New in Revit 2012: Round Function in Formulas

My name is Cesar Escalante, Application Specialist at Ideate, and I am excited to continue sharing with you the new features in Revit 2012. In previous version of Revit, designers struggled to find a consistent way to round up or round down numerical values in a schedule calculation or family parameter, and some of the approaches to work around the issue included conditional formulas that proved inaccurate or resulted in inconsistent units. For example, the popular ‘Occupancy Load’ formula (Area / Occupant Load Factor QA) / 1' ^ 2) + 0.49 produces an incorrect value if the calculation is out to more than 2 decimals.

The good news is that Revit 2012 now includes the ROUND function that allows to return a number value rounded to a whole number. The formula can be plugged in a parameter value or in a calculated value. This will facilitate the calculation of Occupancy Load, Room Area or riser heights.

The three new functions are:

ROUND (x):
Returns a value rounded nearest to the whole number. ROUNDUP (x):
Return a value rounded to the consecutive largest integer. ROUNDDOWN(x):
Return a value rounded to the consecutive smallest integer.

The following table illustrates the rounding results of these formulas:



Rounded values can be added as grand totals in schedules. Stay tuned for more exciting features of the new Revit release.

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2012 releases for AutoCAD, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2012


Cesar Escalante, AIA, LEED AP, CCCA
AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Cesar has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Central America in El Salvador, a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas, and is a CCCA (Certified Construction Contract Administrator). His experience includes roles as Project Manager and Project Captain at architecture firms in Oakland, California. As a member of the Ideate Tech Expert team, Cesar teaches Revit Architecture Fundamentals and provides client support and consulting. Cesar’s interest in the built environment includes his work as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

Get it. Know it. Use it.