Creating & Showing Individual Wall Wraps at Wall Ends in Revit

As an application specialist who provides Autodesk Revit Architecture training and solutions for customers in the architecture, engineering, construction, and owner industries, I keep up to date on features that users in those industries would like would like to see in Revit software. One that I have heard users speak of for years is the ability to control Wall Wraps on each end of a wall and have those controls as Instance Parameters.

The wall wrap parameters exist as Type Parameter in a Wall Family, and there are no controls for end 1 and end 2. With wraps enabled, a freestanding wall will have wraps at both ends. Furthermore, if you want the same wall type to have wraps for some walls and no wraps for other walls, you must duplicate the wall type, so you can sort the Type Parameters out. For those of you who have dealt with this issue, you know it is unfavorable, because you are managing additional walls just so you can control the wall wrapping.

Until an improved feature is addressed in Revit, we have to resort to a workaround. Fortunately, there are a few workaround options out there. The one that I came up with uses the Door Family Template to create the wall wrap. Why use this template? Because families such as doors and windows have reference plane options that control wall wraps that allow us to create a workaround family to control wraps at each wall end, individually.

Here is a screenshot that highlights the steps for creating this family. I encourage you to give it a try and play around with your options. 

You can also watch my screencast, Control Wall Wraps at Each End of a Wall, on the Autodesk Knowledge Network.

Additionally, I created a Revit Wish list feature for individual Wall Wraps. If you are interested in voting for this feature, visit Autodesk Community’s Revit Ideas and vote for, Wall Wraps, Inserts, and Wall Layer Extension.

Thank you for reading! For more information on the software solutions, training and consulting Ideate provides, please visit the Ideate Inc. website.

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Sash Kazeminejad
AEC Senior Application Specialist 
Sash is a registered Architect and LEED Accredited Professional who holds a Master of Architecture from Montana State University. Sash’s experience includes project management, BIM management, and design for architectural firms in California, Montana, and Oregon. In addition to being a Bluebeam Certified Instructor, Sash is As an Autodesk Certified Instructor, Sash who provides Revit Architecture training and solutions for AECO firms. @sashpdx 

Model In-Place: Prefabricated Non-Planar Building Modules

A Component Model in-Place workflow is typically touted as a one-off solution for when you have a custom situation in a project, not addressed by system or loadable families, such as a curved roof or ceiling or a serpentine wall – but what if the built-in solution repeats?

The scenario covered here is for a repeatable prefabricated, modular unit, as initially explored by Eileen Gray in her Maison Elliptique (1936), where three or four prefabricated modules are combined to make a home. 

Revit lets you create an in-place family for the required categories (Roof with Ceiling) but editing them can be problematic because each copied in-place family – unlike normal Revit families – is unique. Objects created belong to the datum objects (reference plane) they are created on. This makes it difficult to edit a copied in-place family. 

A solution is to create a Group from the in-place family for copying and then to ungroup them for unique editing. 

Two Modules With Opening

The in-place families can be grouped, copied, ungrouped and edited to add more modules. 

Four Modules With Opening

For more detail on how to group and upgroup families for editing, watch my video Model In-Place: Prefabricated non-planar building modules.

For information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website. Also check our blog for continued solutions as we encounter them.

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Jim Cowan

AEC Senior Application Specialist

Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience, Autodesk design solutions expertise and status as an Autodesk Certified Instructor have made him a sought after University Curriculum developer, instructor and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include eLearning, interoperability between solutions and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot–Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Jim has a special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). You can learn more from Jim on his YouTube Channel.

Revit MEP Revisit #1 -- Easy Editing of Type Catalogs from Revit Using Microsoft Excel

A type catalog is a simple list with a range of type parameter values for a Revit family that has a considerable variety of sizes, usually a dozen or more options. Typical examples include Windows, Doors, Columns Beams and a wide range of MEP components too.

For this blog I will be using the “Supply Diffuser” family that is included with the out-of-the-box Mechancial-Default Revit MEP template file (refer to Fig. 1).  However, no matter what disciple the catalog relates to, the type catalog is a text file with the same name as the family it accompanies. It must also reside in the same directory as the RFA family file except it will have a “.TXT” extension. To add extra options one could always add extra lines of text in a simple text editor like Notepad or Notepad ++, but judging where to start typing or which values to copy is not always obvious, especially with a large number of values with long entries, if you make any mistakes you can break the catalog!

Fig. 1

Now, this particular family “Supply Diffuser”, does NOT have a type catalog with the family.  That is not a problem. For this example, I will navigate to the Revit Application Menu (the big blue R), click on the “R”, navigate down to the “export” selection and then select type catalog. This will export the current built-in family types to a text (.txt) file. Refer to Fig. 2. 

Fig. 2

Simply save this text file to the location where your family is (or will) reside.  For this exercise I created a folder for both my family and text file. Below is the example of the confusion of trying to read or edit the type catalog text file in Notepad. Refer to Fig. 3.

Fig.3

So, instead of the above, I am going to use Excel to add extra definitions like more sizes and other varying Type Parameters. To do this take a copy of the TXT file, this is the type catalog file. Taking a copy is advised just in case mistakes occur! Start the Excel application We want to start a blank spreadsheet and import the shared parameters text file into it. Refer to Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

We can do this by setting the following Opening and Import Data Options:

• Open
• Choose a Blank spreadsheet
• DATA
• From text
• Locate file
• Import
• Delimited
• My data has headers
• Comma only delimiter
• Text qualifier none (check preview)
• Next (few times)
• Finish
• Make sure that the start is at the A1 range
• OK

Refer to Figs. 5 through 8.

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

Hitting OK will bring the catalog in to an easily editable Excel Row and Column format.  For the screen shot below I zoomed my sheet out.   

Fig. 9

After performing the needed edits and additions, simply save the file out to CSV format (Comma Separated Value). Remember and make sure to rename the extension (or better yet copy to a .txt format). Double-check the name of the file, it has to have the same name (as the family it relates too) and put it in the same location as where the family is located. If the family already has a catalog file, it is wise to rename the old catalog as FILENAME.OLD just in case!  Also ensure you close down Excel afterwards to remove any Windows File Locks.  Start Revit, and open a project and load the desired family, Revit will automatically look for the accompanying catalog and will display the additional family types and modified parameters that you added from Excel. 

Thank you for reading. For more information on Revit MEP and other Autodesk products, and information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com.

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Bill Johnson

Senior Application Specialist MEP/AEC Solutions

Bill has over 25 years experience in applying MEP & AEC design solutions for large commercial companies, this has led to actively develop Autodesk® Revit® implementation strategies, techniques, and procedures for architectural and MEP companies. He has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill is an Autodesk MEP Implementation Certified Expert, and has been the Lead Designer for several multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He graduated from the Pasadena Institute of Technology and has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.