyNH

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I created a tapered shingled column...but in a different way. Each side of the column base is a wall the thickness of shingles and substrate.  I did this so I could do a wrap-around sweep.  The version on the right is with a profile made with a spline. The one on the left is my first attempt with a profile of 5 lines.

Now the issue.  In elevation, the shingles look upside down.  I know how to fix by rotating the pattern... However, on this curved surface the rotate technique doesn't work.  It did in the sweep on the lefthand column where the profile is lines (facets). But I'd like to use the cleaner spline profile on the right.

I'm constantly fixing the shingle patterm (wood-shakes) on my elevations. Is there a better one I can download?

I'm having fun with Revit. Importing the Revit model into SketchUp works great and renders better (due my my inexperience in Revit-I'm sure)

Best regards,

Andy

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pchan

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Andy,

Try join geometry (the flare bottom with the column base) inside the column family and see if you can get the model pattern shown up correctly. Once they are joined, the pattern should be continous.

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AndyNH

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Hi pchan

Unfortunately either the join won't work or I am doing it wrong.  I even made sure the structure of the walls had similar layers. I wonder if the problem is that the shingle (wood shakes) pattern is upside down on the host wall until I rotate it.  Even after correcting, the sweep adopts the upside down pattern.  I know on some walls I've drawn the wood shakes pattern is right side up.  I have not been able to reproduce this. Tried drawing left to right...and right to left.

I have the non-curved profile (the faceted one) as a workaround.

Thanks for taking your time on this issue. 

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AndyNH

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Hey I did it! I searched RevitCity forums and found that someone else had a similar problem with the upside down pattern on curved surfaces. 

 Remedy: I had to edit a copy of revit.pat to create a rotated shakes pattern and import it into the material library. I painted the sweeps with the rotated version and it worked!

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help with arched opening

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Tapered Opening

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Arched Opening Problems

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Tapered Columns

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arched opening

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