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Revit Architecture
by: Marcello Sgambelluri
Methods for Modeling Complex Geometry L ➲
et’s admit it: modeling complex geometry in Autodesk® Revit® has always been difficult. This is because Revit has lacked modeling tools and commands that have been a staple in other 3D modeling programs such as 3ds Max. With the introduction of the new mass modeling tools in Revit 2010, this has changed somewhat. However, modeling complex geometry on “real” non-mass elements such as walls, floors, and beams is still difficult in Revit…until now. This article describes how to model complex roofs, walls, beams, and floors by using the “pick by face” command and by finding the intersections of their surfaces.
and the surface was created by creating a form over those reference lines. This in-place mass surface will be used throughout this article.
ROOF SURFACES CREATING BY FACE Let’s start with something simple, pick by face. This is the simplest way to create complex geometry because all you have to do is simply “pick” a surface and apply a roof or wall element to it as shown in Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 3: Complex in-place mass surface.
Once the mass surface is created, simply activate the roof command by face and pick the mass surface. The resulting roof geometry is shown in Figure 4.
Figures 1 and 2: Roof and wall by face.
Some of the most complex roofs and walls are created by the pick by face command. Let’s illustrate this by using an example of a complex roof surface. Let us consider the following in-place mass surface shown in Figure 3. This surface consists of four planar reference lines. The spline by points command was used to create the reference line 34 www.augi.com
Figure 4: Roof by face on complex roof surface geometry. September 2011