Object Styles and Line Styles and Patterns

[kROSEMAN]

Does anyone know of how to get line patterns to carry thru multiple objects such as continuous footings, if its even possible?

Here is the scenario, I have a concrete stem wall, that at some areas is 8" above the finish floor to provide a curb and at other areas it stops at finish floor then is also drops below the slab at doorways so that the finish slab turns down on top of the stem wall. I have chosen to model these as 3 separate walls even though they are in line with each other and are continuous, the reason being is on another project I ran into many headaches when a walls profile was modified for a similar condition that I decided it would be easier to model the stemwalls individually based on their top of wall heights and then use the join tool to remove any "seams" when viewed in a 3d/iso view. The problem, all be it very minor, is the footing that each stem wall hosts starts and stops its line style patterns with each new instance. I've tried joining them together but this doesn't fix the line style pattern from starting a new with each new instance. I can erase all but 1 footing and stretch it the length of the wall, but that doesn't seem ideal since only 1 stem wall be the host wall for the footing and could create more work down the road should changes be made to the overall footprint of the building.

Please take a look at the attached image for better clarification..

Thanks,

Kyle

[tedg]

Well the only two ways I can think of that would accomplish this is:
1. Make it all one wall and edit the profile for short stem walls, etc (which you mentioned you don't want to do)
2. Create a complete "mock" wall in the same place as the others (a short wall like 1" high or something) place your footing under it and then turn it off.

Just another idea.

[Craig_L]

Not sure I am on the right track here, but did you use the foundations that are dependant on walls?
If this is the case...don't use those because they give this result. Use the isolated sketch in place, and join together for different thicknesses.
I too do not use modify profile because it plays havoc with those footings that attach to walls, and it also causes other joining issues, its a really horrible system edit profile, its meant more for architects than structural detailing.

[kROSEMAN]

Craig,

Sorry for the delay in response. In answer to your question, yes these footings are wall hosted. When you are modeling with the isolated sketch in place, are you adding in any constraints to lock the footings to the walls so that if there are changes in the wall, such as location, the footings will update as well? If so how are you applying them?

Kyle

[Craig_L]

I personally do not like constraining my walls to anything. Similar when I edit a slab and it asks me if I want to connect my walls to the slab, I ALWAYS click no. If I need to constrain walls to anything it's reference planes or levels, not objects...(ok thats a lie, for some things I am confident wont change or changes are simple I may constrain them to objects rather than planes/levels - such as an Elevator Pit for example) Usually I try to avoid constraining them to another element, because when the constraint breaks it also pushes your footing around, and that can be really dangerous and time consuming checking and re-checking. I like my footings especially to be locked in place, not pushed around by other elements (columns do this all the time, push your footing around, its a revit behaviour that can really suck if you didn't see it happen and you find something weird later wondering why that footing is now 2 meters deeper than it should be.) In some cases, I may even constrain my footing plane - for example a set distance below slab level, put a dimension on it, and lock the dimension, so if the slab moves - so does your footings in that zone.

So a short answer to that, is, build your footings on reference planes, and lock them to it. You can then trim and lock your walls to the same reference plane. Name the plane with the "Footing RL 0.05" (or whatever the RL is) because it may be the case you have multiple RL's. Naming your reference plane also allows you to select it as a plane to model on and also if a footing changes to a different RL and some remain attached to that RL, you can sinply change the plane the object is attached to and it will immediately move there. Doing this sort of task with wall hosted footings is much more time consuming and the risk of missing one somewhere is pretty high. This means, if I need to because of design changes, I can move this plane and my footing, wall base and column base etc will alter accordingly all at once. It minimises the changes, while also keeping accuracy...this means also, don't set your walls with a height (because a change to the base attachment will mean your wall is wrong) I usually set my walls to start at level 0, up to level 1 (minus slab thickness)...for example. This way if that base locked down point changes in any direction, your wall height is still set correctly.

Try to find methods of modelling that suit how you work, but also reduce the risk of error, and reduce the work load... This method might not be what you prefer, but it works well for me and how I work. As I mentioned earlier, the wall hosted footings are pretty ugly. And they push/pull all the time and you need to watch them closely, change to the reference plane hosted footings and you can reduce stress levels by about 1000.

Oh I should also mention, that if you use this method to model your footings, you CAN use the modify profile tool if you wish, because it wont affect your footings at all. Personally I prefer to break my wall into different segments of varying height/width than use the modify profile tool. I find the modify profile tool causes problems at other wall intersections, in elevations it tends to show hidden lines where none should be and myriad other issues. I occasionally may use modify profile on certain tasks, but generally I try to avoid it because of all of the flow-on issues it causes. Also - when working with an architect and you are sharing models using copy/monitor - request that they minimize using modify profile and explain to them it plays havoc with your footings, I have had this experience, and the architect was quite happy to comply knowing that it didn't really change much for him other than how he modeled, and knowing it made a big difference in accuracy and reliability for me.

The only real flow-on effect from using different segments of wall to achieve a stepped wall, is that later if you are scheduling the walls, or assigning them wall numbers for documentation/elevations etc, then you need to be aware that you will have multiple walls with the same Tag. It's not a large issue, but something to consider, depending on how you will be using the data of the model later in your documentation.