Chief Glossary

Chief has a glossary of architectural (and other) terms. Most are familiar, with the definition you would expect, but there were these outliers:

• AFCI - another term for a GFCI outlet or circuit (arc fault circuit interrupter)
• belly band - decorative siding running around the building. Not clear if it's the "chair rail" I have on my house, or something between two floors, or something else.
• floating dormer - a dormer that rests only on the roof plane, not on walls in the living space below (except for the front, which may bear on the exterior wall)
• frieze - a molding to hide where the wall meets the soffit
• hip - sloped ridge line
• light rail - not a trolley. It is molding under cabinets to hide under-cabinet lighting
• marquee selection - dragging a box in the UI to select the objects inside it.
• marriage walls - walls built side by side, often called Double Walls
• plenum - the space between floor/ceiling platform and a suspended ceiling
• plinth block - trim at the base of door casing
• pony wall - two wall types, one over the other
• skillion roof - a shed roof (I've never heard this before)
• transom - the header between a door and the transom window above
• tray ceiling - often incorrectly spelled "trey" in Chief

My list of Chief-isms:

• callouts - This is a detail reference, an interior elevation bubble, and so on. Not just a note with an arrow.
• floor - This can refer to the floor platform or to a building level (Floor 1 is the main floor; Floor 0 is the foundation; Floor A is the attic)
• half-wall - Not a pony wall, more like a solid railing
• layer - This refers to layers on the drawing (Walls, Normal and so on) or to the components of a wall type, platform, or roof assembly.
• pony wall - one wall type over another--you specify the height of the lower and two walls. You have a wood stud wall over a concrete retaining wall? That's a pony wall. Full-height studs but the siding changes halfway up--that's a pony wall. Same with brick veneer exterior wainscoting. Don't confuse with half-wall.

Metal Roofing

 Of course, Chief has metal roofing. Just don't look for it under Roofing. It's under Siding and Paneling.

Plan Development Sequence

This began with the sequence in video #5415 The Plan Development Sequence, but I have added to it.

1. Known defaults (Doors, windows, platform thicknesses, ceiling height, walls/floors/roofs)
2. Sketch walls
3. Precisely locate walls
4. Deal with room elevations and stairs. Beams, soffits, porches.
5. Now add additional floors (but the basement waits for the Foundation)
6. Build the roof
7. Fine-tune the stairs
8. Now we have the building envelope. “Decorate” with doors, windows, cabinets, decks
9. Foundation comes after rooms are identified (for Garage; see video #72)
10. Framing (at this point?)
11. Terrain once the building is completed (although, sloping sites might want Terrain before foundation)
12. Elevations, Sections, presentation views “once the model is finished”
13. Layout and Print

First batch of tips

 I've been through the short Foundation and Framing videos, and I jotted down these items:

• If you label a room "Garage" after you have already built your foundation, you have to rebuild the foundation to have it apply Garage-ness on your room's floor and foundation.
• You can have a Pony wall (a "two-part wall") on every floor. Different kinds of siding don't have to stop at the floor platforms.
• Terrain or no terrain, it's sometimes easier to just draw a CAD line on the elevation or section
• You can take a section view on an angle--for example, a 45-degree section pointing at a corner of the building lets you align two things on the corner. Otherwise, you'd have to adjust one elevation, then the other.
• Don't forget that you can choose how Pony walls look in plan views--upper, lower, both, or ?
• You don't have to build framing for everything all at once:
• The Build Framing dialog has panels for Foundation, each floor platform, Walls, and Roof, each with a checkbox.
• Second, just select something--one wall, say--and click "Build Framing for Selected Object" in the lower toolbar.
• When you're sketching walls (not placing them precisely), hold down the Alt key. Then release the mouse button to turn corners.
• Doors and Windows have a 'Framing' panel for specifics about that opening.
• Build Framing > Openings panel is, basically, a span table
• Wall > Structure panel has a checkbox 'Retain Wall Framing,' which locks it against being rebuilt
• You must have Roof Planes before you can build the roof framing
• Edit > Defaults > Floor & Rooms > Floor/Ceiling Platform creates a hole for the platform that you can fill later with framing. It's all about specifying the height of that hole.
• Floor framing is always done on the floor below. For the first floor, go to Floor 0.
• You can tell Chief where to start laying out framing, so that 16" oc studs align with 48" wide panels, for example. This is called a Framing Reference Marker.
• Looking at the Display Layers list, start typing what you're looking for and it will jump there.
• Choose a tool (like Exterior Wall), then hold down the Shift key as you drag a selection box around stuff and only the exterior walls will be selected.

Was Revit, now it's Chief

I have to learn more about Chief, I guess. Their videos are a good place to start. They have them about kitchen and bath, color, cabinets--all kinds of things. I made this checklist based on the topics that have given me trouble lately.

Chief Architect Videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/

Under 30 min.:

Foundation

q  Additional Floors and Foundation Basics (11 min)

q  Foundation and Bearing Walls (8 min)

q  Stepped Foundation (9 min)

q  Crawlspace Foundation with Framed Interior Bearing Wall (4 min)

q  Creating a Split Level Structure (11 min)

q  Creating a Split Entry (17 min) -  a la Millicomo

Framing

q  Framing Basics (18 min)

q  Setting Platform Depths by Floor or by Area (6 min)

q  Floor and Ceiling Framing (8 videos)

q  Roof Framing (19 videos)

q  Posts, Beams, and Columns (6 videos)

q  Using a Framing Reference [Point] (9 min)

q  Framing Individual Objects (4 min)

Roof

q  Creating a False Gable (5 min)

q  Roof Basics (25 min)

q  Hip Roof (5 min)

q  Dutch Gable Roof (5 min)

q  Generating, Displaying Roofs on a Multi-Level Structure (7 min)

q  Drawing Roofs Manually (7 min)

q  Building a New Roof While Maintaining an Existing Roof (3 min)

q  Locating Roof Plane Intersections (3 min)

q  The Dialogs that Influence Roof Design (8 min)

q  Soffits, Fascia and Gutters (9 min)

q  Using the Gable Roof Line Tool (4 min)

q  Raising and Lowering Roof Planes (3 min)

q  Manually Drawing a Dutch Gable Roof (6 min)

q  Roof Groups (2 min)

q  Automatic Framing: Exposed Rafter Tails, Sub-fascia and Sheathing (15 min)

Site Plan

q  Terrain & Site Plan Basics (13 min)

q  Creating a Terrain Perimeter (4 min)

q  Adding Terrain Elevation Data (13 min)

q  Terrain Features (9 min)

q  Terrain Contours: Absolute Elevations vs. Sea-Level Elevations (3 min)

q  Creating Sloped Terrain and Adding Retaining Walls (7 min)

q  Creating a Site Plan or Plot Plan (11 min)

q  Creating Terrain Setback Lines (3 min)

q  Placing a Plan Footprint on a Site Plan (6 min)

Elevations and Sections

q  Dropping a Floor and Raising the Ceiling of a Room (6 min)

q  Dimensioning Cross Sections & Elevations (11 min)

q  Dimensioning Wall Elevations (9 min)

Construction Documents

q  Creating Layouts and Construction Documents (31 min)

q  Productivity Tips: Saved Plan Views (15 min)

q  Understanding Layers (6 min)

q  Understanding Layer Sets (6 min)

q  Creating Templates from Existing Plans (2 min)

q  The Plan Development Sequence (4 min)

q  Creating a Dynamic Wall Legend (2 min)

q  Reshaping Layout Views (12 min) - pack more on a page; think outside the rect

q  Editing Plan Views on the Layout (5 min)

q  Remodel Process (17 min)

Webinars (>  30 min.)

Foundation

q  Foundations: Crawl/Basement Slab Mixed (98 min)

Framing

q  Floor and Roof Framing (78 min)

q  Wall Framing  (102 min)

Roof

q  Roof Styles Options Details (89 min)

q  Roof Tips and Tricks (110 min)

q  Roofs: 1.5 Story, Multiple Roof Pitches (92 min)

Elevations and Sections

q  Elevations & Cross Sections (77 min)

Construction Documents

q  Remodeling: How to Generate As-built Overlays in 2D-3D (75 min)

q  As-built Measurements Best Practices (115 min)

q  Remodeling: New Addition Framing and Materials List (76 min)

q  As-built Basement Project (52 min)

Welcome

Welcome to the Residential Revit blog, home to my notes on the subset of Revit that applies to home remodels and, to a lesser extent, new homes. It's called resirevit.blogger.com because residentialrevit.blogger.com was taken (it's taken, but not used, apparently).

We'll start with Dave Martin's text, Instant Revit!: A Quick and Easy Guide to Learning Autodesk® Revit® 2019. His text, copyright 2018, walks through creating a new house.

In 3 warm-ups, he covers the basics of Revit files, views, dimensions, creating a sheet and making a PDF. He even does alternate plans in Warm Up #3.

The main book is broken into seven Tutorials. For our purposes, it helps to understand the order of the work of creating the model and the set of working drawings from the model.

1. 1.1 Create a new file using the Residential-Default template. In the South Elevation, edit Plate Line, Second Floor, First Floor, Garage Floor, and B.O. Footer levels and delete any others.
2. 1.2 Select a Wall type and, cognizant of the relationship to the origin point ("Base Point"), draw the floor plan. In the example, the origin is 10' west and 35' south of the new building. Dimension the walls to face of core. Set the scale to 1/8" = 1'0". Move the elevation markers so that they point at the walls. Draw interior walls of a different, thinner, construction.
3. 1.3 Add doors and windows to the first floor. Load families as necessary. Both have symbols for the schedules. Set the exterior wall heights (they were drawn at 20') to 18'. On the First Floor plan, split walls at the garage and set the 3 garage walls to 9' 10". Change the garage separation wall construction.
4. 1.4 On the Second Floor plan, set the Underlay Range (Base Level) to First Floor and draw the second floor walls, doors, and windows.
5. 1.5 On the First Floor, draw the garage roof using "pick walls." Add a simple shed on the other side and deal with wall intersections--attach the walls to the roof (trimming them). On the Second Floor, add the upper roof.
6. 1.6 Clean up and add misc dimensions. 
7. 1.7 Modify the door and window tag families.
8. 1.8 Create the main concrete slab under the house, then under the garage, lower and thicker. Adjust the base offset of the garage walls to eliminate the gap. Add the porch slab. Add a 4x4 post at the porch. Add a concrete driveway slab. Change the color of the window frames.
9. 1.9 On the Second Floor view, add the floor using "pick walls." Let the walls that go up to this floor be attached.
10. 1.10 Thicken the edge of the four concrete slabs.
11. 2.1 Create Kitchen interior elevations and add cabinetry
12. On the Elevation views, clean up the level markers
13. Use an extrusion to create a platform in the garage. Add appliances to the platform. Using the interior elevation, punch a hole in the kitchen wall using Edit Profile tool. Add a custom countertop to go through the hole. Add bathroom cabinets and fixtures. Create a larger scale plan view ("Callout view") of the kitchen and bathrooms. Create a Callout view type and purge unused view types.
14. Manage floor surfaces. Add 12" tile material.
15. 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 Create door, window, and room finish schedules. Add Room Tags.
16. 4.1 Add property lines (the origin, "Base Point" from earlier is the SW corner of the property). 
17. 4.2 Create topography
18. 4.3 Create driveway and concrete walk.
19. 4.4 Add trees, people and cars.
20. 5.1 Create stairs, including hole in second floor floor. Add railing.
21. 5.2 Add ceilings, create reflected ceiling plans.
22. 5.3 Add lights
23. 5.4 Add the fireplace and furniture
24. 5.5 Create two section views and wall sections (section Callouts).
25. 5.6 Use view templates. Create a site plan. Set up foundation plan view. Create foundation details.
26. 6.1 Design Options--front porch. 6.2 Second floor, garage roof.
27. 6.3 Interior camera views. 6.4 Exterior camera views 6.5 Isometric and perspective section views.
28. 7.1 Create the Title Sheet, Site Plan, First Floor, Second, Floor and so on. Roof Framing, Foundation, and Electrical plans left as an exercise.