angled walls

[thomasf]

Does anybody have some tips or tricks to drawing angled walls. In AutoCAD I could draw a line at any angle, then come back and stretch the ends to be specific horizontal and vertical dimensions.

In RevIt, I can't independently "stretch" one end of the wall or a line either. When I click on the angled wall it gives me angled temporary dimensions instead of vertical and horizontal ones.

I need help on this!!

Thanks,
Tom

[Architeria]

Hi. I'm not really the best one to answer your question but you might clarify what you mean by angled. I assume you don't mean angled in plan as in not parallel to the edge of the sheet but do you mean angled in elevation as in one end of the wall higher than the other or angled in section as in not plumb.

Or, I suppose, some combination of the above. In any case, the answer will be forthcoming and not too difficult.

Regards,

[twiceroadsfool]

My suggestion is to make a Mass. NOT to replace the wall, but first make a mass out of a blend or extrusion to achieve the angled shape you want.

Then Use the "Wall by face" tool to place your wall type at the angle. DONT delete your mass. Yo ucan then adjust your mass, and "remake" the walls, and they will update to the mass. Blends get pull tabs to adjust the top and bottom, making them easy to achieve sloped walls...

Hope this helps...

[rjcrowther]

Does anybody have some tips or tricks to drawing angled walls. In AutoCAD I could draw a line at any angle, then come back and stretch the ends to be specific horizontal and vertical dimensions.

In RevIt, I can't independently "stretch" one end of the wall or a line either. When I click on the angled wall it gives me angled temporary dimensions instead of vertical and horizontal ones.

I need help on this!!

Thanks,
TomI am a little vague on the question as well. Are you referring to angled as in at an angle to the x and y plane when drawing in plan?

I think the Autocad instance you refer to are the rectangular dimensions that appear at the cursor when selecting a line. In Revit they are polar dimensions rather than rectangular. You can get more rectangular type dimensions appear by going to Visibility Graphics - Annotations Category Tab - expand Dimensions - check Automatic Sketch Dimensions.

This will place more rectangular type dimensions around the place but will not simulate the live dimensioning available in Autocad. If its any consolation, after using Revit for a while, I find the Revit method more useful and actually have difficulty when I go back to Autocad. Perhaps you will be the same.

Not sure what you mean by independently stretch - sorry.

Rob

[dhurtubise]

My suggestion is to make a Mass. NOT to replace the wall, but first make a mass out of a blend or extrusion to achieve the angled shape you want.

Then Use the "Wall by face" tool to place your wall type at the angle. DONT delete your mass. Yo ucan then adjust your mass, and "remake" the walls, and they will update to the mass. Blends get pull tabs to adjust the top and bottom, making them easy to achieve sloped walls...

Hope this helps...

And if you need one end of the wall to be at an angle then you select the wall and from the option bar pick Edit Profile. this will allow you to edit the elevation profile of the wall.

[Steve_Stafford]

Thomas,

Your question seems to have confused everyone...sorry! It sounds like you are asking about plan views and walls drawn at angles to others.

When you select a wall you can click on the blue button and drag it in the direction you want it to grow or shrink, then type the length you want. You can also hover your cursor over the end of the wall and press the tab key to select the "shape handle" as Revit calls the end of the wall. You may have to use the tab key more than once, the end will highlight when you've got it and then click. You can use the Move tool now to change the length of the wall. When walls are connected you won't find the shape handle available usually.

When walls are connected to others you may just need to alter the position of the the adjacent wall to increase the length of those connected to it. Instead of thinking in terms of the Stretch command in AutoCAD you think in terms of moving a single or multiple elements and those that are connected to it will adjust accordingly. Walls and lines in Revit attempt to maintain their connection or relationship to others walls and lines when you move/alter them.

You can also turn on the Workplane Visibility which will show you a sheet of "graph paper" to sketch over. You can change the spacing and rotation of this grid to make it easier to layout your work. You can find it under the Tools menu > Worplane > Workplane Visibility.

Remember if temporary dimensions aren't reporting useful information you can either alter them or just add your own permanent dimensions to help you reconfigure the design.

You should be able to do whatever you want pretty easily it just may be in a different manner than you are used to.

Have you done any of the tutorials yet? Have you received any training?

[comhasse]

There is one, albeit quirky way, to do something similar to the autocad technique. You may know that if you select two or more connected walls the blue dot at shared wall-ends (corners) becomes an blue circle. You can now drag the circle and both walls will a adjust accordingly. There will also be a temporary linear dimension in the direction you are dragging.

Here's the problem: The temporary dimension will disappear as soon as you release the mouse, so you'll have to type in the value and hit enter, before you release the mouse button (likely, you'll have to use your left hand to type). The temporary dimension will be relative to the original location of the wall end and you can't change that, but I think this is the closest to what you're asking for. You may also want to set the walls loc lines according to your needs.

[thomasf]

Sorry about the confusion. Yes, I am talking about in plan view about walls that are not orthogonal.

Thanks for all the information.

Steve, I have been to a 2 day fundamental class and a 1 day advanced class. The fundamental class was ****, they showed me a few basic things and a lot of bells & whistles; not much productive stuff. The advanced class was good and it only covered creating families. I'm trying to find my own training material to learn at nights and on weekends. Got any suggestions?

[rjcrowther]

Sorry about the confusion. Yes, I am talking about in plan view about walls that are not orthogonal.

Thanks for all the information.

Steve, I have been to a 2 day fundamental class and a 1 day advanced class. The fundamental class was ****, they showed me a few basic things and a lot of bells & whistles; not much productive stuff. The advanced class was good and it only covered creating families. I'm trying to find my own training material to learn at nights and on weekends. Got any suggestions?
Have you thought of the shipped tutorials?

I tend to avoid commercial classes these days as they just don't seem to hit the mark.

There also the ATP's. Eric Wing has one running now which you may be able to join. There are the webcasts of last years AU on subscription centre - they are very good.

Also, don't forget searching the forums - plenty of good stuff in here.

Rob

[Mike Sealander]

Having surfed this forum for about a year, I'd like to say it is an excellent source of encouragement, knowledge and comedy. Post whatever problem you might be having; there's usually a pretty good answer within the hour. Take full use of the search function. Whatever problem you're having has probably been dealt with before by another in your predicament.

[Architeria]

I've found the video tutorials at http://dgcad.com/ to be very helpful. There are a bunch of free ones to get started with and then others available for purchase.

Others have also recommended Paul Aubin's book Mastering Autodesk Revit Building which is tutorial based. It was written for 8.0 and was recommended thru 9.1 but I'm not sure if it's still the best bet for '08. Perhaps someone who has used it could comment.

Good luck.

Philip