Residential framing

[nrenfro]

Our firm does mostly residential work consisting of new homes and additions. I have been working in Revit for a little while now and it is time to layout the sticks. I have played around with the structural features a little and I think it's cool, but.. I am not sure what I am gaining in most circumstances by modeling the structure. Framing a house is not all that complicated for the most part. So, why not just use the Detail Line tool and draft out the diagrams. I wanted to know what others have found to be effective, and if I am missing somthing here.

As an aside Our office is finally coming around and we are now planing a office wide deployment of Revit in the near furture.

[beegee]

I think the old adage about modelling still applies :- if you see it in more than one view, then model it. Otherwise draft it.

Having said that, I doubt you would need to model framing that is cut in section. Just use detail component and call outs.
It may be quicker to draft the framing elevations also.

We don't do house framing plans here, so its hard to be specific witout knowing your particular circumstances.

[Henry D]

nrenfro,

I used to work in the Washington DC area, and if I'm thinking of the same firm, didn't your office use Archicad at one time - or am I thinking of some other firm?

[nrenfro]

Nope.
Way back when we were a DataCAD firm, switched to AutoCAD2000, and now Revit.
your most likely thinking of someone else. Ten years ago the practice was in the principals 's basement.

[designer56644]

I'm a residential designer. I don't know how deep your documentation goes, but I design from concept to CD. Where modeling kicks butt for me is in sections, period. (Elev's too) That's one of the biggest reasons I model. No more guessing on roofs, no more hacking and fudging and grinding through sections. I do not model headers over windows/doors, etc. Just detail lines and callouts. I'm way more comfortable with my CD's now.

Visualization is also a powerful tool for selling work, but also for understanding the design intimately.

If you use modeling as a tool, it will become an indisposable tool. Not everyone in your office needs to model, but it helps me in my design on complex customs and work flow.

[nrenfro]

I just discovered a very good reason to model the framning. Scheduling! I went ahead and drafted the framning with detail lines then went back to tag things. Then whap right in the back of the head reality hit. I can't tag things without having Objects to tag. Will the revit gods forgive my sins?

I was in a rush so labeled things with text. I know better now, but is their a way to place tags without attaching them to anything?

[beegee]

Noteblocks and tags can be placed anywhere without leaders.

[nrenfro]

it has been four months since I posted the question whether it was worth modeling the framing. I have found modeling the stick layout very worth the effort. What I have not figured out is a simple way to model the headers over windows and doors. Is their such a thing?

[gregcashen]

If you dont need to schedule it (can't imagine why you are doing otherwise) you can include the header in the window/door family.

[nrenfro]

I was thinking along those lines Greg, if Revit had not formally address the issue yet. The reason I want to model them is to extract the length information for preliminary estimating. I figure I can create a window schedule and filter out everything but the fields I create for the headers.

Another thing I am trying to figure out is how to populate the level field in the framing schedule Revit provides the column as an available field but I can't get the fields to show the members level.

[gregcashen]

This is a problem with the current odbc export data...it does not show anywhere near enough location data...makes it almost unusable for anything I would truly like to use it for :(

[GuyR]

I was thinking along those lines Greg, if Revit had not formally address the issue yet. The reason I want to model them is to extract the length information for preliminary estimating. I figure I can create a window schedule and filter out everything but the fields I create for the headers.

If you are wanting it purely for scheduling information then ODBC or in a revit schedule(V6) could do it. All you need is a few formula.

(In metric) say you have a 2460 wall studs@600c/c and nogs @800c/c. Then you have studs @ 600c/c +top/bottom plate +2 nogs
So approx:

(wall_Length/600*2460-90)+(2*wall_length)+((wall_length/600-1)*555*2)

There's no rounding but over all walls in a project would be close enough.
With windows and doors the problem here is how do you resolve loaded dimensions of lintels? It's easy enough getting lintel lengths.

HTH,

Guy