I've only begun learning RAC 2012 to produce a few concept drawings, but I thought I'd share my exeriences as a novice for others to learn by and enjoy.Attached is a the product of the last three weeks spent learning through videos, mistakes and fooling aorund with the basic concepts. I'm never likely to go beyond this point.
Training - Videos
YouTube is an abundant source of great videos to view and learn. Through them I found one particular source I have to recommend strongly:-
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=revit2011_english - although this is for RAC 2011 the quality of the FREE download packs, the videos and the support material cannot be doubted.
Download the complete zip files if you want all three courses, with PDF support material, sample files and support objects.
NOTE: If you find it difficult to play the videos on your PC you may need a special TCSS codec for your video player.
You can get this FREE to install on your PC from here: http://www.techsmith.com/download.html
Setting Up
First a little preparation, a couple of sketches to have an idea of what you're designing then spend a day laying out all the guides and grids you'll need for every level and every likely position on the design.
As mine consisted of an array of concentric circles on a bed of a grid, with additional offset angles and slopes, this was the first lesson. I didn't find a quick way to switch grids/guides on/off the way you find in numerous drawing packages. Never mind, it was only a small issue.
Main Modelling
Having worked through the training lessons over the first two weeks, most of the first practical aspects of layout out and modifying the model were relatively easy. I didn't rush it, but chose to take each topic slowly, carefully with plenty of time to step back and think about where I was going well or wrong.
For example, I came on the issue of curved curtain walls and researched it to find a lot of people seemed to have a similar problem. After a little fooling around I solved it by creating a generic wall and adding it to my collection of curtain walls, thus:-
(a) Take a generic wall, eg. concrete.
(b) Duplicate it to create the new form - "My Curved Glass Wall" or something.
(c) Edit its properties, replacing the concrete material with a glass layer, or double glazed multiple layers or glass and air barrier, and save it as "My Curved Glass Wall".
(d) Create a curtain wall type, duplicating an existing one.
(e) Make the panel material out of the "My Curved Glass Wall".
(f) Layout the new curtain wall with its new panels - beautiful.
(g) Ignore the fact that it cannot handle curved horizontal mullions - don't use them (or explain to everyone that they're the interior curtain rails). This worked very well for both the swimming pool and the outside walls.
If you look at the attached drawing you'll see I couldn't easily edit the pool walls around the side. I think this is because I'd placed the windows in before trying to edit the profiles. I might have been able to get the walls to match the pool floor after I'd reshaped it to fit the shallow and sloped sections of the floor. Never mind, it created a nice alcove around the back for a gym. I wasn't about to take the windows out after I'd spent so much time tugging and pushing them into the right places and shapes.
Imported Families & Modifying Them
I couldn't have done all this without the help of other people's objects, mainly the lower windows, pool diving board and poolside ladders.The windows fitted perfectly but the diving boards and ladders needed some adjustment. This was just a matter of making a "My_Version..." copy of the original file, opening and editing where I could. I've spent a couple of days repackaging them and put them on the downloads section for everyone else to enjoy.
The diving board I choose to alter and make slimmer and thinner than the original.
The pool ladders needed more steps, so after some study I created a parametric version with variable number of steps and height of each step.I hope you enjoy what I have produced...
MY Swimming Pool Steps/Ladder: http://www.revitcity.com/downloads.php?action=view&object_id=12016
(based on this one: http://www.revitcity.com/downloads.php?action=view&object_id=9054, with the help of this YouTube tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5MyzijIuco )
MY Swimming Pool Diving Board: http://www.revitcity.com/downloads.php?action=view&object_id=12017
(based on this one: http://www.revitcity.com/downloads.php?action=view&object_id=10218)
Lifts
I didn't bother creating a full set of lifts when there is the useful plugin for it here:-
http://www.digipara.com/DownloadEARevit.aspx
It worked well at creating a simple standard lift, but I did find it difficult to place the square lift and its shaft inside the cylindrical shaft I'd already created to hold the lift. It took a while experimenting with the lift to turn and place it against the side face and nudge it into position.
A tip - look down on your lift from the top floor, drag-to-highlight the lift and all its elements, then use the "move" and "rotate" controls on your "Modify" panel to get it into some appropriate position.
To expose the lift doors through the curved wall of the shaft and structure I used wall openings, copied down through the entire structure. Doesn't look perfect but does the job well enough to satisfy my needs.
Sloped Walls, NOT
According to a lot of study on the fora RAC 2012 still doesn't support sloped walls.My alternative design for this structure needs a sloped lift sweeping up one side of the building so I can put the pool over the centre of the foundations for stability. I haven't got that far but might try looking at using a very steep ramp or revert to the Mass tool and create the outside shell. The lift will then have to be a self-built design or modify one produced from the plugin (above).No time for that now.
Topography
This was fun to learn and solve all the little problems.
Creating my own doodled landscapes took a couple of days then fitting them into place. I noticed at first they sometimes appeared floating in mid air, but soon nudged them back to ground level. Must have set them to a different level during creation.
The only problem I faced was the way a topographic surface cut through the design, the drive ramp to the underground garage appeared filled in, until I discovered the use of a pad to flatten the landscape. After a little fiddling I got the pad, same size as the basement floor, down to the underground level, and this dragged the profile of the topography down with it! Yipee!
To fill the hole in the topography above the pad, I created another copy of the basement floor lifted up to ground level, then edited to add a small surface coating of grass or whatever. Similarly I added the driveway and small tarmac car park with another pice of floor on top of the ground level and aligned it to the longer driveway created on the topography.
Rendering
Why does the render function come with a teapot?
Did I miss something at teatime? :-)
Either way the rendering comes in two forms:-
(1) Render the currend 3d perspective view. But this doesn't render with sky scapes, just the generic grey ground colour, so use steeper angles to look down on the design, and put some masking hills around your design with a handy bit of topography.Found out how to set a background gradient for this later, but it doesn't render.
(2) Set up a 3D camera view (you were paying attention to the training videos?) and line it up to render that image - with a nice background skyscape.
Interesting to see that the view, when rendered doesn't inherit the gradient background that you can set for views, and still shows whatever is the standard colour (grey) for the "ground" in the design. Pretend it's the sea on the horizon.
There appears no way to change this background/ground plane colour, but it doesn't appear on images if you export a rendered image as a .png file - the grey becomes the transparent Alpha channel for the exported image.
Er, tried for printer quality output, but I don't have 10 terabytes of data capacity on my PC, maybe next time, or find the "gobble-your-hard-drive" option and switch it off?
Conclusion
Nice tool for design, a few irritations, but not something you can't live with or find ways around, just like every tool.
At the price this could do with a few tons of samples, support material, lots more families and objects to prime the user, plenty of better functions and more, but as the market is so limited and this kind of product is highly specialised we're never likely to get those wishes, until someone enters the market with a vastly more powerful, better supported, fully-provisioned pack of goodies.
NOTES: about the illustrations.
It's for a commercial project, a few hundred homes around the world for select clients and consortia of investors. Specailised luxury homes. The design model I created is just one concept sketch and I didn't have enough time to add the roof, the off-centre domestic water tanks or any interior features.
Total time spent, learning, testing and producing all this - 21 days, part-time.
Edited on: Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 10:21:06 AM
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