Revit Getting Started Tutorial

[Archimac]

I am a new user going through the 'Getting Started' tutorial that came with a 60 day trial a friend got from AIA Convention in Chicago. First of all I can say that I have a lot to learn coming from ADT. The tutorial tell you to do stuff that I have no idea why. I know I will need a much more descriptive book.

Anyway, here are some things I don't get:

1) I notice that in the level 1 plan view that things above on second floor or ceiling do not show as dashed lines - this is drafting 101. ie: floor opening around stairs above, spiral stair landing above on second floor. It seems like this would display dashed by default instead of gray solid line.

2) To construct the spiral stair I was told to create reference planes - I have no idea what these are for and how I would use them in the future.

It is a whole new mysterious world to an ADT user. Can anyone help explain these first baby steps.

Stan

[hand471037]

1. What you're seeing is what's called an 'underlay'. It's a drafting aid to show you what's on another level while you are working on the current level. It's not really mean to be visable in the finished printed drawing, and there are tools (like the linework tool) that let you make things overhead 'dashed'. The typical workflow would be to use the linework tool to set which overhead items you want to show as dashed, and then to turn off the underlay so that it's not visable. Then you get the items you used the linework tool on showing dashed (i.e. overhead) on the floor plan, and if they move, those dashed lines will move too.

2. Reference Planes are a MAJOR part of Revit. At this stage all the more you're using them for is as construction lines. For if you draw one on the ground floor plan, for example, you'll see in in the Second Floor and Roof plan (hense why you use them when laying out the stair). If you draw one in elevation, it will show in plan (so you can lay things out logically). You can even name them and stick things to them, so that they will change when the Reference Planes move. And later on, in Family creation, Reference Planes are the driving force behing Revit's parametrics. Also Reference Planes don't print, ala DEFPOINTS, unless you manually select for them to. So at your stage you'll probably only use them for layout and construction lines, but later you'll see that they become a very large part of your work.

Don't take that getting started thing 100% literally. It's a great intro to Revit, and it's general overall workflow, but it's not a complete picture by any means.

[David Conant]

A long time ago, (r 1 and 2) Revit would automatically show overhead things as dashed. This was a nice theory, but in practice it was unworkable. As is usual in this profession, no 2 architects had the same idea of exactly what should be seen overhead. Since an automated system does not adapt well to user modifications, anyone who disagreed with our strategy was stuck. Despite many tweaks and improvements, we were always making at least as many people unhappy as we were pleasing. Ultimately, we decided to let the users decide what they wanted to see, and show it in the manner they like using the Linework tool.

[Archimac]

Thanks Guys, for the great comments. Right now I will take your word for it
and hope it will all become clear someday soon. I would like to see a visual indicator
for the level underlays applied and a quick on/off icon up in the options bar maybe.

I completed the Getting Started tutorial. I downloaded the pdf Help File Tutorial and will do the
'Creating your first Building Model' next.

I want to get to the point that I can confidently start one of my residential projects. I
know at this point I would end up exporting the views to ADT to detail. I have to learn
how to creat detailed facia profiles and window trim first. That is down the road. I am
excited that this is the beginning of a new path. I will have a hard time convincing my
die-hard Autocad associates.

Wish me luck!

Stan

[Tom Dorner]

Stan,

Check out free distance learning on Revit from Autodesk at www.autodesk.com (http://www.autodesk.com/) choose “support” on main page then “Revit” from the drop down training box, then “distance learning seminars”

There are about 8 different subjects, each about 2 hours in length and I highly recommend them.

Tom