Retaining Walls & Topography

[Exar Kun]

Hi,

I'm attempting to create some topography for a car dealership that has quite a large amount of fall across the site and therefore needs retaining walls in a couple of places. My problem is that I can't get the sharp drop required by using points to create a topography. I always end up with projections in and out of the wall line between the points. Is there a way to create the sudden drop required (2 metres in some places) without resorting to hundreds of points along the wall?

Thanks.

[SCShell]

Hi there,

Have you tried using a pad set at the elevation you require to represent the lower grade, then add the wall, or visa versa? (Topo is still the hardest thing to get a feel for in Revit for me. One other tip I can offer is this, when doing topo, use wireframe views in order to see all of your points.)

Steve Shell

[sbrown]

make the surface bigger than it needs to be, then use the split topo tool to cut off what you don't need anymore.

[christo4robin]

Exar,

Solution 1 - you alluded to - simply add many, many points along your wall to make the drop. I have found that visually aligning the "high" point and the "low" point is the best way to avoid the pokey topo that can result from staggered high and low points.

Solution 2 - Per Scott's recommendation - use two distinct topo surfaces that meet at a line. (While placing points has the inaccuracy of hand / mouse / eye coordination, trimming a surface is precise. - Draw a detail line where the two will meet, then use that as a guide when trimming each surface.)

Cheers!

[Exar Kun]

Thanks for the replies guys! I think the split topo idea sounds the best way to go. Pads can't be graded otherwise I would have gone for that option as it's the easiest. I'll give it a try. :)

[adegnan]

How about a "retaining wall" site tool that would both illustrate a retaining wall (we could do boulders, block, concrete, timber...) and would establish the change in elevation based on the wall geometry we build. We'd need to be able to control how far the wall steps back (IE, block steps back at a slight vertical angle, boulders at a more gradual angle, and concrete is basically vertical) and we'd need to be able to blend the lower and upper surfaces together based on the length of the wall. The wall would need to be straight or curved, and we'd probably need to sketch the top profile to determine how the upper and lower areas blend together.

(I'll post this to wishlist too.)

[J. Grouchy]

Solution 2 - Per Scott's recommendation - use two distinct topo surfaces that meet at a line. (While placing points has the inaccuracy of hand / mouse / eye coordination, trimming a surface is precise. - Draw a detail line where the two will meet, then use that as a guide when trimming each surface.)

You may want to use two lines to represent the thickness of the wall. Allowed for a cleaner result when I cut a section through it.

Also, in reference to the comment about pads, I'm still wishing for the ability to create sloped building pads!!!

[Steve Cashman]

How about a "retaining wall" site tool that would both illustrate a retaining wall (we could do boulders, block, concrete, timber...) and would establish the change in elevation based on the wall geometry we build. We'd need to be able to control how far the wall steps back (IE, block steps back at a slight vertical angle, boulders at a more gradual angle, and concrete is basically vertical) and we'd need to be able to blend the lower and upper surfaces together based on the length of the wall. The wall would need to be straight or curved, and we'd probably need to sketch the top profile to determine how the upper and lower areas blend together.

(I'll post this to wishlist too.)
Great suggestion! This would be a very helpful site tool - many more are needed. We have a complicated site and would love to model it in Revit, but it's not cost effective. It's way to hard and AutoCAD-like. I'm crossing my fingers that site tool/content improvements are coming. We don't just design buildings on flat sites. In our eyes, the design of the site and the building are the same.