How to draw existing walls?

[stephanschneller]

Morning,

I was wondering what the quickest way is to convert 2d surveys of existing walls into 3d 'Revit walls'?

In reality you never have a straight wall which means you cant use 'standard' walls.

Currently I create 'in place wall families', select the wall outline from the survey (which is linked in) and than extrude this.

This way I catch any 'funny' shapes, nibs etc. but it's quite time consuming.

Has anyone got a better idea?

Regards,

Stephan

[Munkholm]

Morning Stephan.

This topic was discussed recently in this thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=120401&highlight=survey
Maybe you´ll find some usefull hints there...

[tomnewsom]

In-place families get very annoying very quickly - especially when it comes to demolitions. They also perform badly, slowing your model down. Although they can host windows and doors, this can get very buggy too. I really wouldn't use them for anything but the most unusual shapes.

Unfortunately, after working on a great many existing buildings, I've found the only way to do it while keeping Revit happy is to have lots and lots of Extg walltypes, each with slightly diferent thicknesses as needed by the survey. Tapering walls are built from two wall objects, with their ends set to No Join, then manually Joined together. It's more effort to model, but it behaves in a Revit way and is much easier to split/demolish/pick etc.

My current project has 65 different Extg - ???mm walltypes. I also have my own Rectangular Opening and Recess families, which tidy up much more neatly than the Wall Opening object, and also put an 'overhead' line in the plan. See attached for examples from such a building (the red=existing matches a historical archive drawing for presentation)

[barrie.sharp]

... I also have my own Rectangular Opening and Recess families, which tidy up much more neatly than the Wall Opening object, and also put an 'overhead' line in the plan...
When you put these existing surveys together, are you interested in the wall's construction or finish? If you do show finish, how are you getting the finishes to clean up on the recesses?

I try to anticipate structure and finish to help me understand the building and interpret the survey. For instance, on a Victorian rear extension you will have the additinal thickness of plaster on the inside of the rear wall. Not sure whether this is over doing it and maybe I should show the existing as a single solid material.

[tomnewsom]

Finishes can vary so much, and can be such an unknown quantity, that I don't bother. If the model really needs it, or if the finishes buildup is very large (in buildings with a lot of history, it's not unknown to have 3 layers of studs&sheathing, all decorated, onto a brick wall right at the back), then I'll model the extg as two seperate walls and demo the 'finish' portion in the Proposed phase.

It depends on the scale of your project too - my work is on large city-block sized buildings, so the scale is necessarily coarse. If it's just a single house, then you can afford to a)survey everything to the last joist and b)represent it in the model.

[patricks]

I 2nd Tom's remarks. I've learned over the years to just "fudge" it and make everything orthogonal with regards to existing construction. Trust me, Revit will be MUCH happier because of it. As long as it's close then it's fine in my opinion.

[barrie.sharp]

Fair enough. I may try using generic walls for existing and see if it goes smoothly still. I guess it is something I should assess based on each project's requirements. :beer: