total square footage of multiple rooms?

[abink]

If I want to get the total square footage of an apartment with multiple rooms, is the only way to do so to export it as a DWG file and use the "area" command in AutoCAD to trace the outline? If I add the numbers as shown in the attached jpg, I'll still miss some of the interior walls.

Thanks,
Axel

[twiceroadsfool]

In Revit 9.1 you can use a filled region and get the area of it from the properties. Also, you can generate an area plan, and set the area boundary to just be the walls outside the apartment, and not the interior walls. Then place an Area, the same way you would place a Room. The Area will report... well... the area, lol.

We use area plans for things like Egress calculations for this very reason.

[aaronrumple]

Use a room schedule if you want to count the livable area...
Use a gross building area plan if you want the total area of the floor(s)... again the scheduled will total up all the floors.
Use a rentable area plan if you want to lump several rooms into one category as you count things. You can also include or exclude construction thickness of walls in a rentable area plan.

[jeff.95551]

I don't know if it will serve your needs, but for us (we do apartments, too) I don't care about the size of the rooms - only the entire unit. If you select the interior walls of the apartment and look at their properties, you can de-select the 'room-bounding' toggle. The room object will ignore those walls and select the entire space, giving you an accurate unit size depending on your room settings.

[twiceroadsfool]

I don't know if it will serve your needs, but for us (we do apartments, too) I don't care about the size of the rooms - only the entire unit. If you select the interior walls of the apartment and look at their properties, you can de-select the 'room-bounding' toggle. The room object will ignore those walls and select the entire space, giving you an accurate unit size depending on your room settings.

Thats fine as long as you dont need to specify anything room specific within the apartment, like ceiling heights and finishes. You lose the ability to generate a schedule for each room, to acquire an accurate area. In my opinion (and every firms needs are different) thats a high price to pay for a feature that already exists in an area plan.

Area plans are daunting and unfriendly the first time you use them (at least for me...), but once i got used to picking walls and generating the plan, they sure come in handy for items like this. :)

[Dimitri Harvalias]

My general rule of thumb is to use room objects and tags for scheduling purposes (room finish schedule, functional plans, color fills etc) and use area plans with different area schemes for true area calcs.

You have so much more control over the boundaries when you use area boundary lines that it is far easier to place them where you want them.

[abink]

Thanks a lot, again a lot of options that I can use whenever it's needed. For now the Fill Region option is perfect.

Greetings,
Axel

[jeff.95551]

Has anybody tried including areas in groups? Areas would work fine if you could set it up in one unit and then have it replicate with the group. Having to pick the walls individually for each unit and keep that up to date would be very cumbersome. I think the region is a pretty good idea to measure one unit. If you are going to schedule all the units and use a schedule to manage your unit matrix and net rentable area (the holy grail for apartments), the interior walls aren't much of a loss. By the way, you might want to check your design for Fair Housing. It doesn't look like the entry or the bathroom conform...

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Having to pick the walls individually for each unit and keep that up to date would be very cumbersome. Just be sure to check the Lock option when you select the walls and you sould have very little maintenance to do.


the interior walls aren't much of a loss.They can be and you can bet your boots if someone can set the line at the middle of the demising wall to charge you more money, they will.