trouble placing 4x4 lumber on concrete column

[jwdiho]

I'm a revit newbie and have spent the last two days looking for the answer...

I placed 12" x 4 ' concrete columns as foundation into the ground that is above grade 4".

I tried to then put 4x4" dimensional lumber vertically on top of the columns.

I changed the workplane to a grid line running across the centers of a row of concrete columns.
Created a framing elevation view.

Everytime I place a wood element vertically, it says the lumber is in the wrong workplane.

"Workplane not valid for Structural Framing component "Dimension Lumber : 4x4"

I can't seem to get it to work. Help.

Thanks,
John

[TheViking]

You should use a structural column family instead of structural framing. Structural framing is intended for beams and braces. You should be able to find the needed family in the shipped content.

Erik

[jwdiho]

Thanks!

Is it a limitation of dimension lumber to not be able to stack on the column, cause I forsee me needing to place framing components in the vertical plane in the future.

Edit-Worked great, Thanks!

[Craig_L]

no it's a limitation of the framing family itself.

Framing can only place in the horizontal plane (or altered slopes)

Vertical plane needs to be a column family, theres no way around it, this is the way revit recognises the families, it wont allow you to place a framing member in a vertical plane, as it recognises this should be a column, not a beam.

You will have to place a column, but there's no reason you cant make it exactly the same size and material as the framing component.

[jwdiho]

Maybe in the same vein, I should have used an element in the concrete foundation family for the concrete columns.

Thanks for the advice! :)

[Craig_L]

Well, yes, definately.
If the 'column' you have drawn is actually a footing or pad etc. you should draw it as a foundation.

Just remember with revit, one of the really powerful capabilities is to schedule the elements you have modelled into tables, and also for material take-offs and quantity/volume counts.

If you model the wrong type of element in place of something else, it's going to mean that these are all wrong.

Also, when it comes to visibility, you can hide/filter and select all instances of a certain 'category' of element (eg. hide all columns) . If you fudge the modelling of these you limit yourself later.