Roof Construction Characteristics

[dalewww]

I am new to Revit (very new, demo only till our disks come in) but have been on other 3D based AEC programs for 10 years. I am disappointed to see how much Revit lacks in automation when it come to constructing a residential roof.

Please tell me if I am missing something. I have checked older post and found bits and pieces of information that makes a little sense but still not all put together.

We do custom homes with varying pitches, overhangs, soffits, eaves, fascias, with changing heal heights, bearing locations, and top cord and bottom cord thicknesses. I have not found Revit's roof family to not follow typical roof construction characteristics. First surprise was that it doesn't have a truss (vaulted, cathedral, tray, etc.) or rafter creator (like Softplan and Archicad). Second, I cannot specify heights based on what is needed in a roof truss (heal height being the main one). Revit, to my finding so far, only shows a top cord and the rest (bottom cord, heal wall, soffit, fascia) needs to be filled in. I am worrying about this now because roofs are a big part of our design.

As of right now, it seems even that we will have to stop all of our roofs at the wall and create a soffit family that can follow the path of the roof. But even then comes the issue of changing from a 5'-0" overhang to a 2'-0" overhang.

Can anyone rest my mind that this will become easily understood, the way a roof gets built? If Revit does actually follow the roof construction characteristics, could someone please direct me to finding it?

[papurajx]

I assume that you are too quick to jump to this conclusion. Revit can create complicated roofs be it residential or not. It will not create roofs with couple of lines and 2 or 3 clicks here and there.

Please post the roof plan or 3D view of the roof you wish to create and we will help you to get it done.

You may have to read the help files and try out some tutorials before you try to do something in Revit. Otherwise, you will end up spreading wrong messages about the power of Revit.

[gregcashen]

It would seem that this is a case of I-wasn't-able-to-make-my-most-complicated-roof-the-first-time-I-opened-Revit-itus. You will get a lot more responses here if you post a specific example of what you're trying to accomplish. I would bet that it will be solved in less than 10 minutes from the time you post an actual picture or revit file with the "offending" roof.

[dalewww]

This is what I expected. I know I need to work on this more to understand the ins and outs of Revit roof. I am sure that the power of Revit would alow me to create any roof that I want. It just seemed to me that the initial means of creating the roof doesn't have the same characteristics as it would if you were to build the roof or truss in the field. Therefore the information needed about the roof is gained by other means within the model and not from the roof itself.

It isn't one roof in general that I am worried about. It is the way we design our roofs and document our roofs and how to put that into Revit is what I am worried about

You are right that I need to use the program more to find exactly how Revit does the things that I need it to. I was just looking for some insite on where the typical characteristics of roofs are that alows anyone to build a roof.

Thanks for the comments.

[SkiSouth]

Dale,

Revit is very strong on creating the form of the roof. If you mean will it frame the roof for you - No, it will not draw the jack rafters, trusses, crippled studs, etc. automatically. Can you show these items?
Yes. You can place them appropriately as you build the model, and once placed will show in all sections, and even reflected ceiling plans if you do not put a gypsum, suspended ceiling etc. in place. Good luck. You've made the right choice by going to Revit. Work the tutorials, and keep posting questions here.

[aaronrumple]

Explain the process you use right now for laying out a roof and maybe we can correlate that to Revit.

The basic process is:
Establish a level for the basic roof.
Identify the edge of the roof with a sketch.
If using walls as the roof edge - identify the overhang.
Establish the slope for select edges.
Set the cut for the rafter ends
Add any openings in the roof.

[Jarod]

Post a dwg/jpg/tif/dwf or whatever to show us what or how you are currently doing it...