Glased Area

[Kbosch.184344]

Hello

I've worked with Revit Architecture 2009 and have tried to insert something to measure the glased area of my window families and never really succeeded. At the moment we are working with the new Revit 2010 and are hoping that a few things have changed in order to see it possible in this new version.
I've tried to use a masking region that is locked to the dimensions of the glass and have found out that Revit does show the area in the instance properties. However...I have no idea how to get this infromation into a schedule of the projects I work on. Does anyone know how to work with parameters or shared parameters or whatever to get it work?

Thanks

[gwnelson]

You need to put the Area in the Window Family Properties, can be easily made a parameter of size: Area = LxW of your window. Since that will calculate the gross window area you could refine it further by reducing it by a reasonable multiplier, maybe .92. Then you have the formula A = (LxW) *.92
Add the Area to your Window Schedule.

[Kbosch.184344]

I don't really understand what you're talking about. I know you can work with labeled dimensions. For example when I label a dimension Glaswidth and another Glasheight I can multiply them in the family parameters by making an area parameter. However this method is only doable for easy windows as it will get a bit complex for harder ones. It would be so nice if I could get the area info of the masked region into my project.

[dhurtubise]

Something like Area = (Width - Frame Width* 2) x (Height - Frame Width * 2).
All depends on the way you build your windows but you can be pretty accurate.

[twiceroadsfool]

I don't really understand what you're talking about. I know you can work with labeled dimensions. For example when I label a dimension Glaswidth and another Glasheight I can multiply them in the family parameters by making an area parameter. However this method is only doable for easy windows as it will get a bit complex for harder ones. It would be so nice if I could get the area info of the masked region into my project.

You cant do it with the Masking Region.

For complex window shapes, you will have to have an Area Parameter that generates the correct value. Chances are, if the window is already parametric, most of the values are there already. Its just a matter of putting in the correct math formulas to generate the area of the complex shapes. It doesnt even have to be tied to any dimensions.

[swalton240189]

I don't really understand what you're talking about. I know you can work with labeled dimensions. For example when I label a dimension Glaswidth and another Glasheight I can multiply them in the family parameters by making an area parameter. However this method is only doable for easy windows as it will get a bit complex for harder ones. It would be so nice if I could get the area info of the masked region into my project.

You will need to make it an "area" parameter and a shared parameter if you want to be able to schedule it.

Then put the formula in as shown in the jpg or as people above suggested you write it. It is case sensitive.

[swalton240189]

You could also just do a window material take off and filter to only total up your glass materials.

[stuntmonkee]

You could also just do a window material take off and filter to only total up your glass materials.

Use caution with this method. . .depending on if its a wall or a family.

Wall material take offs work with out a hitch, BUT families. . .lets say glass in a window family for example. . . .material areas are based off of 6 sides of the extrusion used to create the glass. So you can do a material take off, but would also need to add a calculated value that divides by 2, and then subtracts (depth x width) & (depth x height).

Then need to make sure that the glass is modeled to the correct locations, and that the material name is the same in all the families that you want to calculate.

Works very well as long as you understand the factors that are involved.

Stunts

[Kbosch.184344]

Use caution with this method. . .depending on if its a wall or a family.

Wall material take offs work with out a hitch, BUT families. . .lets say glass in a window family for example. . . .material areas are based off of 6 sides of the extrusion used to create the glass. So you can do a material take off, but would also need to add a calculated value that divides by 2, and then subtracts (depth x width) & (depth x height).

Then need to make sure that the glass is modeled to the correct locations, and that the material name is the same in all the families that you want to calculate.

Works very well as long as you understand the factors that are involved.

Stunts

Didn't thought about that approach yet, but after playing a bit with parameters and stuff I found out that it will be very hard to get it work.
At first it sounds nice, but you need to label a dimension for the glass thickness, then you need to label the dimension for the height and width of the glass as you can't just use height and width. Even when you would use a calculated value that substacts the frame width you only cover the situations where there's no window in your frame.
The simple situation would give you something like:
(Material: Area - (glasthickness * (2*glassheight)+(2*glasswith))) / 2
I want to cover all situations and not just the simple ones and therefor something like a masked region is almost required to get it work.

Conclusion: It still seems to be impossible in this version of Revit......By hand still remains the best method .....I'll just keep hoping it will be present in one of the next versions of Revit:D

[twiceroadsfool]

Didn't thought about that approach yet, but after playing a bit with parameters and stuff I found out that it will be very hard to get it work.
At first it sounds nice, but you need to label a dimension for the glass thickness, then you need to label the dimension for the height and width of the glass as you can't just use height and width. Even when you would use a calculated value that substacts the frame width you only cover the situations where there's no window in your frame.
The simple situation would give you something like:
(Material: Area - (glasthickness * (2*glassheight)+(2*glasswith))) / 2
I want to cover all situations and not just the simple ones and therefor something like a masked region is almost required to get it work.

Conclusion: It still seems to be impossible in this version of Revit......By hand still remains the best method .....I'll just keep hoping it will be present in one of the next versions of Revit:D

Dude, you have to know the math equations for the complex shapes, in order to do it by hand (arc transoms, trapezoids, whatever.) If you know the math formulas, getting the family to give you the information isnt that difficult...