Thursday, June 27, 2013

Curtain Wall Door Scheduling Bug in Revit


One of the time saving tools in Revit is the ability to schedule doors and windows automatically.  Data in the schedule can include information such as mark, dimensions, quantity, and even the room names and numbers on either side of each door.  As the doors, and their parameters, change, the information is instantly updated in the schedule.  It was recently brought to our attention, by Timothy in Detroit, that there is a bug (or "feature" if you prefer) in Revit that prevents the room to/from data from appearing in schedule when the door exists in a curtain wall system created on the face of a mass*.

The project shown below has four wall elements: Wall, Wall by Face, Curtain Wall System by Face, and a Curtain Wall and each hosts a door object.


Room Separation lines are used to close the room on both sides of the doors and the areas were defined as rooms.

Each door is tagged and the Mark value added manually for the curtain wall doors.

Using the menu option View > Schedules > Schedules/Quantities opens the New Schedule dialog box where a Door schedule is created.



In the Schedule Properties dialog box, add the Mark field then, from the Select Available Fields From drop down list, choose From Room.  This provides additional, room-based fields that can be added to the door schedule.

 
Add the From Room: Number field to the Scheduled Fields column.  Repeat this after selecting To Room from the Select Available Fields From drop down list.




Click the Sorting/Grouping tab and choose Mark from the drop-down list and make sure the Ascending radio button is selected.  This organizes the schedule by door mark value from lowest to highest.  Click OK


The schedule is created displaying the default From Room and To Room Number value for each door.  This value can be overridden by selecting the other room from the drop-down list.  Changing the value in one column automatically swaps the value in the other column.



Notice that the door in the curtain wall system by face (door number 3) does not have a default value and no values are selectable from the drop-down list.




This is a bug that tends to leave a hole in you schedule and can affect the FM uses of a BIM model.  It has been reported and Autodesk is aware of the issue and (hopefully) will address it in an upcoming release or patch

 *This has been tested through Revit 2013.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Building Envelope Terminologies

Have you ever wondered how a "chicken head" is used in curtain wall?  How about the difference between Mineral Fiber and Mineral Wool?  A Dead Load Anchor and a Wind Load Anchor?  From AAMA to Window Wall this glossary of building envelope terms, provided by Wheaton & Sprague Engineering, defines many of the industry specific terms and phrases.   The glossary is found here: http://www.wheatonsprague.com/building-envelope-industry-terms.htm