Stepped Footings - "A day from Hell"

[barathd]

I have no idea " what or if " there is a proper way of doing this. I am doing a simple walk out residence - I need to drop the footings 4 feet (in two - 2 foot steps) to maintain frost protection. I have tried everything imaginable ie: splitting walls, working in different views, manipulating wall base offsets, etc. nothing seems to work. Something that should take minutes is turning into an absolute "nightmare". I'm sure there must be a simple way to do this. If someone would be willing to take a look at this I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks much.

Dick Barath

[beegee]

Dick, when you posted " Step Footing (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=6465&highlight=stepped+footing)" last time , a number of methods were offered. Aren't they working for you ?

[barathd]

BeeGee:

Yes and no. The long and short of it is that doing step footings is a "damned nightmare". I believe I have a handle on it. At best it is not the least bit pretty.

Thanks

[Scott D Davis]

Could you post what you have so far, and we can help you figure out the most efficient method?

[barathd]

Scott:

Here is the file. Its coming but its "one heck of an ordeal". I need some structured manner to approach this problem - right now I am all over trying any and everything.

Thanks again.

Dick Barath

[barathd]

Managed to complete the foundations using wall profiles and reference planes. Things seem to work fine - I guess its just me being impatient - I miss the grips in ADT or the ability to push and pull in Sketchup. I'm sure this can be made much smoother - lets hope we see some improvement in Revit.

Regards

Dick Barath

[jwilhelm]

I agree, Revit definitely lacks an ability to easily do stepped footings, I havent had much luck with it.

[Steve_Stafford]

Here's your file after I worked with it for a few minutes...

I didn't use separate walls to drop down to each footing, I used one wall and attached it to each of your stepped footings by clicking the "bottom" radio button when using "ATTACH" after selecting the wall.

I also used the view overide I described earlier...simply put it is the easiest and fastest way to overide the linetype for the walls and footing beneath...and you don't have to fix linework when you alter something.

You've got a lot of levels for a house? You could do the foundation work with two levels and use offsets. The top of wall level for the foundation could just as easily be constrained to the first floor and use an offset equal to your sill and rim joist. If the first floor level changes so will the foundation walls and retain their relationship. With their own level you'll have to remember to lock a dimension between those levels to keep that relationship intact. Even the stepped footings could all be constrained to the basement level using offsets. No shortage of ways to do things...

Hope you find something useful in all this...

[barathd]

Steve:

Your model brings tears to my eyes - looks perfect. Obviously I have quite a ways to go. Thanks ever so much - I will study this diligently.

Thanks again.

Dick Barath

[Steve_Stafford]

You're welcome...by the way I noticed after posting that I didn't pull some of the walls "down" to the footing in what I believe is the front of the bldg. I did just now and also aligned one footing to the wall above as well...so you might want to download the project file again, I reposted it and the image of the plan, up to you.

Keep Rrrrreviting...8-)

[barathd]

Steve:

I detached the walls from the step footings and tried to attach them again. I was unable to do it ... error message about wall join problem. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Thanks

Dick Barath

[Steve_Stafford]

Yeah...most likely you aren't checking the "bottom" option after clicking Attach. Also did you click the DETACH ALL button after choosing DETACH? That should help if the first thought isn't correct. I just did it to both sides with no error unless I didn't choose "Bottom"

[beegee]

Dick, the walls are constrained at the top and attach to the footings at the bottom, so check that you're not attempting a top attachment. ( which is the default condition )

Work from a 3D view to make it easier to see which walls and footing you are selecting.

[barathd]

Steve and BeeGee you both nailed it right on. Works slick. What have I learned from this "hellish" experience.

1. Revit is capable far more than strikes the eye.
2. The Documentation (even though I have purchased the full tutorial print out) is terribly scant.
3. Revit is very fast in its construction methods once one understands the process involved.

Heres what I finally am doing to make my step footings.

1. Splitting my footings at a common level - then editing the properties of the split footings to bring into position.

2. Using the attach tool to extend the foundation walls to the footings.

Yes it is rather fast and easy. I know I wouldn't ever figured this out if had not been for the unselfish help I have received here.

Just one small passing comment. The training sessions have been updated to 6.1 they seem to follow the tutorials quite closely. No problem - point being CBT (on CD's) would be much better in the sense one could revert back to them when required. I have a horde of them for ADT that I purchased from 4D Technologies. I have asked them if they would look at doing some for Revit - they say there is not enough demand yet - I'm not so sure. But certainly if Autodesk's end plan is to migrate people to Revit - why in heaven's name do they not produce the CBT's - I for one would GLADLY pay for them.

Regards

Dick Barath

[isaac.hedberg]

I have a new twist to this problem. I have setup my stepped footings as suggested and they work great. Our structural engineers around here require that our stepped footings be continuous. What's the best way to make a stepped footing with a vertical face and sloped bottom. (See attached example of desired outcome for clarification)

[Batman]

Hey this was too easy (i'm still a beginer!!)

I basically created a wall for the footing, edited the profile and then attached the basewall bottom to it.

It only took a few short minutes using ver 7, there may be an easier way with ver 8.0 with the footing feature.

[isaac.hedberg]

Thanks Vince!
That was really easy, guess it was too obvious for me to see.

[mcilrath]

Hi. I'm a new guy here and in my 7th day on the 30-day trial. I'm also and extreme fan of SketchUp, and I'm a builder.

In my work, I have to do continuous footings with level bottoms. I'll attach an SU example. SU has a fantastic tool called "follow me" - in the second picture is a 3d profile of the bottom outside edge of the foundation walls. Parked at a 90-degree angle to one of the lines (any line will do) is a section cut of a 24' x 8" footing. With "follow me" I first highlight the path (the profile), click "follow me" and click inside the area of the footing cut, and bingo, I have a 3d footing.

Does Revit have such a capability, or something similar?

McIlrath

[eddy.lermytte]

Revit 8.0 do not support 3D sweeps.
However there are some workarounds.
The SU-example is quite easy to create as an extrusion with a cutout.

[sohocad]

here one with 3d sweep...

[Wes Macaulay]

Revit does 3D sweeps just like SU, and the path is usually drawn with model lines or reference lines.

Go to Modeling > Create and choose floors or walls for the category for the footings (I usually choose floors -- I'm not sure that it matters).

Revit wants you to specify a plane that the model lines / ref lines are drawn in. Click the Plane tool:
http://forums.augi.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=12631

Use a pick a plane and pick a wall or draw a ref plane before hand to indicate where this plane is.

Then use the Line tool or the reference line tool to draw the path of the sweep.

The use the Solid Form > Sweep tool and pick the sweep path you've just drawn.

HTH

[Tom Weir]

Hi all,
Structural step footings must be continuous, vertically and horizontally. The way I do it is fairly simple. I use a wall object to create the footing like Vince said. Then you edit the wall profile to create the steps, in any form you want.. See the attached image. Isn't that what you are looking for?

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[mcilrath]

Wow. Thanks to all of you. This program is quite amazing.

I have a "dumb" question I need to ask - when one puts the money down for Revit, does one receive a printed manual?

After struggling with the tutorials - unable to distinguish forest from trees - I ordered a textbook. "Autodesk Revit Building 8 for Ardchitects and Designers" by Sham Tickoo. It can be found at www.cadcim.com for less than the Amazon price. I have nothing to compare it with except the tutorials. It's a confidence-builder, and I recommend it.

My CAD background is with BricsCad (Intellicad from Belgium). Perhaps with some ACAD background the properties boxes would have been more familiar?

Thanks again,

McIlrath