Ive already weighed the pro's and con's of each "unRevit" approach to this, but im curious what the rest of you are doing. Heres the issue:
Modeling a Large Hip Roof that has Trusses underneath it. For the moment, im entirely discounting Copy Monitor, since it doesnt work on Roofs. It works on Floors, but thats useless unless Arch builds it as a floor as well. That part isnt very valuable to me, since the Roof isnt built in Revit the way it will be built structurally anyway.
So i have three options:
1. Use Slabs (one face at a time)
2. Use Slabs (Modify Sub Elements, Split lines, raise ridges)
3. Use Roofs.
Slabs:
Can show the Decking Profile, if there is one,
Can only have one slope defining line, unless its done by Modify Sub Elements.
If its done in "planes" with slope defining lines, you basically cannot attach trusses to it, since the trusses will run under multiple Slabs and the profile becomes invalid since you cant attach to multiple at the same time.
If i use Modify Sub Elements / Split Lines, etc, i can use this perfectly with truss attachments.
Roofs:
Wont show the decking Profile, if there is one, so theres a bunch more detailing to do in a lot of views.
But, i can directly copy and paste it from the Architectural Model. Then i just have to edit where they built it incorrectly.
This means i can use regular values for slope defining lines, and attach trusses to it.
Im not new to Revit, so much as new to Structural. So i understand the woes and realities of "using the wrong Revit tool," but im a bit put off with Structural Roofs. RIGHT NOW were not focusing on any integration with RAM and their other Analysis packages, but thats coming down the road (possibly). Im not concerned terribly with Catagories and visibilities, as ive been on the architectural end with engineers who have used slabs, and a filter here and there keeps everything contiguous.
For the analytical model, it appears the Slabs on a face by face basic is the only one that loads properly, if im looking at it correctly. So im not sure thats a paramount concern, but im curious how its affecting you.
FYI- I know this is less of an issue for "basically flat" roofs, with simple shape editing for slopings to drains, etc. But for these types of projects, which we do rarely, id be interested to hear what you all do.