00:03
The retaining wall shown in the image below can be created
00:07
with a wall and sweep to create the sloped face.
00:10
The profile is high, it can be changed to accommodate deeper wall depths.
00:14
The foundation should be added with the standard wall foundation tool.
00:20
families, you can use formula within parameters to perform math calculations.
00:26
In our retaining ward example,
00:27
we need to calculate the thickness of the base of the wall
00:30
to do this, we can take the angle which is our face angle,
00:34
find the tangent of that angle and then multiply that by the wall height.
00:40
So let's begin by creating our new family
00:43
on the home screen. We'll select new family
00:47
in the new family dialog box. We're going to use profile dot RFT
00:52
and we can click open.
00:56
So now that the family editor is open,
00:57
you'll see that we have two initial reference planes.
01:01
Both of these are pinned and they both define the origin.
01:05
Our profile that we're going to create is essentially a triangle.
01:08
And historically trying to constrain angular lines
01:11
with reference planes is very difficult.
01:14
So what we're going to do is use a trigonometric
01:16
function to actually calculate one of the sides of the triangle
01:20
and to do this, we're going to have to create our parameters first.
01:24
So on the modify ribbon, let's go ahead and select family types
01:29
in the family types dialog box. We'll begin by creating some new parameters.
01:33
Let's start by clicking new parameter
01:36
and we'll type in here face angle. This is going to be the angle of our retaining wall.
01:43
So of course, the discipline wants to be set to common
01:46
but the type of parameter is now going to be an angle.
01:49
We'll group this under dimensions. And here this is going to be a type parameter.
01:55
I'll just put an initial value in here of perhaps three degrees
01:59
and we'll go ahead and create a second parameter.
02:03
This one will be wall height
02:06
and again, it will be a tight parameter.
02:09
The discipline is common,
02:10
the type of parameter is length and I'm going to group
02:13
this under dimensions and we can go ahead and click.
02:18
again. Initially, I'll give this a value of 10 ft.
02:23
And the last parameter we're going to create is
02:25
the one that we're going to perform the calculation on
02:27
this one's going to be profile width.
02:32
Again, it will be a type parameter.
02:34
The discipline is common
02:35
and a type of parameter is a length.
02:39
So now you'll notice here we have a value
02:42
column where we've been entering in our initial values.
02:45
But we also have a formula column in here as well.
02:48
We're now going to put a formula in for the profile width.
02:52
What I'd like to do first is calculate the tangent of the face angle. So I can type in 10
03:00
and then I'm going to type in face angle.
03:04
You must take care that what you type in here matches over here.
03:08
If I use a lower case F or a lower case A,
03:11
this will be different just to demonstrate that point.
03:14
If I type in lower case A here,
03:16
you can then see that it's not a value parameter, face angle.
03:20
So that's quite an important step.
03:23
OK. So that's the tangent of that face angle created.
03:26
What we now need to do is enclose that entire formula into brackets.
03:32
And then we're going to multiply that by the wall height.
03:34
So we can type in wall height here
03:37
and then the asterisk symbol which represents the multiplication function
03:41
and there we are. So you can now see we've now calculated that profile width.
03:46
So now that we have our parameters created,
03:48
we can get on and build out the reference points for our parametric framework.
03:52
So let's go ahead and click. OK to the family types dialogue.
03:56
We'll then go up to the creates ribbon
03:59
and we'll select reference plane
04:02
on the context ribbon. I'm going to use pick lines.
04:05
And initially here I'm going to set an offset of 10 ft.
04:09
I can then offset this reference plane down.
04:11
So you can now see here we have our 10 ft offset
04:15
and then to the right hand side, I'm gonna offset this one,
04:18
perhaps 1 ft just to start.
04:23
Ok? I'm gonna then press escape to come out of the reference plane command.
04:27
Now, what we might want to do is perhaps elongate these reference planes.
04:32
I can just modify this by dragging the model end
04:35
of the reference plane just to elongate these planes.
04:40
I'll need to unpin this one to do the same thing. So I can temporarily unpin it
04:44
and then pin it back in again.
04:47
So we're now ready to create some aligned dimensions
04:49
and then assign the parameters to those dimensions.
04:53
So up on the quick access toolbar, I'll go ahead and select aligned dimension.
04:59
I'm going to place my dimension in here. So she's gonna represent the profile width.
05:04
We have another one here which is going to
05:06
represent the actual height of the wall profile.
05:11
we will leave the dimension command by clicking the
05:13
modifier button or we can press escape twice.
05:17
And now we're pretty much ready to assign our parameters to these dimensions.
05:21
So let's go ahead and select this one here
05:23
and we go up to our label
05:26
and here this one is going to be profile width.
05:28
Remember that this was our calculated value,
05:32
we'll now select this dimension here and this one
05:34
is going to relate to the wall height.
05:38
So I can now construct in my geometry for my angle
05:42
to do this. I'll go to the creates ribbon,
05:45
I'll select the line option
05:48
and on the context ribbon in the drawer panel, I'm just going to use the line tool
05:54
and I can now begin by sketching around the reference plane, my triangular shape.
06:05
Now before we actually save this, let's test it first.
06:08
So we'll go back to the modify ribbon and select family types.
06:14
What I'm gonna do here is just change the face angle perhaps to four degrees.
06:19
And then here we'll click, apply
06:21
and we can see that the geometry has now updated.
06:24
Let's now change the wall height, perhaps we'll change this to 8 ft
06:28
and again hit apply. And we can see that geometry is now driving and updating.
06:34
So the formula here has been very useful
06:36
to allow us to control this angular geometry.
06:39
And that's something you can use in any type of
06:41
family any time you need an angle being shown.
06:45
OK? So let's now go ahead and save this profile.
06:48
So we'll go up to the quick access toolbar and select save.
06:51
And for the family name, we'll call this one retaining or profile
06:57
and we'll then go ahead and click save.