Automatic Visible Metal deck in RB?

[robert.manna]

So, as most people know I think, Revit Structural can show metal deck automatically making use of a metal deck profile. I think most people are aware that this carries over to Revit Building as well. Through some experimentation I've found out this this can be a constant once you've got a "strucutral" floor object into Building. So once you've got one, you can duplicate it and create new types and assign different profiles and it continues to work. You can't create a new slab with the "strucutral" type and have it work, though you can copy exsisting slabs and modify them, and the deck behavior remains persistent.

Does anyone know of a reason why we shouldn't do this on our projects? Do the "structural" floors carry with them additional overhead we don't want in our architectural models? Is there anything I'm not thinking of?

Commence the discussions & thoughts..... (I hope)

-R

[dbaldacchino]

So you're opening a RS4 file into RB9.1 that already has a RS4 slab in it correct? Because as far as I know, you cannot create that slab with a profile within RB9.1.I don't see how it could come back to bite. This is one of those frustrating cases where a feature that would be valuable in RB is only available in RS.

[robert.manna]

Actually I went both ways. I created a file in RS.4 and opened it in RB.9.1 and I started a file in RB.9.1 opened it in RS.4, converted a couple of the "floors", then brought it back to RB.9.1 and worked with the slabs more. Thus finding out I could duplicate the "RS.4 type" and change the profile, and have the visibility remain. I could also copy the slab and modify. I just couldn't create a new floor/slab from a sketch.

I agree its frustrating, however I'm lucky enough to have access to RS.4. I'm more worried about, are there any gotchas I'm not seeing....?

-R

[aaronrumple]

I agree its frustrating, however I'm lucky enough to have access to RS.4. I'm more worried about, are there any gotchas I'm not seeing....?

-R
The only gotcha I can think of is that architects don't give much thought as to the direction a metal deck is spanning. I've seen side by side hand/cad drawings showing the metal deck running north-south and then east-west in adjacent details. In Revit the deck would be used in the structural analysis and this is the only reason I can think that adsk didn't let architects create metal decks.

[robert.manna]

I knew there was something I thought of last night.... In RB the architects can't change the direction of the deck.... so in RS they would have to make sure it runs in the correct direction. I agree with your re: architects not thinking about which way it spans when drawing. However RS will only show the profile in one direction at least.

-R