Autodesk Revit Architecture 2015 Essentials: Autodesk Official Press

Your step-by-step guide to learning Autodesk Revit Architecture This detailed introduction to Revit Architecture features straightforward explanations and real-world, hands-on tutorials to teach new users the software's core features and functions. Presented in the context of real-world workflows, and using real-world projects, each chapter contains a discussion of the "why" and "how" that is reinforced with a step-by-step tutorial so you'll gain practical and applicable experience with the core features of Revit Architecture. The new pedagogical approach emphasizes learning skills to help you prepare for the Revit certification exams. Learn at your pace with step-by-step exercises, illustrated with full-color screenshots and downloadable Revit tutorial files Work with floors, ceilings, walls, and curtain walls Use modeling and massing to explore design ideas Use the Family Editor to create and manage families Understand effective worksharing, BIM workflows, and file management Use rendering and visualization techniques to make your design come alive Prepare for Revit certification exams With Autodesk Revit Architecture Essentials, you are only a step away from better, faster building design.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xix Introduction xxi Chapter 1 Introducing the Autodesk Revit Architecture Interface 1 Understanding the User Interface 2 Exercise 1 1: Use the Properties Palette to See Dynamic Updates of Properties 3 Exercise 1 2: Explore the Content of Your Project with the Project Browser 4 Exercise 1 3: Use the View Control Bar to See Frequently Used View Properties 6 Exercise 1 4: Navigate with the ViewCube 8 Creating a Simple Layout 9 Exercise 1 5: Create a Floor 9 Exercise 1 6: Create Walls 11 Exercise 1 7: Create Levels 12 Exercise 1 8: Change Wall Type 14 Exercise 1 9: Place Interior Walls 16 Exercise 1 10: Place Doors and Windows 18 Exercise 1 11: Space Elements Equally 20 Now You Know 23 Chapter 2 Walls and Curtain Walls 25 Understanding Wall Types and Parameters 25 Basic Walls 26 Stacked Walls 28 Curtain Wall Types 29 Hosting Elements in Walls 29 Creating Wall Configurations 30 Exercise 2 1: Create Wall Configurations 31 Exercise 2 2: Host a Door in a Wall 33 Modifying Wall Parameters 34 Exercise 2 3: Modify Wall Parameters 34 Editing and Resetting Wall Profiles 36 Exercise 2 4: Edit and Reset the Wall Profile 37 Exercise 2 5: Attach and Detach the Top/Base 38 Cutting Openings 40 Exercise 2 6: Cut Openings in a Curved Wall 40 Splitting Walls 41 Swapping Walls 41 Creating Curtain Walls 42 Exercise 2 7: Create and Customize a Curtain Wall 42 Exercise 2 8: Modify Curtain Wall Type Properties 46 Editing Wall Profiles 49 Embedding Curtain Walls 50 Exercise 2 9: Embed and Edit Curtain Wall Profile 50 Curtain Panels 52 Adding and Removing Grids and Mullions 52 Exercise 2 10: Add and Remove Curtain Grids and Mullions 52 Exercise 2 11: Customize Curtain Panels 54 Now You Know 56 Chapter 3 Floors, Roofs, and Ceilings 57 Creating Floors 57 Exercise 3 1: Create a Floor by Sketch and Pick Walls 58 Exercise 3 2: Edit the Floor Boundary 60 Exercise 3 3: Create Sloped Floors 61 Exercise 3 4: Create an Opening with the Opening by Face Tool 65 Exercise 3 5: Create an Opening with the Shaft Opening Tool 66 Creating Roofs 69 Exercise 3 6: Create a Roof by Footprint 70 Exercise 3 7: Create a Roof by Extrusion 72 Exercise 3 8: Create Slope Arrows 74 Exercise 3 9: Create Multiple Roof Slopes 76 Adding Ceilings 78 Exercise 3 10: Add Automatic and Sketch Ceilings 79 Exercise 3 11: Create a Bulkhead 83 Exercise 3 12: Add Lights and Rotate the Grid 85 Exercise 3 13: Slope the Ceiling 86 Now You Know 87 Chapter 4 Stairs, Ramps, and Railings 89 Creating a Generic Railing 89 Exercise 4 1: Create a Generic Railing 90 Creating Stair Configurations 93 Exercise 4 2: Create a Stair by Component 94 Exercise 4 3: Create a Stair by Sketch 98 Exercise 4 4: Customize and Create a Component Stair Landing 100 Exercise 4 5: Create a Multistory Stair 103 Exercise 4 6: Host a Railing to a Stair 106 Exercise 4 7: Edit Railing Top Rail and Slope 109 Designing Ramps 112 Exercise 4 8: Create a Ramp and Edit the Boundary 112 Now You Know 116 Chapter 5 Adding Families 117 Understanding the Model Hierarchy 117 Exercise 5 1: Creating a Model Hierarchy 118 Working with System Families 121 Loading System Families 121 Exercise 5 2: Transfer Project Standards 122 Exercise 5 3: Place System Families 123 Working with Component Families 124 Exercise 5 4: Create a New Family and Load It into a Project 125 Employing Hosted Families 127 Exercise 5 5: Work with Hosted Families 129 Exercise 5 6: Place Face-Based Families 130 Working with In-Place Component Families 133 Exercise 5 7: Modify an In-Place Family 133 Finding Content 134 Now You Know 136 Chapter 6 Modifying Families 137 Modifying 3D Families 137 Exercise 6 1: View Scale and Detail Level 138 Exercise 6 2: Assign Visibility to Detail Levels 142 Family Categories 146 Exercise 6 3: Edit the Family Category 147 Exercise 6 4: Update a Family Insertion Point 149 Exercise 6 5: Modify Hosted Components 153 Modifying 2D Families 159 Exercise 6 6: Edit a Tag Family 159 Exercise 6 7: Edit a Profile Family 161 Exercise 6 8: Update Detail Components 164 Repeating Details 167 Exercise 6 9: Modify the Title Blocks 169 Family Tips and Best Practices 172 Now You Know 174 Chapter 7 Schematic Design 175 Importing a 2D Image 176 Exercise 7 1: Import and Scale a 2D Image 176 Designing with a 3D Sketch 178 Exercise 7 2: Link a 3D Sketch 178 Exercise 7 3: Add a New Level 180 Exercise 7 4: Calculate Mass Floor Area 182 Exercise 7 5: Reload a Linked Sketch 183 Creating Revit Elements from a Mass 184 Exercise 7 6: Create Floors from a Mass 184 Exercise 7 7: Create Walls from a Mass 184 Exercise 7 8: Create a Curtain System 186 Exercise 7 9: Create a Roof from a Mass 187 Now You Know 188 Chapter 8 Rooms and Color Fill Plans 189 Defining Rooms in Spaces 189 Room Tags 190 Room Boundaries 191 Room Separation Lines 192 Deleting Rooms 192 Exercise 8 1: Add Rooms and Room Tags 192 Exercise 8 2: Modify a Room Boundary 196 Exercise 8 3: Delete a Room Object 198 Generating Color Fill Room Plans 200 Exercise 8 4: Add and Modify a Color Scheme 200 Exercise 8 5: Add Tags and Color Fills in Section 203 Now You Know 205 Chapter 9 Materials, Visualization, Rendering 207 Materials 207 Exercise 9 1: Define a Material 208 Exercise 9 2: Assign a Material 210 Graphic Display Options 211 Exercise 9 3: Presentation Elevation View 212 Exercise 9 4: Presentation 3D View 214 Exercise 9 5: 3D Exploded View 216 Rendering 217 Exercise 9 6: Render a View 217 Exercise 9 7: Interactive Rendering 220 Exercise 9 8: Cloud Rendering 221 Now You Know 222 Chapter 10 Worksharing 223 Configuring Worksharing 223 Exercise 10 1: Enable Worksharing 224 Exercise 10 2: Create the Local File and Worksets 227 Exercise 10 3: Assign Elements to Worksets and Control Visibility 229 Saving to the Central Model 232 Exercise 10 4: Open and Close Worksets 234 Worksharing Display Modes 236 Editing Requests 238 Worksharing Best Practices 240 Now You Know 241 Chapter 11 Details and Annotations 243 Creating Details 243 Detail Line 244 Region 245 Component 245 Arranging Elements in the View 246 Repeating Detail Component 246 Insulation 248 Detail Groups 248 Linework 250 Exercise 11 1: Enhance a Detail with Regions 251 Exercise 11 2: Add Detail Components and Detail Lines 254 Exercise 11 3: Create a Repeating Detail Component 257 Annotating Your Details 259 Dimensions 259 Tags 259 Text 260 Exercise 11 4: Add Dimensions to Your Detail 260 Exercise 11 5: Add Tags and Text to Your Detail 264 Creating Legends 268 Exercise 11 6: Create a Legend 268 Now You Know 270 Chapter 12 Drawing Sets 271 Schedules 271 Understanding Schedules 272 Exercise 12 1: Create a Window Schedule 272 Exercise 12 2: Create a Room Schedule 276 Exercise 12 3: Create a Sheet List 280 Placing Views on Sheets 282 Exercise 12 4: Arrange Plan Views on a Sheet 283 Exercise 12 5: Adjust Crop Regions 288 Exercise 12 6: Add Schedules to Sheets 290 Printing Documents 291 Exercise 12 7: Explore the Print Dialog Box 291 Now You Know 295 Chapter 13 Workflow and Site Modeling 297 Understanding a BIM Workflow 297 Staffing a BIM Project 300 Project Roles Using Revit Architecture 300 Architect 301 Modeler 302 Drafter 302 Adding Team Members to Fight Fires 303 Modeling a Site 304 Toposurface 305 Building Pad 306 Exercise 13 1: Model a Toposurface 307 Exercise 13 2: Create a Building Pad 309 Performing Quality Control on Your Model: Keeping an Eye on File Size 310 Purging Unused Families and Groups 311 Managing Links and Images 312 Cutting Down on the Number of Views 312 Dealing with Warnings 313 Now You Know 315 Chapter 14 Repeating Objects, Best Practices, and Quick Tips 317 Repeating Objects 317 Optimize Performance 320 Figuring Out How Much RAM Your Project Will Need 320 Reducing File Size 321 Utilize Best Practices 322 Use Quick Tips and Shortcuts 325 Locate Additional Resources 330 Now You Know 331 Appendix 333 Index 343

About the Author :
About the Authors Ryan Duell is a principal quality assurance analyst for Autodesk Revit and previously worked at an architectural firm in Boston on projects ranging from single-family residences to large commercial jobs. He also teaches Revit at the Boston Architectural College. Tobias Hathorn is a licensed architect and user experience designer for FormIt. He has honed his knowledge and experience with Revit?especially the Graphics and Rendering features?over the past 7 years in the quality assurance and product design groups. Tessa Reist Hathorn is a licensed architect practicing in the Boulder, Colorado area and has worked on everything from residences to the Kansas City Performing Arts Center.