Building SIgnage

[dzatto]

Is there any way to create this type of signage in Revit?

I modeled and rendered this in ACA. I used the express tools to explode the text, converted it to a pline, and extruded it to make the sign.

Will model text in Revit work?

[cliff collins]

For the "custom logo" you can use an in-place or "outside-project family"

The rest can be model text, as long as you have the font in C:Windows/Fonts

cheers

[rkitect]

I concur, model text for the normal signage. Family for the Kustom logo.

You can even make it glow. (http://revittotd.com/07/439)

In regards to the black on the sides... I don't know if you can paint the faces of model text or not. You may need to make 2 duplicates of the model text; one with the black, and one with the yellow. The custom logo model can easily be painted to match the black sides with yellow front.

[twiceroadsfool]

I prefer to make all Signage like that regular families. Nine times out of ten, the companies have Vector Files of the logo already. If you get them, tracing it in to an extrusion or sweep in a family takes (literally) seconds. I do one extrusion/sweep for the outer piece, then copy/paste same place/edit, and add an inner loop 1/8" off the outside of the letters, and push that one back towards the building. Thats the black piece.

[dzatto]

I'm still a little confused on families and what's considered a family.

How would I do a family for a sign? What would I extrude it around? Text?

Or would I trace the text to get the path?

[cliff collins]

For the logo, see if you can get a vector file, as TRF suggested, say an Autocad file
of the logo--import that into a family, then trace it with an extrusion--
per TRF's method. Or worst case trace over a jpg. Give it a material parameter and load into project.

Then for the text only part, you could use model text as suggested earlier--
either way.

cheers

[dzatto]

Okay, thanks. I'll try that.
I have all these signs in 3D as blocks in ACAD already. I'm the one that created them. Could I insert a cad block and trace it? I suppose so.

[cliff collins]

Yep.

cheers

[dzatto]

Yep.

cheers
Oooohhh, and save it as a family so I can reuse it again on other projects. Right?? Yeah, that makes sense now. Families are Revit blocks. It's starting to make sense. Be afraid, be very afraid. :shock:

[rkitect]

It starts to make more sense when you stop trying to relate it to AutoCAD :)

[dzatto]

It starts to make more sense when you stop trying to relate it to AutoCAD :)
Yeah. Problem is I have 16 years of ACAD and about 1 month of Revit! :lol:

I was actually thinking "how the he** am i supposed to trace over text with all the curves and such". Then I realized I woudln't be using polylines and that when you say to extrude it, I'd be in sketch mode. I love sketch mode. lol

[mthurnauer]

If you use the cad file to make the family, I would start with a wall-hosted family template, in the placement-side or front view, insert the cad file. when someone suggested tracing it, try using the pick lines and if you have the pick selector over the line of the block and hit the tab key, it may select a closed series of lines. Once you have selected the outline of all of the letters/ graphics, you can complete the extrusion. I would apply the black material to the entire object and then use the paint bucket to color the face with the yellow material

[dzatto]

If you use the cad file to make the family, I would start with a wall-hosted family template, in the placement-side or front view, insert the cad file. when someone suggested tracing it, try using the pick lines and if you have the pick selector over the line of the block and hit the tab key, it may select a closed series of lines. Once you have selected the outline of all of the letters/ graphics, you can complete the extrusion. I would apply the black material to the entire object and then use the paint bucket to color the face with the yellow material
Sounds like a plan. I'll try it when I get time. lol

[dzatto]

Which wall hosted family should I use? I tried a wall hosted light, but I don't think that will work. I don't see a generic wall hosted family template anywhere.

[twiceroadsfool]

Go with a Generic Model- Face Based. That way itll play nice with a lot of catagories, and not just walls.

[dzatto]

Wow, face based families. Totally awesome! And even awesomer, (yeah, that's right, I said awesomer!) is the pick line tool. I started tracing each line. What a pain. Saw the pick line tool. Fabulous!

AND, not to mention, you have 2 parallel closed loops, instant border. No substraction two solids carp that cad makes you do.

[twiceroadsfool]

Now hit the pick tool, hover on the CAD drawing, and hit TAB... LOL

[dzatto]

Now hit the pick tool, hover on the CAD drawing, and hit TAB... LOL
That's how I did it. I outlined the first 4 letters by hand. Then remembered the pick line tool and the tab button. Turned a 2 hour job into a 2 minute job.

I also just created some 3D star medallions that are raised at the center. Nothing like a blended sweep to brighten up your day. Face based again. Put them on all the corners in about a minute! lol.

[cliff collins]

Watch out, I feel a big drink of Kool-Aid coming..........

cheers

[dzatto]

Watch out, I feel a big drink of Kool-Aid coming..........

cheers
I've searched several times for that reference and still haven't found it! I'm guessing I'll be saying "Oh Yeahhhhhhh" shortly? lol

[cliff collins]

Hint..........

initials A.R.

cheers

[dzatto]

Hint..........

initials A.R.

cheers
I know who it is, but I didn't find any threads he started. Unless it's buried deep in another thread. lol Can you at least tell me the thread name? lol

[twiceroadsfool]

The thread is called Mysterious Dots. The "Kool Aid" Cliff is referring to is his completely misguided belief that everything more complex (however non value adding) is automatically better in every situation without any analysis whatsoever (and even when the necessary information to make things more complex is not available), and when he was disagreed with by myself and other members of the board, he took to make Kool Aid references in any post he jumps in to, to amuse himself. :)

Cheers!

[dzatto]

The thread is called Mysterious Dots. The "Kool Aid" Cliff is referring to is his completely misguided belief that everything more complex (however non value adding) is automatically better in every situation without any analysis whatsoever (and even when the necessary information to make things more complex is not available), and when he was disagreed with by myself and other members of the board, he took to make Kool Aid references in any post he jumps in to, to amuse himself. :)

Cheers!
I remember that thread. quite amusing! lol

[cliff collins]

Despite how anyone else would like to color the intention of the "mysterious dots"
thread, this exerpt from it by me should clarify it:

"The main thing I have been trying to convey is that the OP's example was ONLY 2D lines--and they missed the idea of combining 3D and 2D aspects into their family--which is why
I referred to it as more "sophisticated" BIM.

My opinion at the time, and still is, that a 3D model is better than a 2D representation,
and I have backed that up several times, with examples ( like the widely accepted practice in Revit of windows being modeled, not drawn with lines) in that thread and many others. Why there was such a wide difference in opinion which favored a 2D approach still astonishes me, especially within the context of a Revit/BIM discussion forum.

So--because of my adherence to a rigid 3D BIM approach, I have been labeled as "drinking too much of the Revit Kool-aid". So be it. As a matter of fact, I'm drunk on the stuff!

cheers......

[eric.piotrowicz]

Maybe its just me but I always thought "Don't drink the Kool-Aid" was a reference to the Jonestown cult incident were the leader convinced everyone to drink poisoned Kool-Aid and thus commit suicide. Therefore I thought Aaron's use of the phrase was intended to mean something along the lines of "Don't blindly follow the masses doing as the leader says" the leader being AutoDESK in this sense. So with that reasoning I can't see how drinking more Revit Kool-Aid is a good thing. I'll stick with :beer::beer::beer: just to be safe.:p

[dzatto]

Despite how anyone else would like to color the intention of the "mysterious dots"
thread, this exerpt from it by me should clarify it:

"The main thing I have been trying to convey is that the OP's example was ONLY 2D lines--and they missed the idea of combining 3D and 2D aspects into their family--which is why
I referred to it as more "sophisticated" BIM.

My opinion at the time, and still is, that a 3D model is better than a 2D representation,
and I have backed that up several times, with examples ( like the widely accepted practice in Revit of windows being modeled, not drawn with lines) in that thread and many others. Why there was such a wide difference in opinion which favored a 2D approach still astonishes me, especially within the context of a Revit/BIM discussion forum.

So--because of my adherence to a rigid 3D BIM approach, I have been labeled as "drinking too much of the Revit Kool-aid". So be it. As a matter of fact, I'm drunk on the stuff!

cheers......
Well, I'm not a Kool Aide Aholic yet. Just sipping on the stuff. I must admit I put some 2D framing details on my first Revit project to get it out the door. If I knew how to create families quickly, I'd do it in 3D for sure. I really really need to take the time to learn them. I'm just lazy. lol
So pass the kool aide, I'm thirsty. :beer:

[cliff collins]

Glad to hear that, dzatto!

cheers ( Yeah, I still say that, and I actually mean it....)

[twiceroadsfool]

LOL........

[cliff collins]

cheers

cheers

[vgsodesk2767536]

Glad to read this.

[david_peterson]

New options now include using a decal image stuck to a surface
or make a face based family - thin extrusion and generate a material from the imaged and use that.