Revit Architecture - Electrical/Lighting Plan

[mtlengel]

After 17yrs of Autocad and various other cad packages I have plunged into Revit Architecture 2008. I have taken a Autodesk training course, and am slowly getting acclimated to the program. While I like how it is working, and I know this is the right direction, I do find myself grinding my teeth trying to get things done.

Typically I use the residential template to start a residential project, and for most I would show basic lighting, switching, outlets (phone, power, data), and wiring on one sheet. I have read various posts how to handle this, but can't quite get it

As I said, its basic electrical, so I can get lighting to display properly on the ceiling plan. I can get switches and outlets to display on the electrical plan. I can never see the switches and the lights at the same time to show wiring.

I tried to overlay the RCP sheet onto the Electrical sheet and failed. I tried adjusting the cut plane and that didn't work either. If it had though, where would I be drawing the wiring too ... on the sheet or in the model. I have even looked at the Visibility Graphics to see If I could override anything.

I have read other posts about a similar situation, but I am missing something. If this was acad, I would handle this via layer controls, but I don't seem to have that option.

Any help would be appreciated.

[twiceroadsfool]

I havent had to deal with wiring yet, but if it were me... Id be using a line Based Generic Model family, and then switching the catagory to Electrical Fixtures, or whatever you prefer. Then, its a part of the model, instead of drafting lines, and you can show ir or not show it with catagory controls...

[tc3dcad60731]

Interesting idea Aaron.... I did no think of that one. I normally show all of my outlets, switches, etc and then show the wiring using drafting lines and showing them going to 2d lights. I too could not figure out how to have the lights from the ceiling plan on the electrical plan. I even tried to do an overlay of sorts and also tried adjusting the cut plane on the view. The only other thing that I could think of was to do a plan region and have it cut at a different location around the lights. I also played around wit lowering the lights from the ceiling and turning off in other views so that it would only show in the electrical plan view.

Anyway, I just created a standard 2d detail of a light and one for a fan with light and insert that as needed for now.

[dcretsinger]

After 17yrs of Autocad and various other cad packages I have plunged into Revit Architecture 2008. I have taken a Autodesk training course, and am slowly getting acclimated to the program. While I like how it is working, and I know this is the right direction, I do find myself grinding my teeth trying to get things done.

Typically I use the residential template to start a residential project, and for most I would show basic lighting, switching, outlets (phone, power, data), and wiring on one sheet. I have read various posts how to handle this, but can't quite get it

As I said, its basic electrical, so I can get lighting to display properly on the ceiling plan. I can get switches and outlets to display on the electrical plan. I can never see the switches and the lights at the same time to show wiring.

I tried to overlay the RCP sheet onto the Electrical sheet and failed. I tried adjusting the cut plane and that didn't work either. If it had though, where would I be drawing the wiring too ... on the sheet or in the model. I have even looked at the Visibility Graphics to see If I could override anything.

I have read other posts about a similar situation, but I am missing something. If this was acad, I would handle this via layer controls, but I don't seem to have that option.

Any help would be appreciated.

We tried many ways of doing electrical plans so that both the power plan and lighting plan showed up together, most with only modest success. One day one of my collegues figured out the if you use the settings shown in the attached .pdf screen shots you can actually get both to show up.

Using our FIRST floor plan as an example, what she did was draw everything on the Ceiling Plan -- including power -- with the the settings shown in the screen shot labeled clg plan. She then set up a separate architectural plan as you see it in the second screen shot. This second plan is set to Coordination and has the view range as shown. On this we draw the wires (they're just dashed lines) and any thing else we want. Note that this is our First floor plan electrical but some of the view range settings reference the Second floor plan.

Using this combination we get our walls/doors/windows to show the way we want and the power and electrical to show on one plan. To print we just drag this one drawing onto a title block and hit print.

It works for us and is now part of our template. I'd be interested to see if it helps/works for anyone else.

Cheers,

Dean

[gbrowne]

We experienced the same problems as you have mentioned and we opted for 2d detail familys. We had them drawn up in 2d CAD anyway, so we just imported them individually into detail families and everyone is happy. Yes they are view specific, but we are not talking "freedom tower" levels of complexity here, so they work fine and they are still schedulable. The only drawback I experienced is the scale of the "blocks" so I had to make 2 sets up, 1 for 1:50 and 1 for 1:100. This was easy given I could use the scale button, then save off the file.

This method, although a bit simplistic works well and takes away the headaches. 99% of the time we don't require the 3d aspect of plugs and switches.

[SCShell]

Hey there,

I don't do this very often...actually, only once.....for my house; however, this process is very simple.

Duplicate both a Plan and an RCP and label them "Electrical Plan & Electrical RCP".
Put both of them on a sheet together, overlapping. Set the Electrical RCP to a title block family which doesn't have a title so that only Electrical Plan shows. Also, you may want to set your plan view to a wireframe view so that outlets show below counters etc.

Do your electrical drawing from this sheet view, activating which ever plan you need....ie: RCP to place lights switches. Voila!

(A little tip.....place an object or text just outside of the plan area, to the side of your Plan and do the same on your RCP, only place it above or below. This makes it a lot easier to make the selection of which view you want to activate when in a sheet view of 2 overlaid plans.)

Good Luck
Steve

[peakprecisiondesign]

Same deal as Gbrowne, good old 2d detail families with detail splines for the wiring. I am only dealing with single family residential, so this works just fine. When I first started to get into Revit I was psyched to add all modeled lights etc. but found it was basically worthless and a waste of time for what we are building and the electricians could care less about 3D. So you'll end up doing electrical plans basically like in autocad except it's a bit easier because you can rotate with the ol space bar and can change fixtures much easier.

[tc3dcad60731]

Hey there,

I don't do this very often...actually, only once.....for my house; however, this process is very simple.

Duplicate both a Plan and an RCP and label them "Electrical Plan & Electrical RCP".
Put both of them on a sheet together, overlapping. Set the Electrical RCP to a title block family which doesn't have a title so that only Electrical Plan shows. Also, you may want to set your plan view to a wireframe view so that outlets show below counters etc.

Do your electrical drawing from this sheet view, activating which ever plan you need....ie: RCP to place lights switches. Voila!

(A little tip.....place an object or text just outside of the plan area, to the side of your Plan and do the same on your RCP, only place it above or below. This makes it a lot easier to make the selection of which view you want to activate when in a sheet view of 2 overlaid plans.)

Good Luck
Steve
Very interesting Steve..... I will have to give that a shot to see how it works.

[DoTheBIM]

For anyone wanting their cake and wanting to eat it too.... What I've done is simply add an invisible line to my lights (ceiling based objects) from the ceiling to the floor and add the 2d symbology as well. And set the visiblily of the 2d/3d geometry as needed. Now when in a project you still need to have a ceiling placed and in RCP you place lights, but when I go back to my electrical plan they also show up. The key is that Revit needs to cut the family to make it show up, which is what the invisible line does. My electrical plans look very similar to those in the second pdf attachment of Dean's... and I'm not using any view overlays or anything else that others have suggested. All great methods if they work for you... but I figured that the minute I don't have the 3D lights in place, someone will need them to visualize the spaces that Revit produces with such ease.

Anyway, Hope this helps. Enjoy.

[SCShell]

For anyone wanting their cake and wanting to eat it too.... What I've done is simply add an invisible line to my lights (ceiling based objects) from the ceiling to the floor and add the 2d symbology as well. And set the visiblily of the 2d/3d geometry as needed. Now when in a project you still need to have a ceiling placed and in RCP you place lights, but when I go back to my electrical plan they also show up. The key is that Revit needs to cut the family to make it show up, which is what the invisible line does. My electrical plans look very similar to those in the second pdf attachment of Dean's... and I'm not using any view overlays or anything else that others have suggested. All great methods if they work for you... but I figured that the minute I don't have the 3D lights in place, someone will need them to visualize the spaces that Revit produces with such ease.

Anyway, Hope this helps. Enjoy.

Hey there,
That is a great way to it too. I have seen this method and it works very nicely if you have all of your light families set up that way. (I guess I am lazy! lol) However, I strongly go along with placing 3D lights so that my 3D isometric views, callout views and camera views all show correctly.

This also applies to outlets and data/phone jacks....I like to see them on my interior elevation & cabinetry drawings. I just have an electrical plan which I never place on a sheet because my Engineer does the electrical drawings; however, my electrical plan is what I send him in DWG format to get him started.)

Steve

[mtlengel]

Thanks for all your help. Seems like dcretsingers solution is what I am after. I am going to see if I can also get the light fixtures to show up on the floor plan so I don't have to add additional sheets with minimal information to my set.

Thanks again.