Reinforcement Upon Element Creation
I have been using Revit in 'anger' for more than 10 years and for most of that time, have been utilising its increasing performance to generate reinforcement, in terms of modelling, draughting and scheduling.
I have personally developed workflows and Families to facilitate the efficient and reliable creation of r.c. detailed elements for a wide variety of projects located around the United Kingdom and indeed the wider World.
I have heard many sceptic people relating to Revit's effectiveness to deliver reliable r.c. detailing and scheduled packages. However, l tend to find many people who complain about Revit's ability to deliver upon the reinforcement arena, are people who are either not adept at Revit or r.c. detailing or both.
Over recent years, Revit has made headway with respect to providing a more user friendly r.c. detailing experience, however, many of the 'out of the box' features are still lacking in a number of areas. One aspect in particular is the lapping of reinforcement.
Personally, the lack of an automated solution to this, is indeed frustrating, however, my view is the the Revit / r.c. detailer, should be that, a 'detailer' and should know how to apply and solve r.c. detailing scenarios and not be reliant upon the software to come to their rescue.
Earlier this week, l was wondering if the 'tedious' task of r.c. detailing and scheduling beam elements, columns and pad foundations, could be achieved by using the 'O.o.T.B.' elements, coupled with Families, to achieve a flexible, robust and schedulable experience.
Firstly l began by proving the concept upon r.c. beams. I proceeded to create Families relating to the bars l wished to be held within the r.c. beam solution. In this instance, l settled upon 00, 21 & 51 (U.K.) shape codes, to determine the principle of the workflow and process.
Once the appropriate shape codes were created, l then proceeded to load them into a standard 'O.o.T.B.' concrete framing element. Whereby, the application of standard Family workflows, creating the necessary parameters, Shared or otherwise, together with the necessary Reference Planes, enabled the creation of the r.c. beam concept for further testing.
The Family enables the following to be manipulated:
* Member name
* Beam Width
* Beam Height
* Link centres
* Maximum 00 straight bar length
* No. of 00 bars per side
* No. of u-bars
* Cover
Relating to the r.c. beam 'Type' configuration. By duplication and amendment of type, this is where new types can be created, in terms of link, straight and u-bar configurations. Predefined Bar Marks can, if necessary be amended under 'Type'. The integral r.c. solution also self-determines the necessary lap to be applied, relative to the settings specified under 'Type', however, the ability to amend this, relative to differing types has been catered for.
Annotation of the r.c. element can be performed, using Tags created to respond to this Family in a variety of way, i.e.
* Type
* Bar Mark
* Type - Bar Mark
* Quantity - Type - Bar Mark
* Quantity - Type - Bar Mark - Centres
If necessary, reinforcement can be hidden by simply altering a views Detail Level, from Fine to either Medium or Coarse. Similarly views can be kept at a Fine level of detail and within the Visibility Graphics, Generic Model level of detail can be altered from Fine to hide the reinforcement representation.
The advantage of this hybrid approach, is the fact that conventional modelling techniques, manipulations and standard reinforcement can be applied, beams split and new beams created, together with reinforcement on the fly.
Below is another short video, depicting some of the benefits and principles of this workflow and how r.c. columns and pad foundations could benefit from this approach.
Granted, variations and scenarios have not been explored, exhausted nor negotiated, however, the principle and concept is self-evident.