Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> How do you model complicated exterior masonry trims around building entries?

hcjames570

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I am working on modelling an existing brownstone which has alot of ornate trims and cornice details. At the entry on the exterior brick, their is a masonry trim around the opening. There are quite a few profile intersections and curves/arches. I can model this in sketch up or rhino very easily as a mass but once i bring this mass into revit and give a material property to the mass, revit gets angry. I translate the mass object by providing a material for each face. In this case, i created a 3/4" concrete basic wall to replace the mass object.

Is there a better way of modelling complicated shapes and then using them in revit? Do you need to give an imported mass a material or can it stay generic? I didnt think wall sweeps would work because of their are varying intersections and profile shapes.

Any help would be great.

I am working in revit 2011

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WWHub

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Joined: Tue, May 16, 2006
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You should be able to model anything like this in Revit if you try, 

You really should model these as either an in-place or external family.  ... And no need to do a mass.  All these shapes are the same so why not model it as what it is instead of as a mass?  A cone is a cone ... a sphere is a sphere...why use a mass?

Post a picture of what you are doing and we can give better suggestions.

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hcjames570

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Here you can see the trim around the exterior opening of the door. The top with the arch seems tricky. Also, i attached the digital version created so far. Thanks again for the help and suggestions.

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WWHub

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That casework is easliy done in Revit using sweeps.  I would do it as a family... face based.

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hcjames570

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exterior photo, having problems uploading. less than 1mb

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hcjames570

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emgeeo

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a couple of things i would like to point out:

1.  If you are modeling linear pieces along the facade wall, you can accomplish this with wall sweeps built-into the wall families.

2.  If you are modeling the same moulding around multiple openings (i.e. all windows have moulding types a or b) you can incorporate this into the window families.  A quick note about the window families- if they are existing openings, you don't need to make them paramteric.  Sure, it's nice, but in terms of modeling effort (I assume your family-editing experience is not high) then it is a much more simple solution to the actual modeling effort.

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