Hello people, welcome to this video! Let's see quickly and shortly a
general overview of all tools you need to know to start using Autodesk
Revit 2017!
Please, leave us comments to improve our future guides!
Revit is a professional software used to create and preview
architectural projects, in particular floor plans, sketches and
buildings.
When you open Revit, a startup page opens. On the right, under
Resources, you can get support from Autodesk or the community. On the
left, you can open Revit Projects or Families to edit them. Don't
confuse those: Revit Projects are your single general projects made.
Families are single-object projects that can be imported in other
projects.
Let's just create a new Revit project by going to New... Choose the
right template to optimize the settings for your project. Below, choose
between a general Project and a Project template, that is used to set
the starting point for other future Revit projects. Let's just see a
general Revit Project. Then, apply with OK.
Your workspace is composed by different parts: on top, there is the
Menu bar, collecting all tools and features inside Revit; on the left,
you have several panels to check settings and properties; on the
centre, a big preview of your project and, on the right and at the
bottom, some quick and fast visualization tools we will see.
Before we begin, save your project file, going to the top left icon
and going to Save As... and then to Project. These files are saved in
a .rvt format, and are fundamental to save your progress. Revit will
remind you to save often while you work.
Let's draw objects. The Menu bar is divided in several tabs, and the
first three ones from the left are used to draw objects on your
workspace. Architecture is used to draw fundamental objects, like
walls and doors; Structure is used to draw bearing objects like
columns and floors; while Systems is used to draw advanced objects,
like conductors and tubes. In this video we will see just the first
tab, in order to understand how to draw a simple house.
To draw a simple house, it is better to draw it from bottom to top,
starting from the ground or any floor, then going with the walls and
then arriving with the final roof. All the tools you need to draw
these are inside the Build section, under the Architecture tab. Some
of these tools show a black arrow. If you click on it, you will get
the full list of all tools related. You can hover on each tool to get
help about what they do and how to use them.
So, let's start with the basic Floor. The Floor tool has several tools,
let's just use the first one in the list.
When you enable the Floor and any drawing tool, the Menu bar opens on
the Modify tab, used to set the way to draw with the current tool.
For example, under Draw, you can choose how to draw your floor: use
Line to create a floor by defining each of its sides, by clicking on
your workspace; use Rectangle, Polygon or Circle to draw the floor
boundaries with a regular shape.
Revit helps you while you draw. If you fix your pointer for some time,
a dialog box shows what to do. Plus, you always have information about
side length and angle measurement on the object in progress.
As long as a drawing tool is enabled, Revit is in Edit Mode, which is
used to create and edit sketches of objects, shown in pink color.
In fact, objects are definitely created when you apply these clicking
on Finish Edit Mode. Objects will also change color and will get
volume. If you choose to Cancel, you will exit from the Edit Mode and
all sketches will be deleted.
You can always delete objects created by selecting them with the Modify
tool and using the Delete key.
To edit an object, select it with the Modify tool and click on Edit
Boundary to return to the Edit Mode. Always using the Modify tool,
select the interested side, and click and drag to move the side and
stretch the floor, or click and drag the vertices to edit the shape,
and the drawing tools above to add new sides if you need.
To cut, copy and paste a selected object, use CTRL+X, CTRL+C and
CTRL+V.
Plus, under the Modify section, you have other editing tools available.
To move a selected object, use the Move tool. Click on the object, and
define the direction to follow. You can quickly move a selected object
simply clicking and dragging from it.
To rotate an object, use the Rotate tool. Click and drag the rotation
point if you need, and then define the angle of rotation, checking
the object preview.
To scale an object, use the Scale tool. There are many other tools
inside the Modify section, check them!
For each editing object, you can adjust its settings through the
options right above the workspace. Type inside with your keyboard, and
use the Enter key to apply.
If you make mistakes, use CTRL+Z to undo your latest action.
You can also apply these tools to multiple sides in the same way,
always using the Modify tool. Just click and drag on your workspace to
create a selection area, that will select all objects inside it.
If you need to deselect, just click outside.
After creating Floors, you can go on adding Walls to your house. While
the Floor was created by fixing its boundary, the Wall is created by
defining the length of its base from the Top view, with its height
fixed by the upper bar seen before. Under the Draw section, you
can still use the drawing tools just seen, in order to draw the wall
base with a different shape, from the single line to the arc or a
regular shape. If walls do overlap, these will automatically merge.
To check your project, you can use a different points of view. Up to
now, we have used the Top view, a 2D point of view from top to bottom.
But you can also check a 3D preview going to View and then to 3D View,
and using the 3D ViewCube in the top right corner, clicking on its
sides and vertices. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out, and use
the Full Navigation Wheel to rotate in 3D through Orbit. Choose your
favorite point of view depending on the tool chosen.
On the left, you have some useful panels to manage your project. The
Properties panel is used to show all the properties related to the
selected object. Whereas, the Project Browser at the bottom shows a
quick summary of all the objects inside your project. A part from the
models, such as floors and walls, you may also have text and
annotations (or View Elements) and different 2D points of view (or
Datum Elements), such as Floor Plan levels and Elevations. If you
double-click on any 2D view, this will be shown in your workspace.
Also the 3D view is listed, and saves the latest point of view fixed.
The Elevations are used to check your project in a 2D view also showing
the objects height. By default, you have views from East, North, South
and West, which correspond to the four indicators you can see in the
Level 1 Floor Plan view, which is actually the default one.
You can also add custom Elevations, going to View on top and to
Elevation. Click on your workspace to fix an Elevation symbol, used to
fix and adjust your new Elevation. Use the Escape key to stop adding
others. Such symbol is divided in two parts. If you click on the
square, you can move the symbol and rotate the view. If you click on
the arrow, you can set the depth range and the side range of the view.
Check your Elevation view to see the changes.
Through the Elevation views, you can see what the Floor Plans are.
These are 2D points of view that show your objects from bottom to top,
at different heights from the ground. For example, Level 1 shows the
objects that lay on the lowest level, which is the ground plane. To add
other levels, go to the Datum secton, under the Architecture tab, and
click on Level. Then, you fix the correct height by clicking on the
workspace, or typing the exact distance with your keyboard. After that,
you can fix your level line.
All new Elevation views and Floor Plans are listed in the Project
Browser, and can be renamed right-clicking on them and going to Rename.
Both Floor Plan levels and Elevation symbols can be edited with the
same tools seen for the models.
After drawing Floors and Walls, it's time to add Doors and Windows.
For this, we can pick any 3D view or Elevation view. Revit is quite
smart, and helps you at placing these elements correctly. For example,
if you want to drop a Door, this will lay on the base of a Floor Plan
level and will be put through a wall. If you drop Windows, these can
be placed freely on the walls.
Doors and Windows are single-object projects also called Families,
ready to be used and dropped on your projects. You can eventually edit
them by selecting them and going to Edit Family on top. You can also
use the Properties panel on the left to choose another template or
quickly change the basic size.
Check out the video description to download other free templates for
Revit!
To finish this simple house, we now need a roof. The Roof object
always lays to the current Work Plane fixed, which is the Floor Plan
plane used as reference. To fix it, go to Set under the Architecture
tab, and choose the right Floor Plan level to pick. If you click on
Show, you can see the current Work Plane during a 3D preview.
Then, just enable the Roof tool, and choose the Drawing mode, as seen
for Floors and Walls. Click on your workspace to fix the boundaries
of the Roof, and these will lay on the Work Plane just fixed. Once
applyied, you will exit from the Edit Mode, and you will see the Roof
rendered.
By default, the Roof will get a standard inclination of 30 degrees on
all sides. During the Edit Mode, you can click on the degrees to edit
each of them. In particular, if you set all of them at zero degrees, and
you exit from the Edit Mode, you will be able to fully customize the
Roof by adding new points and lines through the Shape Editing tools.
Check your final project better by changing the Visual Style at the
bottom!
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