TM

Revit 2011 Adaptive Components Sam Saliba Technical Manager, KarelCAD

www.karelcad.com.au

Adaptive Component Principles – Based on 2010 Conceptual Mass Families – Use adaptive points to conform geometry to surrounding geometry or panelised surfaces – Reporting Parameters may be applied to schedule properties of geometry Image courtesy of Zach Kron - www.buildz.blogspot.com

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Planning the component – Conceive your ‘invention’ and create some basic sketches – that’s right, pull out the old 2B and get scratching! – Understand what it is that you have conceived; what job it has to do; how it is meant to behave – Break down the logic both of how the component needs to behave and also what the geometric relationships need to be – Make a list of what needs to be reported and where these parameters will live

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Image courtesy of Zach Kron - www.buildz.blogspot.com

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Basic Example Workflow 1. Create an Adaptive Component Family 2. Place required number of Reference Points and set them to Adaptive where required 3. Define ‘skeleton’ model using Model Lines with 3D Snapping enabled 4. Load the Adaptive Family into the Conceptual Mass or Panel-by-Pattern family then add 5. Load into Project and add

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Image courtesy of Zach Kron - www.buildz.blogspot.com

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Expanded Workflow 1. Create a parametric Adaptive Component Family and set up shared, reporting parameters off geometry 2. Load Adaptive Component into a more complex hosting Adaptive Component family and use pick points to set out position of multiple instances of first component 3. Load this adaptive component into final Conceptual Mass family 4. Load and add Conceptual Mass family into project and schedule share parameter values

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Image courtesy of Zach Kron - www.buildz.blogspot.com

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

This exercise will cover the steps required to achieve a form such as that in the image above.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

1. From the ‘Recent Files’ window, choose ‘New Conceptual Mass’.

2. Select ‘Metric Mass.rft’ and click ‘Open’.

3. Before commencing any modelling, save the family with an appropriate name.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise Within this Conceptual Mass family, we need to create a number of guide splines similar to those shown here. For the purpose of this exercise, let’s call these the ‘Rails’.

4. Start by selecting the ‘Level 1’ level with a left mouse click to set this as the active working plane.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

5. Use a ‘Reference Line’ to draw the main placement rail along the centre reference plane.

The Reference Line placement rail should look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

6. Use ‘Reference Lines’ and select the ‘Arc’ option to create the two side rails.

The Reference Line arc guide rails should look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

7. Use ‘Reference Lines’ and select the ‘Spline Through Points’ option to create the two upper rails. Initially, creating these splines on the Level 1 reference plane is fine. In the next step, we’ll move these up higher.

The Reference Line spline guide rails should look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

8. With the two spline rails selected, switch to an elevation view. In this view, choose the ‘Move’ tool and lift them to an appropriate height.

The complete set of rails should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise In the next few steps, we’ll create the skeleton model of the tubular frame similar to that shown here.

9. From the ‘Application Menu’ choose ‘New>>Conceptual Mass’.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

10. Select ‘Metric Adaptive Component.rft’ and click ‘Open’.

11. Before commencing any modelling, save the family with an appropriate name.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

12. Using the ‘Point Element’ tools, place five reference points on the ‘Level 1’ reference plane. The position of each point on the plane is not important, just an approximation of their relationship to one another will be sufficient.

The placed points should look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

13. Select all five points and from the ‘Modify|Reference Points’ ribbon tab, choose ‘Make Adaptive’.

The Adaptive Points should look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

14. Select all four of the points (all but the point that will be used to place the frame in the guide rail family), then in the Properties window, change the point type to ‘Shape Handle’ and set the constrained parameter to ‘Ref. Level’.

The Adaptive Points should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

15. Use ‘Model Lines’ and select the ‘Spline Through Points’ option to create the skeleton shape for the frame.

The sketch should look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

16. Save your changes and load this family into the guide rails family that you created earlier.

17. As this is the first time the frame has been loaded into the guide rail family, Revit will automatically place the frame at your cursor and allow it to be positioned. Ensure that the ‘Level 1’ reference plane set then simply click anywhere on the main central rail. Don’t worry that the frame doesn’t show up yet, once you mouse click it onto the rail, it will appear correctly and stand upright. The first placed frame should initially look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

18. To reposition the shape handle points, hover the mouse over the frame to identify where each point is, then mouse click to select the first one.

19. With the point selected, choose ‘Pick New Host’ from the ‘Modify|Adaptive Points’ ribbon tab, then click on the relevant rail to reposition the point.

After re-hosting all four shape handle points, the frame should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

20. Holding down the CTRL key, left mouse click on the first frame and drag this along the rails to create a copy defined by those rails. Repeat this to create the desired number of frames.

The multiple frames hosted by the rails should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

21. To more easily set out the spacing of each frame, edit the ‘Spline Frame.rfa’ family and turn on the visibility of the main placement point then save and reload the family into the ‘Spline Frame Guide Rails.rfa’ file.

The placement points should now be visible

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

22. From the ‘Home’ ribbon tab, use ‘Aligned’ dimensions to equally space each of the frames along the main placement rail.

The re-spaced frames should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise In the following steps, we’ll add the solid geometry to the skeleton sketch of the frame to produce the tubular form that we require.

23. Edit the ‘Spline Frame.rfa’ family again and add a new ‘Reference Point’ anywhere along the spline.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

24. To sketch the profile for the ‘tube’, first select the reference point that you just created which automatically sets its plane as the active work plane.

25. Use the ‘Circle’ sketching tool (or whichever sketch mode that may be required for the shape of the profile you are after) and create a circle of the required radius. For this example, I have used 200mm radius. This radius could of course be utilised to create a parameter to allow flexibility in the tube diameter.

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

26. Now to create the final tubular form, select both the spline and the circle and select the ‘Create Form’ tool from the ribbon.

The formed frame should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

27. Select the main placement reference point and turn off its visibility. Save the family and reload it into the ‘Spline Frame Guide Rails.rfa’ family.

The modelled frames should now look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

28. Experiment with the overall layout and form of the frames by selecting the individual nodes along the guide rail splines and adjusting their position.

The same frames after editing the guide rail splines’ nodes

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010

Exercise

29. Finally, load the ‘Spline Frame Guide Rails.rfa’ family into a project – this will automatically activate the ‘Place Mass’ tool. From the ribbon, change the placement mode to ‘Place on Work Plane’ and position the family into your plan view then re-position it as required.

A final result after placement and rendering might look like this

Sam Saliba – Technical Manager, KarelCAD

Revit Technology Conference 2010