Revit Sectioning Multiple ModelsThis Tutorial is copyrighted by Kevin R. Miller & Todd Baxter.

With the UP project, the various models have different origin points. As a result, the exports to Navisworks will not work. Therefore, this tutorial will teach you how to align the models in Revit so the exports to Navis will work without issues.

Aligning ModelsCreate GridlinesStart Revit

Open the UP Arch model.

When opening the various models, you may get the following message:

On the Manage ribbon, select Manage Links and then remove the links. There may be links on the Models and the CAD Formats tabs that are ok to remove. Press OK to close the window

This steps indented below only need to be performed for the Arch model.

Go to the 3D View.

In the 3D view, select the blue section shown in the image above.

Right click on the Blue section and select, Select All Instances, In the Entire project.

Right click on the Blue section again and select Hide in View, select Category.

In the Project Browser and select Level 00

On the View ribbon, select Plan Views and select Floor Plan.

Uncheck the box Do not duplicate exiting views.

Select Level 00 and press OK.

In the Project Browser, you should be on Level 00(1).

If in the Project Browser it is hard to find Level 00(1), right click on Views, select Browser Organization, select All.

Press OK.

In the canvas area, zoom into the floor plan of the project.

Zoom to the lower left corner of the project like in the image below

To have a common reference point between the models that is outside the building, create a horizontal and vertical grid line 20’ to the left of Gridline A and 20’ below Gridline 6 as shown in the image below.

To create the gridlines, follow the instructions below.

1. Select the Architectural ribbon.

2. Select the Grid tool .

After I created mine they looked like this:

3. Rename the horizontal grid line to Base 1 and the vertical one to Base 2. Select the Modify tool and use the temporary dimensions to place the new gridlines 20’ from gridlines A and 6. Make sure that the temporary dimension line is to the correct gridline as shown below on the right. If it is like the left image, drag the blue dot on the dimension line to gridline 6.

4. Repeat the process for the vertical gridline.

Repeat this for the other Revit files for the UP project.

Close all the files open in Revit.

Aligning the modelCreate a New project, use the Construction Template.

Save this project using the file name of Coordination???.rvt where the ??? are your initials.

On the Insert ribbon, select Link Revit

Browse to CFM 411 Winter 2016\Projects\UP and select the Arch.rvt file.

Positioning should be Origin to Origin.

Press OK to link the file.

In the Project Browser, select the West Building Elevation.

Zoom in until your view is something like the image below.

In the Project Browser, under the Floor Plan section, rename the levels by right clicking on the level name as follows:

Level 02- - T.O. Footings Level 0

Level 03- - T.O. Basement Slab Level 3

Level 04- - T.O. Fnd. Wall Level 4

Rename Corresponding Views, YES.

Delete the Site Floor plan.

On the Architecture ribbon, select Level and add a Level 5 for the 5th floor.

Now drag the elevation levels to the appropriate location. If the Align tool is helpful, use it to align the levels with the top of the slabs.

Delete the Level L01 – B.O. Footing

Your project should look like the image below.

On the Arch model file, in the Project Browser, select Level 0.

Now Link the Structural model to the Architectural model (Insert Ribbon, Link Revit ).

Select the Struct.rvt model and be sure that the Positioning is Origin to Origin.

In the Properties window, select Edit for Visibility/Graphics.

On the Revit Links tab, select the Struct.rvt row and check Halftone and Underlay. This will change the structural model to a gray color.

This will gray-out the linked model making it a little easier to find the levels in the model that are adjustable.

Press OK.

Now on Level 0, zoom in to the lower left hand corner of the building and you will notice that Base 1 and Base 2 do not align between the models.

Select the Structural model,

Use the Align tool to align the Architectural and Structural Base grids. Select the Base 1 Arch line first, and then select the Struct Base 1 line. Repeat for the Base 2 grids.

On the Manage ribbon, select Manage Links.

Select the Struct.rvt row and then select Unload.

Save the Coordination file.

Repeat the Aligning model process for each of the other models in the folder.

Sectioning the modelSetupThis section of the tutorial focuses on how to section a Revit model using a template so that multiple models and updates to models can be sectioned quickly. These sectioned models are used for Coordination and Sequencing.

PhasingThis project does not use Phasing in Revit, but we still want to go through this section so you would know how to handle it for other projects. Typical phase found in Revit are Exist and New Construction. Other phase could be made, but these are the default phase. For the final class project, if you want to skip over this section and go to Setting the View Range, that would be ok.

To do this do the following:

On the Manage ribbon, select Phases

Select row 2 and select combine with Next until there are only 3 rows left

Then rename the phase to

Press OK.

Phase MappingTo transfer the mapped phases in the linked model

1. In the drawing area of the host model, select the linked Revit model.

2. Click Modify | RVT Links tab Properties panel (Type Properties).

3. In the Type Properties dialog, find the Phase Mapping parameter and click Edit.

4. In the Phases dialog, select the appropriate mapping options for each phase,

5. Click OK.

6. Click OK to exit the Type Properties dialog.

Click in the white space off the model

To apply phase mapping in the host model

1. Click View tab Graphics panel (Visibility/Graphics).

2. In the Visibility/Graphics dialog, click the Revit Links tab.

3. Click the button in the Display Settings column for the linked Revit model.

4. In the RVT Link Display Settings dialog, on the Basics tab, select By Host View.

5. Click OK twice to exit the Visibility/Graphics dialog.

The above is taken from the Revit Help information.

Setting the View RangeFrom the Manage ribbon, select Manage Links.

Unload all the links except for the Arch model.

Now do the following steps to adjust the view range:

1. Left click once on Level 0 in the Project Browser window.

2. On Properties, you may need to scroll down and then select the Edit button in the View Range row.

3. In the View Range window, set the Top to Level Above (not Associated Level) and the Offset to 0.

4. Set Bottom: and Level: to Unlimited

The reason the Bottom and Level are set to unlimited is so that any objects below the basement level are not overlooked.

If this was for a floor other than the basement, the Bottom and Level fields would be set to the associated level of the floor with an offset of 0 as shown below.

For the roof, the Top would be set to unlimited and the Bottom and Level fields would be set to the associated level of the floor with an offset of 0.

Now set the view range for each of the Levels (0-Roof).

Creating 3D ViewsThe next task is to create 3D views of the model and then make then unique to each floor's view range. To do this, select the 3D view on the quick access toolbar

.

On the Project Browser, collapse the Floor Plans and expand the 3D views. Under the 3D Views, scroll down until you see {3D}. Right click on {3D} and select Duplicate View, then select Duplicate. This creates a view named Copy of {3D}.

Right click on Copy of {3D} and select Rename. Change the name to L0.

Create 3D views for each floor plan level that was created in this tutorial.

If you want to delete the other 3D views you may.

Orienting the 3D viewTo make the 3D view show only what was set by the View Range, do the following:

1. Select the 3D view of L0 in the Project Browser.

2. Right click on the View Cube.

o If the View Cube isn't visible, on the View Ribbon, select User Interface and place a checkmark next to View Cube.

3. Select Orient to View.

4. Select Floor Plans.

5. Select Floor Plan: Level 0.

Orient the views for each floor plan level. Remember to switch to the 3D view of each level in the Project Browser before orienting the view.

If the scope boxes need to be adjusted, you can do this now. For example, on Level 0 it looks like the image below:

The scope box could be adjusted to:

Also notice the topo line are still visible. For clash detection, the topo line do not need to be visible.

To turn off the topo lines, select the modify tool .

On the Properties window, select Visibility/Graphics Overrides, scroll down to Topography and uncheck the box.

Select OK.

Export NWCThe file is now ready to be exported as a NWC file. On the Project Browser, select the view 3D L0. To export the NWC file do the following:

1. From the Manage ribbon, select Manage Links.

2. Unload all the links except for the Arch model.

3. From the Add-in ribbon, select External Tools

4. From External Tools select Navisworks 2016.

5. Select the Navisworks settings... button at the bottom of the window.

6. On the Navisworks Option Editor window, under the File Readers, select Revit.

7. Uncheck the Divide File into Levels option. (This only needs to be done once and then it will be set for future exporting of NWC files). Also Export should be set to Current view.

8. Convert Linked Files should be checked.

9. Press OK.

10. It is a good practice to create a folder to have a folder structure to save your work to. A sample of what this could look like would be something like the image below.

Using this structure, the Architectural model would go in the Arch folder. Please create this folder structure.

11. Browse to the location you want to store the file.

12. Name the file something like Arch L00. When you create the other levels, place them in the same folder with a different name for each level. For example, Arch L01, Mech L02, etc.

13. Press OK

14. Save the Coordination file.15. Repeat the Aligning model process for each of the other models in the folder by doing the

following:1. From the Manage ribbon, select Manage Links.2. Unloading all the links except for the model that needs to be exported.

Creating a TemplateIf this project was similar to other projects that you work on, you may want to consider saving this as a Revit Template file so the settings could be applied to other projects as well. This new template would then be used on future projects rather than using the Construction template.

A couple of notes:

1. When exporting the structural model, it is typically best to turn off the Analytical objects first. This keeps the file size smaller and will reduce false clashes for Clash Detection. On the 3D view of what you want export, on Visibility/Graphic Override on the Analytical Model Categories tab uncheck all Analytical categories, and then export the nwc file.

2. If you are exporting the Architectural model for clash detection and only want to clash the ceilings, only export the ceiling to the nwc file. On the 3D view of what you want export, on Visibility/Graphic Override and uncheck all families except for Ceilings, and then export the nwc file.

3. If you need to generate an updated NWC file and the existing file is currently open, a write error will be generated from Revit. To get around that, use the following option in Navisworks. Navisworks Application Button > Options > Model > Performance > Close NWC/NWD files on Load.