Checkpoint 2

On Thursday, January 24th you will be submitting your models for the 2nd checkpoint.  The check-in will occur at the end of class so that we can continue to develop curtain walls.  It is in your best interest to have everything complete with the exception of the curtain walls by the beginning of class. This review will look at the following:

1. Ceilings:  Correct heights, dimensions, offsets, and materials.  (This includes those pesky metal, square pendants as well as the drywall soffit running along the corridor)
2. Floors: Correct placement and the ramp
3. Walls: All walls to have base molding and any other required trim.  Adjust wall types to include layered construction (Gypsum wall board -- or other material -- and central structure).
4. Curtain Wall:  We will continue to review and discuss curtain walls on Thursday, but will be using curtain walls for the partitions between classrooms.  

Remember... everything up to this point should be drawn on the EXISTING phase.  Also, please make corrections from your previous checkpoint mistakes, if applicable. 

Checkpoint 1

On Thursday, January 17, I'll be reviewing your as-built models to ensure that you have adding all of the content we've discussed in class thus far.

To receive full credit, you'll need to have the following in your models:
Columns: appropriate type (architectural), height, and size
Column Lines (with sequential numbering and lettering)
Multiple Generic Wall Types: exterior wall thickness, furring, and interior walls should be shown differently
Window: correct dimensions and placement
Doors: correct dimension and placement; unique type (glass, wood, etc.) optional but recommended

All of your modeled content must be set to the "Existing" phase so that we are prepared for creating demo plans in the future.  You also need pay attention to elevation heights -- this includes window placement, door heights, wall heights, etc.

Welcome Winter 2013!

Hi all and welcome to Winter Quarter 2013, BIM for Interior Design (ELDS 335/740).  This quarter we'll be exploring how we can effectively use the building information modeling tool, Revit, along with other design software to communicate a small, commercial interior design project.  Starting with ACAD as-built drawings, you'll learn about phasing, design options, linking file types, custom family creation, project deliverables, and rendering. 

As you'll see in the syllabus schedule, the pace of the class moves rather quickly, and each phase builds on the previous, so it would be in your best interest to keep up.  Look now for online resources, tutors, and classmates that you can turn to if you find yourself falling behind.  Ideally, prior to each class, you'd arrive familiar with the topics so that we can move beyond the basics and discuss unique strategies for using Revit and other design software as interior designers.  

Look to this blog for resources, project descriptions, demos, and examples.  I will occasionally be posting your work as examples as well.  If you have any information or questions that you'd like to share with the class feel free to post comments on the blog (where they are permitted).  My goal is to keep this site as an ongoing repository not only for the current students, but for future students as well.  To that end, feel free to suggest posts, comment, reference after the class has ended, and link to your own sites. And finally, if you would like to receive updates when new posts are available, I am going to try to provide notification via Google plus.  Look for me at +Cotter D. Christian.   

Here's to a productive quarter!

C. Christian

Tags and Labels

In order to properly annotate your views in Revit, you will need to explore using tags.  Tags combine simple lines with a text Label to extract parametric information from a particular category of Revit component.  For example, I could instruct the tag's label to show the "Family Name" (an available parameter within the furniture family) for a particular piece of furniture. Anytime I place that tag on a piece of furniture in my model, it will display the family's name. If I change the family name, all of the tags will update.  See below:

To create a custom tag you'll start by going to the Revit Application button and selecting New>Family.  From there, you'll choose your template.  In this case you'll want a family template from the annotations category.  For something like furniture, you'll want to use the "Generic Tag" template. 

This opens the template, allowing you to create your custom tag family.  Pay careful attention to the note found in the tag template:

You change the family's category by using the Family Category and Parameters menu found on the Home Tab of the ribbon on the "Properties" Panel. 

My next step is to add my Label which is also found on the Home Tab. Make sure that you choose Label and not Text.  Text will allow you to add letter forms that do not react parametrically when tagging components.

After placing the Label in the family template, a menu will open asking you to select the parameter for which the label will display.  In this example, only parameters that are common to the Furniture family category are available to choose.  Select the parameter and then click the green arrow to assign it to your label. In this example, I'm going to choose type mark because I want to be able to show, on my furniture plans, the same information for each type of furniture specified. For something like door tags, I may want to display "Mark" since it is an instance parameter and will show a unique value for each door. 

Before leaving this menu, I'm also going to change the "sample value" to more accurately represent the type of tag I use for furniture (eg. Occasional Table = OT-01). By changing the sample value, I'll know where to place my lines so that my tag symbol is large enough to accommodate the text I want to display.

My Label now appears in the family, and I can add lines to form a border for the tag. 

Finally, load your family into your project and tag the furniture by visiting the Annotate tab on the Ribbon and choosing "Tag By Category."  As you hover over the furniture, your tag should appear and place itself when the mouse is clicked.
But, wait!  What's this? There is no information in my tag... or a blue "?" appears!

This simply means that there is no information for the parameter that the Label is pointing to.  If you'll recall, when setting up the furniture tag's label, we selected the "Type Mark" parameter for the furniture category of family.  Let's check out the Furniture family type that we are selecting and see what is going on.  Since it is called "Type Mark" I'm going to assume that this parameter is a Type parameter and not an instance parameter, so, with the piece of furniture in question selected, I'll click "Edit Type" from the properties menu to inspect. Sure enough, there is no data entered into the "Type Mark" identity data parameter. As soon as I place my desired furniture code into that field, I'll see my tags automatically populate. 

Remember, you can make tags that pull information from any category of family and any family parameter.  You can even have tags with multiple labels that display more than one parameter at a time (like a ceiling tag which displays the name of the ceiling as well as the height simultaneously).  Tags are a fantastic way to very quickly see the power of a parametric database and help in efficiently producing a well coordinate set of documents.

One Happy Family.

Hi guys.
Nice work on the Component Family Exercise.  Thought you might like to see what all of your families would look like if they all hung out together.

I also uploaded a Revit file, containing all off your families, if you would like to incorporate one of your classmate's families into your project.  The file can be downloaded here. 

Schematic Model Images

Here are some images from the models that were submitted on Tuesday.
Everyone is making great progress!

Art Studio and Bar

Art Studio and Bar

Baby Food Store

Candy Shop & Kitchen

Ceramics Studio with Custom Kilns

Fashion Design Studio

Fashion Design Studio with Crazy Corridor Ceiling!

Phasing and Visibility -- Revisited

A few of you had mentioned that the glass in your exterior walls was showing up as opaque (gray) in 3D views.  Those walls and their windows should have been set to the existing phase.  In your 3D views, the way we currently have the Phase Filters set-up (Show Previous + New - fig 1) is creating a graphic override for any element on the existing phase to make it appear gray (fig 2).  This allows us to quickly identify what is existing and what is new. If we want the existing elements to visually appear similar to the new construction elements in 3D views, we must change the Phase Filter in the view properties to "Show Complete" (fig 3).  This provides a visual representation of how the building will look when it is finished (fig 4).  The trick here is that if you work with this Phase Filter active it is difficult to graphically distinguish what is existing and what is new.  Be careful so that you are not deleting existing elements instead of demolishing them.

figure 1

figure 2

figure 3

figure 4