Lacking Constraint Parametrics in Conceptual Massing - not applicable?

[Helsinki_Dave]

First posting, hurrah.

From what I can understand, conceptual massing is a bit backward, in that it is for making buildings (masses) but not floors. That means if you want to make a angular parametric that twists a building like a drill bit, as well as changes floor to floor dimensions per level etc, good luck.

ie this tutorial:

http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=927#comments_mark

cannot be applied to a conceptual mass, since you can't find a First End and Second End Constraint on a conceptual mass in the Instance Properties, it doesn't exist - I guess because the assumption is that the building is 'sitting on the ground'. You do have the possibility of a 'height' parametric property, but that doesn't work to create the 'drill bit' building as in the tutorial by Phil Read.

The lesson here is that you have to kick of in a Model Family (I think that's right, correct me if I'm wrong) and not in a Conceptual Mass family. This then gives you a standard Blend solid with the First End and Second End constraints to work with.

I'd happily be set straight on this one if there's something that I missed.

Thanks!

[Scott D Davis]

That means if you want to make a angular parametric that twists a building like a drill bit, as well as changes floor to floor dimensions per level etc, good luck.

It can all be done in Conceptual massing and more. You may want to check this blog by Zach Kron of Autodesk for some tips and tricks: http://buildz.blogspot.com/ Parameters can be added to masses to control twist and floor to floor heights.

[Helsinki_Dave]

Thanks for the quick reply Scott.

I think I can see what has happened here.

The key new tool/command forming part of the Conceptual Massing suite is the Modify Mass>Mass Floors command which creates floor and which enables the scheduling of floor areas.

On the example tutorial I went through above which used a General Component, there are a number of annoying limitations to the model so that things like the cladding system are 'dumb' ie each time the mass changes shape, the cladding needs to be redrawn.

The conceptual massing tool does away with that with the limitation that there is only one object per Project file (from what I can tell), since the Mass Floors are generated out of the Level Tags.

The Conceptual Massing is also, as Scott mentioned, light-years easier to set up parametrically than the way I did it first time around, although it would be more difficult to set exactly how much 'twist' a building might have from floor to floor when a Conceptual Mass would only be twisted from the top.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but you can only have one conceptual building in one project file unless all the buildings on the site have the same floor to floor height ?

..as seen here

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/revitarch10_whitepaper_conceptual_design_modeling.pdf

[Scott D Davis]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but you can only have one conceptual building in one project file unless all the buildings on the site have the same floor to floor height ?

Couple of ways to handle this: one is to make multiple sets of levels in a project. Name the levels appropriately and adjust their extents so you can easily see what set of levels goes with each Conceptual Mass. When you use the Mass Floors tool, you are presented with a list to make floors from, and you will have to select the appropriate levels from the list for each building.

The other way is to make separate projects for each conceptual mass, each with their own levels. Then Link those projects into a "master" project to display all the masses on a site.

[Helsinki_Dave]

Many thanks Scott for your thoughts. I rejigged the question on an extra posting and got back just the answers that you gave.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?p=1007362#post1007362

I'm thinking that I'm barking up the wrong tree since I can't get a linked file or a conceptual mass to report back a Location parameter, Number of Floors etc or such a thing as a Property Line to offer a <gross floor area> of what sits inside it's on boundary.

The consolation here is that there is very little out there that gives a full blown parametric city design tool kit, only Modelur and CityZoom offer meaningful automated urban planning data automatically. I posted on ArchiCAD forum and the problems there in urban design are pretty much the same. However, we are trying desperately to push AutoCAD Architecture to it's limit with Spaces, Zones etc to offer some kind tool but it's looking a little clunky.

Hopefully this isn't the end of the line, the Revit trial ends in a few days and we were just warming up!

Thanks again!