Steel Weight as Property

[David Haynes]

Presently, to do a steel schedule that includes the weight of the steel, you have to manually put in the unit weight. Since a W12x26 is 26 pounds per square foot, it would be then easy if the weight was a type property.

In the type catalogues, the weight (W) and the Area (A) are included. This just needs to be brought forward to the schedules as possible fields to be included in the schedule. It appears this could be done by adding a line in the Instance Parameter, under Structural, that said Weight (this would be greyed out, so it could not be changed by the user).

[phyllisr]

Consider the source for this suggestion and I may be totally off base. Structure is not my area of expertise but I have tried something similar in Revit Building. As an interim measure, could you create a parameter with a formula? If your default has the overall weight and the SF information, could your formula parameter be a function of those two, by default not editable by a user? Create the parameter as the overall weight divided by the area to get the unit weight?

I tried something similar to get the area on both sides of a wall in Revit Building wherein the height is not a parameter. The height flexes with the constraint so I had to tinker with formulas to get height x length x 2 for both sides. Didn't need the information really, just experimenting. It worked so now I know I can do it when I might need the skill.

Ignore my post if I have missed the point entirely about the information you are trying to generate. Like I said, I am "structurally challenged."

PBR

[tinkerr]

What I tried was creating a shared parameter weight set equal to W which I can then use in a schedule. When I tried to create a formula to multiply length times weight to find the member weight I have incompatible units and it will not calculate. Since the length is in feet and inches and the weight value in the schedule is unitless. Revit does not include any weight options for creating parameters. Does anyone have a work around?

[David Haynes]

Here is the workaround - from Marie Olivares (Autodesk). I still think the desire is to include weight as part of the standard fields.

To get the weight of steel, you need a formula: unit weight of steel by volume (which is a default parameters). Make a new structural framing schedule, add the volume and Type. Then add a new parameter “unit weight” of structural discipline, choose “unit weight” in the type. Then add a calculated value with the formula. The only thing ids that the unit weight does not read the properties from the material. User needs to type in by hand the value of the unit weight (in pounds/ft3). Total weight can be displayed.

[tyler.kawahara356150]

"What I tried was creating a shared parameter weight set equal to W which I can then use in a schedule. When I tried to create a formula to multiply length times weight to find the member weight I have incompatible units and it will not calculate. Since the length is in feet and inches and the weight value in the schedule is unitless. Revit does not include any weight options for creating parameters. Does anyone have a work around?"

Yes, set the units of your calculated field parameter to length, format it as decimal feet and voila, you have the weight in decimal pounds. By the way, you may want to use the cut length parameter rather than length..

[dillon_manning]

This can be accomplished using a calculated value within a material take-off schedule. Weight = (Material Volume / 1) x (Density of Steel) For my case in particular I was using kg's (image attached).