Modeling Walls by Face / Wall Join Issues

[jcordell65]

I am modeling the top of a signage tower. The metal panels will bend around its sides as seen on the left ( in the attached JPG ) in SketchUp. However, after modelling the walls by face to 3 separate masses, the result in Revit is sad. The walls do not join properly. They will not trim. And updating each wall to its corresponding face simply produces additional errors as it breaks its neighbor. Is this too much for Revit? What am I doing wrong?

[damon.sidel]

You say this is a signage post? Besides the metal panel, what is it made out of and how is it built?

I ask because the only reason I can think of to make it out of walls is if you are tagging and scheduling the walls as walls. Based on a good number of unstated assumptions I'm making, I would think you would want this to be a family, either .rfa or In-Place. I can't come up with any reason for this to be a collection of walls.

[jcordell65]

The tower or mast is apart of a greater entry sequence involving a canopy and piers. Modeling by face allows the material properties of the wall and canopy construction to show thorough and display in the sections and elevations. If I must turn on masses in the elevations and sections, there is a possibility that other random masses may appear. Masses, in my mind, are background content and are intended to be the "bones" of the actual modeled building. Plus, when I cut sections through the canopy, piers, and tower, things will be halfway drawn, rather than big, blank boxes. Thanks for the help in advance.

[damon.sidel]

No, I was definitely not suggesting you create this as a mass. I was talking about a family. Just like you would create for doors, windows, columns, beams, desks, chairs, etc.

How many of these will you have? Are they the same? Come in the same general shape with variations of material and/or size? Or are they each different geometrically?

Try this:
1. Go to the big blue Revit "R" in the top, left corner, hover over New... and select Family.
2. Choose the "Generic Model" family template and open a new family.
3. From the Create tab, create an Extrusion. Sketch a rectangle the width and depth of your sign post, then finish with the green check mark.
4. From a front view, make the extrusion as tall as your sign post.
5. Save this family (on your desktop as a test) as "Sign Post" or some such thing.
6. Load into Project and place it where you want your sign post. Place two or three for fun.
7. Look at it from all angles, in all your views, in 3d. Note that there are no masses visible.

Does that work for what you want? If so, we can talk about how to model the shape you have.

[jcordell65]

I understand family building, but perhaps describing the tower as a sign post started our conversation off on the wrong foot. The tower is 34' tall, composed of a steel structure and a perforated metal skin. It will be back-lit and display the school's name, but it is not just a small sign post. There is only one tower in the project; I don't need to insert two or three for fun. Again, modeling the tower as a family would still leave my wall sections blank and completely reliant on 2D drawing after the fact. Please see the attached JPG for a more complete view. I am looking for my wall sections to reveal the layers of construction ( 1"-deep perforated metal skin panels, 2"-deep aluminum struts, etc. ). I have the wall type programmed, but the wall by face command does not clean the joints properly. Thus, my question ... what are the limitations of the wall by face command? Is it the angles? Is it the thinness of wall type? What is giving Revit the difficulty?

[damon.sidel]

I see and more fully understand why you wanted it to work with walls. Thank you for the clarification.

My next suggestion, based on an assumption that the material change is just a change in the color of the 1" thick perforated metal panels, not thickness of the finish material or back-up materials/structure: forget the sliced material change and just model four walls with the layer build-up you want. For a plan, you won't see this. For elevations, you can use the paint tool to call out the extent of these materials. For sections, you'll have all your layers and you'd just have to add detail information about the joint between materials; something that wouldn't need to be captured anywhere else.