Cut.It.Out!

There are times when you need to have an object cut another object.

In this example, the sink is placed on the countertop, but it doesn’t look right in 3D view.

(Now, I know in this case, you might have seen a countertop family with the hole in it that you can adjust. Please read through and see why I think this method is better!)

We can resolve that by editing the sink family and adding a “void” box for the area you want your family to cut the other object. (Lock your void so it flexes with your family, so it changes size when you modify your family size)…

Then in “family Category and Parameters” tab, make sure the “Cut with Voids When Loaded” is checked.

Now, just load the family back into the project, and use the “cut” option.

First select element to be cut (Countertop), then select the family instance to cut with (Sink), and there!

In this method, if you had to move your sink, the cut (void) moves with it. Same if you change the size of your sink.

If you use the countertop family with an opening hole in it, you just have to modify the size of opening every time you move or adjust your cutting element.

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Roofs and Rafter cut

Here are some quick tips on roofs and rafter tails you might find useful…

These are some of the options you will have when you draw roofs by FOOTPRINT and use PICK WALL option. (Note that some of these are NOT available if you use a different method to build your roof):

1- Rafter or Truss: Revit will allow you to pick if the assembly you are modeling is going to be a rafter or truss and based on that, it will be placed accordingly:

Truss sits on roof level at top of plate

And Rafter sits at the interior edge of the stud (Wall Core)

There are some great features here to use, you can define the Cutoff Level and Cutoff Offset and Base Offset from Level to create Rafter tails:

2- Rafter Cuts: There are three options,

a) Plumb Cut

b) Two Cut – Plumb: This will allow you to also define Fascia Depth

c) Two Cut – Square: also gives you Fascia Depth option

If your Fascia Depth is selected to be same (or more) than your roof assembly depth, then you’ll get a perfect square. (In this example, the Basic roof has 8” thickness, and the Fascia Depth is assigned to be at 9”)

Sloping Building Pad

Creating a building pad for your project is a great feature in Revit.

Ummm… But not all buildings are built flat!

In case you are not aware of this, if you have an on-grade sloping floor, you can give your building pad a slope. This is how:

1- Select your Pad. Click on Edit Boundary.

(Try to break down your building pad, create a separate one for the flat area, and a different one for where there is a slope)

2- Under Edit Boundary, click on Slope Arrow

3- Specify the Slope and input your slope. Slopes are defined in x”/12” format.

Mini Tip: if you want to input 5% slope you can simply enter “ =5/100” (it is important to include the equal sign to identify that you are inputting an equation.)

4- Add a minus to change the direction of your slope.

5 – there you go! Enjoy!

Showing Concrete Core of the wall only

Sometimes, in slab plan, for instance, we want to show the concrete core of the walls only. Typically, you can either show or hide the whole wall, not the finish layers.

Here is one way I have come across that is not perfect, but it does the job!

1- Here we have a sample, with concrete walls, metal walls, and finishes…

2- In Visibility/Graphics Go to Filters. Let’s add a filter, we are going to define what this will filter for us next.

3- Under Categories select Parts, Filter by Material that does not equal to the concrete.
(here you can also filter by Construction, Core and Finish to get the same result)

Here is a little mini Revit session:Try to organize your Materials early on. It makes it much easier if you only have one Concrete material, in this case for example, so it can be filtered out or rendered, or changed easier. I have seen projects with multiple kind of the same material (i.e. something was imported from another project, and project ended up carrying multiple materials for the same thing… Try to avoid that!

4- Let’s now add this filter to the project.

5- Uncheck visibility, this will turn off the visibility for all layers that do not equal concrete – meaning all you see IS concrete.

6- Now, select all the walls in the view, and click on “Modify/Walls” – in the Create section click on the “create parts” icon. For THIS VIEW ONLY, this would take all the layers of your walls apart.

7- In Properties section, and under Graphics, change Part visibility to Show Parts.

8- It’s done!

Notice these walls contain all the layers in all other views.

So… I said this method is not perfect, as you create parts to the walls, the joint feature does not work since we are asking revit to show us the parts as if you are using it for fabrication. So each wall WILL have the start and end. I would love to find a way to create a smooth joints, but I have not been successful. If you know a way, let me know!