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Forums >> Community >> The Studio >> Using Revit for existing historic buildings
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I work for a firm that specializes in historic projects and we are new to using Revit. I was wondering if anyone has used Revit for existing buildings, and if there has been any luck with using it or not. We are trying to build things with a pretty good amount of accurancy. Is this possible? A lot of the building components of older buildings are not uniform at all and it makes it hard to build accurately.
Any info would be helpful.
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YES WE HAVE USED REVIT FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS AND IT WORKS. CREATING ALL THE WALL TYPES AND OTHER FAMILIES AT FIRST ARE KIND OF A PAIN BUT ONCE THEY;RE MADE AND SAVED YOU ARE ALL SET. YOU CAN ALSO SET UP PHASES SUCH AS DEMOLITION. WE HAD AN EXISTING BUILDING THAT WAS GETTING RENOVATED, DEMOED, AND AN ADDITION. CREATIGN PHASES LETS YOU SHOW SPECIFIC PARST LIKE LAYERS ON ACAD.
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Attached is a word .doc with before and after views of a 1896 Catholic Church 2003 Renovation in Atkins, Arkansas. We had no existing drawings whatsoever and created the "after" view of the Church with the new steeple from plan measurements and photographs. The only major mistake was that we slightly missed the roof slope on the main roof. We found that taking photographs of existing elevations or windows, inserting them as .jpg's, scaling them to one correct dimension, gave us a template to create window, louver, and brick detail families.
This was created almost three years ago and we did not know how to create the gothic windows as window families so they could be inserted and the wall would fit around them. We had to insert them as generic families and "cutout" the wall profile to fit around them. Once they are properly created, you have them forever to modify and use on the next project.
Hope this helps.
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Attached is a .jpg image of an interior new chapel rendering. The pulpit is an exact copy of an existing one they wished to re-use in the new chapel. It was surprisingly easy to create as a family object using the sweeps and solid modeling in that family.
The stained glass windows were created using .jpg's downloaded off of the internet as decal inserts. You insert the image into a generic family. You scale it to the desired size. You build a solid wall of a thin material (doesn't matter what since the decal will cover it), attach the scaled image as a decal to the wall, then edit the profile and cut it to fit the part of the image you want to see. When rendered, only the parts of the decal that have something to attach to will be rendered. The rest, where there is no wall behing it to attach to, will not show in the rendering. You could do the same thing with window photographs to render the existing stained glass or the existing view outside that window. We created the mullions of the window as thicker solids and made sure that the stained glass image wall and decal were thinner and inserted behind the front edge of the mullions.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks so far. These are helping. However, at this point, renderiing is the last thing on our minds. Where I am at right now is that we are working on a existing university building from 1907. We went out and did field measurements and took photographs. I started by drawing wall sections in Cad. We really don't have what is exactly in the walls, but we have the heights and widths of the walls. Now, I am trying to create what I know in CAD into Revit. I am looking for accurate elevations and floor plans. The brick pattern on the outside of the building is very irregular with different size bricks and mortar joints to match. There are quite a few sweeps and reveals on the walls too, but the corners of the buildings have brick quoins. How would I go about creating this building accurately? I attached a picture of the front elevation if that would help your thinking process any.
Thanks a lot.
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You can add sweeps to your wall to recreate the cut stone looking band and the protruding brick looking bans. You will probably have to create a new sweep profile to match your existing and load it into your door family. The quoins will have to be a generic shape that fits the design of your existing quoins including enough depth to disappear into your brick veneer. You then insert one into your project and mirror, array, or copy it at each corner. You can probably find a window to match your design and edit the sizes or you can create your own window family. Create the keystone and lintel brick as a separate family and insert it into your window family or just insert it into your project and copy. Be sure that the inserted keystone and brick lintel is just in front of the edge of your brick veneer so it will show correctly. The brick lintel will probably have to be separate bricks with mortar solid infill. Be sure that the material selected for both matches your project materials. Accurender has some blends of brick veneer images that come close to yours.
The dentil moulding at your soffit is a big pain. The only way I have found to do it is to create one and array or copy it all over the place. I notice that there is a real good clay tile pattern recently uploaded to Revit.City that you could use for your roof pattern. If you try to create 3D individual roof tiles, it will be a huge file. You will have to create the ridge and hip tiles and insert them on the roof.
You will just have to create the entry steps and precast door surround as a separate family and insert them. You will also probably just make the door as a solid generic family too and draw fake door swing lines on your plan. If you want it to be recognized on your schedules as a door, you will have to create a new custom made door family, place a wall just barely larger than your door into the opening of your entry precast, and insert the door into the wall.
Attached is a hidden line B&W view of the Atkins Church.
Hope this helps.
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Hey guys,
I know Im a bit late into this thread - but nice modelling! That church is looking fantastic! We also have used Revit to extensively model existing buildings but as Hogmodo is saying, you tend to base it off 90% photos and 10% key measurements.
You can model pretty much any architectural form on Revit, and the more you do it the more it feels like youre just sketching stuff. The attached pic is of a hypothetical cathedral I've been playing with. It only takes one of these to teach you Revit modelling...
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I'm really late responding to this thread, but we've worked a lot with historic buildings in Revit. I've found 2 really helpful ways of working. The first is phasing: your life will be so much easier if you add the phases before you complete the "existing" phase. moxierawk is very right that this is crucial. The second is a library of commonly used families. When you make the quoins, it will seem really easy to create an in place famiy, and for a fast track project, I'd say go for it. But for a little extra time on this project, you could create a wall hosted corner family that you will then label as a quoin and be able to use it again in other projects. For billing, the first few projects we did in Revit had a lot of time billed to "office overhead" so that we weren't billing our clients for our learning curve, but the time spent then really learning how to use the tool and building a library of commonly used families has become invaluable now.
Good luck, and if you want to chat about it or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. Existing buildings pose some daunting, but not impossible challenges.
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Ruth Rau Main Street Architecture, P.C. |
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I work on older homes and am searching for a proper double hung window with correct brickmould and sills. I've only found windows that add trim to the exterior face of the brick wall.
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I just did a remodel of a buidling built in 1900, one thing i suggest is make sure all your dimensions have been very well field verified then, put them all on there seperate phase and pin them baby down!!
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J. Allen Ball Revit Architecture 2010 Certified Professional |
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Just thought I'd revive this old Thread now that Revit 2014 has much better point cloud capability. I specialise in building As-Built Models from Point Clouds and yes any level of detail can be achieved, However value for money and computer efficincy quickly decreases with the more detail that is added. I tend to simplify and allow for deviation to an agreed accuracy tolerance wherever I can.
I find some clients demand +/-1mm accuracy, they are generally the ones to avoid, unless of course they are willing to listen, agree to reason and allow themselves to be educated in the software and it's capabilities.
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For Architectural Services visit www.jrpcad.co.uk |
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Hello,
I have a project for my faculty and i would like to hear your opinions. We have to measure and then make the drawings of a very old building and i
Am not sure if revit is the right program to use for modelling. Attached you will see a photo of the building. Thank you in advance
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I would never attempt to model this.
For work like this, I prefer photographs placed on my sheet where I can tag and indicate the work to be done.
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