Using Revit in Urban Design

[Helsinki_Dave]

Hi,

Can Revit work in the design of a city? Lee Miller has this as his topic for AU in December, and he does promise exactly what we're looking to do:

Create and schedule districts and plots with area plans
Create and schedule building masses
Paramatize building masses with relevant urban design data
Use levels and mass floors to generate accurate GFAs
Create roads using mass and modified wall tools

But how do you get around the conceptual masses needing to have a variety of floor-to-floor levels in the city, or even how do you create a city worth of masses rapidly, without a new family object for every slightly different mass (just use parametrics I guess - sounds heavy)

Once a mass is down, I can't see how you can ask it to report back an area that it is located in (say Planning Zone 1, or Planning Zone 2).

I'm thinking that the list of 'can-do' things above is for a small city block with only a few masses on it.

Idea's anyone?

Thanks in advance.

[sbrown]

I would use linked mass projects(not families) unless the 2010 conceptual mass tool would work for this(I'm still not using 2010). for each building so they can each have whatever levels you need. It would take 5 minutes to make each building mass with the correct number of levels, floor area faces etc., link those into a master site model which contains the schedule reading the linked data. That way if certain buildings go forward they are allready set up as individual building models. If some repeat you can just copy / paste them around. I've done so many large masterplanning jobs now in revit and linking is the way to go. You may start "in-Place" but very soon you'll realize you need to group and convert to link. Performance is the issue. If the project is too big you will need to break the site model into multiple models too. The property line tool is great for loting since you can tag each lot and get the area and number them and schedule them. So that would all be done in the overall model.

[twiceroadsfool]

+1 for File Linking.

But even without it, you can have different FTF heights in the buildings, you just have to be cognizant of which buildings are using which Levels. IF i were going to do it in one project (and im not saying i would, because i wouldnt) i would prefix the Levels with the Name/Number of the building. Then when you make the massing and go to place Floor Area Faces, just tell it to only use the Levels with the correct prefix.

But Linking is totally the way to go.

As for creating site elements like Roads/curbs using Revit elements like Walls/Floors/In-Place Sweeps.... Its doable, but its not always pretty. Its doability is inversely proportional to hoe complex the topography is and how much of a PITA you want it to be. But id love to catch the Cliff's of that class as well. :)

[Helsinki_Dave]

unless the 2010 conceptual mass tool would work for this

Thanks guys for the rapid replies, really helpful!

The Conceptual Mass tool is ok, but it suffers the same problem of having it's levels determined in the Project File which takes us to putting in quizillion project levels as t-road suggested and picking the ones that apply ( we may be using up to 30 level options for a city of five thousand)

So I went to the linking mass project files as suggested, and it works but what I can't get is a Gross Floor Area per plot, not for one building or for many- since the mass doesn't have a live connection to the Property Lines (or Rooms or Areas) that surround it.

That leaves the scheduling of gross floor areas per plot to become a manual afair where each building has a parameter which is manually set to tell the schedule what plot it sits on..which is kinda 'pants'

Unless I've got it kinda wrong !

[dhurtubise]

The parameter to place your building in the right plot is the way to go. Then you can sort your filter by plot and get exactly waht you are after. Shouldnt be a big deal.

[Helsinki_Dave]

The parameter to place your building in the right plot is the way to go.

Thanks for the thought. Wouldn't this then be a manual parameter? ie could I then drag the building from one plot to another and the parameter would automatically change?

I have looked for this kind of parameter for linked files or masses but couldn't trace it.

The equivalent in AutoCAD Architecture is a Location anchor, which can be added to all kinds of things, be it masses, spaces etc.

[dhurtubise]

Unfortunately it will have to be manual, only certain elements can be track in space and they are tracked through the room object.

[Helsinki_Dave]

thanks for the thought anyway dhurtubise, we could make manual properties also in ACA. There's a really interesting lesson here in software selection - Revit really is geared to architecture, which is a great plus. ACA can also be geared toward architecture as well, missing the mark sadly on it's safety checks - but it can also be geared to work as a visual database.

Bizarrely, it looks like after doing the round of whats on the BIM market, we're heading back to dinosaur ACA since it gives the flexibility we need, albeit an incomplete solution fraught with disaster scenarios which need to be kept in check.

[johnklok372704693]

You can also take the help of 3D designing software which is useful in making design and helps in town planning (http://archinspire.com.au/town-planning/) design. Like Map3D, Civil 3D, ESRI, etc. You can find other 3D auto cad designing software online.