Break floors at constructions joints - how fast?

[allan.wise]

A large concrete deck with many beams and setdowns in different directions. It has about 6 individual concrete pours. Users of our model in Navisworks what the model split over the construction joints so the timelining feature in navisworks can show the sequence of the concrete pours correctly. Of cause many of the beams and slabs run right thru the constructions joints.

IS THERE a fast way to slice a model at the concrete slab construction joints?

IF THERE IS NOT this would be a very very very useful new feature to add

[Andre Carvalho]

Unfortunatelly no. The split geometry tool can split elements like walls but can't split floors. Maybe the fastest way to split your already drawn floor would be copying it to clipboard, pasting it to the same place and edit the sketch up to the joint.

Andre Carvalho

[Jshaver]

If you are trying to split your entire model up per construction joints primarily for Navisworks and you have already modeled the structure without the joints you may want to consider exporting individual cropped 3d views for Navisworks import.

[allan.wise]

the cropped 3D views export to Navisworks is a clever solution. However the constructions joints slighty move up the length of the building. How do you deal with that?

[Jshaver]

It may still be possible to set up individual cropped views per floor but it would most likely require more effort than correcting the model elements to reflect the joints.

Your model's size as well as building layout may affect whether this is feasible. My experience with clash detection in Navisworks is also pretty limitted so I am not sure if the functionality would be hindered.

Here is the process/theory just in case:
Create individual plan views that crop the slab at the construction joint.
Set the view range so that it encompasses halfway between the level below up to halway to the level above.
Create new 3d views using the "orient to view" option to assign the view range from your new plan views to the active 3d views.
Then export the individual 3d views for navisworks import. Again depending on the complexity of your model and how Navisworks handles clash detection this may or may not provide desired results.

At this stage its probobly time to bite the bullet and set up the model based on the construction joints. The downside here is that during the process to split up the slabs you may lose dimensional information as well as spot elevations. Here I would recommend saving an "old" model that you can use to copy/paste these elements back into your current model if necessary.

If you are using native scheduling you may run into additional conflicts but that is a seperate topic.

[bwiab]

Anyone find a better way to do this? Did revit 2010 or NW 2010 add a tool for breaking up entities?

[benmay]

No, you still cant split floors. And I dont think it will ever be an option

As the ability to split floors I believe would affect some of the already established functionality that we have with regards to modify sub-elements etc.

This is something that should be considered at the start of project, and further to that I would also highlight that I have seen problems with large area's of floors recently with structural decking not showing correctly when you have a combination of large area and complex boundarys.

I would throughly suggest modelling floors in reasonably small panels where possible, which in most cases would follow pour breaks.