Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Design Process in Revit

Architects often confuse Revit's operations with how AutoCAD usually operates. True Revit shares much of the same design with its updated Ribbon for 2010, but the design process is much different.

To start a project, one must first establish levels and grids, then align geometry and lock structural members to those levels and grids. Just be sure you do not over-constrain your model or it will make things very "hairy" later on.

After establishing the structure of your building, you can start creating generic walls around the members and add a "conceptual" roof. This is so that you can create a rendering to show clients. After the rendering is approved by the client, then you can start narrowing things down. Or if you do not require a rendering for the client's use, you may start as detailed as you want. It will take about the same amount of time and will save lots of re-work later.

Always remember it is good to use stacked walls for different materials. Sweeps are easiest to add when they are separate models.