It is said that using something is the best way to get better at it, and this has definitely proven true with Revit. Through using Revit to design my studio project, I have found the answer to many of the questions that I had about using the program, although some still remain.
One thing that I was very pleased to gain a better understanding of is the mass creation tool. Without using this tool, a Revit project is very limited to the forms and spaces that can be created and it will be very rectilinear and boxy. The mass tool allows more abstract shapes to be created and then fitted with structural elements.
The main mass that I created for the project was very simple, however, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of the tool. I needed to create a shed roof that was sloped in both directions. The mass tool was necessary to do this as it is only possible to create a shed roof sloped in one direction using the roof tool. I first created the rectangular shape of the roof in plan view, and then used the create form tool to make it into a three dimensional form. I then made the mass the same thickness as the roof would be. This was not completely necessary as the roof is later applied to just the top face of the mass, however, it was important in order to make sure that the bottom of the roof would be at the correct height after I added it. I then used a section view to make sure that it was at the proper level. I then pulled the corners of the three dimensional shape to the necessary heights to give it the correct slope in both directions. After this is it was just a matter of applying the roof to the mass. Deleting the mass after the roof is created is optional as it can be turned off in the view options.
In the future I would like to experiment more with creating even more abstract shapes in Revit. Using this tool has increased my optimism about the capabilities of the program and shown me that the options for creating different shapes are very open.
I still have some questions about the program, as some parts seemed like they could have been more intuitive. I am not sure, however, if this is due to the software or if there are more efficient ways to do it that I am unaware of.
Creating the slopes for beams and ramps has been one of the largest issues. In the case of beams, there is apparently some way to do 3d mapping and attach objects to other objects, however, I could not get this to work. It always seemed to be grayed out when I was trying to create a beam system. The way that I created a sloped beam would be to place the beam and then manually change the height offsets of the ends in order to have it be in the correct position.
My experience with ramps was similar to this as well. I would place the ramp where it was supposed to go and then manually change the offset heights to have it be in the correct position. Looking back at this issue, however, I am thinking that this could have been remedied with creating new levels at the correct heights and then locking the ends to those levels. It is something that I will look further into with my next Revit project.
Another aspect of Revit that can be somewhat limiting are the placing of components. This is because if you wanted to include a custom component as a part of your building, such as a shading device, furniture, or door handle, it is necessary to create the family yourself and then place it in your project. It is extremely time intensive to create all the custom families that you require. The best alternative is to load already made components included with the program or from sites such as Revitcity.com. For this reason, a lot of times the components don't perfectly match the architect's vision. Although this can be seen as somewhat realistic as in the real world you will probably not be able to design your own shading devices and such but instead buy them from a manufacturer, an architect such as Alvar Aalto would have to get very good at creating custom families.
In the future I would choose one or two components that were very important to my project and design them myself. I would then use the premade families for the rest of the components. If I was to continue this project I would custom design the glass curtain wall shading devices as this was a prominent aspect of the building's appearance. Luckily, after downloading and trying out many different shading devices from Revitcity I was able to find one that closely matched the appearance I desired.
Another aspect of Revit that I was pretty impressed with was the ability to modify the view options, such as turning off annotations and changing the line weight, colors, and fill patterns to create a drawing that could be exported into illustrator and look very good on a presentation.
For architectural drawings, I used Cutepdf to print the drawing to a pdf file, I then opened it in illustrator and then exported that to Photoshop. For the renderings and drawings with color fills such as elevations, I exported the file as an image to Photoshop. One problem I had with exporting pdfs to Illustrator was that although they looked very good, it was very difficult to create fills and modify lines as most of the lines became a bunch of smaller lines rather than one continuous one. It is probably possible to export the drawings in a more efficient manner and it is just a matter of looking further into it.
I was impressed with Revit's capabilities in constructing an architectural project and as a design tool. One very useful aspect of the program as opposed to using hand media was the ability to get immediate visual feedback using the three dimensional and camera views during the design of the building. This helped to influence various design decisions during the construction of the model.
In the future I would definitely use Revit again to design a project. My skill with the program has greatly improved and the creation process would be much more streamlined. I would also like to experiment with other three dimensional modeling programs designed for more unconventional building forms such as Rhino.
One thing that I was very pleased to gain a better understanding of is the mass creation tool. Without using this tool, a Revit project is very limited to the forms and spaces that can be created and it will be very rectilinear and boxy. The mass tool allows more abstract shapes to be created and then fitted with structural elements.
The main mass that I created for the project was very simple, however, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of the tool. I needed to create a shed roof that was sloped in both directions. The mass tool was necessary to do this as it is only possible to create a shed roof sloped in one direction using the roof tool. I first created the rectangular shape of the roof in plan view, and then used the create form tool to make it into a three dimensional form. I then made the mass the same thickness as the roof would be. This was not completely necessary as the roof is later applied to just the top face of the mass, however, it was important in order to make sure that the bottom of the roof would be at the correct height after I added it. I then used a section view to make sure that it was at the proper level. I then pulled the corners of the three dimensional shape to the necessary heights to give it the correct slope in both directions. After this is it was just a matter of applying the roof to the mass. Deleting the mass after the roof is created is optional as it can be turned off in the view options.
In the future I would like to experiment more with creating even more abstract shapes in Revit. Using this tool has increased my optimism about the capabilities of the program and shown me that the options for creating different shapes are very open.
I still have some questions about the program, as some parts seemed like they could have been more intuitive. I am not sure, however, if this is due to the software or if there are more efficient ways to do it that I am unaware of.
Creating the slopes for beams and ramps has been one of the largest issues. In the case of beams, there is apparently some way to do 3d mapping and attach objects to other objects, however, I could not get this to work. It always seemed to be grayed out when I was trying to create a beam system. The way that I created a sloped beam would be to place the beam and then manually change the height offsets of the ends in order to have it be in the correct position.
My experience with ramps was similar to this as well. I would place the ramp where it was supposed to go and then manually change the offset heights to have it be in the correct position. Looking back at this issue, however, I am thinking that this could have been remedied with creating new levels at the correct heights and then locking the ends to those levels. It is something that I will look further into with my next Revit project.
Another aspect of Revit that can be somewhat limiting are the placing of components. This is because if you wanted to include a custom component as a part of your building, such as a shading device, furniture, or door handle, it is necessary to create the family yourself and then place it in your project. It is extremely time intensive to create all the custom families that you require. The best alternative is to load already made components included with the program or from sites such as Revitcity.com. For this reason, a lot of times the components don't perfectly match the architect's vision. Although this can be seen as somewhat realistic as in the real world you will probably not be able to design your own shading devices and such but instead buy them from a manufacturer, an architect such as Alvar Aalto would have to get very good at creating custom families.
In the future I would choose one or two components that were very important to my project and design them myself. I would then use the premade families for the rest of the components. If I was to continue this project I would custom design the glass curtain wall shading devices as this was a prominent aspect of the building's appearance. Luckily, after downloading and trying out many different shading devices from Revitcity I was able to find one that closely matched the appearance I desired.
Another aspect of Revit that I was pretty impressed with was the ability to modify the view options, such as turning off annotations and changing the line weight, colors, and fill patterns to create a drawing that could be exported into illustrator and look very good on a presentation.
For architectural drawings, I used Cutepdf to print the drawing to a pdf file, I then opened it in illustrator and then exported that to Photoshop. For the renderings and drawings with color fills such as elevations, I exported the file as an image to Photoshop. One problem I had with exporting pdfs to Illustrator was that although they looked very good, it was very difficult to create fills and modify lines as most of the lines became a bunch of smaller lines rather than one continuous one. It is probably possible to export the drawings in a more efficient manner and it is just a matter of looking further into it.
I was impressed with Revit's capabilities in constructing an architectural project and as a design tool. One very useful aspect of the program as opposed to using hand media was the ability to get immediate visual feedback using the three dimensional and camera views during the design of the building. This helped to influence various design decisions during the construction of the model.
In the future I would definitely use Revit again to design a project. My skill with the program has greatly improved and the creation process would be much more streamlined. I would also like to experiment with other three dimensional modeling programs designed for more unconventional building forms such as Rhino.
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