Pad problems

[DanielleAnderson]

I'm sure I have asked a similar question before, but I'll start a new discussion here...
Pads are just not my favorite part of Revit, BUT - I still have to figure this out...
I have a project that is something of an iceberg - as in, part of the parking garage is partly below grade, under a driveway and sidewalk. I need something equivalent to a pad in reverse, where it keeps the ground in place ABOVE the garage. I've attached a screenshot to illustrate my point. We are joining a new parking garage with an existing one, and the street/sidewalk goes over the top, so I still need to show some dirt.
Any suggestions?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

A pad will raise the level of grade if it's placed above the topo surface. Your parking ramp is not level and that's where the problem might be. I'm guessing the ramp is not going to be a slab on grade so I'd be tempted to model the exterior retaining walls at the ramp and just do the backfill below as a filled region in each view it shows up or you could do it as an in place family with an 'earth' material in section.

[DanielleAnderson]

The problem with that is that this model was mainly built for 3d views, so I think I am more inclined to just turn off topo in sections if they need them. I just don't want the non-users to go "what's the deal with the ground plane?" etc. And seriously - if this were to be used for actual construction docs, there might be some related issues. I just think that this pad issue needs to be addressed, this is just one of many pad problems.

[cphubb]

There really are two problems here.

1 you cannot have a sloped pad. You either need to grade the topo to fit under your pad or you need to use filled regions to cover the gap.

2. You cannot have a void in the middle of a topo. People have for years tried to make a tunnel with Revit and the only one that comes close is one done by I think Chris Zoog that used 2 topos on top of each other to simulate the tunnel. You will need the same here but since it looks like you will need to have significant amounts of "dirt" above your garage my first inclination is it will not display properly.

[Justin Marchiel]

why not try the in place family as described by Dimitri? I think this would be a good work around, and get the desired results.

I would give this on a try

Justin

[DanielleAnderson]

Yah, the in-place family thing might work...I'm just grumpy about pads. :)