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Creating Custom Wall Types |
The creation of new wall types consists of modifying wall structure and function properties. If you have a series of wall types that are standard in your office, create them and add them to your project template. A wall can be a simple structure (single-component wall) or a complex structure (multi-component wall). The definition of the structure of the wall requires editing the wall’s Type Properties. You can create new wall types at any stage in a project by duplicating existing types and adjusting layers and other parameters.
The Structure (Edit Assembly) dialog, shown in Figure 5.3, is where you define the layers of the wall type. This dialog is divided into four zones: the Preview window, the Layers table, the Wrap- ping zone, and the Modify Vertical Structure zone (covered in detail in Chapter 11). |
Figure 5.3
The Wall Edit Assembly dialog |
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| The Preview Window |
| Located on the left side of the dialog box, you see a graphical preview of the wall structure in plan (the default) or section view. (If you don’t see the preview, click the Preview button at the bottom left of the dialog.) To switch from the default plan view preview to section view preview and vice versa, click the drop-down list under View to choose another viewing option. In plan preview, the core boundaries of the wall are drawn with green lines. In section view, these lines aren’t shown. In section preview, however, when you select a row or a layer in the layer properties, the layer will be highlighted in red. |
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| The Layers Table |
This is where you add, delete, or move a layer of the wall structure. Each wall layer is represented as a separate row of information. Note that two of the rows are gray: They represent the boundaries of the core of the wall (the structural part of the wall). They don’t represent any physical component but are just a visual representation of the separation between the structural and non-structural components of the wall. In between those two gray zones is the wall’s structural core layer.
The table is divided into four columns: Function, Material, Thickness, and Wraps: |
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| Function This column provides six options that relate to the purpose of the material in the wall assembly. Each layer has a priority assigned to it that determines how it joins with other walls, floors, and roofs: |
Structure [1]: Defines the structural components of the wall that support that should be the rest of the wall components (layers). This layer is the highest priority and joins with other structural layers by cutting through weaker layers.
Substrate [2]: Forms a foundation for other layers (materials such as plywood or gypsum board).
Thermal/Air [3]: Defines the wall’s insulation layer. Membrane Layer: A zero thickness material that usually represents vapor prevention.
Finish 1 [4]: A finish layer to use if you have only one layer of finish (gypsum wall board).
Finish 2 [5]: A secondary, weaker finish layer (plaster, tiles, or brick). |
| With the exception of the membrane layer, all the other layers have a priority from 1 to 5. Revit uses the priorities of the layers in a wall to understand how to clean up/work out the intersec- tions between various layers when two or more walls meet at an intersection. The principle is simple: Priority 1 is the highest in order; a layer that has a value of 1 cuts through any other layer with a lower priority value (2, 3, 4, 5). A layer with priority 2 cuts layers with priority 3, 4, or 5, and so on. Logically, the layer with priority 1 should be placed between the core limits and rep- resents the core of the wall (the bearing component); the other layers should be outside the core. Revit starts sorting out wall joins by beginning with the highest-priority components and then working down the priorities (Figure 5.4). |
Figure 5.4
Layers with same pri- ority clean up when joined as shown on the right |
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| Material Associating a material to a wall layer provides graphical as well as physical charac- teristics for the wall. With a material, you can calculate the quantity of that material used in your project and schedule this information. The material also knows to clean up when it joins with other walls, floors, and roofs that are made of the same material. How does a material definition affect the cleanup. The material usage informs Revit how to treat wall layers at intersections. If the priority of the layers is the same and the material is the same, Revit cleans up the join between these two layers, and they graphically show a consistent material. If the materials are different, even though their priority is the same, Revit separates the two layers graphically with a thin line (Figure 5.5). |
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| Thickness This value represents the actual thickness of the material. Note that the membrane layer is the only layer that can have zero-thickness value. |
Figure 5.5
Two layers with same priority but different materials: The clean- up between the layers isn’t taking place be- cause of the different materials used. The separation between the two layers is indi- cated with a thin line |
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| Wraps Wall layers rarely end with a straight-cut finish at wall ends or wall penetrations (windows and doors). This option, when selected, allows a layer to wrap around other layers (Figure 5.6). You can define different settings for wrapping the end of walls or openings. To create a wrapping solution that reflects a real-life condition, this setting probably won’t be sufficient. All you can define in the Wall Editor is if a material layer will wrap and whether it’s an exterior or interior wrap. The Wall Editor alone can only solve wrapping conditions in a generic way. To achieve more complex wraps like the one shown in Figure 5.6, you must define another set of rules in the Family Editor, while creating the window or door family itself. These additional settings, combined with the wrap function of the wall layer, will produce more com- plex wrap conditions such as the one shown |
Figure 5.6
Layer wrapping. Left: Wrapping is applied only to the first exteri- or component of the wall, and only that layer wraps around the window opening. Right: The first and second exterior com- ponents have wrap- ping active, so they both wrap around the opening of the window |
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To summarize, editing the wall structure means adding or deleting wall layers. Each of those lay- ers needs to be associated with a priority, a material, thickness, and wrap information. To move layers up and down in the table, or to add and remove layers, use the buttons at the bottom of the dialog.
Once layers have been defined and positioned, you need to consider a few more properties. |
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| Default Wrapping |
| Each wall layer can either wrap or not wrap at the ends of the wall or at inserts (windows, doors, openings). To make this happen in the project, you need to decide whether the wrapping should occur at openings or wall ends or at both conditions. For inserts, you can choose Do Not Wrap, Exterior, Interior, or Both. Similarly, for wall ends, the options are None, Exterior, and Interior. The default wrapping parameters appear in both the Edit Assembly window (Figure 5.3) and the wall’s Type Properties dialog, as shown here: |
| Insert Image |
| Level of DetailS |
| Walls have only two different styles of graphic display for the three levels of detail: one for Coarse and another for Medium and Fine views. You will notice that changing from Medium to Fine view and vice versa will have no effect on the graphic display of the wall. |
Coarse display This is defined as a type property for each wall family. You can set both Coarse Scale Fill Pattern and Fill Color. If no Coarse Scale fill is set, then what you will get in coarse dis- play will be the material that is set for the wall category in the Object Style and no interior layers will be displayed.
Medium/Fine display Defined in the Type Properties dialog, in the Wall Assembly area where materials are defined that establish the cut and surface pattern for the each layer of the wall |
| In Figure 5.7, Coarse Scale Fill Pattern is set to a solid fill and Color to black. You can see the dif- ference in how these walls present in the same plan. |
Managing Layer Position
When you insert new layers, the newly created layer is always positioned below the active layer (the selected layer) in the layer table. To position your new layer properly, you can either click the Insert button and use the Up or Down buttons to position the new layer wherever you need it, or you can select the layer you want to reposition with the mouse (place the mouse at the beginning of the line and select the entire line as shown in Figure 5.3) and again, using the Up and Down buttons reposition it where you need it. By default, each time you insert a new layer, it has a Priority value of Structure [1], a Material set- ting of By Category, and a Thickness value of 0, and Wrap is selected:
Insert image
Note that you can not delete the layer between the two gray lines (the structural portion of the wall) if it is the only or the last one. A structural layer must exist and have at least one layer that has a value greater than zero. If you make a wall that has only one material (like a concrete foundation wall), you must place that one concrete layer between the gray core-boundary lines. |
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Figure 5.7
The difference be- tween (left) coarse and (right) fine views is that layers aren’t shown, and you can define a drafting pat- tern if you wish |
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| Wall Function |
| Each wall has a function whose value is Interior, Exterior, Foundation, Retaining, or Soffit. Chang- ing this parameter doesn’t affect the geometry of the wall but is useful for controlling the visibility of walls and for scheduling purposes. Another important aspect of this categorization is during export to DWG: You can assign each functional wall type to a different CAD layer for export. |
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