Pesky Wall Intersections

[Dean Camlin]

Sometimes in Revit, I just can't get the walls to automatically join properly -- especially where I have 3-way intersections of different types of walls. That's when Revit helpfully tells me that this intersection has over 50 different combinations, and wouldn't it be better if I just started over? (Many of you have probably figured this out already, so if you have, kindly skip on to the next tip and read no further, please.)

So I zoom in reeeal tight to the intersection, grab the blue handle of the offending wall, and pull it out till it just barely touches the surface of the other walls. Yes, there's a gap left that weather will penetrate. But that's what sealant is for, right?

[Steve_Stafford]

You'd just need to add a room separation line to "close" the room for area calculation to work I suppose huh?

[Dean Camlin]

Yeah, but those room separation lines can be tricky too. I had some low walls on a plan that were defined as room bounding, but the area of that particular room was showing up as "ambiguous." So I added room separation lines along the low walls. When I was finished, all of the room areas on the whole plan were ambiguous!

[jbalding48677]

I have found that the order in which the walls are created or stretched together makes a big difference. Try stretching all of the walls away from each other and then use the trim command in different orders (trial and error) to get the effect you want. Additionally, back in r1.0 if you double click the grips at the ends of the walls it forces a clean up. I still use that, and occasionally it works.

HTH -

[JTF]

If all else fails just cover up those nasty little lines with solid white fills.

[JamesVan]

OUCH! I've heard that the 'solid fill' solution does not work so well with the DWG export.

[Wesley]

If you pull the end of the 'extra' wall away from the junction far enough you can then use the wall join tool to select the end of that wall. Because it is not joined to anything, it offers you 'allow join' and 'don't allow join' instead of the usual butt and mitre options. Select 'don't allow join'. When you now pull that wall back to the original junction point, it will snap to the outside surface of the wall it meets, rather than creating the join. This also then means no room seperators needed. You can then use the linework tool to clean up the join if need be.
Cheers,
Wes

[Dean Camlin]

Wes, I musta missed something. ops: Where is this wall join tool? Is it a recent change?

And James, you're right about filled regions. That's why I don't like them for cleaning up intersections: it's like using WiteOut on a finished manuscript. Plus, often the weird wall join shows up in other views (like elevations), with the different wall finishes following suit -- so there's yet more cleanup to do. I'd rather get it right the first time--or be able to more reliably override Revit's choices.

[Wesley]

Hey Dean,

The wall join tool is the same one that you are using when you get the message about 'more than 50 possible combinations' (and where is the 'so just give me the nice one' radio button, anyway?). It is the second last button on the right end of the tool bar, next to the join roofs tool. It's behaviour simply changes if it is clicked when over a wall end rather than a wall junction.
Cheers,
Wes