Floors (11:03 min)

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Exercise 1–Add Floors

In this lesson we’ll add floors to our building. To build a floor element, you simply enter a special mode that Revit calls “sketch mode” and sketch the outline of the floor shape.

Catch-up file completed to this point: 11_Medical Center_Floors.rvt

Create a Floor Element

  1. On the Project Browser, double-click to open the Level 1 floor plan.

The simplest way to create a floor is to use the existing walls to create the sketch edges.

  1. On the Architecture tab, click the Floor button. (If you use the drop-down, it is Floor:Architectural.)

The drawing window grays out to indicate that you are in sketch mode. On the Modify tab, the Boundary Line and Pick Walls buttons are highlighted and active. On the Options Bar, the “Extend into wall” checkbox is checked. All these defaults will work well for most floors you create. Leave them all set this way for this example (see Figure 11–1).

 

Figure 11–1 The Create Floor Boundary ribbon and its default settings

  1. In the drawing window, click on one of the exterior walls.

A magenta line will appear near the middle of the wall. If it appears near the edge, click the small flip control at the midpoint of the line.

  1. Continue clicking on each of the exterior walls to create a boundary all the way around the shape of the building.

Some manual cleanup will be required in the areas indicated (see Figure 11–2).

Figure 11–2 In order to finish the sketch, all corners must be closed and no lines can overlap

  1. For the lines at grid intersection E9 and E10, use Trim/Extend to Corner (tr).
  2. Remember to click the side of the line you want to keep, so along Grid 9, click the upper portion of the line (see Figure 11–3).

       

Figure 11–3 Use Trim/Extend to Corner to clean up the two upper corners of the sketch

  1. Remaining in Trim/Extend to Corner, clean up the corner at grid intersection H9.

We will use Trim/Extend to Corner at the foyer area as well, but before doing so, we need to split the sketch line at Grid J.

  1. On the Modify tab, on the Modify panel, click the Split Element tool (or press sl).
  2. Click near the middle of the line on Grid J to split it in two.
  3. Use Trim/Extend to Corner to finish up (see Figure 11–4).

     

Figure 11–4 Use the Split tool to break the line into two segments, then use Trim/Extend to finish cleanup

  1. On the Modify tab, on the Mode panel, click the Finish Edit Mode button (green checkmark) (see Figure 11–5).

     

Figure 11–5 Click the Finish Edit Mode button to complete the sketch and create the floor element

Create a Section View

To help us visualize the floor slab as we create it on the second floor, let’s make a section view through the building first.

  1. On the View tab, on the Create panel, click the Section tool (see Figure 11–6).

       

Figure 11–6 The Section tool

  1. Click outside the building in the space between Grids 7 and 8.
  2. Move straight down and then click a second point outside the building at the bottom (see Figure 11–7).

     

Figure 11–7 Create a section through the main portion of the building

A new Sections branch will appear on Project Browser.

  1. On Project Browser, expand Sections (Building Section) and then double-click to open Section 1.
  2. From the View Control Bar, for the Level of Detail, choose: Medium.
  3. On the Project Browser, double-click to open the Level 2 floor plan.
  4. Click the small “X” on the {3D} tab and on the Level 1 tab to close these views.
  5. On the View tab, on the Windows panel, click the Tile Views button (or press wt).
  6. Type za to zoom both windows to fit (see Figure 11–8).

Figure 11–8 Tile the windows and zoom them to fit

Add a Second Floor

Now let’s create a floor for Level 2

  1. Click in the Level 2 floor plan view to make it active. Zoom in on the middle portion of the plan.

This floor will be confined to the middle portion of the building with a small extension to the right in the atrium space.

  1. On the Architecture tab, click the Floor button. Again, accept all defaults.
  2. Select the exterior walls of the rectangular portion of the building in the center. (There are 6 total) (see Figure 11–9).

   

Figure 11–9 Click each of the six brick walls on Level 2

  1. Split the vertical line on the right (number 6 in the figure).
  2. On the Modify tab, on the Draw panel, click the Line tool (see Figure 11–10).

Figure 11–10 Activate the line tool

  1. Draw three lines as shown. Use the dimensions indicated to help you place them.
  2. Trim/Extend the corners to clean up (see Figure 11–11).

   

Figure 11–11 Add an extension to the floor using lines and dimensions

  1. On the Modify tab, on the Mode panel, click the Finish Edit Mode button (green check).

A message will appear asking if we want to attach the tops of the walls to the bottom of the floor. You can see this highlighted in both plan and section. For most of our walls this is a good idea. But for the two on the left portion of the building, we would not want this as they are exterior walls. Unfortunately, with this command you cannot adjust the selection. You can only answer Yes or No. In this case, let’s answer Yes and then come back and detach the two we don’t need attached.

  1. In the dialog click Yes (see Figure 11–12).

Figure 11–12 We are given the option to attach the top of all intersecting walls to the underside of the floor

A second message will highlight just the exterior walls this time. This one is asking if we want to clean up the connection between the floor and exterior walls. Let’s also answer Yes here (see Figure 11–13).

Figure 11–13 A second question allows us to join the wall and floor geometry on the exterior perimeter

When finished, take a close look at the connections in the section view (see Figure 11–14).

Figure 11–14 Examine the connections between the floor and walls after completion

Detach Walls from a Floor

Now let’s detach the two exterior walls.

  1. On the QAT click the Default 3D View icon. (This opens the {3D} view).
  2. Hold the shift key and drag the wheel to orbit around the north side of the building.

Note the two exterior walls that are now too low (see Figure 11–15).

Figure 11–15 Two of the walls attached to the underside of the floor must be detached

  1. Hold the ctrl key and click to select these two walls.
  2. On the Modify tab, on the Modify Wall panel, click the Detach Top/Base button.
  3. Click on the edge of the floor element. (You can click anywhere, zoom and orbit if necessary) (see Figure 11–16).

     

Figure 11–16 Detach the two walls from the floor