Unfolded Elevations / Sections

[pnanavati]

I am facing a problem where I can not seem to be able to generate an elevation / section of a curved / radius-ed building that we are designing. It seems to be a rather painful endeavor to create multiple tangential elevations and stitch them together at a grid line. This however is not very accurate and has a certain amount of distortion. I was wondering if there would be a tool / plug-in / feature that already exists or could be developed to address this issue.

Thanks,

Paras

[shaunamorain]

I don't understand the problem you're having, could you be a little more specific?

[eddy.lermytte]

Paras.
As far as I know, unfolding Elevations / Sections cannot be done in Revit.

[Roger Evans]

thought of an avi? not printable but could assist the explanation

[dbaldacchino]

Well, I don't understand why you'd want to generate that in the first place. We use elevations to convey relationships and materials. You dimension your plan and that's where they build it from. You do wall sections to explain how the structure and envelope come together. The elevation is really a design tool mainly, but it also serves to show materials, banding, control joints etc. I don't see the need to generate a flattened elevation of a curve. Apart from the fact that I'm not aware of any BIM software that has that capability.

[greg.mcdowell]

Because an argument can be made that drawings should be annotated where they best explain the design intent... and sometimes that's in elevation... and if the elevation is curved you're in a bit of a pickle regardless of what program you're using.

My Uncle is a masonry contractor and as a young aspiring Architect in school I asked him to show me how he bid a project and he went straight to the elevations and picked up his scale and got at it. I put on my fancy Architect hat and told him that he wasn't supposed to do that since the dimensions were in the plans and sections. And he told me that the elevations were the best place for him to get a sense of the scope of the project... the best place to understand what the design entailed and that, since it was just an estimate, that scaling the drawings was sufficient.

Really got me to thinking about who the drawings are for and how they will ultimately be used.

[dbaldacchino]

Valid point, but when you have a complex-shaped building, this might fall through. You're just pointing out someone doing a quick take-off. There are a lot of other trades involved where they could care less about elevations :)

[jjjschoeman]

Why dont you do a 3D of the wall and add that to your drawings on the sheet then they can see it more clearly.

A 3d detail or just a normal 3d can explain alot with your other drawings on the sheet?

[jspartz]

I've always found unfolded elevations, if not straight segments, to be very deceiving. I'd rather see the straight shot from either side and know that it's curving according to the elevation. Then you know to go to the plan for the radius. Often you look at the elevation and take it for face value that that is how the building is going to look, so you're going "where is the elevation of the curved tower?" for a minute.

[pnanavati]

Thank you all for the different view points. We thought about including the 3d axonometric and or 3d perspective in the sheets to explain the relations of materials and openings. But we really DO need an unfolded view (elevation) is that something that is going to be possible at all?

The Avi movie is a good idea to explain to the client or be used in a presentation - but just seems like a big pain to convey simplistic information to the contractor.

Anything else out there?

[Roger Evans]

The Avi movie is a good idea to explain to the client or be used in a presentation - but just seems like a big pain to convey simplistic information to the contractor.

Anything else out there?

It is about communication of the idea & the principles

I have found on earlier work The most useful tool to keep the contractor focused is the render & 3D images (short of a real model that is)

Depending on the complexity of what you have you could model the curved wall as a new file or 2D drawing & map this as a straight wall with various references & notes.

[shaunamorain]

Not sure what unfolded elevations are, but I would just save a 3D camera view of the curved wall- why must it be an elevation?

[ford347]

Since an un-folded elevation is not possible, you might have to...do the math yourself and draw a wall either by way of drafting lines, so everything is dumb, or open a new project, draw the wall straight, place your components in there, save the view out and import in your current project. I don't really see another way if this is what you are after. From a wood framer's perspective, (that's what I am) I would never need it, nor stucco, window's etc. I would simply do the math quickly, get a building height and there you go. I don't think I've ever or would ever need an un-folded view of a radius wall for anything. I am a General Contractor and go through all trades during bidding and throughout the project as we are intimately involved in all facets of the construction project, so aside from a couple of great 3d views (which are very useful for everyone), I'm good with good elevations, sections, multiple details and well planned - plan views. I personally think it's all in the information you provide throughout. My 2 cents. Good luck and hope it turns out well.