Every design starts with an idea. That can be shapes drawn out on trace paper, or a chipboard model, or a conceptual form in a 3D model. This idea becomes the basis for your design and ultimately your building. Although you might sketch out several variations to give your ideas shape, there comes a point in the design process where you need to begin testing your assumptions. Does the floor plan fit within the building’s massing? Does it meet the client’s functional requirements? Is the design energy efficient?
Massing is a set of unique tools within Autodesk® Revit® software specifically created for this kind of early design analysis. By creating the “big” design idea at a macro level, you’re able to quickly and easily quantify and analyze the results. This allows you to confidently work from general to specific as your design progresses, without concern about actual building elements.
In addition, the massing tools allow you to create forms and containers to control other building system components. Complex walls, curtain walls, curtain panels, and other elements would be incredibly difficult to make and update without some underlying form to establish and drive their design.
Even though your overall design might not be represented by a complex massing form, it’s likely that somewhere in a more conventional design, massing is essential to the success of your project.
In this chapter, you’ll learn to:
A mass is simply a form with geometric substance (solids and voids) that is not related to any specific building element category. It is intended to allow designers to create a lightweight component that can either represent an entire building or serve as a guide for a single component, such as a complex roof form. When you create a mass in the context of a whole building, you can quantify the surface area, assign functional “floors” to the mass, and perform energy analysis—all without creating a single wall, floor, window, or roof.
After you create a whole-building mass, you can use By Face versions of commands to place system families such as walls, floors, and roofs. When these elements are placed by face, they retain a relationship to the mass elements. The associated building elements are not updated automatically, which means you can freely explore design alternatives to the massing. Once you are confident of your final design decision, the building elements can be updated to match the changes in the underlying mass.
Another important thing to know about massing is that masses can be created in either the project environment or the Family Editor. Much of the functionality overlaps in each case, so what’s the difference between the two?
The main difference as to whether you create massing in place or in the Family Editor doesn’t depend on the kind of shape or surface you want to create. Solid and surface forms can be created in both the project and Family Editor environments. Rather, it depends on how you want to create the massing and how you want to change the mass once it’s been created.
Using in-place masses gives you the ability to model in the context of other surroundings (Figure 8.1). For example, you may be proposing an addition to an existing building or a new building on an existing campus. You may need to create a complex shape for a feature wall or a roof form, and you therefore need the context of the rest of your building design.
Creating a mass in the Family Editor gives you a slightly different user interface (UI) (Figure 8.2). When you create a Conceptual Mass family, you have the ability to see work planes and levels in 3D views; however, these references are not in the context of your project environment. In addition to the lack of context in the Family Editor, to make changes to massing, you must reload the mass families into your project for face-based elements and schedules to update.
Let’s take a moment to clarify the difference between in-place component modeling and massing. If you need to create a custom-shaped building element, such as the wall shown in Figure 8.3, you would use the Model In-Place command. You would set the category to Walls and then use either a blend or a sweep to generate the form of the wall. You’ll notice in the figure that the sectional dimensions of the wall are not consistent.
If you wanted to use a wall assembly with consistent sectional dimensions but configure the wall in a complex vertical layout, you would create a mass and then use the Wall By Face command. In the example shown in Figure 8.4, a generic wall is applied to the face of a mass that was created by generating a surface between two splines.
The rest of this chapter will focus solely on the creation of masses for the purpose of whole-building design. You can learn more about component modeling tools in Chapter 14, “Designing with the Family Editor.”
How you create masses (surface or solid) differs significantly from the UI used to create other standard family content. When you’re creating standard project content, you have specific geometry tools such as Extrusion and Sweep (Figure 8.5). In some ways, this is a noun-verb approach: You select a tool for the form that you want to create and then you take action to create it.
Creating a mass still requires that you know the form that you intend to create, but you’re not required to select a particular form type to get started. Rather, you start by simply creating the sketch-based elements that would define your shape. Then you select them as a group and choose the Create Form tool (Figure 8.6). This will allow you to create both solids and voids.
Both solid and surface may be created from model lines or reference lines; however, the differences are important. Keep in mind that your ability to further iterate the form that you create depends on whether you use model or reference lines to generate the form, even though the forms created may look exactly the same at first.
If your intent is to simply create a form that is not likely to require rule-based parameterization, using model lines is fine. Model lines are consumed by the form after you use the Create Form tool. In other words, the only way to get back to your original sketch form is to dissolve the shape. But if you intend to control the form with formulas and other parameters, it’s best to start with reference lines. Figure 8.7 shows the subtle graphic difference between the two line types. The model line shape is on the left, and the green reference lines are on the right. You will also notice that when reference lines are selected, they have much more capability to serve as multidimensional references for hosting other geometry.
Because the difference is so subtle on the screen, we recommend that you give your reference lines more thickness and lighten the default green color so that they stand out better, and make that a part of your project template.
Now that you are familiar with the difference between massing for components and whole-building massing, let’s look closer at the important capabilities that will help you develop building designs. Download and open the file c08-Massing-1-Start.rvt
or c08-Massing-1-Start-Metric.rvt
from this book’s website at www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevit2017. In this section, we will create some simple mass forms, generate mass floors, and then build schedule views to quantify the results. After you open either file, activate the Level 1 floor plan before starting the exercise.
Whether you create masses in place or in the Family Editor, you’re able to generate floor faces (not the actual floors) and schedule important metadata before you’ve even begun to assign actual geometry to the masses. This is important to do early in the design process because the masses will be “light” in your project—they won’t have a drastically negative impact on performance. Use them to establish your overall design idea and get a general idea for building size and area.
In-place mass forms can be both solid- and surface-based forms; however, masses that contain only surfaces cannot be analyzed for any sort of volumetric quantities. You can start an in-place mass in one of two ways: The first way is to select the Architecture tab in the ribbon, and on the Build panel, choose the Component ➢ Model In-Place command.
When you select this option, the Family Category And Parameters dialog box appears (Figure 8.8). You will be able to use the other massing tools only if the in-place component is assigned to the proper category. Be sure to select the Mass category and click OK.
The other way to create an in-place mass is to select the Massing & Site tab in the ribbon and from the Conceptual mass panel, choose the In-Place Mass command. In either case, when you start to create the mass, you’ll want to have the Mass category visible (it’s turned off by default in all views). Rather than confuse you by allowing you to create objects that wouldn’t be visible, the software prompts you to turn the category on (Figure 8.9).
Once you close this dialog box, you’ll be given the opportunity to name your in-place mass. In this case, you’re going to name the mass Cube (Figure 8.10).
After you’ve named the mass from the previous steps and clicked OK, you’ll be shown the Massing toolset for in-place families. The Create tab contains the tools that you’ll use to create solid and void geometry as well as surface-generated masses.
In the following exercise, we will create a cube, pyramid, and sphere (Figure 8.11) to demonstrate some uses for masses. Starting with the cube, its dimensions are 100′ × 100′ × 100′ (about 30 m × 30 m × 30 m). The base of the pyramid is the same size as the cube, with equal sides tapering to the same height. The sphere is the same width as the cube.
You’ve already started the command with either the Model In-Place or In-Place Mass command. The next step will be to create the 3D geometry inside the family. Mass geometry is created in a two-step process: First, create the 2D shape of the object; then use the Create Form tool to generate the 3D geometry. This process is different from typical modeling software applications because it does not require you to choose a specific modeling command before you begin to explore your design.
Now, let’s get into the details with the following steps:
From the Create panel in the ribbon, select the Circle tool from the Draw panel. In the Options bar, set the Placement Plane to Level : Midpoint. Set the Radius to 50′ (15 m).
You may get a warning that the elements are not visible in the current view. That’s fine for now; continue to the next step.
Activate the South elevation view. From the Draw panel in the ribbon, click the Line tool. You will be prompted to select a work plane. Choose the Name option, and from the drop-down list select Reference Plane : Pyramid Ctr. Sketch a triangle as shown in Figure 8.14. Make sure to use intersection and endpoint snapping to make the base of the triangle in line with Level 1 and at the intersection of the Top level and the vertical reference plane.
As each form was finished, the in-place mass was completed, and the process was repeated for each new mass. In the Project Browser, locate the Families branch and the Mass category. Expand the branch and you will see each mass as a separate item.
Continuing with the previous exercise, you will now load and place a mass family. There are many premade families in the default libraries for Revit software. We have already loaded a mass family in the project files for this exercise. Continue with the c08-Massing-1-Start.rvt
or c08-Massing-1-Start-Metric.rvt
file by following these steps:
When you switch back to a 3D view, you will see the Gable mass family in the same context as the in-place masses you created previously (Figure 8.16). All of the mass forms will function similarly as you assign mass floors, place building elements by face, and create schedules. The main difference is that to edit the geometry of the placed mass, you must do so by changing the values in the Properties palette. Keep in mind that you may also load a different mass family and swap one shape for another. You cannot swap an in-place family for a loaded family.
Once you have created some solid mass forms, it’s important to understand how to create mass floors. The Mass Floors dialog box allows you to generate some quick floor plates and get a rough idea of the floor areas available in your masses. This technique will work equally well with in-place masses or loaded mass families.
To create mass floors, follow these steps:
Wherever the selected levels intersect the mass forms, floor faces will be generated, as shown in Figure 8.18. Now the masses and floor faces can be calculated and scheduled. If you select any one of the masses and observe the parameters in the Properties palette, you will see that Gross Floor Area now reports an area that will change depending on how many mass floors are assigned to that mass.
With the mass floors created, you can now schedule them and begin to understand what kinds of areas you have for floor plates in these shapes. Remember, you can do this exercise with any type of mass shape, and it can be a great way to validate your building’s program against a variety of building forms.
Let’s continue with the exercise by following these steps:
Select the fields Family, Gross Floor Area, Gross Surface Area, and Gross Volume, as shown in Figure 8.20. Add them to the Scheduled Fields table by clicking the Add Parameter(s) button.
For this example, we’ll also show you how to create two calculated values. This will allow you to calculate the overall volume of each mass compared to the floor area, as well as the overall surface area compared to the floor area. Schedules like this will be helpful during the early design process to help you understand how efficient the space of your design is compared to the volume and surface area required to contain that space. Follow these steps:
To create your next calculated value, click the Calculated Value button again and name this formula Surface to Floor Ratio. In the Formula box, enter the following formula and again be sure to maintain the correct case: Gross Surface Area / Gross Floor Area. Once you’ve entered the formula, click OK (Figure 8.22).
The finished schedule is shown in Figure 8.23. Notice that, proportionally, a sphere and a cube have efficient floor areas compared to their corresponding surface area and volume.
On the other hand, the pyramid mass will require significantly more surface and volume to create the same relative surface area as a cube or a sphere; thus, a pyramid takes far more surface area than a cube to contain the same amount of space.
You can download the finished file from the book’s web page. It’s in the Chapter 8 folder and is named c08-Massing-1-Finished.rvt
.
Now that we have discussed how to create or place solid mass forms, let’s review some of the ways in which you can generate massing surfaces. Similar to the process of creating a solid massing form, you can select one or more lines and then use the Create Form tool to generate a surface. Figure 8.24 shows a number of reference line types you can create with the Draw tools: Spline Through Points, Spline, Curve, and Line.
As you can see in Figure 8.25, each of these reference lines has different control points that allow for further control.
Because these are not closed loops, the form that will generate from each of these segments will only be a surface (Figure 8.26). You generate the form by selecting each of the lines (one at a time, not together) and then selecting Create Form ➢ Solid Form.
You can also create surface-based forms from more than one line at a time. The result is a surface that can be controlled in more complex ways than a single line.
Take the Spline Through Points line, for example. The form on the left in Figure 8.27 creates a face that is controlled by a single reference line, whereas the form on the right is a face controlled by two (and it could be more) reference lines.
Moving the location of the control points on the form on the left maintains a consistent height to the top of the surface previously generated, whereas moving the control points of the surface on the right creates a surface that varies in height (Figure 8.28).
After a surface is generated, it’s also possible to add more profiles, as illustrated by Figure 8.29. A profile is basically a joint in the form, allowing for another control location. Any profile you add will respond in the same way the edges of the mass respond, by allowing you to modify and manipulate both them and their location. We’ll demonstrate how to use this tool and the rest of the Form Element panel later in the chapter. For now, we’ll step through some of the tools so you can get an understanding of the relationship of tool to form and see how quickly you can create forms.
After the profile was added, it was moved to create a bulge in the surface (far right shown in Figure 8.30).
The fourth iteration of the form was created by selecting the surface and then choosing the Dissolve tool in the contextual tab of the ribbon. This removed the surface but left us with all the references used to create the form.
Once the face was dissolved, another reference called Spline Through Points was added between the upper and lower reference splines. The result is shown in Figure 8.31.
Selecting all three references and then choosing the Create Form tool stitched them all into a new single-surface form (Figure 8.32).
Selecting the points within the middle reference allowed for even more complex surface control (Figure 8.33).
Keep in mind that selecting lines or shapes to create forms is a sequential operation (when it’s not in a closed loop). Window-selecting all the splines and then creating the surface will result in very different forms than if you were to sequentially select adjacent splines (Figure 8.34). The result is that the surface form isn’t interpolated as smooth between the upper and lower splines. Instead, a distinct edge is created between the two splines.
As you can see, it’s easy to create complex surface forms using reference lines. Now let’s begin to create complex forms using reference planes.
Now that you are familiar with the basic functionality of the massing tools, let’s learn how to generate and explore building forms in an informal way. The exercise in this section will build on the skills you learned in the previous section, and you will learn how to directly manipulate solid geometry using grips, gizmos, and dimensions.
Start by downloading and opening either c08-Massing-2-Start.rvt
or c08-Massing-2-Start-Metric.rvt
from the book’s web page. Begin the exercise by following these steps:
Open the Default 3D view, and click the Modify button in the ribbon. Hover the mouse pointer over one of the lines in the rectangle sketch. Press the Tab key until you see Form: Form Element displayed in the status bar. Select the form element and you will see controls that allow you to pull the surface into a solid (Figure 8.35). Using the control pointing in the up direction, press and drag it until the form is about 140′ (43 m) tall.
There are a number of shape handles that allow you to modify each face, edge, and intersection. Simply hovering over each face, edge, and vertex will highlight the appropriate control. You can also press the Tab key on the keyboard to select the desired control. We’ll step through some of the selections to give you an idea of what the controls for the faces, sides, and points look like.
Select the point at the intersection of several edges. You will likely need to press the Tab key to select a corner point. This control allows you to modify the location of a vertex (Figure 8.38).
The control arrow allows you to modify the selected element parallel to the direction of the arrow, whereas the angled indicators of the same colors as their corresponding arrows allow you to modify the location of the selected element perpendicular to the arrow.
There are also some tools to help you with the visualizations of the mass, especially as it gets more complex. One of these is the X-Ray tool, which will take a solid and turn it into a semitransparent form. Turn on X-Ray mode by selecting the form and clicking the X-Ray button on the Form Element panel. This will let you see any of the profiles and controls on the other side of the object.
Now that X-Ray mode has been enabled, look at the options that are provided for turning a rather simple, extruded form into something complex. An edge may be added to an existing form from vertex to vertex or parallel with the trajectory of the form (shown as a dotted line from the upper to the lower face).
Once the edge has been added, you can push or pull the face adjacent to the new edge, as shown in Figure 8.40. Click the Modify button, and then select the face to the left of the edge you created in the previous step. Press and drag the green control arrow to move the face back into the extruded form.
Now, let’s say you have come to a point in your design exploration when you would like to simplify the mass form you’ve created and start exploring some other alternatives. The tool to perform this function is called Dissolve. Using the Dissolve function will remove the mass solid and leave behind the profiles that define the solid. The dot in the center of each plane is a control that will allow you to edit the elevation, rotation, and location of each profile.
Continue with the c08-Massing-2-Start.rvt
or c08-Massing-2-Start-Metric.rvt
file you used for the previous exercise, and follow these steps:
Select all the remaining profiles and then click Create Form ➢ Solid Form. This will stitch the form back together in a way that interpolates the shape as more of a lofted blend (Figure 8.46). Once the new shape is created, you can add more profiles or edit the shape using the tools we just reviewed.
There are a few other ways to generate shapes using the profiles you just created. For instance, if you select only two profiles at a time, then you’ll get a form like the one in Figure 8.47. This form was created by first selecting the bottom and middle profiles and then creating the form. Then the middle and upper profiles were selected and another form was created. The result is straight—rather than curved—interpolation between the profiles.
As another way to generate form using these profiles, you can alter the shape of the profiles before you create the form again. In the next steps, you will delete the straight edges along one side of the profiles and then define a curved edge.
Start by deleting the existing edges along the right side (you’ll have to tab to select just the edges), as shown in Figure 8.48.
Now you’ll want to draw a fillet arc to rejoin the two remaining edges. Before you can draw the arc, you first have to define the right work plane.
Creating additional mass solids is easy. You can select an existing face, as shown in Figure 8.50, and then select the Create Form command.
The same tools were used to create the form shown in Figure 8.51. Click the Finish Mass command in the contextual tab of the ribbon and return to the regular project environment.
Once you’re out of In-Place Massing mode, you’ll notice that if you select the model, many shape handles simultaneously appear in the form of solid blue arrowheads (Figure 8.52). You can use shape handles to push and pull your solid mass, but you won’t be able to modify edges or vertices without reentering In-Place Massing mode.
Figure 8.53 shows the finished mass in a perspective view. Both solids and voids can be used to complete a mass form. Whereas solids will add more geometry, voids will remove geometry from your mass.
To demonstrate this, we’ll return to In-Place Massing mode and create another face on the top of the existing form (Figure 8.54).
If you create the void as a void, it will immediately cut the solid mass and become invisible. This can be annoying when you’re trying to resolve your design and want to selectively cut after you’ve intuitively resolved a design idea. Fortunately, there’s another way to create the form as a void.
Follow these steps:
Figure 8.56 shows the result of the void cutting the solid. Note how the form on the left side of the image has changed from Figure 8.53. Keep in mind that if you want to convert the void back to a solid, you’ll have to uncut any geometry that was being cut by the void. But the nice thing about this technique (converting solids to voids and then cutting) is that you’ve selectively cut only the solids that you wanted to cut. Had you originally modeled the void as a void, you would have found that the void was cutting many solids and you’d have had to uncut solids that weren’t even overlapping with the void!
Overall, creating solid masses intuitively is a great way to establish, analyze, and visualize your overall design idea. As you saw previously in the chapter, mass floors allow you to even quantify gross floor areas before you’ve committed to geometry.
Furthermore, it’s possible to put different intuitive massing ideas inside different design options (covered in Chapter 10, “Working with Phasing, Groups, and Design Options”) so that many ideas can live in a single Revit project file. Simply initiate worksharing and create worksets for each study mass. Multiple team members will be able to see one another’s work at the same time and in context with their design ideas. This is the holistic kind of team approach to design information that makes massing a unique and valuable design tool. If you’d like to investigate this file further, you can download the file c08-Massing-2-Finished.rvt
from the Chapter 8 folder of the book’s web page.
Next, we’ll investigate parametric and formulaic solid mass creation in the Family Editor.
Formula-driven massing can be done in the project environment, but the challenge is that you have to work in the context of the project, and all the parameters, formulas, reference planes, and lines can start to get in the way. Therefore, having the option of creating form-driven masses in the Family Editor without the clutter of the project environment can help you focus on what you’re trying to accomplish.
In this section of the chapter, we will show you two different methods for creating formula-driven massing. First, you will create a generic model family and then load it into the project environment as part of an in-place mass. Second, you will create a conceptual mass family to observe the differences in modeling tools and how they will affect your design explorations.
Although it’s possible to create complex forms as a generic model in the Family Editor, they do not behave as masses when you place them in the project. You can assign standard walls, curtain walls, and roofs to the faces, but you can’t add patterns, create mass floors, or even schedule the results as a mass. The tools you will use in this exercise are the tools available for building most other 3D content using extrusions, sweeps, and blends. It’s good to understand how to use these tools so you’re familiar with all the types of modeling in Revit software.
Open a Generic Model template by choosing the Application button ➢ New ➢ Family. Select either Generic Model.rft
or Metric Generic Model.rft
from the list of default templates.
In some cases, you can change the category of a family by clicking the Family Category and Parameters button in the ribbon; however, you can’t convert a generic model family to a mass (Figure 8.57). You’ll need to maintain the family as a Generic Model and then place it into an in-place mass within a project.
Draw another reference line in a downward direction along the y-axis (Figure 8.59). These reference lines will control the angular “twist” in your finished family.
Now you’re going to create a blend that will be associated with the reference lines you just created. The bottom of the blend will be associated with the first reference line, and the top of the blend will be associated with the second reference line.
Edit Tooltip: Bottom width of blend
The plan view should now look similar to the image in Figure 8.62. You can adjust the value of the BW parameter by clicking the Family Types icon from the Properties panel in the ribbon.
Edit Tooltip: Bottom angle, counterclockwise from 90
Furthermore, you can add parameters to control the top and bottom angles of the blend. We’ve called these instance parameters BA and TA (for bottom angle and top angle, respectively).
Edit Tooltip: Top angle, clockwise from 270
Figure 8.65 also shows all the parameters that control this blend. From the Create tab in the ribbon, click the Family Types icon. Go ahead and test the parameter values by changing angles in the Properties palette and clicking the Apply button (or moving your mouse out of the palette). The form should rotate and twist. This is how you will interact with the form after you load it into a project environment.
You’re going to use the edges of this blend to drive the geometry that you’re going to create, but since you don’t want to see this blend, turn it into a void. With the blend selected, use the Solid/Void drop-down list in the Properties palette (Figure 8.66). The blend form will change color to a yellow-orange if you set your visual style of the view to Shaded.
Save the family on your computer as Generic Model Mass.rfa
. With the form created, it’s now possible to load this family into your project environment and place it within an in-place mass. To do this, follow these steps:
Activate the South elevation view and add 15 additional levels. Space the levels every 10′ (3 m) apart, as shown in Figure 8.70, so that there are levels that extend across the entire elevation of your massing.
We’ve also rendered the model, as shown in Figure 8.73. The results are quite interesting, and you’ll still have the ability to modify the underlying parametric family and then rehost the faces. You’ll also be able to schedule the volume, surface, and floor area of the mass.
You can download and further investigate the files that were used to create this exercise in the Chapter 8 folder of the book’s web page. Download the project file c08_Parametric_Generic_Massing_Finish.rvt
, which contains the in-place massing and the loaded generic element.
Now let’s begin to investigate how to create parametric massing in the Family Editor using the conventional massing tools.
Image courtesy of CASE
In the previous exercise, we used the basic modeling tools that are available for most family categories. The tools available in the conceptual massing environment are somewhat different. In the next exercise, you will open a conceptual mass family that we have started with a number of datum objects and embedded formulas.
Overall, the UI is not too dissimilar from the project environment. It’s as if you’re creating masses in-place—except that you’re not in the project environment; you’re in the Family Editor. One significant difference that you can see is that there is a single level and two reference planes, which also define the origin for a massing family (Figure 8.74). Keep in mind that when you reload this family into your project, it will update relative to the origin in the family.
In the past, the ability to parametrically control objects in the massing editor was done using reference planes and reference lines. The Revit development team introduced reference point elements in 2010, which add another level of control to model elements. Point elements allow for Cartesian X, Y, Z, as well as rotational control.
With all complex and parametrically controlled families, we think it’s best to understand complex families to get the basic rules down first. In this case, the rules are the parameters and formulas that will control a twisting, tapering tower.
To begin this exercise, download and open the file c08-Formula-Massing-Start.rfa
or c08-Formula-Massing-Start-Metric.rfa
from the book’s web page. Open the Family Types dialog box and observe the parameters and formulas that are included with the exercise file, as shown in Figure 8.75.
We will briefly describe how this conceptual mass family was created so you can get an overview of the process and employ similar techniques on your own designs. Similar to the steps you performed in the previous exercise, reference lines were used to generate a square sketch at the first reference level.
The reference lines were dimensioned with equality constraints based on the reference planes defining the origin. Overall dimensions were placed and associated with the W0 parameter (Figure 8.76). W0 is shorthand for the width dimension on the 0-level.
Activating the South Elevation, you can see seven reference points were placed at the intersection of the default reference planes. Each reference point was then elevated manually by dragging the up arrow to move it away from the other overlapping point elements (Figure 8.77).
When you select a reference point, you have the option to associate any of the point’s properties with any of the family parameters developed for this conceptual mass. This is done by clicking the small button in the Properties palette next to each property value. For each reference point in this exercise file, the Offset property was associated with a corresponding L-parameter (Figure 8.78). The L-parameters refer to the level number of each of your point elements. The first point element is associated with the parameter named L1 because it is reference Level 1. The second point is associated with L2, and so on. When you associate a property with a family parameter, you’ll notice that the button fills with a small equal sign.
By default, the reference point elements are just spherical nodes. Their reference planes are not visible. To make them a little more usable for your modeling purposes, you can set them to display their internal reference planes. With a reference point selected, in the Properties palette you will find a property called Show Reference Planes; set it to Always, and the reference planes of the point elements will be visible (Figure 8.79).
Next, the Rotation Angle property of each reference point was associated with the corresponding family parameter. Point 1 was associated with A1 (angle 1), Point 2 with A2, and so on.
We then used the Set command in the Work Plane panel to use each point’s horizontal plane as the working reference to draw a square sketch of reference lines associated with each point. Each sketch was dimensioned in a similar way to the first sketch. The dimensions for the sketch associated with Point 1 are W1, the Point 2 sketch dimensions are W2, and so on. Switching to the 3D with Dimensions view, you can see this (Figure 8.80).
For clarity, we’ve hidden the dimensions in the default 3D view so that you can see all the reference lines and point elements. If you’d like to see all the dimensions configured in this exercise file, activate the 3D view named 3D with Dimensions.
Now let’s begin to create some mass forms using the parametrically driven framework of reference lines in this exercise file. Follow these steps to get started:
If you want to learn more about expanding the use of the divided surfaces on massing forms, see Chapter 12, “Creating Walls and Curtain Walls.” In that chapter, we discuss the modeling techniques to create custom panel families and how to apply them to pattern-based curtain walls.
Creating interesting and complex massing studies that can be parametrically controlled isn’t just a skill developed over time. The rules that you develop to make and reiterate your designs are also carefully considered aesthetic choices to make decisions rather than blobs! To see this file, go to the Chapter 8 folder and download c08-Formula-Massing-Project_Finished.rvt
. Be sure to turn on Show Mass Form And Floors on the Massing & Site tab if it’s not turned on when you open the file.
Create and schedule massing studies. Starting the design process with actual building elements can lead to a lot of unexpected frustration. Walls lead to rooms, which get room tags and eventually scheduled. But if you’ve failed to fulfill the client’s program, you’ll wonder where to start over!
Master It You’re faced with creating some design studies of a large hospital complex. How would you go about creating a Revit project that would allow you to create a massing study and schedule it against the design client’s program?
Know when to use solid and surface masses. Solid masses and surface masses can both be used to maintain relationships to host geometry like walls and roofs, but surface masses can’t be volumetrically scheduled or contain floor area faces.
Master It You’ve been asked to create a complex canopy system for the entry to a hotel project. The system will consist of a complex wave of triangular panels. What kind of mass would you create?
Use mathematical formulas for massing. Not all massing is going to involve intuitive, in-the-moment decision making. By discovering the underlying rules that express a form, you can create the formulas that can iterate and manipulate your massing study. So rather than manually manipulating the mass, you manipulate the formulas related to your mass.
Master It What’s the best way to discover and create these formulas?