Revit was one of the first programs that had the ability to highlight elements as you hovered the mouse pointer over them before you actually selected them. Not only does this give you a clear idea of what you are about to select, it displays information about that object in the status bar and in a banner near the mouse pointer. When you hover over an element, it highlights (turns purple); click the highlighted element and it turns blue, indicating that it is selected.

Once an element is selected, the ribbon changes to Modify mode where consistent editing tools are located in the left side and context-sensitive tools will appear to the right. Notice the subtle differences in the ribbon, as shown in Figure 3.1 when a roof, stacked wall, and floor are selected.

Figure 3.1. The right end of the Modify tab changes based on the element that is selected.

You can select elements in many different ways:

Once you have elements selected, you can filter the selection by object categories using the Filter tool. This tool allows you to select large amounts of elements and then focus your selection by removing categories you don't need, as shown in Figure 3.2. For example, if you box-select an entire floor plan, you will have a selection set of many different categories. Using the Filter tool, you can limit the selection to just the Doors category—or perhaps Doors and Door Tags.

Figure 3.2. Use the Filter dialog box to fine-tune your selections.

Note that the Filter tool in the ribbon appears only if you have elements from multiple categories selected. If you have elements of only one category selected, you can still open the Filter tool by clicking the Filter icon in the status bar. You can use the Properties Palette as a filter as well; see "Using the Properties Palette" for more information.

Another fast and powerful method for selecting objects is the Select All Instances function. When you right-click a single object in the drawing area or right-click a family in the Project Browser, the Select All Instances tool gives you two options: Visible In View or In Entire Project. Selecting the Visible In View option will select only those items you can see in the current view. This will not select elements that have been either temporarily or permanently hidden in the view.

Use the In Entire Project option carefully because you can modify elements in many places that you did not intend to change. Always remember to look at the selection count in the status bar when you use Select All Instances. Here are some common situations where you might use this tool:

Note that Select All Instances does not work on model lines or symbolic lines. This limitation exists because lines are not only drawn in project views; they are integral parts of other objects such as filled regions and shaft openings.

As shown in Figure 3.3, the Properties Palette now contains the Type Selector at the top of the palette. When placing elements or swapping types of elements you've already placed in the model, the palette must be open to access the Type Selector.

Figure 3.3. The new Properties Palette contains the Type Selector and is used to set View Properties.

When no elements are selected, the Properties Palette displays the properties of the active view. This supersedes the View Properties command in older versions of Revit. If you need to change settings for the current view, simply make the changes in the Properties Palette, and the view will be updated. For views, you may not even need to use the Apply button to submit the changes.

Finally, you can also use the Properties Palette as a filtering method for selected elements. When you select a large number of disparate objects, the drop-down list below the Type Selector will display the total number of selected elements. Open the list and you will see the elements listed per category, as shown in Figure 3.4. Select one of the categories to modify the parameters for the respective elements. This is different from the Filter tool in that the entire selection set is maintained, allowing you to perform multiple modifying actions without reselecting elements.

Figure 3.4. Use the Properties Palette to filter selection sets.

Be careful when using this tool with walls, because not only does it change the wall type, but it also changes the top and bottom constraints of the walls being matched. Thus, the best practice for changing wall types without affecting height constraints is to simply use the Type Selector.

The context menu that appears when you right-click in the drawing area contains several new options in Revit Architecture 2011. You can activate the last command or select from a list of recent commands, as shown in Figure 3.5.

Figure 3.5. Run recent commands from the context menu.

In addition to the other right-click commands listed throughout this chapter (such as Create Similar), zoom commands including Previous View are on the context menu. There are also useful commands when you right-click views in the Project Browser. For example, activate a plan view and then try right-clicking a 3D view in the browser. Select Show Section Box, and you can edit the extent of the 3D view's section box while in a floor plan.

You can move elements in several ways, ranging from traditional tools to using intelligent dimensions that appear on the fly when you select elements. Become familiar with each method and determine what is best for your workflow.

Using Temporary Dimensions

You have likely noticed by now that dimensions appear when elements are selected or newly modeled in Revit. These dimensions are called temporary dimensions and are there to inform you of the location of the elements relative to other elements in the model as well as to help you reposition them. Clicking the blue dimension value makes it an active and editable value. Type in a new value, and the selected element will move accordingly. Remember that when you are editing the position of an element via the dimensions, it will always be the selected element that moves. You can't change a dimension value if nothing is selected.

If a temporary dimension isn't referencing a meaningful element, you can choose a different reference by dragging the small blue square on the dimension's witness line to a new parallel reference, which will highlight when the mouse moves over them (Figure 3.6). For example, if you want to position a door opening at a specific dimension from a nearby wall, you will need to drag the grip of the temporary dimension that references the center of the door to the side of the opening. Then you can edit the value of the dimension as required. When you are dragging the grip of a temporary dimension, you can also use the Tab key on the keyboard to cycle through available snapping references near the mouse pointer.

Figure 3.6. Drag or click the blue grip to change the reference of the temporary dimension.

If you click a blue grip, it cycles to the next possible reference in the element. For example, clicking the grip of a dimension to a door or window cycles between the left and right openings and the center reference. The same applies to walls: try clicking the grip on the temporary dimension extending from a wall and see how the dimension cycles through the various references in the wall (interior face, centerline, exterior face). Note that when you drag a temporary dimension reference to a different position, the new reference is remembered when you return to the element for future editing.

You can also change the default behavior of temporary dimensions using the Temporary Dimension Properties dialog box shown in Figure 3.7 (on the Manage tab, click Additional Settings and then select Temporary Dimensions). Here you can specify how temporary dimensions will reference walls, doors, and windows independently.

Figure 3.7. The Temporary Dimension Properties dialog box lets you define default behaviors based on your modeling needs.

You can now modify the font size and transparency of temporary dimensions in the program options. To customize these values, click the Application button and select Options. In the Options dialog box that opens, switch to the Graphics tab and locate the Temporary Dimension Text Appearance settings. Adjust the text size and transparency according to your needs.

If you have many elements selected at the same time or select an element within the proximity of a large number of other elements, temporary dimensions sometimes don't appear. Check the Options Bar for the Activate Dimensions button; clicking it will make the temporary dimensions appear in the view.

New Behaviors for Modify Tools

In Revit Architecture 2011, the Modify tools behave differently than in previous versions. Now you have the option to activate the tools without any elements selected. If you choose this method, you must press the Enter key when the objects you intend to modify are selected.

You can also switch between any of the Modify panel tools while you have elements selected. For example, if you initially chose Mirror – Pick Axis and selected an element during the command, you can simply activate the Mirror – Draw Axis command without reselecting the elements.

Using the Move Tool

Note

Use the Move tool to relocate elements with more precision than by simply dragging them. The tool allows you to type in values or use temporary dimensions as helpers.

Moving elements is a two-click process: first you define a start point, and then you click to define a destination. If you know you need to move something a specific distance, it doesn't matter where your two picks take place. All that matters is the distance between the two clicks is the specified distance. Alternatively, you can simply type the desired value after picking the first point and guiding the mouse pointer in the desired direction of the move. This behavior is similar to the move command in AutoCAD.

There are a few options on the Options Bar to be aware of when the Move command is active:

Constrain

When this option is selected, it constrains movements to horizontal and vertical directions. Deselecting it allows you to move the elements freely as long as the element is not hosted. Hosted elements such as windows or doors always move in a constrained manner parallel to their host's axis.

Disjoin

Hosted elements can't change hosts and move to another host without being explicitly disjoined from their original host. This option lets you disconnect inserts from their hosts and move them to new hosts. For example, if you need to move a door from one wall to another, select the door and activate the Move tool. Select the Disjoin option and move the door to another host. Similarly, you can use the Disjoin option to move one wall away from another without maintaining the join between the two elements.

Multiple

The Multiple option is not active for the Move tool. This option is only available when you switch to the Copy tool.

Moving with Nearby Elements

A simpler way to constrain freestanding elements is to use the Moves With Nearby Elements option. This setting is designed to capture logical relationships between elements without establishing an explicit constraint. When furnishing a space, for example, you probably want to align the bed or dresser with an adjacent wall. If you change the design of the space, you want the furniture to follow the wall to the new location. For this purpose, select the furniture and then select Moves With Nearby Elements in the Options Bar, as shown in Figure 3.8.

By setting this option, you create an invisible relationship between the bed and the wall so that each time you move the wall, the bed moves with it. To clarify the difference between this approach and other constraint relationships, you could create a wall-hosted family, but that would limit your placement options and would subject instances to deletion if the host is deleted. You could align and constrain the family to its host, but too many explicit constraints will adversely affect model performance.

Figure 3.8. Once an object is selected, it can be set to move with nearby elements.

To activate this tool, either choose elements you want to copy and then select the Copy tool in the Modify tab in the ribbon, or activate the Copy tool first, select elements you want to copy, and then press the Enter key to start the copy process. Using the Options Bar, you can choose to make multiple copies in one transaction by selecting the Multiple option.

An alternative to the Copy tool is to use standard Windows accelerator keys to copy elements. To quickly copy a single element without the precision of the Copy tool, click and drag on an element while pressing the Ctrl key on your keyboard. This technique is useful for quickly populating a quantity of elements in a design without the required precision of the multiple picks of the Copy tool.

You can create two types of arrays: linear and radial. Linear arrays are set as the default because they're the most common. As you would expect, a linear array creates a series of elements in a line. Each element in the array can be given a defined distance from the previous element (Move To 2nd option) or can be spaced equally based on a defined overall array length (Move To Last option). Figure 3.11 shows a linear array where the Move To 2nd option was selected in order to define a fixed distance between each instance in the array. Think of this type of array as additive and subtractive: if you change the number, the length of the array increases or decreases.

Figure 3.11. The Move To 2nd option is used in the Array tool to set a fixed distance between instances.

If you want to arrange elements in a fixed space and the exact spacing between elements is less important, use the Move To Last option. Figure 3.12 shows an array where the location of the last element in the array was picked and the elements were placed equally between the first and last elements in the array. With this option, the length is fixed and the array squeezes elements within that constraint as the number changes.

Figure 3.12. This array uses the Move To Last option and fills instances between the first and last instances.

A radial array uses the same options as a linear array, but it revolves around a center point. The Move To 2nd and Move To Last options function as angles instead of distances in a radial array. You can specify the instance angle or overall array angle with two picks or you can enter a specific value. With this type of array, elements autorotate so that each element faces the center of the array, as shown in Figure 3.13.

Figure 3.13. Elements will autorotate in a radial array.

The radial array is a little trickier than a linear array. Here is how to achieve the example shown in Figure 3.13:

Enabling the Group And Associate option allows you to treat an array as a group that can be modified later to adjust the number and spacing of the array. If this option is unchecked, then the array is a one-off operation and you have no means of adjusting the array after it is created.

As shown in Figures 3.11 and 3.12, when an element in a grouped array is selected, a control appears indicating the number of elements in the array. Editing that number changes the number of elements in the array. This tool comes in handy when you're creating certain families because the array number can be associated with a parameter or driven by a mathematical formula. See Chapter 15 for a detailed exercise.

The Scale tool lets you scale certain lines and graphic elements in 2D that are appropriate to be scaled, such as imported raster images and 2D line shapes. While not an obvious option, the Scale tool can be used in Sketch mode for any type of sketch-based element in a project or for solid and void geometry sketches in the Family Editor.

Keep in mind that you are working with a model made out of real-world objects, not abstract primitive forms. You cannot scale most elements in Revit because it's not practical or meaningful and may cause dangerous errors in scheduling and dimensions. For example, you can't scale the size of a door, wall, or sink because they represent real assemblies and scaling them would mean resizing all their components. This would lead to impractical results, such as a sink being displayed as a fraction of its actual manufactured size.

With this tool, you explicitly align references from one element to another regardless of the type of either object. For example, you can align windows in a façade so their centers or openings are all in alignment. To use the Align tool, activate it from the Modify tab in the ribbon and first select the target reference—a reference to which you want to align another element. Next, select what you want to align to that reference—the part or side of the element whose position needs to be modified. The second element picked is the one that always moves into alignment. This selection sequence is the opposite of the other editing tools we've discussed so far, so remember: destination first, then the element to be aligned.

As soon as you make your second pick and the aligned element is moved, a lock icon appears allowing you to constrain the alignment. If you click the icon, thereby constraining the alignment, the alignment is preserved if either element moves. Figure 3.14 illustrates the use of the Align tool to align multiple windows in an elevation view using the Multiple Alignment option on the Options Bar.

The Align tool also works within model patterns such as brick or stone on surfaces of model objects. Select a line on an object such as the edge of a wall then select a line in the surface pattern. Use the Tab key if you cannot get surface patterns selected with the first mouse click. Note that the Align tool will also rotate elements in the process of aligning them to objects which are not parallel. This is a real time-saver compared to moving and rotating.

Figure 3.14. You can use the Align tool for lining up edges of windows in a façade.

The Trim/Extend tools are used frequently for editing sketches of floors and roofs because it's easy to end up with overlapping lines that need to be trimmed to form a closed loop. Keep in mind that with the Trim/Extend tools, you are selecting pairs of elements to remain, not to be removed. While the Single Element and Multiple Elements tools are similar to the Extend command in AutoCAD, the behavior of the Trim/Extend To Corner tool in Revit is more like that of the Chamfer or Fillet commands, rather than its Trim command.

The Trim/Extend tools for extending a single element or multiple elements function in a slightly different way than Trim/Extend To Corner. To extend a wall or line, first select a target reference; then select the element you want to extend to that target (Figure 3.15). Using the Multiple Elements tool, you first select the target reference; then each subsequent pick extends the selected element to the target reference.

Figure 3.15. Extend walls to references by picking the target (1), then the wall to extend (2).

The Split tool operates on walls and lines and lets you divide an element into two pieces. To cut an element, activate the Split tool from the Modify tab in the ribbon and place the mouse pointer over the edge of a wall or line. Before you click, you'll see a preview of the split line. The split line will automatically snap to any adjoining geometry.

The Options Bar displays a nice feature called Delete Inner Segment that removes the need to use the Trim tool after a splitting operation. In Figure 3.16, you need to remove the middle section of a wall and end up with a clean set of wall joins. Using the Split tool with the Delete Inner Segment option checked, you can accomplish this with two clicks and get a clean condition without having to return with the Trim command.

Figure 3.16. Using the Split tool with the Delete Inner Segment option checked

This tool is especially useful in the Family Editor when you're making shapes that have a consistent thickness in profile, such as extruded steel shapes. The Offset tool has a Copy option available in the Options Bar that determines whether the offsetting operation generates a copy of the selected elements or simply moves them.

Remember that you can Tab-select a chain of elements and offset them in one click, as shown in Figure 3.17.

Figure 3.17. Use Offset with Tab-select to copy a chain of elements

In some cases, you may want to make sure some elements in the model never move. An example of this is when you work on a renovation to an existing building. For obvious reasons, you would not like to move walls in the model that are already built in reality. Other examples include imported drawings, grids, levels, and exterior walls. Revit provides two ways to deal with this and lock certain elements, thus preventing them from moving.

Pinning Elements

You can restrict an element's ability to move by pinning it with the Pin tool. Use this tool to lock down critical elements that need to remain fixed for long periods of time. This is an important tool to use on imported CAD files, because it's easy to accidentally select an import and drag it or move it. This kind of accidental modification can lead to coordination problems, even in a BIM environment. Use pins to lock down gridlines as well, because you certainly don't want those to move accidentally either.

This tool is located in the Modify panel of the Modify tab in the ribbon. Select one or more elements for which you want to prevent movement and click the Pin tool. If you try to move the element, nothing will happen—you won't even get a preview of a potential move. To unpin an element, select it and click the Unpin icon, which is also located in the Modify panel. You can also unpin an element by clicking the pin icon that appears near a pinned element when it is selected.

Deleting Pinned Elements

Pinned elements can be deleted. This unfortunately is misunderstood by users who believe that a pinned element is safe from deletion. Revit will give you a warning after a pinned element is deleted, so pay close attention to these types of alerts.

Constraints

Constraints aren't as rigid as the Pin tool, but they do allow you to create dimensional rules in the model so that elements remain fixed relative to other elements. You can create a constraint using dimensions or alignments and then click the lock icon that appears upon creation of a dimension or completion of an alignment operation.

A simple example of using constraints is maintaining a fixed distance between a door and a side wall. If the wall moves, the door will also move. If you try to move the door, Revit will not let you move it. Look at Figure 3.18: the door has been constrained to remain 4"from the wall face.

Figure 3.18. A door constrained to a wall can't be moved independently of the wall.

This type of constraint is accomplished by placing a dimension string between the side of the door and the face of the wall and then clicking the lock icon on the dimension. Note that the dimension can be deleted while preserving the constraint. If you delete a constrained dimension, an alert will appear giving you the option to unconstrain the elements or simply delete the dimension while maintaining the constraint (Figure 3.19). Note that you can determine where constraints were by creating new dimensions; constrained relationships will still display with the lock icon. You can also view these relationships when a constrained element is selected. Simply hover the mouse pointer near the constraint icon and you will see the dimension constraint represented as a dashed dimension string.

Figure 3.19. Deleting a constrained dimension generates an alert.

Joining walls to floors and roofs creates cleaner-looking drawings, and Revit will attempt to create these joins automatically; however, in some cases, elements don't look right until they are explicitly joined. This is where the Join Geometry tool comes into play. This tool creates joins between floors, walls, ceilings, roofs, and slabs. A common use for this tool is in building sections, where floors and walls may appear overlapped and not joined. Figure 3.20 shows a floor intersecting with some walls that aren't joined. Using the Join Geometry tool, these conditions can be cleaned up nicely.

Figure 3.20. Intersections at Level 2 have been joined.

You might notice that some joins—especially in a view set to coarse detail level—contain a thin dividing line between two elements. This is usually because the two elements you joined consist of differing materials. Ensuring consistent material application will give you increased graphic quality in your project views.

You should also be aware that joining large host elements to many other elements may cause degraded model performance. One way to avoid this is to apply a black solid fill to elements in the cut plane of your coarse sections and avoid overall manual joining; then selectively join for medium and fine views.

Occasionally you may need to apply a thin material to the face of an object without making a new type of element. You may also need to divide an overall surface into smaller regions to receive different materials. Revit provides the Paint tool to apply materials and the Split Face tool to divide object surfaces. With the Paint tool, you can apply alternative materials to the exterior faces of walls, floors, roofs, and ceilings. This material has no thickness, but you can schedule it with a material takeoff schedule and annotate it with a material tag. A typical use case for these two tools is the application of a carpet or thin tile to a floor. See Chapter 14, "Floors, Ceilings, and Roofs," for a detailed exercise on this topic.

Copying and pasting is a familiar technique used in almost all software applications, and Revit provides the basic features you'd expect (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V). It also has some additional timesaving options that are specific to working on a 3D model.

To copy any element or group of elements to the clipboard, select them and press Ctrl+C. To paste, press Ctrl+V. In the majority of cases, Revit pastes the elements with a dashed bounding box around them. You then determine where to place the elements by clicking a point to define its final position. In the Options Bar you will find a Constrain option that when clicked will only let you define the location of the pasted content orthogonally to the original elements.

Edit Pasted

Immediately after you select a point for the location of the pasted content, you will find a new panel in the ribbon called Edit Pasted (Figure 3.21). You can click Finish to complete the pasting action or simply start another command. If you are unsatisfied with the pasting action, select Cancel.

Figure 3.21. Additional actions are available when pasting elements.

If you select Edit Pasted Elements, a special mode will be started with the Edit Pasted tools appearing at the top left of the active window (Figure 3.22). In this mode, only the pasted elements are editable. You can use the Select All or Filter button to refine those elements within the pasted selection. When your edits are completed, click the Finish button.

Figure 3.22. Edit Pasted mode allows additional modification of pasted elements.

Paste Aligned

If you need to paste elements with greater location control, Paste Aligned offers options to make the process simple and efficient. These options allow you to quickly duplicate elements from one view or one level to another while maintaining a consistent location in the X-Y coordinate plane. After selecting elements and copying them to the clipboard, find the Paste button in the Clipboard panel, as shown in Figure 3.23.

Figure 3.23. Paste Aligned options

Five options are available when you click the Paste drop-down button, in addition to the Paste From Clipboard option. Depending on the view from which you copy and what kinds of elements you copy, the availability of these options will change. For example, if you select a model element in a plan view, you won't have the Aligned To Selected Views option. These options are as follows:

Aligned To Selected

Levels This is a mode you can use to quickly paste copied elements to many different levels simultaneously. When you select this option, you choose levels from a list in a dialog box. This is useful when you have a multistory building design and you want to copy a furniture layout that repeats on many floors and selecting level graphics in a section or elevation would be too tedious.

Aligned To Selected Views

If you want to copy view-specific elements such as drafting lines, text, or dimensions, this option allows you to paste them by selecting views from a list of views in a dialog box. In the list available for selection, you don't see levels listed but rather a list of parallel views. For example, if elements are copied from a plan view, all other plan views are listed. Likewise, if you copy from an elevation view, only elevation views are listed.

Aligned To Current View

This option pastes the elements from the clipboard into the active view, in the same spatial location. For example, if you copy a series of walls in one view, switch to another view in the Project Browser, and choose to paste with the Aligned To Current View option, Revit pastes the walls to the same X-Y location in the view you switched to.

Aligned To Same Place

This option places elements from the clipboard in the exact same place from which it was copied or cut. One use for this tool is copying elements into a design option; see Chapter 11, "Designing with Design Options and Groups," for an explanation of design options.

Aligned To Picked Level

This is a mode you can use to copy and paste elements between different floors by picking a level in a section or elevation. Although you can cut or copy elements from a plan view, you must be in an elevation or section to paste using this option. You might use this paste option to copy balconies on a façade from one floor to another.

Rather than hunting through a list of families or making copies you'd have to edit later, try using the Create Similar tool to add new instances of a selected element to your model.

This tool is available in the Create panel of the Modify tab of the ribbon when an object is selected or from the right-click context menu. To use this tool, simply select an existing instance of the same type of element you'd like to create and click the Create Similar tool, and you will immediately be in a placement or creation mode according to the type of element. For example, if you use Create Similar with a floor selected, you're taken directly into Sketch mode, where you can start sketching the boundary for a new floor.

To increase your productivity even further, you may like to use keyboard shortcuts to speed up common commands and minimize interruptions to your workflow. When you hover your mouse pointer over any tool in the ribbon, the keyboard shortcut is indicated to the right of the tool name, as shown here.

You can customize the keyboard shortcuts assigned to all commands in Revit through a new interface. To access this tool, go to the View tab in the ribbon, find the Windows panel, and select User Interface

Figure 3.24. Customize keyboard shortcuts for commonly used Revit commands.

As its name suggests, a toposurface is a surface-based representation of the topography context supporting a project. It is not modeled as a solid in Revit; however, a toposurface will appear as if it were solid in a 3D view with a section box enabled (Figure 3.26).

Figure 3.26. Toposurfaces will appear as a solid in a 3D view only if a section box is used.

You can create a toposurface in three different ways: by placing points at specific elevations, by using a linked CAD file with lines or points at varying elevations, or by using a points file generated by a civil engineering application. We'll examine these techniques in the following exercises.

Creating a Toposurface by Placing Points

Note

The simplest way to create a toposurface is by placing points in your Revit project at specific elevations. To create a clean outer edge for your toposurface, we suggest drawing a large rectangle using detail lines in your site plan. When you are creating a toposurface by placing points, there are no line-based geometry tools; however, points can be snapped to the detail lines. The following exercise will show you how to create a toposurface by placing points.

1. Begin by opening the file c03-Site-Tools.rvt, which can be downloaded from this book's companion website at www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevit2011.

2. Activate the floor plan named Site and you will see a rectangle created from detail lines.

3. Go to the Massing & Site tab and from the Model Site panel, click Toposurface. Notice in the contextual tab in the ribbon that the default tool is Place Point.

4. Notice the Elevation value in the Options Bar. Set the value of the points you are about to place.

   

   Also note that the elevation values are always related to the Revit project base point. They do not relate to the elevation of any shared coordinates.

5. With the Elevation value set to 0'-0"(0mm), place a point at each of the left corners of the rectangle.

6. Change the Elevation value to 20'-0"(6000mm) and then place a point at each of the right corners of the rectangle. You will notice the contour lines of the surface begin to appear after the third point of the surface is placed.

7. In the contextual tab of the ribbon, click Finish Surface (green check) to complete the toposurface. Activate the default 3D view and you will see the sloping surface, as shown in Figure 3.27. Notice that the 3D view in this project already has the Section Box property enabled. To adjust the section box, activate the Reveal Hidden Elements tool in the View Control bar.

8. Save the project file for use in subsequent exercises.

Figure 3.27. A simple toposurface created by placing points

Modifying the Surface with Subregion

The points file example we provided in the previous exercise represents a section of terrain across Lake Mead, Nevada. If you wanted to define an area of the toposurface with a different material but not change the geometry of the overall surface, you would use the Subregion tool. In the following exercise, you will use this tool to create a region that will represent the water of the lake.

1. Using the c03-Site-Points.rvt file, activate the Site plan from the Project Browser. In this view, there are dashed detail lines that represent the edge of the water.

2. Go to the Massing & Site tab in the ribbon and click the Subregion tool.

3. Switch to Pick Lines mode in the Draw panel of the contextual ribbon.

4. Hover your mouse pointer over one of the dashed detail lines at the left side of the surface, Tab-select the chain of lines, and then click to select them. You will see a purple sketch line appear.

5. Repeat step 4 for the dashed detail lines at the right side of the surface.

6. Switch to Line mode in the Draw panel of the contextual ribbon and draw a line connecting each open end of the water edge lines, as shown in Figure 3.30.

   

   Figure 3.30. The sketch boundary for a subregion must be a closed loop but can overlap the edge of the toposurface.

7. Click Finish Surface in the contextual ribbon to complete the subregion.

8. Activate the default 3D view and select the subregion you created in the previous steps.

9. In the Properties Palette, locate the Material parameter and click the ellipsis button to open the Materials dialog box. Locate and select the material named Site - Water. Note that you can easily find this material by typing Water in the search field at the top of the dialog box.

10. Click OK to close the Materials dialog box; you will see the results in the 3D view, as shown in Figure 3.31.

When you use the Subregion tool, the geometry of the original surface remains unchanged. If you no longer need the subregion, you can simply select it and delete it. Be aware that topographic surfaces cannot display surface patterns assigned to materials.

Figure 3.31. The subregion is assigned a different material for visualization purposes.

Using the Split Surface Tool

If you need to divide a topographic surface into separate parts for the purpose of editing the geometry, you would use the Split Surface tool. With this tool, you can sketch a single line along which the surface will be divided into two editable entities. These separate entities can be recombined later using the Merge Surfaces tool. In the following exercise, you will split a topographic surface and edit some of the points. Remember that you can also use Split Surface to delete a portion of a topographic surface.

1. Open the file c03-Site-Tools.rvt you saved after the earlier lesson in this section.

2. Activate the Site plan in the Project Browser.

3. Go to the Massing & Site tab in the ribbon and click the Split Surface tool. Remember that you should use the Subregion tool if you only plan to assign a different material to the split region of the original surface.

4. Select the topographic surface and you will enter Sketch mode. Using the Line mode in the Draw panel of the contextual ribbon, draw two lines that overlap the edges of the surface, as shown in Figure 3.32.

   

   Figure 3.32. Sketch lines that overlap the edge of the topographic surface

5. Click Finish Edit Mode in the ribbon and you will see the split surface highlighted in blue.

6. Activate the default 3D view and turn off the Section Box option in the Properties Palette.

7. Select the split surface and click the Edit Surface tool in the Modify | Topography tab of the ribbon.

8. Select the point at the outer corner of the topographic surface and change the elevation value in the Options Bar from 20'-0"(6000mm) to 10'-0"(3000mm).

9. Click Finish Surface in the contextual ribbon and you will see the result as shown in Figure 3.33.

   

   Figure 3.33. A split region after editing the elevation of a corner point

10. To illustrate the difference between a split surface and other topographic surface edits, select the main surface and click Edit Surface in the contextual ribbon. Select the point at the upper corner opposite from the split region and change the elevation value to 10'-0" (3000mm). Notice the difference in how the surface slope is interpolated between the other points on the surface (Figure 3.34).

Figure 3.34. Compare the difference between an edited split region (left) and an edited point directly on the surface (right).

A building pad in Revit is a unique model element that resembles a floor. It can have a thickness and compound structure, it is associated with a level, and it can be sloped using slope arrows while you're sketching its boundary. The building pad is different from a floor because it will automatically cut through a toposurface, defining the outline for your building's cellar or basement.

The process to create a building pad is virtually identical to that of creating a floor. Let's run through a quick exercise to create a building pad in a sample project.

Figure 3.35. This section view illustrates how the building pad adjusts the extents of the topographic surface.

Adjusting the Section Poche for Topographic Surfaces

If you would like to customize the settings for the fill pattern and depth of poche, locate the small arrow at the bottom of the Model Site panel in the Massing & Site tab of the ribbon. Clicking on it will open the Site Settings dialog box as shown here:

As you can see in this dialog box, you can change the Section Cut Material and the Elevation Of Poche Base settings. Note that the elevation value is in relation to the Revit project base point. You can also adjust the display format of contour lines shown on topographic surfaces as well as the units displayed by property lines.

Property lines are used to delineate the boundary of the lot within which your building will be constructed. These special types of lines are different from simple model lines or detail lines because they can be tagged with standard property line labels that will display segment lengths along with bearings. The property line object can also report its area in a special tag.

You can create a property line in one of two ways: by sketching lines or by entering distances and bearings in a table. In the following exercise, you will create a simple property line by sketching, and then convert the sketched property line into a table of distances and bearings for comparison.

Figure 3.36. A property line can be defined in a table of distances and bearings.

Tagging Property Lines with Area

In standard construction documentation, it is customary to annotate each vertex of a property line with its distance and bearing. There are two different types of tags you can use to annotate property lines. In the following exercise you will load these two types from Revit's default library and tag each segment of the property line as well as display the area contained within it.

1. Go to the Insert tab of the ribbon and click the Load Family button. Navigate to Revit's default library; double-click the Annotations folder and then the Civil folder.

2. Locate the following files and select them both by pressing the Ctrl key (the equivalent Metric library families are shown in parentheses):

   • Property Line Tag.rfa (M_Property Line Tag.rfa)

   • Property Tag - SF.rfa (M_Property Tag.rfa)

3. Click Open to load both families.

4. Go to the Annotate tab of the ribbon and click Tag By Category and uncheck the Leader option in the Options Bar.

5. Click on each segment of the property line to place the tags indicating the distance and bearing, as shown in Figure 3.37.

Figure 3.37. Tags are applied to display the distance and bearing of each segment of the property line.

Now that you have tagged the individual vertices of the property line, it is time to display the area within the property line. This process is not the same as applying an area tag because an area object doesn't exist for the property line. Instead, the annotation family Property Tag - SF.rfa (M_Property Tag.rfa) is designed to be applied to the property lines when all its segments are selected.

You can try this with the property line you created earlier. Go back to the Annotate tab in the ribbon and click Tag By Category. Instead of picking a single vertex of the property line, hover your mouse pointer over one segment and use Tab-select to highlight the entire chain of property line segments. Click to place the property area tag. Click the question mark above the area to change the name of the property line, as shown in Figure 3.38.

Figure 3.38. Use Tab-select to place a property area tag for all segments.

As we mentioned earlier in this section, Revit's site tools are not meant to replace civil engineering software programs. We have shown you how to create a topographical surface in a variety of ways as well as some methods of modifying these objects. There is also a way to quickly quantify how much earth is displaced by proposed changes to existing topography. This is commonly referred to as a cut/fill schedule.

One easy way to demonstrate the use of a cut/fill schedule is through the creation of a building pad which automatically modifies the topographic surface. Let's go through a quick exercise to examine this process.