Friday, June 12, 2015

Wall by Face - Part 2. Creating a Slanted Wall Tool

Taking the same idea from the wall-by-face by using generic model family. This time I am tying to explore the possible use of making a generic line based family. I have come across many times Revit does not have a slanted wall tool after all these years. Even Structural column has a slanted column option many versions ago. Why can't we have that tool? Is that really hard to make this as an enhancement in Revit?

We have slanted column already, when will we have slanted wall tool?

So I tinker with this notion of making a slanted shape parametric line based family and use wall-by-face to generate the wall. Why line based family, you may ask? Line based family functions very much like drawing a wall with "Wall" tool. On the floor plan, you can pick two points to place this family much like drawing a wall.


The intent for the use of this "tool" is to allow user to create slanted wall without having the need to build a massing family in the first place. With the instance parameter "Angle" as well as "Height", one can use the same family with "wall-by-face" command to make the wall. 


**This is NOT massing family, I just apply the same material "Default Mass" to the generic family**


Any time you have to change the slope "Angle", all you have to do is to set a new angle parameter, then use "Update to Face" to adjust the wall. 






Inside the family, it is just a line based family with a parametric sweep geometry.



The sweep form is made out of a nested profile family with formula to drive the sweep. 



Set the formula inside the profile family so the form is controlled by "Angle" and "Height".

During the testing, I noticed there was a clean up (miter) issue when two walls are connected at angles that are not 90 degrees. 



I went back and add two sets of voids to the family and now I can adjust the end condition with a new parameter.







I thought it would be a good idea to have a curved version of the slanted wall tool as line based family, too. Autodesk, when will you grant us the wish of having a slanted wall tool?




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