Mass Floor Area vs Volume

I managed to trick myself into believing that area and volume for a "floor" should be the same whether a mass has one or several mass floors. To help explain my delusion, I created a mass that is a 50x50x50 cube, with five levels.

If I remove two levels from the mix (levels 2 and 5) I get twice the volume for floors at Level 1 and 4

Looking at the 3D view it immediately made sense to me. Looking at the schedule I found myself thinking something was wrong. Why is there double the volume? Why would the floor think it is so much bigger? The real problem was my perception. I was thinking floor, the thing I walk on, instead of a "floor", where I am in the building.

If it isn't obvious, the Mass Floor area is the surface area of the mass floor element. The Mass Floor Volume is the volume between mass floors or the top and bottom of the mass if there are no other mass floors.

Btw, you can select and delete a mass floor, like in a 3D view for example, and that's the same as opening the Mass Floors dialog and un-checking a level.

No Way! Way! Live Slices

This is a echo of Zach's post tonight... in his video he says that we will say "No Way" and he'll respond "Way" and it will degenerate from there. Naturally I felt compelled to say "No way!" with a post... He's demonstrating how he built a family that can describe the profile of another form by placing its points on the host form. It's an adaptive point family that includes additional points that generate the same shape as the end result of the points you place on the massing form, "live" slices of the form. Pretty cool, pretty high rests the bar, Zach does...

Here's his video, read his POST on BUILDZ.

Massing a Property Boundary

I read a thread at RevitForum.org last week that asked about seeing a property boundary in section views. Property Lines in Revit are just 2D so they don't show up, thus the question. It occurred to me as I read it that massing might fit the bill.

I started with a property boundary using the Property Line tool since it works nicely for that purpose otherwise. I used that as the "control" for the massing form.

Using an in-place mass family I sketched around the property boundary and used a parameter to manage an "offset", just in case I need to push/pull the massing edge. After I created a form from the sketch I did the same to control the top sketch with a separate parameter so I could potentially push/pull it too.

Now this will appear in a section view.

Taken a step further I added a void to remove the portion of the property mass that is "buildable" according to setback parameters. The design had better fit inside that "hole"!

Here's what the Parameters I used are.

I used a Massing sub-category to manage what the massing looked like, line pattern and color, so it would be easier to distinguish as a property boundary...hopefully.

Project Vasari is now available at Autodesk Labs

If you missed it, it's posted at Autodesk Labs now!

...snip
Overview
Autodesk® Project Vasari is an easy-to-use, expressive design tool for creating building concepts. Vasari goes further, with integrated analysis for energy and carbon, providing design insight where the most important design decisions are made. And, when it’s time to move the design to production, simply bring your Vasari design data into the Autodesk® Revit® platform for BIM, ensuring clear execution of design intent.

Project Vasari is focused on conceptual building design using both geometric and parametric modeling. It supports performance-based design via integrated energy modeling and analysis features. This new technology preview is now available as a free download and trial on Autodesk Labs
...snip

At Autodesk Labs you'll need to click Download Now and sign in.

The Labs page for Vasari offers the reason for the choice of the name:
...snip
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian and architect who was born in 1511 and died in 1574. He is remembered for his biographies of other Italian artists and is considered the founder of art-historical writing. In his honor, Project Vasari is the name of the latest technology preview on Autodesk Labs.
...snip

Project Vasari - Revit Conceptual Modeling Tools

This video showed up at the AutodeskBuilding You Tube channel. The Inside the Factory blog mentioned it as well as David Light and Robert Manna. Imagine the conceptual modeling environment available in a stripped down version of Revit. Keep an eye out for more on this, probably showing up at Autodesk Labs. There's no audio, other than music, in the video. It's a quick demo of what will be possible.

Where did my Mass go?

More than one Revit user has started a project with massing, saved and closed the file, moved on to something else for awhile only to return and suffer a brief scary moment when they see nothing in their model!! No mass!! Did I forget to save my work? Did Revit kill my work? Panic begins to set in...oh wait!! Show Mass!! Aaahhh...calm begins to return.


You can also find it under the View menu > Show Mass.

When you first use the massing tools Revit displays this message.


It boils down to this, Revit is saying, "Steve, the massing category is not on, you can't see it!! So I'll turn massing on for you globally (all views) without you having to manually turn massing on in every view using visibility/Graphics overrides. Okay?"

The alternative is to use Visibility/Graphic overrides in each view to turn on the mass category. By default it is off in each view.


The message also tells that you'll have to do this in order to print/export your massing work.

Now...in Revit 2010 you'll find things the same only different. Instead of a menu or toolbar button you'll find a "Menoolbar"...I'm sorry I meant Ribbon tab called Massing & Site.

Instead of the little message I got earlier from Revit I get this one.

Says the "same" thing only differently. Of course the massing capabilities have changed significantly with 2010 but that's a different post...or many posts.

Next time...don't panic!!...and remember your towel!

Wish - Mass Floor Selection Dialog

Most of the time I want to select all or nearly all the levels in my project when using Mass Floors. It would be nice if the dialog offered a ALL and NONE selection button to make it faster. Similar to other dialogs like the Filter Dialog for example. Here's what I'm thinking...


In the meantime I just select the first level, press the Shift Key and then select the last Level. Then I check any level's check box...same thing only different.

When I says Mass I Means Mass

Said with "Popeye the Sailorman's" voice...

When a savy ADT user starts using Revit they can get into trouble quick when they start getting comfortable by applying the ADT concept of "Mass" to Revit's concept of "Mass". The equivalent terminology for Mass/ADT is Generic Model/Revit. When you use the Mass category for a piece of furniture you are creating trouble for yourself. Revit expects you to use the family category "furniture" for that.

What kind of trouble? You can't schedule them as furniture, you can't change them to furniture, you can't turn off massing because you "need" it visible because you made "furniture" using Massing...get the idea?

When you create a curvy swoopy wall, don't "lean" toward mass, lean toward an In-Place Wall family. Now experienced users are thinking, "But Steve, I can use Massing to create the shape I need and then apply a wall to that!"

YES, THAT is what Revit's use of the term "Mass" is intended for. Mass or Massing in Revit is meant to describe what the terms are used for in the context of architecture, building form, not arbitrary discreet pieces or parts. Revit has lots of pre-defined categories for those and for those that don't fit into one of them we have Generic Model and Specialty Equipment. As a means to describe the "broad brush" building form a Mass Element can host Walls, Floors, Roofs and Curtain Systems. Here's a quick example I did in the past that just shows massing and floor slabs, well...a helicopter and a couple cars too...



The above represents a building that is 945K+ SF, mocked up in about 15 minutes, nothing serious, just playing around.

Here is another little example I played around with on a plane ride the other night.


I was thinking of a medium size design firm in a semi urban setting where the executives would park beneath the building. The patterns are just material/surface patterns assigned to the massing. Good old shadows make it "nice"

One more for the road...this is three curtain wall systems applied to massing that describes curving surfaces in plan, elevation and section so that it has a slight "beer" belly. The massing is off in the view leaving behind just the curtain systems. I was sloppy because I didn't take care to align the curtain grids/mullions but then we did this on a short break between "real teechin"...a good old "Can Revit do X" question.


Elements created using the Mass category cannot be changed to other categories. This is because of the hard-wired behavior Revit assigns to elements using this category. If you make in-place "walls" and choose the Mass category instead of the "Wall" category you are headed for pain and re-work..."you know who you are"...sorry, I warned you didn't I?

If you haven't explored Revit's Massing tools, take a look at the help documentation to get a sense of its purpose and capabilities.



Then try it out!!