Working with Reference Plans

00:02

When we engage in creating masses, we need to be careful.

00:06

Massing can go in quickly, and some pretty cool shapes can be created.

00:10

However, the faster we create this cool geometry, the faster we can create inaccuracy in that geometry.

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That's why I like reference planes.

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Reference planes act like structural grids. Only structural grids are reserved for, well, structure, and not architectural massing.

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The great thing about reference planes,

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however, is that we can actually name them and use them as a named work plane in plan and elevation.

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So therefore, the objective of this video is to create some unique reference planes to serve as a grid for our massing.

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So let's jump into Revit.

00:53

Here we are in Revit, and let's go open up our model.

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We click on the open icon and browse out to where our model sits.

01:04

And we want to create a new local copy of the model.

01:10

We want to override the existing copy. Okay, you'll notice that we have under Floor Plans a Roof Plan.

01:18

We want to duplicate that, so I right-click on the roof and go to Duplicate View, Duplicate.

01:26

It creates a copy of the roof plan, and it's named Roof Copy 1.

01:32

We want to rename that, so I right-click on it and go to Rename, and we'll call it Garden.

01:40

We don't need the entire area, so I'm going to crop the region.

01:45

I'll first make the crop region visible, and then I click on the crop region.

01:54

And with the grips, I reduce it to the size that I want, just around the garden area.

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I do that on all four sides, and then I type in ZA for Zoom All.

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Okay, now let's start drawing these reference planes.

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On the Architecture tab, to the far right under the Work Plane panel, click on Ref Plane.

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Now I could start drawing the reference planes right away. I'm prompted for that.

02:28

However, I want to create a subcategory for these garden reference planes.

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So I click on the drop-down and select Create New Subcategory.

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I'm prompted immediately for a name. I type in Garden Roof. Click OK.

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And I want them to stand out a little bit, so I click on the color cell and I select the red color.

02:59

And for the line pattern, I click on the drop-down list and select Dash 3/16.

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I click Apply. And I click OK.

03:13

Now I'm still prompted for my reference plane. However, I know that the visual graphics for the reference planes is currently turned off.

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So I click on the Modify tab in the top left, type in VG for Visibility Graphics.

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I go to the Annotation Categories and I scroll down to Reference Planes.

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You notice the little plus next to Reference Planes?

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So I can expand that, and you'll notice that the subcategory for Garden Roof is already there.

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So I click on the checkmark for Reference Planes.

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Scroll down further for Sections. That is also disabled, so I click on Sections and enable those as well.

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And I click OK. You'll note that the existing sections are now visible.

04:05

It's time to create our reference planes. I go to the Architecture tab, under Work Plane, and click on Reference Planes.

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And I want to set my subcategory to Garden Roof that we previously created.

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It's already prompting me for the start point of the reference plane.

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So I zoom in to this beam. When I go to the midpoint, I type in SM, which snaps to the midpoint.

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And I drag it out a little bit to the left.

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I have an option to name this reference plane.

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So I click on the space and call it Garden dash 01.

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When I provide a numeric suffix like this, then when I copy this,

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Revit is going to update the name to Garden 02, Garden 03, as you will see shortly.

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I hit Enter to accept that name.

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As I zoom in even further,

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I notice there's a grip with the tooltip: Modify the Ref Plane by dragging its model end.

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So I click on that circular grip and drag it to the right.

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Holding my mouse button down, I pan and zoom with my wheel.

05:37

We come to about here to the far right.

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Revit is prompting me for another reference plane.

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However, we are going to copy the existing reference plane, so I click Modify to cancel the command.

05:56

Select the reference plane that we just generated.

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And in the contextual ribbon, I select Copy.

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I want to make sure that Multiple is set, because I want to create multiple copies of this reference plane,

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and Constrain to constrain it in the X and Y axis.

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I click my base point anywhere along the reference plane,

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and as I move it up, you'll see that I can only move it in the X and Y axis because Constrain is set.

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And I zoom to the midpoint of the other beams and keep going up.

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A tooltip appears: Constraint and Nearest, which is ideal.

06:50

So we go to the midpoint of each of these beams, as well as the very top, the midpoint of the beam,

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and I hit Modify to cancel the command.

07:02

Now you notice that if I hover over these reference planes,

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the name is Garden 06, Garden 05.

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And if I click on it, the name appears both on-screen and in the properties.

07:22

You'll also note that the reference planes are in red with the particular line pattern that we had picked earlier.

07:32

Okay. We've got the reference plane set in one axis. Now we want to set it in another axis. And for that, we need a section.

07:42

So in my Quick Access Bar, I go to my Section.

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I click to the left, below the reference plane that we just created, to the right.

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I check the scope of the section and bring it down just a tad.

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Now I click a blank spot on the screen, which disables my section command.

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And then I can double-click on the section's marker to launch that section.

08:17

Here we are in the section. There's quite a lot of noise going on here.

08:21

So let's make the structural link invisible by typing VG for Visibility Graphics.

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I click on my Revit Links and uncheck the structural Revit file.

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Click Apply, so we make sure that everything is set, and OK.

08:44

I also want to elongate the crop region, so I click on the crop region. And with my circular grip, I make it a little bit higher.

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Click Modify to cancel our current command.

09:01

Now I can type in RP for Reference Planes,

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and I want to generate a reference plane at the endpoint of this beam.

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And I'll move it up.

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I'm going to leave it as a default name, but you'll also notice that it is in the wrong subcategory of None.

09:25

So I click the Modify button to cancel my command.

09:29

I select the reference plane that we just generated, and on my drop-down menu, I'm going to select Garden Roof.

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As before, I'm going to click on the circular grip and drag it down a little bit.

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Now I can generate another reference plane.

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However, with this already selected, with my right-click menu, I'm going to go to Create Similar.

09:60

Time to save the project.

10:04

Now the second reference plane, I want to go to the far left of that beam.

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Select the endpoint, drag it up, and once again drag it down with the circular grip.

10:20

Okay, so now we have six reference planes in plan and two reference planes in section.

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So we have our mini grid already set up. We can start our mass.