Friday, February 18, 2011

Revit Design Adventures: Pesky Stock Families (13)


We are still on the third iteration and want to produce a rendering showing the bulkhead and potlights. So far, we have completed the bulkhead in a previous post and now we are noticing some issues with the default Revit families...

If Autodesk made the Family it should be perfect, right? If it's 'out of the box' it's perfect, right? Not necessarily. Take a look at the rendering above, notice anything? Yes, the standard, out of the box, Downlight-Recessed Can.rfa light family casts light but is dark at it's source. It's a fairly simple fix. If you open the family file you will notice that there is a light source and a can. Whats missing is a piece of glass which has the 'light bulb on' material attached to it. Light sources shine light only at the base and throughout the lightcone but not at the their source. The 'light bulb on' material gives the illusion of a shining light as illustrated in the other lights in the rendering.

Before...

After...




Some other ones to watch out for...

The system family 'GWB on Mtl Stud' has a ceiling tile material applied to what should be the GWB finish (or paint).

The defaul material for the troffer light has mirrored glass as a material causing it to look very dark.

Hosted families should be avoided when possible. For instance, the 3D Toilet Commercial Wall.rfa hosts to a wall. Seems logical at first but can cause real problems when moving and adjusting layouts or working across linked Revit files.

Our model has been largely conceptual up to now. It's starting to get to that time when the client should make some decisions and we should start making some serious drawings. No matter what they decide we will want to make a demolition plan since there are walls to be removed etc. We have been keeping an eye on our phasing as we have went along, now it's time to put that into practice.

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