Managing LARGE & COMPLEX Sites in Revit and Twinmotion (Replay w/Links)

 

On last night's episode of BIM After Dark Live I broke down how my team and I manage large, complex, and phased scenes in Revit & Twinmotion 2020 to create construction logistics/phasing plans, aerial views, and more... There are a lot of aspects to this session for Revit: - Model setup of super large scenes (acres upon acres of land). - Use of Container models using the design teams files. - Managing multiple phases, fencing, and more... Then, there are all the lessons learned when using Twinmotion 2020 with these large scenes, such as: - Export/Import Tips for less crashes. - Managing Phases/Sequencing, etc... - More efficient and stable model refreshes on large scenes - Best trees and material settings for aerial views. - Best lighting settings for aerial views...

Follow along as I walked through two different projects with their own unique approaches to creating large site models in Revit and managing how those scenes are built in Twinmotion.

Also, it's worth watching this episode to see how nervous I was while running two instances of Twinmotion 2020, two instances of Revit, and streaming live to YouTube from a 2K monitor... Talk about risky!

Continue reading to view the replay and all of the links mentioned (as well as the Twinmotion light settings I walk through at the end)...

Revit Tutorial - Parking Striping the Follows Topography

I was pretty excited when Autodesk introduced the ability to host railings to topography a few releases ago... But, I didn't realize the possibilities a simple new feature (albeit, one that should be applied to more than just railings) would open up.

The ability to host a railing (which contains swept profiles (rails) and repetitive families (balusters)) can be "hacked" to created other types of objects that host to topography.  To date, I have taken advantage of this feature to make things such as earth retention, utility piping, site fencing, retaining walls, curbs, and guard rails...

Today, I want to demonstrate how to use the railing tool to overcome Revit's limitations in parking and road striping.

Continue reading to learn how to "hack" the Revit railing and make parking / road striping that will actually follow your tomography.

Revit Tutorial - Streamlined Topography (Auto-Clicker Update)

Way back in 2011 I posted a tutorial showing how you can use a simple little tool to streamline your topography creation.  This is especially valid if you don't have a CAD file and are using an image file of contours, etc... If you are still making topography by clicking every little contour point, and giving yourself carpal tunnel in the process, you need to see this tutorial.

Well, that tutorial is still relevant today, but, the Auto-Clicker software I link to does not work on Windows 10...

I still use this technique today when modeling topography from image files so I thought it would be helpful to re-post it and add the Windows 10 download link...

Keep reading to view the tutorial and download "Auto-Clicker" to streamline your topography creation in Revit....

Revit Tip - The "Site Settings" Dialog

Well, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks...

Last week, I posted about missing secondary contour lines.  Until now, my solution was to simply move the topography up so that there were no "negative" contour values.  Ivan (from BIM Level) commented on the post and flipped my world upside down.

After over ten years of using Revit, I found a dialog box that I have honestly never even seen before...  I can admit it.  Ivan, you've humbled me.


Continue reading to learn about the "Site Settings" dialog and where it is located...

Revit Tutorial - Missing Secondary Contour Lines (Topo Tip)

File this post under "random things that are good to know about Revit".  Although, it seems to come up more than you would think...

Have you every had a topographic model within Revit not display the secondary contour lines?  Look closely at the two topographic images above.  What is different?  Notice that the model on the left is missing three sets of secondary contour lines (the dashed lines that represent 1'-0" of elevation change).

Why?

Keep reading to find out....

Revit Tutorial - Calculating Cut / Fills Using Building Pads

Pablo, my colleague and friend from sunny San Diego, emailed me one day asking about cuts and fills in Revit. This was his email:

"Hey I got a question for you. I have placed a few building pads on our site and I am trying to find out if there is any easy way to get the excavation volume of the void left behind from the building pad? I have scoured the internet but all references to volumes of excavation refer more to the cut/fill tools in Revit (which I can do but am too lazy). I just thought that there might be some property related to the building pad that would tell me how much topography is being imprinted with the building pad..."

Continue reading to view my response and discover how to calculate cuts and fills in Revit...

Revit Tutorial - Site Designer Plugin

I attended a class about the Site Designer Plugin by Dan Rosenberg during RTCNA this year for the simple reason of understanding how to get the damn tool to work!  For those of you who have attempted or used the Site Designer Plugin you may have found it to be anything but intuitive.  Well, Dan was able to break it down and make it at least work.  For that, I was glad I attended the class.

The concept behind the Site Designer plugin is fantastic.  The ability to make accurate (looking) roads, sidewalks, and curbs that automatically follow your toposurface is a no-brainer.

During the session Dan mentioned he had created a series of videos about the Site Designer tool and asked that we share them.  Well, I decided to post them here for you!

Tutorial - Toposurface Notes

Great little set of guides from Alan over at Revit Learning Curve. Compliments my Studio Topo set of tutorials (see links on the right).

Here are some Guidance Notes that I put together on Toposufraces for our companies Revit Users when we first got revit, I hope they help anyone who is just exploring Toposurfaces.

I can't find a better way of uploading these to the blog other than by using jpg files that can then be downloaded as pictures and printed. If anyone knows how to upload Adobe files to a blog please let me know.

Click on the images to enlarge

Enjoy

Page 1 of 6

Check out Alan's blog for the rest of the notes...

Tutorial - Studio Topo Tip - Part 1

The program is laid out, the concept or idea is brainstormed, you've been researching for days, and you have gone through a roll of trace already.  Your professor finally chooses a site for the project.  He posts a scanned image of the topographical map.  Now what?

Topics Covered:

- Importing and image

- Scaling the image to your project

Tutorial - Studio Topo Tip - Part 1