Another Area Plan Question

[boofredlay]

Is there a way to "copy" an area boundary to an area plan from a room object on a floor plan?
I.E. place room objects on the floor plan. Then create an area plan. Then use the room object information to "automatically" create area boundaries.

Thanks.

[ford347]

I'm not sure I understand the question completely, but are you trying to find the area of a room by itself? If so, you can just place a room are in the space you are trying to define on a regular floor plan. i.e. duplicate floor plan, place room area, place a room tag with area info in that and the room is defined. As far as an area plan goes, you can create as many area schemes as you would like, place area boundary lines by rules or create them without, which gives you more flexiblilty where you would like these lines to be. By creating multiple area schemes, you can have multiple area plans. I hope this cleared something up for you, post again if I'm wrong.

Josh

[boofredlay]

Thanks Josh.

Here is what I did:
I drew an existing building plan. 4 floors. Now I need to do a color plan with area calculations for the existing departments... programming study. Being new to Revit (our entire office) I did not know which direction to take next. Some said to use the room tags, others said to do an area plan. We are all learning.
So I created a new area plan and started drawing boundaries. I then created a schedule that would keep a running total of areas created.
My room boundaries are very detailed as there are many columns and concrete block walls. This is taking longer than I hoped.

Looking back I am thinking it would be better to place room objects and work from that information.

Are you saying I can place room objects in the plan, then duplicate the plan and add a color fill and area schedule there?

I am still a bit confused as to the best way to go about this.

Thanks again.

[Emily.Santilli]

The Area Plans in Revit 9.0 are for gross building and rentable areas only. You can separate the rooms by adding Area Lines and defining Areas, but I have a feeling that this isn't what you're looking to do.

Instead, try duplicating your view under Floor Plans and make this your colorized plan. Make sure you have placed rooms and that the yare fully enclosed before duplicating the view. In the new view, go to the "Room and Area" tab and click "Color Fill." Click anywhere within the view and a blank box will appear that says "No Colors Defined" next to it. A button will appear on the top of the screen that says "Edit Color Scheme." here you will be able to identify the colorization by Area, Finishes, Departments, Names, Number, Occupancy, Perimeter, and Use. Also, your area can be defined by value or by range.

Again the "Area Plans" allow for only gross building and rentable area. You can modify the area plans to meet your needs by setting up a bunch of areas and defining them by area lines, but there appears to be a simpler alternative.

I hope this helps. :)

-Emily

[boofredlay]

Thanks Emily.

Here is the first floor that I created... Area Plan.

As you can see I am wanting the gross square footage of the building then the areas of the departments separated out. I guess what I was hoping I could do is place my room objects then transfer the boundary of the room to an area boundary on the area plan.

I see what where you are leading me but I believe it would not allow me to have the gross building area. I can see duplicating the floor plan if all I wanted was a color plan of different departments.

Am I totally off on this or am I headed down the right path?

[Emily.Santilli]

I think I see what you mean.

The method I listed could help you do what you're looking for as well. Once you have identified a room, you can assign it certian properties that will assist in color plans. You could use "Department" or "Occupancy." It seems maybe you've already assigned these titles to your rooms because you have a schedule on that drawing. But if not, after placing a room, highlight the room (not the room tag, but the "x" for the room) and open the element properties box. Assign your area types under let's say, Occupancy, for each room. Then follow the same process except this time, select "Occupancy" from the drop down menu in the Edit Color Scheme dialog.

And you can total the different "occupancies" in a Room Schedule.

Maybe that is more like it?

-Emily

[boofredlay]

How then would you get the gross square footage calculated into the mix?

I did not assign rooms to my plan. As soon as I finished the drawing I went into the area plan and started defining area boundaries. Then did a boundary around the entire exterior of the building for my gross.

Both you and Josh have helped quite a bit... thank you.

[Emily.Santilli]

Perhaps I don't fully understand what you're looking for...I'm sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck regardless. :)

-Emily

[ford347]

I would simply create an area plan by level, i.e. when you select area plan, it will ask you from what floor. This will also tie back into an area scheme, i.e. gross building, rentable etc., whatever you define, so choose one when creating your plan. Create your first floor area plan, select the walls that create these boundaries between your spaces, place your areas as needed, auditorium, or whatever you had listed there. You can do this on every floor, set a color fill to define as you wish, by name, area etc., then create a schedule from this area scheme, sort by floor with header, get totals etc. I believe all this should be done with area plans. So with every floor, create a new area plan for that level. Let me know if that helped. What you want can be done.

Josh

[ford347]

Probably a terrible example, but I hope this helps or it's what you are trying to do.

[boofredlay]

Sorry Emily if I am not clear.

Josh, that is what I have done so far, thanks.

Basically what I am asking can be seen in the attached images.

First draw a plan, assign rooms and a color fill (First Image). Great, I have a color plan.
Now for the area plan.
Create an Area Plan and define area boundaries... well this has to be done manually right?
If I try to place an Area from the Room and Area sidebar in a room that has already been assigned, I get what you see in the second image. Maybe this is a wishlist, maybe it cannot be done.
I think it is pointless to have to assign an area boundary manually for a room if you have already assigned a room object. That object should be able to provide the "boundary" for the area you are creating, if you choose to do so.

Now if there was an option when creating area boundaries that "acted" like placing a room object (just hover inside a room) that would work almost as fast.

For most plans this should not be much of a problem but the one I am working on, there are hundreds of rooms all with many "ins and outs". See Image 3.

Again, I want to thank the both of you and apologize if I have not been clear, even in this last post. I am grateful for all the help.

[Emily.Santilli]

If you need the areas *by room* I don't understand why you can't just use the colored plan you created first.

I do not think you can have one plan that shows both room by room analysis as well as overall gross area analysis. Thinking in a mathematical sense, it's understandable that Revit would want to separate those functions. And if I'm wrong, someone please call me a liar. :) If you're trying to get the gross area by room type, that can be accomplished in a schedule and identified on the plan as separate colors like you show.

I guess I still don't understand, and I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. All I can do is say good luck. :)

[ford347]

ok, are you using an 'Area Plan', or are you trying to do this on a floor plan. This could be your problem. If you are going to do an area study, you need to use the 'Area Plan', not your floor plan. This will allow you to get as much area data as you need. Dont try to do this on a floor plan with rooms or you are going to run into errors and problems. Do all your color fills and areas from your area plan. If you choose the 'area boundary' tool on an area plan, then you can just select walls and define them as needed. Hope this clears it up. If not, give me a call, sounds like a hard thing to describe through a post if I still don't get it. Sorry.

Josh

[luigi]

Although you can't schedule them together, you can create a graphic area plan that shows the room area tagged information. You have the area boundary and area tag as you wish, and have the room tag in each room. Again, they can never be in the same schedule, but you can combine the info graphically...




If you need the areas *by room* I don't understand why you can't just use the colored plan you created first.

I do not think you can have one plan that shows both room by room analysis as well as overall gross area analysis. Thinking in a mathematical sense, it's understandable that Revit would want to separate those functions. And if I'm wrong, someone please call me a liar. :) If you're trying to get the gross area by room type, that can be accomplished in a schedule and identified on the plan as separate colors like you show.

I guess I still don't understand, and I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. All I can do is say good luck. :)

[luigi]

OK, I tried reading the whole thread, and maybe I understood what you are trying to achieve (but maybe not :s ?)

Rooms should have "rooms" set up, regardless what you end up doing with area schemes.
There are 2 aspects, one is graphic, the other data (net or gross)
With rooms you can have it graphically sort by any parameter set up(i.e. the parameter of your color fill can be by department) and this info can be scheduled as well.

The moment you want to have some boundaries in the middle of the wall, and/or some interior and/or some exterior, using rooms becomes not an option.

In this case though, since you did all the work in area scheme, leave them there, and give each room a department parameter....then schedule by area name, sorting through department (with a footer showing the total and title)...this will add all the individual rooms (in the area scheme) in each department and give you the department total and the Grand total at the end....

For the next project, use the room, instead of area scheme, unless the boundary of the room cannot be defined by "wall finish(interior), wall centerline, core layer (interior), or core finish" showing the net of the room, not gross...

Did anything I share add to the discussion?

Let me know...

Take care,





Thanks Emily.

Here is the first floor that I created... Area Plan.

As you can see I am wanting the gross square footage of the building then the areas of the departments separated out. I guess what I was hoping I could do is place my room objects then transfer the boundary of the room to an area boundary on the area plan.

I see what where you are leading me but I believe it would not allow me to have the gross building area. I can see duplicating the floor plan if all I wanted was a color plan of different departments.

Am I totally off on this or am I headed down the right path?

[dbaldacchino]

Remember that you can add parameters to your rooms. So, if you want to show a group of rooms to be, say, "existing to remain", you can add a project parameter assigned to Rooms called "Work" (or whatever you need it to be) and then assign the value to each space as necessary (ETR, D (demo), etc). You can then do a colored plan by creating a color fill for your "Work" parameters and assign a color for the different values (ETR, D, etc.). This way you're just assigning values to your existing rooms and you're not having to draw "manual" area boundary lines. I think this is what you're resisting. although it is an option and it isn't as slow as you think.

Once more, you can add even more parameters to your rooms to display any info you want in a color fill format. Similarly, you can use these parameters to create accompanying schedules with area totals. For instance you can add a parameter "Space Type" and assign values of "Circulation", "Support", "MEP" etc so you can analyze the percentages of each group in your floor plan compared to the gross building area. As you can see, I'm not re-drawing any boundaries, I'm just assigning parameters and values to existing spaces and build color fills and schedules based on these parameters. The options are limitless.