British Museum Roof

[damon.sidel]

Would anybody dare to model a roof similar to the one at the British Museum in Revit?! Or at least as a start, how about a more regular form like a curved funnel? Making the form and attaching a curtain system is no problem. Simple revolved mass > curtain system by face. However, the diagonals are problematic. I tried a curtain panel with a diagonal member... no luck. Any ideas? I'd like to be able to apply a diagrid to any double-curved surface. It's becoming a common structural system, so I imagine there is a way to model it in Revit (no imports, please).

[rosskirby]

Look into adaptive components and curtain patterns.

See here: http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/e...sed_components

[damon.sidel]

OK, that's a very good start. Thank you, rosskirby I was able to make a conceptual mass of a twisted rectangular solid, add a diamond-shaped pattern, and attach a generic four-sided panel. So I'm sure with some experimentation I could get a diagonal on that panel like in the example shown in the link you posted.

Any tips on how to build the funnel shape or any other such shape? It's strange to me that the massing tools are so different than the modeling tools for families (ie - no sweeps or revolves as far as I can tell, just different types of extrusions and blends). What am I missing? What are the best resources for learning how to use the conceptual massing tools and how that flows into a project?

[MikeJarosz]

It can be done.

The original design of the World Trade Center ("the "diagrid") was abandoned for various reasons. The floorplate started as a rectangle and was rotated slightly for each floor. The curtain wall mullions followed along with the rotation, creating an effect very much like what you are looking for.

Unfortunately, my assignment was the below grade parts of the building (the "bathtub") and I never quite understood how this was done. I was too busy elsewhere.

Phil Reade at Revit solved the modelling problem. At the time, for Revit 6.0, this was a real breakthrough. The factory liked it so much, they plastered their reception area in Waltham with an aerial view looking down from the broadcasting tower. Matt Jezyk of Autodesk also deserves much credit for his contribution to this project.

I have attached a floor plan of one of the high floors. There is a distance crop on the exterior. Although the entire curtain wall in plan/projection was an impressive sight, these drawings were meant for everyday work, not presentation. So we cut it off about five floors below.

Note that this plan in no way resembles what is under construction today. As I said, this design was completely abandoned.

[rosskirby]

Glad that helped. The wiki help can be a valuable resource for learning the basic tools and techniques.

Try this for massing techniques: http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/e...9-Massing_2559

[damon.sidel]

Thank you both for your help and encouragement. I've started to get the hang of the massing tools and (sort of) understand how to create a revolved surface. If I were to try to model the actual form of the British Museum Roof I think I'd still be at a loss, but baby steps...

OK, so Conceptual Mass with a diagonal grid. Check.

And then I noticed on a video tutorial that there is a Curtain Panel Pattern Based template. In my library in the Conceptual Mass folder, there is only a Adaptive Component template and a Mass template. May never have noticed the Curtain Panel Pattern Based template on my own!