Embedding Column in Wall

[galmquist387974]

Hi all, what is the best way to embed a square steel column in the wall so that you don't see the wall inside the column? Please see attached image. I'm currently using the cut profile command but I have to select each layer of the wall and it's tedious... it also unjoins the walls.

[BillB_UH92]

Hi
Did you try a void extrusion? It will carve out any shape you like:
Architecture/Component/model-in-place/(pick a family category -"wall")/ Void Forms/ Void Extrusion.

You might have to tell Revit to cut the wall before finalizing (little check mark) your void extrusion (I always do). You can set the height of the void extrusion while creating it. Good luck.

[Devin_82]

Another option is to edit the column family and add a symbolic element like a masking region in the void space. It won't truly cut the wall but it should do the trick graphically. If you want to be able to count on it for more than graphics, another approach will be required. Out of curiosity, have you tried the cut geometry tool? You would pick the column and then the wall, I'm on an iPad right now, but it might also work, plus it would be the most accurate way to do it and pretty simple too.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

If all you are looking for is the graphic representation you can modify your column family and add a masking region so you don't see the walls.

too slow on the reply - 'Phonus interruptus'

[galmquist387974]

I was able to do both void extrusion with cut geometry and masking region! Thanks everyone for your help!

[MikeJarosz]

This raises a theoretical issue. What if this is a project that is all one floor and uses steel tube columns, so there are a large number of them, like a Juvenile Detention center I'm working on right now? Next, take a relatively expensive detention wall type: 8" CMU, filled cores with horizontal stiffeners and vertical rebars every few feet. My question is: "How accurate will the quantity takeoffs be?" Believe it or not, the client's value engineers examine every inch of this partition type, looking for something to cut.

In the case of the masking region, the hidden CMU will probably be counted. Using the void, the cut geometry will be subtracted from the take-off. (I hope)

Comments?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

This is one of those tough calls that, in my opinion, should be defined in the execution plan. What is this model good for and to what degree. I firmly believe that no piece of software can provide for every possible condition and, at some point, people have to think and understand what it is they are trying to.
If your VE (a serious misnomer. As far as I'm concerned there is no such thing as VE, it's either designed with value in mind or it's just cost cutting) is getting down to this point then they can build into their costing tools an allowance for each column that removes the concrete volume for each HSS column.
I'm not giving you a hard time personally Mike but what in the CMU will be counted? The number of units? The concrete fill? The rebar? Where does the additional cost of cutting the block around the columns come in? Is the column filled with concrete? Is the extra labour for cutting block around the column factored in or just material costs?
You get my drift right? At what point to we blindly trust what comes out of the box? Where do we end up drawing the line (or, more appropriately in the BIM world, modeling the geometry) for diminishing returns on how much or how 'real' we model.