Monthly Archives: November 2014

Revit 2015 R2 Structural Framing Quirk

With the release of Revit 2015 R2 one of the big features for structural engineers was the capability to flip framing members.  A simple right click on the member and the option to “Flip Structural Framing Ends” appears.  This was a welcome addition and a nice feature to have, but be careful, there are some quirks involved with this feature.  This feature is in reality rotating the beam 180degrees while keeping some of it’s properties relative to the end and others not.

Revit_2015R2_StructuralFraming_Flip_03

Here are some of the quirks I have found to be associated with this new feature.

  • If one end of the beam is utilizing the “Attachment” value it will either be flipped or removed
  • Face based objects hosted to the beam will rotate with the beam and end up on the other side of the beam
  • Adaptive components hosted to the beam will either be rotated or simply disappear
  • When flipping sloped beams they can become detached from their work plane (not like this warning is rare)
  • Cross section rotation will become a negative value keeping it’s relation to vertical (nice catch programmers)

In the images below the plate that host the clevis and rod is the OOTB gusset plate family which is a faced based element, the red connection plate at the top is an adaptive component family.

Revit_2015R2_StructuralFraming_Flip_01

As you can see in the image below the beam rotates when flipped thus creating havoc on elements that are hosted to it.

Revit_2015R2_StructuralFraming_Flip_02

Conclusion to this feature is to be careful when flipping beams and verify elements aren’t hosted to them.

Displaced Views used Internally

I recently was at the second RTC Europe conference, (the reason for not having a post last week) as usual it delivered with good content, exceptional speakers and of course an all around great experience.  Having it in a castle was an enjoyable experience not to mention the extra time we took to tour most of Ireland.

As usual there were great sessions, sessions on Dynamo, Reality Capture, Families and the list goes on.

One tip I cam out with was during a session Havard Vasshaug was presenting on Dynamo.  The tip had nothing to do with Dynamo rather something he briefly showed to emphasize his point and made me think of how to use it in daily practices.  It was his use of displaced elements, he had moved away a few elements to show what he was working on for the delegates to see easily.

RTCEU_2014_Havard

This made me think that when trying to show a client or other team mates certain elements that are hard to focus on, or when simply trying to remember where you left off before a long holiday weekend.  Create a view and displace elements that you need to focus on or remember to update at a later date.